My name is Martin Johnson and I play guitar and sing for Boys Like Girls.
Two of you guys are cousins but it wasn’t discovered until after meeting each other, right?
It is very true. It’s kind of a crazy story because we found out that they were cousins after our first tour.
How did this happen?
After our first tour John’s mom called John frantic, like “Oh my god, I think you and Paul are cousins! Awhile ago a DiGiovanni from Leominster married a Keefe from Mansfield!” So they researched the whole shit and it turns out they got married into the family way before the band started. When they found out they were totally kidding around for a couple months, calling each other “cuz” and stuff. It was funny that after the band started, when we were already brothers at heart, living in a van, and oh, by the way, you’re cousins.
Can you give me a run down of how Boys Like Girls was formed?
When I was high school I was in this pop-punk band called The Drive. We decided to do this two-month summer DIY tour. We messaged all the local bands and venues from different states and set it up ourselves, which was cool. We brought out our really good friends in the time, called Strutter, which was the band that John was in and Bryan was formerly in. I met John on this tour. It was kind of brutal and by the end it was pretty much the demise of both bands. John and I had totally bonded and become best friends and had to play music together. So we got together and started playing. Bryan had played with John in Strutter way back in their freshman year of high school and his band was sort of falling apart. He came and jammed with us and we started this band called Lancaster. We played in that off and on for two years with a bunch of different musicians. It was kind of pop-rock-ish, but a little harder than Boys Like Girls. So that was an on and off kind of thing…a few years later we were taking a hiatus and John and Bryan were playing on a demo as a favor for a friend. That’s how they met Paul, because he was playing lead guitar. Right about that time, I was mid-demo, kind of doing my own thing. My manager sent out a couple demos to his friend at Columbia. They really, really loved the demo and wanted to see the band grow. Around that time, even before that, I was calling the guys and telling them we need to get this shit back together. I got these new songs that are rad and we need to find a lead guitar player. We got back together and brought Paul into the picture, and as that picture was happening so was the record deal, which that was cool. Around that time we started playing shows and the deal was coming together. Right away we went on our first tour with Hit The Lights and A Thorn For Every Heart, which was awesome. Learned a lot about the band. A couple weeks after that we got our shit together, had like 23 songs ready, and went into the studio with Matt. I just rambled so hard, hahaha.
So BLG, or at least the label talk, was originally sparked by your solo project turned full-band? We’re some of the BLG songs on the album originally written for this solo project? Which ones?
There never really was a solo project. When I write a song I never intend for it to be for a certain band or project or thing. I never even really choose a direction, I just wing it. Sometimes I just write songs for myself just to get it off my chest and no one even hears them. There are a handful of songs on the record that were written before Boys Like Girls was actually Boys Like Girls, but there are also songs on the record that were never intended to be Boys Like Girls songs and ended up working for the record. BLG was sparked from John, Bryan and I wanting to play music together. Everything else sort of just fell into place.
Have you always wanted to play in band?
Yes. Well, actually, when I was 3 I wanted to be Paul Simon. I had this videocassette of Simon and Garfunkel live in Central Park that I watched every day. There was this little pole coming out of the ground in the preschool playground. I used to stand in front of it all recess long and sing into it pretending to be famous. My first band was in 3rd grade. I basically forced my best friends to learn instruments.
You are on tour now with Valencia, Punchline, Spitalfield, and Over It. What else is going in your world? Do you know when you are going to record next or do you have any special projects in the works?
We are just about to shoot a video for “The Great Escape.” We’re really excited about that. Were trying to get the vibe going on it because we really want to make it an amazing video. After this tour, which has been going really well, were going to hop on tour with the All American Rejects, Motion City Soundtrack, and The Format. So excited for this tour – it’s our biggest tour yet. We’re crazy nervous to play in front of that many kids. After that we’re doing our video and playing a couple shows around home with Valencia and a couple other bands. Figuring out what were doing in January now, possibly a few headlining shows. In February were doing a full national two month tour with Cartel, Cobra Starship, Permanent Me, and Quietdrive. That’s going to an amazing one. What’s cool is that we know and love everybody on the tour. We did a mini stint with Cartel down in Florida a couple months ago – love those dudes. Love Cobra Starship. Really good friends with Gabe. Old fan of Midtown, so you know, haha. Stoked for that. We did a little headlining thing with Permanent Me, so we love those dudes, and Quietdrive are awesome too. Should be cool, like a total reunion when we get out on that.
