Boys Like Girls
 
Origin: Boston, Massachusetts,
USA
Years Active: 2005-Present
Label(s): Columbia Records
 
Members:
Martin Bennett Johnson - Vocals, Guitar
Paul Charles DiGiovanni - Lead guitar, Vocals
Bryan Francis Donahue - Bass guitar, Vocals
John Joseph Keefe - Drums, Percussion
Discography:
Albums
2006
Boys Like Girls
- Producer Matt Squire
 
 
When you go back to the States you’re doing The Soundtrack of Your Summer Tour. Is that going to be the final tour for this album?
We’re doing our last Boys Like Girls record tour. It’s a bigger tour with Good Charlotte, Metro Station and a little band called The Maine. It’s going to be great; we’re doing the whole of the States. Then I think we’re going to be coming back here again. Then at the end of the year go and do the new record.
 
You were over in the UK earlier this year with the Plain White T’s too. It was Boys Like Girls and Cartel supporting.
Over here Plain White T’s fall into a slightly different genre to you and Cartel and there may have been a lot of cases where kids only went to the shows to see the support bands and then possibly left before the headliners.
I don’t know about that, I don’t know.
It seemed like all the fans got a long. There were a vast variety of people. It was interesting to see the various fans and how they interacted you know, what reaction came with each band.
Plain White T’s had great fans and they had an awesome crowd. Their album was amazing. It was all just a good time.
They were all really big venues; academy sizes.
It was great. This is only our third time of being here.  
Give It a Name a year ago, then Plain White T’s and now we’re doing our own shows. It’s brilliant. It’s really, really cool.

Boys Like Girls don’t really fit into one genre, in a way that you’re not obviously Punk Rock, Pop Punk, Metal etc
We’re trying to do our own thing. We always have. It’s been about the best song wins and it’s been about how we feel. We’re not trying to fit into any category or take any cheap way out by sounding like a group of other bands. We’re just Boys Like Girls.
I hope we can build our own thing as we evolve.
 
You label yourselves as emo on your MySpace page. There are so many negative connotations with the emo culture, what’s your stance on it? What are your thoughts of the scene as a whole; these types such as the punk kid or the rock kid?
The reaction to the emo scene is from people who have absolutely no idea what the culture actually is.
To me 80’s Hair Metal is the exact same thing. It’s a culture that just needs a name. It’s a group of kids that like going to shows that like seeing live bands, and watching live music in clubs. They live by it and dress for it. It’s just a movement of music with a generalised name. A cheesy name, and a stupid name that a lot of people are really angry about. I don’t really care. Call it Pop Punk, call it Pop Rock, call it what ever you want. Call it emo, it doesn’t really bother me. It’s a group of kids who love going to shows, love buying records, love sharing music online, having a great time and living through music. I think it’s really rad. It just adds to the possibility of getting great bands played on the radio rather than some manufactured music.
 
How did your signing to Major Label Columbia come about? There is always such a stigma surrounding Major Record Labels, what is your relationship like with them?
It’s awesome, it really is brilliant. We’ve gotten our way with them.
When we first started out in the States we were given the option to sign to a bunch of Indie labels or to sign to a Major. Our relationship with the people at Columbia was so great. They had such faith in the band. We decided that it would be best to go with our band to them, do what we were always doing, and then when we were ready we would have the resources to step it up a notch. We told them to step back for a year and half. We toured ourselves, and we did everything just us as a band. We did 12 consecutive tours, sleeping on peoples floors even though we were signed to a Major Label. We would never accept any money to put out our single or anything. We wanted to go to our hardcore fan base and it really helped, it’s cool.
We’re getting the best of both of worlds that way. The label really believed in us, the way we wanted to do things and didn’t force our hand at all. We wanted to make the record we wanted to make and they were excited about it.
It’s been a great team the whole way. Especially coming here to the UK; RCA have been great bigging up the record here.
 
There have been times where it’s been mentioned that you’re a manufactured band. Which in some ways is possible to believe why that rumour would come about; cynics who don’t like seeing quick success, especially when related to a large record label.
You know what that’s so funny, it’s just so funny. It’s totally the opposite of that.
Me and John met when we were 17 and in different bands. We were touring in two separate bands, in two separate vans. I was only in Junior High School. We did this do it yourself, plan your own trip around the states tour. We just played to County Fairs.
Then I moved out of my house, graduated High School early and moved into this converted attic apartment paying 300 bucks a month bills, eating Cuppa Soup and working day jobs. It was me, John and Bryan. We’ve played in different bands for the last five years. Then two and a half years ago we met Paul and became Boys Like Girls. That’s when things started to happen.
We were so focused on writing the best songs we could; we basically just locked ourselves in that apartment for two years. We were just trying to get a record deal. We only played local shows and we never really toured. We were under a different band name then.
As soon as we met Paul we got evicted from our apartment, for noise reasons obviously. We were living at my Dads house when we met Paul, and that’s when things got serious. We just said lets quit working at the pharmacy, or our jobs folding clothes and waiting tables and let’s just write music.
It was great.
We put some demos on the MySpace and things just really started to kick off.
 
