Boys Like Girls frontman Martin Johnson has an interesting take on illegally downloading their second album, ‘Love Drunk,’ and it all has to do with Vietnam. On a recent visit to the country, the band — Johnson, guitarist Paul DiGiovanni, bassist Bryan Donahue and drummer John Keefe — bought so many knockoffs, including the Chanel t-shirt Johnson rocked during the band’s recent AOL Sessions taping, that they needed extra luggage just to get it all back home. Although the singer doesn’t think you should go on illegally downloading the album, he admits it’s better than not owning it at all. As DiGiovanni points out, “Fake stuff looks real but costs way less.”
Illegal downloads aside, ‘Love Drunk’ peaked at No. 1 on the US Rock Chart with the help of some girls. ‘High School Musical’ alum Ashley Tisdale appeared in the video for the album’s title-track and America’s newest superstar Taylor Swift duets on the album’s ‘Two Is Better Than One.’ As the band name and album title suggest, Boys Like Girls have had their fair share of love troubles, but they’re fine now. According to Johnson, heartbreak is “awesome” — it brings the Boston-based rockers one step closer to writing a Paul McCartney-worthy love song.
AOL: How did the band get the name Boys Like Girls?
Martin Johnson: I’m going to come clean on the name Boys Like Girls — we always say it started as a joke. Basically, we had our first show and needed a name. We had list of names and random words and thought it was kind of cool and it stuck. I wish there was a cool story behind it but there ain’t. Boys do like girls though. You go in a bar and what do you see? You see a bunch of guys racing around trying to buy girls drinks. It’s funny when you see people holding up signs at shows that say things like “Girls Like Girls.” I heard that a teacher made a kid take off a Boys Like Girls shirt because they thought it was against homosexuality. I was super-super-super bummed.
AOL: What would you say is the biggest difference between making your self-titled debut and ‘Love Drunk’?
MJ: You have your whole life to write the first record and no one knows the definition of you. You can just have a batch of songs and that’s your sound, and then you’ve established that sound. I wanted to be in a place where it was completely musically happy while staying true to our sound. I was really, really scared when writing this record. There was a moment in the studio when we recorded ‘Heart Heart Heartbreak’ and it really changed some things.
Paul DiGiovanni: Yeah, that was one of the first demos we put together. We all freaked out and got really motivated about what the record could become. That was a big turning point. We had all these little ideas floating around and the second album was ominously looming over us. We were all silently in our heads kind of like, ‘What’s going to happen?’ Then when we did that song and it was like, “Now I know what we’re going to do. This is so different and so cool.” That’s kind of the feeling we all had.
AOL: Taylor Swift makes an appearance on your track ‘Two Is Better Than One.’ How did you get her on the album?
MJ: Taylor wrote about our song ‘Hero/Heroine’ in the Wall Street Journal when she was nominated for a Grammy. I was the biggest fan of her first record, like totally obsessed with it. I wanted to thank her for shouting us out and we ended up writing some stuff together. Our drummer John also played on her second album, ‘Fearless.’ When we were putting the song into production it really felt like it was missing the final piece and we needed that female voice. We totally swung for the fences and called out Taylor. She did such an amazing job.
AOL: What musicians, in your opinion, have written the best love songs?
PG: I feel like every band with guys in it writes about love songs and songs about love because it’s such a big thing in life. I think girls are the devil and they ruin all men’s lives. It’s awesome for the music because we get a lot of heartbreak songs out of it.
AOL: How many times has your heart been broken?
MJ: I’m still trying to figure out love and find it. My hearts been broken three times, and two of those times were my fault.
AOL: Do you remember your first kiss?
PG: It was in the eighth grade with my girlfriend and we used to see each other in school every day.
MJ: Late bloomer!
PG: Well, I mean like make out kiss. We would AIM each other all day and talk about when we were going to do it. We went to go see some movie and we had this code word — it was the most awkward and terrible thing ever. I remember I waited until the credits rolled because I was so nervous, and it was awful.
MJ: Did you guys ever talk in person or was it only on AIM?
PG: We saw each other everyday. We went home and straight up only AIM talked about it. Only AIM, and did that terrifying kiss. It was awesome.
AOL: In the new song ‘Chemicals Collide’ you sing about having addictions. What are some of your addictions?
MJ: I go overboard with everything that I do. If I’m going to eat an Oreo, I’m going to eat the entire thing — 30 Oreos — and then fall asleep with five Oreos still on me.
PG: That happened like two nights ago.
MJ: When I fall in love it’s like, ‘Snap!’ When I make a decision, it’s like, ‘Snap!’ I have a very overbearing personality and that’s kind of what that line is about. It’s not like a drug reference at all.
AOL: Has there ever been a song that you’ve listened to that makes you cry?
PG: I don’t really know why exactly but Death Cab for Cutie’s ‘Stable Song’ — something about it, something about that band just always makes you feel really emotional when you listen to any of their stuff. I’ve definitely cried to that song a bunch of times. Another one that definitely makes me cry is — I’m gonna start crying now — this song called ‘I’m Kicking Myself’ by As Tall as Lions. It’s about how the guy’s realizing how the girl absolutely wants nothing to do with him anymore and he has to walk away now.
MJ: Mines a little darker. ‘Amazing Grace’ makes me cry. When my mom passed away I sang ‘Amazing Grace’ at her funeral. When one my best friend took his life, they played him singing ‘Amazing Grace’ at his funeral. I have it tattooed on my back. When my aunt recently passed, the harpist was playing it as we were walking in. It’s just been — it’s just very close to everything in my life.
—Charley Rogulewski
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(via cccourtney)
True for me because they were recommended to me on Last.fm based on what other artists and tracks I had been listening to, so I was just all ‘HMM OK SURE THING!’…and then I didn’t shut up about them for a month.‘HEY HEY TARA [best friend] GO LISTEN TO ALL TIME LOW THEY’RE AWESOME!’ :D
And here we are. Tehe! :3
- Alexi Admin.
I listened to them for almost a year not knowing what they looked like.
i don’t find any of them are hot anyway…
I fell in love with all the songs on So Wrong, It’s Right so I googled them. Didn’t find any of them hot until Zack got his haircut :).
Someone recommended them to me and so I went to their myspace. And fell in love with Put Up or Shut Up. Which is still my favourite album (no, not an album but yeah) now.](http://22.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ks6jsnene51qzir6ao1_400.jpg)