Lets chat about your label. Are you just distributed by Red Ink? How much is Columbia involved? Is Red Ink an imprint?
Even though John, Brian, and I had been playing forever, we were starting over and regrouping. Some of the songs were the same, some of the songs were three years old, but we really just wanted to start fresh. Because the deal happened so quickly, we decided to go with Red Ink, so we could start slow and do things our way. Red Distribution works with Victory, Militia Group, Equal Vision, and a bunch of other awesome indie labels. They have their own label under the Sony blanket, which is Red Ink. Our deal is an imprint type deal, but right now we're working with mostly Red Ink people. Some of the people at Columbia are involved, which is awesome and we love that. We love their support, but its still pretty indie. A lot of people think it’s a major label thing, and maybe it will be someday, but right now it’s not. We’re really happy with it because we got the control we wanted on the record. We got to develop a fan base, do the touring we wanted to do, and really develop as a band because the deal came so early. Because we started fresh and things were happening fast we wanted to make sure we got a fan base right away, have some touring experience, make the record we wanted, and release it on a really low scale so the kids could find it themselves. We didn’t want to push anything down anyone’s throats and we really wanted kids to spread the word. A huge thing has been the Internet – Myspace and Purevolume. And you guys! (absolutepunk.net) You guys have so amazing for us. When we were babies, just started getting our thing going and those demos were first posted online, our now great friend Rohan posted about our demos. It happened late at night and immediately a bunch of kids checked it out, and it got us on the charts at Purevolume. That was what indirectly sparked an email from Matt Galle, who is now out booking agent over at Ellis. He manages Matt Squire. (Squire) checked us out from the Purevolume charts because all those guys monitor that stuff. At the same time everything was happening with the record label. The Internet has been amazing for us.
Have you seen any fan sites?
There’s a Myspace for my sweater! It’s hilarious. We’ve seen a couple fansites, Myspaces, and Myspace groups. It’s so cool when kids spread the word. There is this thing called the BLG Fruit Salad. These kids assigned themselves fruits. See, I really try to message back on my personal Myspace as many kids as I can. I try to read everything and be as accessible as possible because we love the kids and want them to know that we want to be friends with them too. So I got a Myspace message and it was like, what kind of fruit do you want to be? Haha, I don’t know what fruit I want to be! I’m like, all right, I’ll be a mango. Two weeks later there was this huge site of all these kids that come to a ton of shows in New England and drive really far. They have this profile of why they like to be this fruit. And then there is us four - Brian’s a banana and I’m a mango. I forget what John and Paul are. But it’s really funny. And it means a lot to us because a lot of those kids met through going to our shows. And now they’ll come to five shows in a row and stay together in a hotel and become best friends. My dad was a total hippie and he met a lot of his friends through music in the 60’s. It means a lot to us when kids connect through our music and find friends through our shows. When you see two kids that you saw separately together hanging out and singing along, it’s the best feeling.
Some bands are together for years before they even touch on the kind of response BLG has received recently. Are you ever disillusioned or caught off guard by this when you’re on stage, talking with fans, online, etc?
Totally. It blows me away every night to see kids singing along in places I’ve never even been. I don’t think I will ever get used to that feeling. It’s amazing every time.
You guys couldn’t have been touring as much with your past bands as you do now, and it seems as though you’ve been on the road a lot lately.
And we’re not going to stop!
How has it been tough to adjust? Are you happy with the turnouts?
We’re stoked! Some of the stuff early on was rough, but we love it out here. We’re best friends so we don’t really fight. I mean, we bicker a little bit. John and I act like brothers because we’ve known each other so long. We’ll bicker and two seconds later we’ll completely forget it happened. We’re all best friends. We hang out, we joke, and when we go home, we just want to party together, hang out, and practice. It’s been really easy because of that, and we’re all in it together. We love just playing shows every night. But it’s still been rough. There’s been some shows when you’re sick, it’s winter, you’re cold, and you just want to go home and watch a fucking DVD. Sit in a hotel room or your room with your dog and do nothing, haha. Instead you’re playing this hack show with no monitor and there’s like ten kids. And you drove 14 hours overnight, slept in the van, and you want to shoot yourself in the face. But it’s all worth it in the end. If one kid is singing along at the show, it’s all worth it. We love touring. We don’t want to stop. Meeting new bands – some of the bands we’ve toured with have become our best friends.