You have said in the past your initial break into the scene came from the internet with your MySpace and PureVolume pages. Would you say that your success is because of the digital ripple you created?
We wouldn’t be anywhere close to where we are now if it weren’t for the internet.
The viral spread of music on the net right now is just as important, if not more important, than TV or Radio. As much as the internet sucks for musicians it’s also amazing. It’s making the music industry better. The kids, the fans, are picking what music gets signed and what music gets recognised. The age of the demo is over. The day of the MySpace or the PureVolume page is on. The most plays wins. If you’re an unsigned band and you’ve got a million kids listening to your stuff up online that’s what people at Record Labels is going to see. That’s what’s going to get the record deal. That’s where the buzz is at. Indirectly the kids pick it and I think it’s really cool. It’s really cool to leave it up to the fans; you know the hardcore fans and not some bullshit manager who thinks he knows it all. He thinks he has a smash hit on his hands and pumps the radio with a load of bullshit.

You’re the main songwriter. What is your writing process like?
It’s all different ways. I usually think of melodies first. I like to write a song like it’s classical music almost. I have to feel emotion from the melody, from the guitar part or the music before a lyric will come to me. The lyric will be me describing how it makes me feel.
I’ll bring it in, give it to the band, and then we’ll work it out. Sometimes it takes on a new life. Sometimes we’ll strip it down. Sometimes ballads turn into up tempos. It’s cool to watch.
 
On Boys Like Girls all the songs are credited to you, but a few list Sam Hollander, Dave Katz and Bleu (William James McAuley III). How did you come about working with those various people?
Those were our Executive Producers.
They’re great guys. They’re actually working on stuff for All Time Low, Gym Class Heroes, Cobra Starship, and on the new Tyga Record.
Those listings were just basically giving credit where credits due. It’s just like having a great editor who comes in a takes your shit to the next level. With certain songs that need help they make them great.
It was great to work with those guys and I hope to work with them in the future.
 
You not only write for Boys Like Girls, but you are also working, or have worked on other projects.
I’ve been writing with a bunch of people, mainly just guys from the States. I’ve been working on some Hip Hop tracks and some stuff for soundtracks. There’s a US rapper called Tyga. I worked on his record and did some extra production on a song of his called Coconut Juice. It’s a great song. I’ve been doing some fun stuff but our main focus now is writing the next record. Boys Like Girls has been out a long time in the States now so there’s a pressure to get on a new record.
It must be really refreshing to step away from Boys Like Girls for a while.
I love collaborating with people for other bands and stuff. It’s been fun to step out of Boys Like Girls and step into other peoples shoes, helping with their stuff and stepping into other genres. It’s cool because the pressures off a bit.
With me, the stuff that I want to record is like my life and I want people to take home with them that it’s Boys Like Girls. I can have a little but more fun when I don’t have to worry about my own projects. The pressure is on them. I can just have fun with it and try and make the best song possible.

Are there any other artists you’d be keen to work with, or any that are just breaking the scene now that you think are really great?
We The Kings of course. Metro Station’s going to blow up. There’s this new band called The Cab. Forever the Sickest Kids and Danger Radio.
Definitely We The Kings and Metro Station. The Maine as well.
All those bands are certainly part of the current trend in the Alternative scene at the moment; do you think they have staying power?
I love all those records and I can see them all progressing and evolving.
 
Your music now is affecting the people who listen to it, causing emotions in all of them and stirring feelings, which must be amazing to know that you’re the cause of that. Who were the artists who made you feel like that when you were growing up, or now even?
Yeah right. We’re just mellow sounds; like Pop Rock with big hooks.
I always picked the songwriters because I like to hear honesty in lyrics. It was always the most honest records I could possibly find. You know The Beatles, Bob Dylan, U2, Third Eye Blind, Jimmy Eat World, Goo Goo Dolls, the older stuff. Stuff I felt was lyrically worked out, getting emotions out and making you feel a certain way about a song.
All those bands or artists are real classics, all whose careers have spanned decades. Do you see Boys Like Girls’ music career lasting that long?
I certainly want to. I want to be playing our music until I’m in a wheelchair. I don’t plan to stop writing any time soon. Let’s just hope that the next record lives up to expectations. I’m pretty stoked about it, so we’ll just see what happens.