The Jonas Brothers

Interview By: Rocco Passafuime
RoccoPassafuime@TheCinemaSource.com

In the past five years, Disney has managed to grow by leaps and bounds by expanding its wide audience to appeal to teens. They have done this mainly through the success of Disney Channel's original TV series which have spawned popular young performers, not merely as actors, but also as singers through record deals with the company.

The Jonas Brothers have emerged as a rare anomaly in Disney's seemingly assembly-line teenybopper music factory. Originally signed to Columbia Records, they emerged to little success until Disney's record label Hollywood ultimately took them under their wing.

Slowly, but surely, the Jonases began emerging on various Disney Channel programming, particularly on the hit series Hannah Montana. Soon enough, the band members released their eponymous sophomore album.

It has spawned three top 40 hits with 'Year 3000', 'S.O.S.', and 'When You Look Me In The Eyes'. This positioned the group among the bigger crossover successes of the fairly niche Disney staple, going out on the highly successful Best Of Both Worlds tour with Hannah Montana star Miley Cyrus, which was made into a concert film earlier this year.

The New Jersey-bred band have emerged as a sort of East Coast Hanson for the 2000's. Like the aforementioned group, The Jonas Brothers are a band of three young brothers who, unlike most teenybopper acts, play their own instruments, write their own songs, have fairly distinctive hairstyles, and most especially, get mobbed by packed crowds of screaming girls everywhere they go.

Now the Jonases hope to emerge even further in the world of the Disney Channel. They each star in the channel's new original TV film Camp Rock, in which they play a band named Connect Three.

The band consists of 19 year-old Kevin, 18 year-old Joe, and 15 year-old Nick. They first discussed to us the fairly hectic schedule that emerged from doing both Camp Rock and their music at the same time.

'It was pretty easy, because what we do is music,' Joe claims, 'We actually wanted to get back to, after filming all day, your initial thinking is, 'OK, let's go to the studio, cause that's what we do for fun. So it wasn't anything like pressure, it was just, let's go, so it was a lot of fun.'

We asked the boys to share with us what was the toughest part of filming Camp Rock.

'The hardest part to us was all of the kids in the cast, we were all singing together and we were laughing at the wrong time,' Kevin recalls, 'So we'd catch things that no one else had seen and be laughing.'

'We have all these inside jokes,' Joe adds, 'There's this line 'Pop Informer Magazine' and I couldn't say it on set. But in the movie, you can't really tell, but we all know, so all the cast is laughing at the serious point where everybody's at tears. So these people are looking around, like, 'Why is everybody laughing'' It was really funny.'

They also share their excitement for being in their first feature, which premieres on the Disney Channel on June 20.

'It was kind of cool,' Joe says, 'It was weird at first, because especially of something that we worked so hard on. It seems like we filmed it years ago. At the same time, it feels like we were auditioning it yesterday. It just really flew by and I think it's really crazy to hear people laughing at the jokes that we might not find funny, because we overanalyze our acting.'

For the brothers, the message of Camp Rock is cut and dry.

'Be yourself,' Nick believes.

'Don't be afraid to be who you are,' Kevin replies, 'I think everyone can relate to this movie because Demi [Lovato's] character, she's trying to fit in throughout the movie and finally, she realizes, you know what, she can be herself and still stand out and I think it's really important for everybody to really understand that.'

'I think for us, at times, when we were growing up, we were trying to fit in the cool crowd,' he adds, 'And now, it's like we're being ourselves and playing our music that we love to do and let people into our world with songs we write.'

The three boys, like many of Disney's teen stars come off as a fairly down-to-earth and safe alternative for kids to the more tarted-up and innuendo-laced teenybopper pop culture at large. We asked The Jonas Brothers if there was anything in particular that keeps the three brothers grounded.

'Our mom,' they each reply.

'Something our parents gave us a piece of advice on very early on is even throughout the top, you are at the bottom,' Nick adds, 'So we try and live by that every single day.'

But, as they will tell you, it's hard to keep a group as young as The Jonas Brothers grounded, especially they thousands of girls are screaming out their names everywhere they go.

'It's kind of surreal,' Joe believes, 'You know, it's crazy, but at the same time we love our fans.

'It's kind of like how everybody else would react, you just laugh,' Nick interjects.

'We genuinely love them and they're really cool and the fact that they show up for everything we do,' Kevin adds, 'I hear they're waiting outside as we speak, so'it's really cool.'

Part of what keeps the daily grind of recording and touring enjoyable, the Jonases say, is the great amount of latitude afforded to them by their record label when it comes to their songwriting and how they present their concerts.

'What's so great is our label Hollywood Records is so, so amazing and supportive of everything that we do, that they let us write our songs and make our records,' Nick says, 'They're amazing, it's teamwork, but we have a big say in what we do.'