Which tour have you enjoyed the most so far?
We’ve loved this one! This one has been really cool. It’s been really rad. We haven’t really had any duds. We’ve made some really amazing friends. We’ve never really hated any of the bands. The Lostprophets were so fucking hilarious because they all have accents. They call penises “willys.” “You touched my willy!” They let us hang out on their bus, which was a good escape from van life. They were really nice to us and really took us under their wing. Butch Walker is like royalty. Fucking royalty. We got to tour with our good friends in Cute [Is What We Aim For] and All Time Low. Quietdrive was awesome to us. Our van broke down, basically blowing up and smoking in the middle of the highway, and making the loudest noise I’ve ever heard. They drove an hour back from the show, got our trailer, and drove us around for three days so we wouldn’t miss any shows. And this was after they knew us for like, three days. It’s a family out here.
What do you miss most when you are on tour?
I miss my dad. My dad and I are really close. All my friends call him Doctor J. His favorite website is Absolutepunk. I am not even fucking with you! He seriously knows all the news before I do. He’ll call me up and asks me shit about my band and I’m like, I don’t know! And he’s like, I read it on AP! He subscribes to Alternative Press and reads it cover to cover. He has all of our reviews printed out. He’s not an annoying “stage dad” either, just a really supportive dude. I don’t think I would be here without him. I really miss when I’m on the road and I talk to him every day on the phone. All of us feel the same way about our parents. Paul had to graduate high school early so he could go out on the Hit The Lights/Thorn For Every Heart tour. His dad was really supportive about that and really made it happen with the superintendent. We all miss our family and friends, but when we see them it’s the best feeling in the world.
What do you guys do in the van to pass the time?
We watch DVD’s. We just got this sick thing! We have Internet in the van now! Can you believe that shit? So we can chill on Myspace all day long, haha. I’m totally kidding, haha. It’s cool because we can check up on the page and stuff. It’s this Verizon card that you put in the PC slot and it sends Internet out of my computer like a router. I don’t know, you just share Internet. Our tour manager Brent figured it out. We all sit on our laptops and watch TV shows on DVD. I just finished “Lost” Season 2. So dope! I’m getting into “24” now. All the dudes have been passing around the “Nip/Tuck” seasons. We never get home to watch TV so our new friend is TV shows on DVD. We pass them around and share them.
Are you happy with the way the new album has turned out, or is there anything that you wish you could go back and change?
I’m so happy with the record. As far as the writing goes, I feel like it’s the past three years of my life in a nutshell. I think Matt [Squire] did an amazing job and we’re so happy with it. I want as many people to hear it as possible. Obviously, when you finish a record there is stuff that you would do differently, but I think when it finally came together and we put together the tracklisting, we were really happy with it as a first record. We were thinking about doing an album title and thinking about definitive art on the record, but we thought that this defines who we are. We are coming out if the gate and we just gotta be ourselves. This was my life. I write about my personal experiences and people I know, people I’ve loved, and people I’ve lost and this was us on a platter. We decided to do a self-titled because it was really who we are at the time. I’m sure as we move forward and do another record, it’ll be that place in time. We had a really good friend, Matt, do our album artwork because we really respect his art. We wanted him to do something that was just art, you know, and what he felt whenever he put on the record on paper. When he sent us the design, we were like, holy fuck. I don’t even know what that is but it catches my eye and makes me feel something. Maybe if kids can relate to it in a different way that they see the songs, they hear the songs, and they feel the songs, that’ll be awesome.
Let’s talk about working with Matt Squire. There is a lot of talk surrounding Auto-Tune and if it compromises the integrity of a recording. When you went into the studio, did this ever concern you?
Auto-Tune! I actually don’t like how Auto-Tune sounds. It’s really techno-y, and I don’t think it sounds good on my voice. But every record these days are about perfection. When Matt and I were doing vocals and I was in the booth, we didn’t touch the vocals – they were dry. We wanted to make it as perfect as possible before they went into mixing. They weren’t dry on the final mix, and I’d be naive to say no Auto-Tune or no effects were used on my voice because they are on pretty much every record. If anything it was just used to enhance some parts but not as a crutch. I’m such a perfectionist and so is Matt. Matt’s all about the raw sound and not putting on too much crap. We wanted to make a sonically perfect sounding record, but we didn’t want to fake it.
