I guess it's a bit ironic that we were sitting in Boys Like Girls' dressing room with "Hero/Heroine" in the background coming from the stage, as I sat and talk to these two boys from Bradenton, FL. Travis & Hunter of We The Kings sat with us, while they ate the catered food you're privileged to when you're on tour with a band rotating on TRL. "I think actually we get less compared to Boys Like Girls at the shows, because they see more songs and hear the actual difference."
This couldn't be more true in every way. These boys stage presence is magnificent, and personality-wise they're a lot of fun. Every comparison to Boys Like Girls goes out the window when you're dancing around screaming "RUN BABY RUN!" If you just check out their video "Skylight Avenue," you'll get a glimpse into the type of guys they are. Paper thought bubbles and a modern love story.
"How's the Florida, scene?" I ask. "AMAZING!" "What bands should we look out for?" "Should look out for or know about already?" "Well we know about the ones we know about already..." After that obstacle, they started mentioning friends, There For Tomorrow, My Getaway, The Prospect, Mayday Parade (who they'll be on tour with very soon), oh and don't forget Dashboard, Red Jumpsuit, Yellowcard, Lynard Skynard..., this went on for a while, "Florida's a big state."
For the first time in a while, besides Fueled By Ramen bands, I heard a great positive response to a label. S-Curve Records is a lesser known label who is tied closely with EMI Music. "We got four or five major label offers, and we chose not to go with them because we did not want to be pushed back with all the other bands trying to do the same thing. S-Curve liked us the entire time, and they were the most Bradenton oriented. “
If you don't know where Bradenton, FL is, it is a small beach resort town where a bunch of tennis players live, with a population equivalent to Towson, MD on the west coast of Florida. It is the motivation behind their song "This is Our Town." We The Kings name, also, came from the middle school they all went to, Martha B. King Middle School. "It all goes back to our hometown passion."
"What are your hopes for the new album?" "I wanna go Platinum, no, actually... Palladium" (Look that up kids). "We hope to do this for the rest of our lives." "Dropping a record that's like really in stores. When we started this band that was beyond comprehension."
Then a discussion about being in the friends zone and missing their family, girlfriends and home. Plus a few dogs named Megatron & Elvis. "It's like show & tell." Like all my interviews, things just started rendering off topic, while Boys Like Girls doing some a random cover of “Buy You A Drink” that filled all the back rooms.
Evidently, according to every creditable site I know, We The Kings is going to be the next big thing (I believe it). Some one should let them know, because they've got this hopeful mentality, getting to tour with the giants of the pop punk genre. They're thankful for what they've gotten, and have so much potential & talent, but really they seem like a few kids with shoulder length hair and awesome shoes who got bored laying around the beach one day and started writing some songs about some girls they knew. [CO]