Jonas Brothers Quick Facts
JOSEPH
Favorite Actor: Jim Carey
Favorite Actress: Natalie Portman
Favorite Song: Only Hope by Switchfoot
Favorite Color: Blue
Favorite Food: Chicken cutlet sandwich w/mayo
Favorite Movie: Dumb and Dumber
Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: chocolate marshmallow
KEVIN
Favorite Actor: James Dean
Favorite Actress: Rachel McAdams
Favorite Song: 3x5 by John Mayer
Favorite Color: Green
Favorite Food: Sushi
Favorite Movie: About a Boy
Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: rocky road
NICHOLAS
Favorite Actor: Matt Long
Favorite Actress: Keri Lynn Pratt
Favorite Song: Stevie Wonder's Superstition
Favorite Color: Blue
Favorite Food: Steak
Favorite Movie: Finding Neverland
Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: cotton candy
After wrapping up a summer on tour with Jesse McCartney, the Backstreet Boys and the Click Five, the boys got hooked on the rush of bringing a crowd to their feet (and didn't mind signing autographs for the excited fans waiting for them after each show).
One thing is for sure; they are all ready to keep the momentum going strong. "We go crazy on stage! It's so much fun," says Kevin.
Growing up in Wyckoff, New Jersey, music was always a major part of the brothers' lives. Their parents are both musicians, so gathering around the piano for sing-alongs was regular family bonding, yet each brother found their musical calling in different ways.
Kevin, the oldest, who plays guitar and sings backing vocals was home sick one day when he found a guitar and a "Teach Yourself Guitar" book lying around the house. "I spent the next three days learning how to play the basic chords-that was about four years ago," he says.
Nicholas, who shares lead vocals with Joseph, started singing as soon as he could talk. "Since I was two years old, I would wake up in the morning and start singing all the time, every second of the day," he says.
Nicholas, whose voice has been compared to that of previous prodigies Stevie Wonder and Taylor Hanson, wound up being "discovered" while singing as he got his hair cut in a local barbershop.
His poignant voice caught the attention of a woman who immediately referred him to a manager. Before long, Nicholas was performing on Broadway in shows like "Beauty and the Beast" and "Les Miserables".
Joseph's original plan, however, was slightly different from his brothers'. He first dreamed of becoming a comedian and wanted to audition for sketch comedy shows.
"But I was always attached to music and loved listening to different genres, especially rock," he says. "And then I watched Nick on Broadway and I decided I wanted to sing and perform too."
Following in his younger brother's footsteps, it didn't take him long to land a role in Baz Luhrman's "La Boheme" on Broadway.
Before forming their band, the brothers had appeared in a series of commercials together for Burger King, LEGOS, Battle Bots and Clorox-just to name a few. But as time went on, they found themselves spending more and more time down in their basement, writing songs and figuring out how to play them as a band.
Meanwhile, Columbia Records got word of Nicholas' incredible voice and began planning a solo record with him. And then fate intervened...
Nicholas and his brothers began submitting songs that they'd written together with the intention of having them appear on Nicholas' solo album. When the label became aware that Nicholas had musically talented siblings, they asked to see them perform together.
Upon witnessing a group performance, the direction was clear: "All three of us were signed pretty much on the spot as the Jonas Brothers," remembers Kevin. Then the real fun began for the boys as they combined their musical abilities to write and record their debut album together.
They realize every day how lucky they all are to have each other as personal and professional inspirations. "It's awesome to have my brothers on stage and in the studio with me," explains Nicholas. "You have a security that everything is going to be okay, even when you mess up."
As Kevin says, "It feels like the most natural thing we could be doing. When we write a song we get in a triangle. I start playing the chords that we've chosen over and over and then we'll keep going around in a circle until we have figured out the lyrics for our song."
Their vocal chemistry is something they're all particularly proud of too. "Nicholas is the powerhouse vocal. He's just got this young, soulful voice that catches everyone's ear," says Joseph. "Joseph just has this really cool, smooth rock voice. He really knows how to get the crowd going and Kevin is the one that holds us all together," says Nicholas.
"Me and Joseph are the singers and take turns on keyboards and percussion, but Kevin rocks out on the guitar and that's the part of the group that we need-he's the glue that keeps it together."
Joseph sees them all collaborating for years to come. "We're brothers so it's not like if we got upset at each other that we can be like, 'Well I quit.' They're still my brothers. We love to do this and we know we're going to keep doing it for a very long time."
For "It's About time," the brothers had the chance to learn from the best by collaborating with some of the most accomplished writers in the industry including Adam Schlesinger (Fountains of Wayne), Michael Mangini (Joss Stone), Desmond Child (Aerosmith, Bon Jovi), Billy Mann (Jessica Simpson, Destiny's Child) and Steve Greenberg (Joss Stone, Hanson).
The Grammy-winning duo of Greenberg and Mangini, fresh off their success with Joss Stone's two acclaimed albums, produced "It's About Time", drawing upon the brother's unpretentious garage rock sound and affinity for hooky 70's British punk records.
Each of their songs comes from the boys' personal experiences - from the highs and lows of dating to being on the road to having the opportunity to follow their dreams at such a young age.
"A lot of it is about typical teenage love stuff like 'Oh, what am I going to do if I can't see her today?' It's not stuff the we don't know about," says Nicholas.
"There's been heartbreaks, there's been crushes, so we know how it feels and can write about it," explains Kevin. Over all their songs are supposed to make people feel good. "The album is meant to get people up and having fun and raise their energy," says Joseph.
According to Nicholas, "We decided to call the album 'It's About Time' because so many of our songs seem to deal with different aspects of time."
Kevin adds, "There's '6 Minutes,' which is about how quickly you can run through the full range of emotions when you feel strongly about someone you just met; there's '7:05,' about etching in your memory the exact time a relationship ended; and, well, the list goes on."
Songs on the album that stand out for the boys include their tune "Time For Me to Fly," a catchy, fast track that is about "following our dream of making music," says Kevin. "The song is about us working hard, playing music every night and trying to make things happen."
One of the more personal tracks on the record is the first single, "Mandy", which is about a girl that their mother, a sign language teacher, taught to sign so that she could pursue her dream of working with the hearing impaired.
Nicholas, Joseph and Kevin all formed a special friendship with Mandy. "We were writing songs one day and decided we wanted to write about something really nice-so we wrote a song about Mandy," recalls Nicholas. "She's the nicest girl you will ever meet. She knows what you're thinking all the time."
The song "Don't Tell Anyone" is one of the more emotional songs on the record and is about liking someone but not being able to admit it, while "One Day At A Time" talks about how time seems to grind to a halt after you find yourself on the wrong end of a breakup.
For now the brothers are just relishing in the experience of having other people hear their music live and making new fans one city at a time while they are on the road.
"We've known for a while how it feels to be on stage, but we never knew how it would feel to have people love music that we've written and which we both play and sing," says Joseph. "It's very gratifying when fans come up to us after shows and tell us how much they relate to our songs".
"We all have such passion for what we do and for this band," explains Kevin. Nicholas adds, "It's crazy that one day I was singing Backstreet Boys songs in my basement-and just last week there I was onstage with them!! Our dreams have really come true and we're just so lucky."
