KANSAS CITY STAR

Band interview: The Jonas Brothers, on the road, promoting their first CD
By CLAIRE ASKEW
Special to TeenStar

Picture Hanson. Swap the long, blond hair for black faux hawks and curls and change the high-voiced pop anthems for high-adrenaline pop-rock tunes.

Now you’ve got the Jonas Brothers from Wyckoff, N.J. who opened for The Veronicas last weekend at the Madrid Theater.

I caught up with Nicholas, 13, Joseph, 16, and Kevin, 18, a few hours before the show.

Two of the trio said they have always had a desire to be involved with music.

“The moment I picked up a guitar,” Kevin said, “that was the minute I knew I wanted to do this for the rest of my life.”

Nicholas agreed: “…(F)rom whenever I can remember, I’ve been telling my grandma I was going to be on Broadway.”

It was Nicholas’s Broadway experience auditioning for the musical “Oliver” that gave his brother Joseph the final push into music. While auditioning, Nicholas said, he was asked if he had a brother, and Joseph was waiting conveniently in the hallway. He was told he looked the part and to return the next day to audition.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” Joseph said. “I went home and learned the song that night and I was like I’m not going to sing! I already have my guitar.”

Kevin added, “All (Joseph) wanted to do was be on ‘All That.’ ”

“I just wanted to make people laugh, and then I sang and I loved singing and it started from there…everything I say I’m not going to do I end up doing.” Joseph said.

“We keep on asking him to say ‘We’re not gonna sell any records, we’re not gonna sell any records.’ ” Kevin said.

The band started off as a solo project of Nicholas’s.

“I wrote a song for my dad,” he said, “and someone heard it at Columbia Records that wanted to sign me, and while we were working on my record, I wrote a song with my brothers and somebody heard that song and about a year from then we started working on our group record.”

The first album “It’s About Time,” a mix of adrenaline-surged vocals, high-powered guitar and lighthearted lyrics, will be released April 11 on Columbia Records.

“We really hope this first album really makes a mark,” Joseph said. “…we just want to be rock ‘n’ roll, but be positive at the same time, let people know that it’s not about feeling down all the time.

“You can be upbeat, having fun, jumping up and down.”

The band members said they pull their musical style from a variety of artists, ranging from Stevie Wonder and The Strokes to The Ramones and Sham ’69. Or, as Nicholas said, “pretty much one of the sweetest bands of all time.”

The guys are also big fans of Coldplay, Fall Out Boy, Motion City Soundtrack and Jack’s Mannequin.

But their tastes also differ. Take Idiot Pilot, a band Kevin said he’s into.

“They’re two guys and they’re amazing, all they do is techno beats and a guitar and one then of the guys screams, it’s really cool.”

Joseph laughed: “I think it’s stupid.”

So what’s it like being in the music business at such a young age?

“It’s awesome…,” Joseph said. “I’ve heard a lot of people who are like ‘I’m 28 and this has never happened to us.’ ”

Kevin said it’s a little scary, but “I wanted to do this from the get-go, but what better place to learn how to do it than doing it yourself?”

“(Most people) don’t understand how much work it really takes,” Nicholas said. “You have to keep doing it, every day, trying…build up your voice throughout the entire day, and then you have a show at like 10 o’clock at night.”

Kevin added: “At night you’re going to want to go to bed and sleep in…but you’re going to have to have it in you to wake up early and get your schoolwork done.”

“It gets tiring, but, you know, the fact of when you get back on that stage, it’s worth every bit,” Joseph said. “Every bit of energy that you spent to get there, it’s completely worth it.”

Kevin agreed: “When I’m not doing something, I feel so bored…this is what I love to do…you get home and it’s like, ‘Can we please go do a show or something!’ ”

“There’s a support system.” Kevin said of being in a band with his brothers. “It’s a lot easier…no one’s standoffish. You can’t get upset with each other…you’re a core group and you’re onstage every night with each other.”

“It’s really cool because when you look onstage you see Nick and not some random kid…” Joseph said. “If something happens, if something goes wrong, we know what happens, you know. It’s not like we have this huge thing afterwards like ‘What happened? I didn’t know where you guys were!’ That kind of thing. You always know what’s going on…we love each other to death.”

“We’re brothers, so there’s no way to kick one of us out of the band,” Nicholas said. “We’ve always thought about having a production company, running a record company together, doing something like that, keeping it in the family.”

In addition to their CD, the Jonas Brothers’ first video (for their song “Mandy”) will be on “TRL” Feb. 22.

“There’s a big secret (in it),” Kevin said, “and you have to watch to find out!”