Boys Like Girls

Sophie interviews Paul DiGiovanni (guitar/vocals) & John Keefe (drums)

As I walked quickly to meet with Paul (lead guitar) and John (drums) from the emo pop-punk band Boys Like Girls, I realized it was one rare very sunny and hot day in Montreal. We had had a very bad summer so far, but the heat was back for Boys Like Girls, on tour with the popular pop-rock act, Good Charlotte. As I got ready to start my interview in their changing room backstage, I told them they were very lucky to have such nice weather. John agreed with me and mentionned he woke up earlier and went for a run all around the block and thought it was very nice. So that set up the mood for a nice humoristic chat about what is new with the Boston based quartet and what we can expect from them in the near future.

CONFRONT: So I’m with Paul and John from Boys Like Girls.

John: And we’re jerks!

Laughing

CONFRONT: So most of the questions come from a big fan or yours, her name is Coral and she’s from Brampton, Ontario.

John: Cool. I just got real nervous. (Chuckles)

CONFRONT: So how is the tour with Good Charlotte going so far?

John: It’s awesome! It’s been really fun!

CONFRONT: Fun stories, anecdotes that you can tell so far?

John: Um… Nothing really crazy that stands out, we’re just having a lot of fun with them. We met them, me and Martin did a few radio shows with them, last year around December and we became really good friends with them, we did all those shows together and we got snowed in, to a show, I think it was in Kansas City. We had a show in Buffalo, New-York the next day. And all our flights got cancelled and we needed to get there, so we like chartered a plane with them. It was a tiny little plane of like five seats so we hung for a few hours and got to know them really well so… It’s kind of how the tour started, but we’ve been having a really good time.

CONFRONT: If you could play anywhere in the world, regardless of travelling, expenses, etc. Where would you go?

John: Um… Antartica! Didn’t Fall Out Boy just try to do that and they couldn’t do it?

CONFRONT: Yeah, I think so!

John: I think they were trying to be the first band to play on all the continents so I’d like to be the first one to do that before they do.

Paul: Antartica?

John: Yeah, they tried to play a show there but it got cancelled.

Paul: Oh!

John: I guess there was a big music festival there every year…

CONFRONT: You get sponsored by North Face…

John: Yeah! I think that would be unbelievable!

Paul: I don’t really know anything about Antarctica…

John: (laughs) It’s just snow!

CONFRONT: What is your favorite lyric and why?

John: My favorite one right now that I have, it’s like on my MySpace and stuff; is this John Mayer lyric, it’s from “The Heart of Life” from the ‘Continuum’ CD. It just says: “No it won’t all go the way it should but I know the heart of life is good”.

CONFRONT: It’s nice…

Paul: That’s a good one!

John: It’s just kind of like, things don’t always work out but, you have to look at the big picture and realize that everything is good and be happy.

Paul: (thinking) Um… Tic tic tic toc, tic tic tic toc! (laughing)

CONFRONT: (laughing) Well if anything comes along the way feel free to interrupt at anytime: “I found my lyric!” (laughing)

Paul laughs

CONFRONT: What was the inspiration for “Dance Hall Drug”?

Paul: It’s about kids growing up too fast and getting themselves into trouble, just because they feel like that is what everyone else is doing and that’s what they should do and that’s basically it yeah.

CONFRONT: Who is the most reserved/shy in the band?

Paul: Not me! (laughs)

John: Not him! Bryan is pretty quiet, he’s a quiet guy. So I’d say the most is him.

CONFRONT: Bryan?

John: Yeah… Sure, sorry Bryan!

CONFRONT: If your career ended tomorrow, would you say you’ve accomplished everything you wanted to?

John: No! Definitely not!

CONFRONT: What would you like to do?

Paul: A lot!

John: Life is all about the pursuit you know. It’s not about… Like if we knew a couple years ago that we were playing this tour with Good Charlotte, we would’ve been like, that’s only a dream you know… We want to play Antarctica and…

Everyone laughs loudly

John: So there’s always something else that you want to accomplish. You know, once you’re satisfied I think that it’s not a good thing sort of?

CONFRONT: What’s a normal day on tour with Boys Like Girls like compared to home?

Paul: Um… I don’t even know what a normal day at home feels like!

John: Yeah, we’re never ever home but a normal tour day is you get up… Between eleven and three pm basically.

Paul: Depending on how the night went! (laughing) And then we have meet and greats and stuff like that and we talk to the fans and then there’s the sound check and sound check parties. Maybe some interviews or something. Hang out and watch our friends play up there and then we go up there.

CONFRONT: Any routine that you do before the show, anything superstitious or…?

John: Some bands do like crazy chants and stuff but, we just put our heads together and say: “Have a good show!” you know, get everyone in a good mood. I think it was the last time, I didn’t say to Bryan have a good show and it didn’t go very well, the bass didn’t work!

CONFRONT: So don’t forget tonight! Who do you see yourself collaborating with, possible or impossible?

John: Mmmm? Metallica. (laughs) I don’t know…

CONFRONT: Well who knows!

Paul: Who knows! (laughing)

John: Well I don’t think that a rock band collaborating with another rock band, aside from Soundgarden doing that thing with Pearl Jam in like the nineties, I don’t know…

Paul: Coolio?

CONFRONT: That would be funny!