I’ve seen positive and negative reviews of the album. When you guys read a negative review, what do you do? Do you take it in for constructive criticism? Does it ever bother you?
I think everybody takes criticism differently. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve been really happy with the way the reviews have been coming out. I think a lot of people have been positive about the record and that makes me stoked. For the negative ones we’ve seen, everybody has different opinions. We wrote this record because it was the record we wanted to write. If that doesn’t move someone, than that’s ok. What matters to me the most is when I play a show and kids are singing along. It obviously matters to them, and they felt it. To me that’s more important than a review because reviewers can say anything. Half the time, reviewers are trying to impress somebody with the amount of cred they have, what band they like because it’s an artier band, or a band that’s cooler, or something like that. I never take it personally. The people who give me the best constructive criticism are my band members and my best friends. Sometimes when I read reviews, I’m like, that’s a cool comment or that’s a cool thing to say. I never take it too much to heart if it’s negative because their opinion and not someone else's. The next person will have a different opinion. You can’t weigh into it too much.
What was your hometown crowd like before you went on the road? How has it changed since?
It’s awesome. The kids have always been really nice at home. It’s been really cool because our first shows were all around home, and then once we toured word spread at home. Now when we go back it’s really amazing to see how much it’s grown and how many kids are singing. It’s definitely our favorite place to play – all our friends and family and all the kids we’ve seen since we’ve been a band. And then they bring their friends and their friends bring their friends and it’s awesome. All the bands there are really cool. If there is another band on our show, we’ll hear from our friends that all the kids that went to our show went to the other band’s show. All the Boston kids are so open to new music and so open to new things.
What other bands in Boston area can you recommend to us?
There is a harder band that I am so in to. They’re called Therefore I Am. They just did a little demo thing with Matt Squire. They’re amazing, and it’s only a matter of time before they takeover the world. Our friends in Astrea - they’re really really good. They’re more harder and experimental, kind of like Saosin type of stuff. They’re great. There is a pop-punk band called Gone Baby Gone. They have really catchy choruses. The Cadence is awesome. Matt [Squire]’s actually worked with them too. There’s this new girl-fronted band called Medicated Kisses. It’s a cool name, right? I’ve been into them lately. And then there is this band not really from home, they’re from Jersey, but their rad. They’re called The Consequence. And then we have friends that go back forever and they’re really been starting to find their sound. Their called Brunswick. Awesome dudes as well.
Have you guys started writing new material? What kind of ideas do you have for your next release? Who does the writing, or is it more of a collective effort?
Yeah, totally. Ideas are always flowing. Right after we finished doing the record it was a total deep breath cause it had been crunch time for like a month up till 4am in the studio cranking down Redbulls and hammering out the last of the lyrics. But now that stuff has finally cooled off a bit we are jamming on a bunch of new stuff that we are stoked about. We want to make sure that we finish writing the record before we are done touring for this one so we can go right back into the studio. As far as the writing goes, it varies song for song. Most of this record I wrote on acoustic and it was brought into the band to amp it up. Sometimes though I’ll be jamming on a riff, bring it in and we will create all the music for the song and then I’ll go back and throw the lyrics and melody on top.
Is there anything else you would like to tell AP readers? Any last words?
I would tell them thank you so much for everything. We have done so much more in this amount of time that we ever thought possible. Thank you so much who has bought our record, shared it with a friend, came to a show, sang along, or wore around our t-shirt. Playing music every day is something I have wanted to do since I was literally in diapers and now that is a reality. So thanks to everyone who reads this website and supports our band or bands like us. You are amazing.
wow! i totally failed to recognize him to being a former member of the drive(fake i.d.). i loved that band! i have their e.p. and i seen them open up for brand new and plenty of other times. it was pretty amazing. great interview. i'm glad they havent forgotten about their hometown and stuff. great guys.
wow! i totally failed to recognize him to being a former member of the drive(fake i.d.). i loved that band! i have their e.p. and i seen them open up for brand new and plenty of other times. it was pretty amazing. great interview. i'm glad they havent forgotten about their hometown and stuff. great guys.
ben portykus was in the band when they opened for BN and sings on the EP
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