NEW HAVEN REGISTER

Brothers In Arms
By Patrick Ferrucci
February 16, 2006

For most 18-year-olds, college is on the mind. For Kevin Jonas, life's about getting ready for the release of his band The Jonas Brothers' debut record, "It's About Time." With Kevin on guitar, the trio is a Hanson for the new millennium; his 16-year-old brother Joseph sings and his other brother, 13-year-old Nicholas, also lays down some vocals. Music is all that these three care about right now.

"When we're sitting at home," explains Kevin during a recent phone interview from Chicago, where the band had just finished shooting a video for its single "Mandy," "we don't want to be there. We want to be out playing or writing songs. This is what we want to do." What started off as a solo project for Nicholas, quickly became The Jonas Brothers after the three wrote the insanely catchy "Please Be Mine" together, and Columbia execs knew a brothers act made sense. The label recognized that the New Jersey-based brothers' brand of high-energy pop, complete with high-octane hook and, of course, high-pitched voices simply worked. "We knew we could do this," says Kevin, "and we showed my dad, (the band's manager), and the pieces started falling into place. We started writing one thing after another and everything really went good."

For the guys, the hardest part can be summed up by some of Tom Petty's most profound lyrics, "The waiting is the hardest part." The trio's taken its act on the road, touring around the country and generating a larger fan base. But when the current jaunt stops in Hartford tonight, the group's record release will still be a couple months away. "That why the album's name, 'It's About Time,' works," the guitarist says. "We're so excited that we finally have a release date (May 2). It seems like we've had a different one every single month for the last while. Now we have it, and we're so excited and so ready."

But even though there's been a lot of waiting, Kevin admits that good has come from the delays. "It's really let us do a grassroots thing," he explains. "We've gone to different places and played and started a buzz. The reaction back home on the East Coast has been overwhelming. Every show we play, we run back to the hotel and check our MySpace page and we've got a bunch of friend requests. It shows people are liking what they see."

What attendees are seeing is a high-energy show, he says. The three brothers, backed by a solid, professional band, just try to win over as many folks as possible. "I'm pretty much stationary," Kevin explains, "just singing and playing my guitar. But Joseph and Nick, they run and do a ton. They jump around all over the place. Sometimes, if someone in the front row isn't paying attention, Joseph will run over and tap her on the shoulder and just start singing in her face. The time he did that the girl just started freaking out and loving it. It's a way to get everyone involved."

More than just concertgoers will soon become involved in the band's quest for worldwide domination. The Jonas' video for "Mandy" will become a "You Hear It First" clip on MTV this month, and the brothers will drop by the channel's "TRL" Wednesday.

"We're going to have a good time with it all," Kevin says. "We didn't know if people were just going to call us another brother act or something like that. But the response on these tours has been great. We go to sleep and wake up in a city and we get to play and sing. It's great. The record will come out and we'll tour some more and that's all we really want."
Patrick Ferrucci can be reached at pferrucci@nhregister.com or (203) 789-5678.