John: Busta! I have no idea…

CONFRONT: How do you do the transition from a song like “Up Against The Wall” which is so heartfelt to a song like “Five Minutes To Midnight” which is about being free and happy?

John: You mean like live on stage?

CONFRONT: Yes.

Paul: Well we don’t play them back to back!

John: Yeah! (laughing)

CONFRONT: Not necessarily, but for example.

John: No I mean, for the show we, you know, every time we go on a tour we get a room and we kind of work out a set for a few days and figure out what’s going to work. We just sit down on a computer and pick all the songs we wanna play and just first do it visually what’s going to make sense and then we play it a few times and we just make it as flowy as possible. We just go with whatever works, you know, we don’t do any crazy like angsty song and then a happy song and then a love song, you know…

CONFRONT: A slow song, etc, yeah! If you could spend one night on top of the world with anyone, who would it be?

Paul: (whistles) Come on John! (looks at John meaning it would be with himself, him and John together)

CONFRONT: Ah!!! Obviously! (laughing)

John: (laughing) I was going to say that too! Cute huh?

CONFRONT: Yes, that is so inspiring! (laughing) Is there a hidden meaning in the song “Me, You and My Medication”?

Paul: I don’t think it has a hidden meaning, I think it’s pretty clear…

John: It talks about like, you know, self medicating. It’s like anything, you can look at it in a million different ways, but I think it’s pretty straight forward.

CONFRONT: Cool. What gets you in the creative mood, inspires you the most in your writing?

John: I mean, we’ll have sound checks for like an hour usually most days on tour and we’ll either just start working on something that one of us has done on our own or just start playing a riff and be like: “Oh! Play this, play this!” It just happens, it’s totally random, you know, you can’t get, you can’t make it happen. It’s just if someone plays something cool then we go from there and see what happens slowly.

CONFRONT: Great. What is your favorite song to perform?

John: Umm… We’re doing a few new ones that we never played on tour…

Paul: Like “Holiday”.

John: Like “Holiday”. We’ve never played a really big giant ballad like that. A big epic thing so…

Paul: That was interesting to put together.

John: Yeah it was fun to do. It’s one of our favorite song to play just because we’ve never done it before. You get a new reaction from the kids and everything so…

CONFRONT: And reactions are good?

John: Yeah!

Paul: Yeah! It’s been good.

CONFRONT: Best concert of your life so far?

John: Played or seen?

CONFRONT: Seen.

John: Seen. AC/DC.

CONFRONT: Really…

John: Yeah, incredible, saw them in Boston a few years ago, incredible!

Paul: I’ve never seen AC/DC. I think it was the Foo Fighters, they were unbelievable! They were so good!

CONFRONT: Who do you listen to lately?

John: It’s a band called Four Year Strong, so good! Like happy hardcore.

CONFRONT: Yeah, they were on Warped Tour.

John: Yeah, they were yeah! They’re awesome to listen to all the time. You know, and all the bands that are on tour with us, you know we have no choice but…

Laughing

John: But no, they’re all awesome. Forever the Sickest Kids, tons of stuff, yeah good stuff.

CONFRONT: What are the plans after this tour?

John: We’re going to Singapore and the Philippines…

Paul: Well I was just going to say we’re going to Portugal!

John: Not Portugal! (laughs)

Paul: (laughs) I don’t know why, I was like: “We’re going to go to Portugal!” (laughs more)

CONFRONT: That would be good for a vacation!

Paul: Yeah… So we’re going to Singapore.

John: South East Asia.

CONFRONT: Awesome. Why did you choose to cover Frou Frou’s “Let Go”?

John: Um… We all love that song you know, it’s such a cool song and we kind of wanted to have… You know a lot of band cover rock songs and we wanted to do, like that song has no instruments whatsoever it’s all electronic, so we that was kind of cool to you know, try to make it a whole band thing so that was kind of fun to do.

CONFRONT: What sound are you looking for in the new record?

John: I don’t know, we don’t really look at it like that, we just kind of do what we…

Paul: Best song wins!

John: Yeah… With our first record we just whatever… Well we had tons of songs and we just picked the best ones and there was always a moment when we were writing and putting together each song that we kind of knew it was going to be a song for the album.. So I think we’re just going to do the same thing and hopefully get as good a reaction you know.

CONFRONT: What is Boys Like Girls’ legacy, in ten years?

John: Hopefully we’ll still be on the road, going crazy, you know, bunch of guys in their thirties, still playing music

Paul laughs.

CONFRONT: And what do you want people to remember from you?

John: I don’t know hopefully people still remember us and still like us and we’re still relevant, you know. That’s the biggest dream for any band I think that would be the best.

CONFRONT: Cool! Well thank you so much guys!

John: Thank you.

Paul: No problem at all!

All smiles, we shook hands and I left as quickly as I came to get ready for the show coming on later. As I was walking out, I couldn’t help but keep on smiling as they had made me laugh the whole way through our conversation. I thought to myself that if they can keep that great positive energy and continue to laugh as much as they do, nothing can stop their dreams and their music.

For more on Boys Like Girls, visit: http://www.boyslikegirls.com/ or http://www.myspace.com/boyslikegirls

Don’t forget to visit our picture gallery for great new live pictures of Boys Like Girls from that night but also from Good Charlotte!

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