'Previous tours have been amazing,' Kevin adds, 'Our Look Me In The Eyes tour that we were on was an amazing experience. It was our first headlining arena tour across the country and now, going back and playing ampitheatres, which are crazy amounts of people, depending on where you are, it can be anywhere from between 13,000 to where we're playing at Hershey for 30, so we're extremely excited. It's the Burning Up tour, so there will be some fire involved (laughing).'

'This kid, he's always Youtube-ing 'concerts' and 'fire',' Joe interjects, 'Kevin's always coming up with ideas. He's definitely the businessman of the band because he's always coming up with really good ideas.'

'I always want to talk about what's going to happen on stage,' Kevin admits.

'So what are we doing for this song'' Joe adds, 'We're like, 'Kevin, maybe we should just perform. Maybe we shouldn't have arrows flying through the air.'

'I want it to be that too, but that's how it is,' Kevin claims, 'The way that I look at it is I kind of miss the presentation of a concert in the fact that five or ten years ago, when people went to go see a show, there's an experience,'

'And sometimes, I feel like people have lost that in the sense of just wanting to make money,' he adds, 'But I just want to put on the best show possible for the fans, because I think they deserve it, with as much as they do for us, I hope we can do that for them.'

Another thing that keeps The Jonas Brothers grounded is the strong tight-knit bond they share with each other as brothers.

'I think it does, creatively and emotionally, sometimes, having a brother is so nice,' Joe believes, 'It's fun, there's times when you're the band member and you're coming up with business ideas. And when you have to sit down and you're like, 'This song should be about this one thing' And other times, you're just like your brother.'

'A lot of times, we're like, 'How do we always get along' I'm always fighting with my brother,'' he continues, 'It's funny because we don't have time to fight and also, we really like to hang out. Nick and Kevin, they are like my best friends.'

'Joe and I share a room on the road and we talk all the time,' Kevin interjects.

'Don't tell Mom this, but usually we stay up late in our beds just talking,' Joe says, 'Just talking about the day and things like that.'

As the group's popularity has spread out internationally, we asked The Jonas Brothers how much they enjoyed seeing the sights overseas.

'Loved it, loved it, loved it a lot,' Joe replies, 'We got to see everything possible in London. You can do, as soon as you like, go, 'So did you go on the double-decker buses'' Yes. 'Did you try jellied eel'' Yes.

'It was so gross,' Kevin interjects.

'It was this eel with bone inside with jelly, almost like Jell-O all over it, never,' Joe explains, 'If anyone tries to do it, tries to make you eat it, don't do it. I mean, it was an experience.'

With Camp Rock in the can, The Jonases continue to make inroads with an upcoming video documentary released for the summer called Band On A Bus, as well as on the Disney Channel with an upcoming series titled J.O.N.A.S!, where they play a band as a cover for their work as young government spies. However, the boys says that is nothing compared to what is exciting them the most currently.

'Our single and album is coming out,' Nick says, 'I'm so excited for everybody to hear it finally.'

'I think, for sure, we're coming back and that's something that was like, right, when we were left, it was like, so when are we going back'' Kevin adds, 'I think hopefully, we can do a world tour. I think, for us, being that this is the first tour that we do Europe and it's just amazing and I think it's cool to see our fans who have really stuck with us through America and we just can't wait to go back.'

'Of course,' Nick interjects.

'The new album's called A Little Bit Longer and it's coming out August 12,' Kevin says, 'We are really, really excited about it. The songs are a really good continuation of the last album. We were really inspired by artists like Johnny Cash and Prince and the first single's called 'Burning Up' and the video and the album cover is shot. It looks really cool. I'm excited that we'll be able to see it.'

''Burning Up' is a song about that girl that you really can't get that attention, like she's kind of too cool for you,' Joe explains, 'You're just kind of like, 'Man! I tried everything!' I just think it's a song about liking somebody.'

'It's definitely a Prince-inspired song,' Nick adds, 'Hopefully, you can hear it partying, but at the same time, you could be jamming out to it in your car by yourself. It's a great summertime song and we can't wait for everyone to hopefully be blasting to it all the way down to the beach. We hope it will be our first top 10 single. We never actually had one, so we're hoping this is the one. '

''S.O.S' did manage to go to #1 on airplay,' Kevin interjects.

'Yeah,' Nick replies.

Finally, we asked the budding performers how their fame and their exposure on Disney Channel has impacted their music.

'I think we've learned from being on the road,' Nick claims.

'This new album is definitely a happy album. I mean, our last record, we were writing as a transition from one label to another, so we had that thinking of what's going to happen,' Kevin adds, 'We were kind of on our tippy-toes and didn't know what was going to happen next and then, it seemed like it all came together. I think when you hear it, you hear the smiles, you hear us being happy.'