EDMONTON- Seven minutes with a Jonas brother - what do you ask one of the members of the world’s most popular boy band?
Here’s what you cannot ask Kevin, according to his publicist:
* No questions about their girlfriends - past, present or alleged.
* No questions about their religion or purity rings. (Their father is a former Assemblies of God pastor and the rings represent their pledge to remain virgins before marriage.)
* No questions about South Park’s recent episode lampooning the brothers and their purity rings.
Sheesh. What’s left? A lot, including the trio’s upcoming TV series, album, clothing line and tour.
“We’re doing something that we’ve never done before,” says Kevin, 21.
“We’re going to be playing in the round” - or in the middle of arenas - “and it’ll be exciting, it’ll be very personal with the fans, very up-close, right there and it’ll be great!’”
Unfortunately, almost every one of his answers sounds about as scripted… As he’s chauffeured to the set of their new Disney Channel TV series, JONAS, in Los Angeles, the eldest of the JoBros runs down his itinerary for the day.
“We got up, we packed for our trip (to the Bahamas), and then I jumped in the car,” says the guitarist and backup vocalist.
“I’ll have a lunch meeting and then I’ll work until about six, then I have another meeting right after. Then I have a writing session and then do a demo of another artist. Then we go to the jet and fly to the Bahamas.”
Whew. At least Kevin, Joe, 19, and Nick, 16, will be able to take a quick breather when they get there, right? Yes… when they’re not gigging at the Atlantis, a hotel/resort on the Caribbean island.
“We work hard but we really enjoy it,” says Kevin.
“We love it. We do a show every month at the Atlantis and it’s been a great thing for us. It’s been really fun and a great way to get out of town for a day or two, go to the beach but also play a show for our fans.”
Super cool! When they return to L.A., the Jonas Brothers will finish up their fourth album, due in June. It’s the followup to A Little Bit Longer, released last August, which sold more than 2.5 million copies around the world.
“We are on the verge of eight to nine songs in, which is pretty awesome for us, and we’re really excited,” says Kevin. “We can’t wait to have it be done and get it out there. Yeah! We’re very, very excited.”
Yeah! Then, there’s their clothing line, which will launch this fall. Kevin is vague on details, but guess what? He’s excited.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun to be part of and do,” he says. “The line is going to be definitely interesting, very natural to who we are as the Jonas Brothers, but definitely bring in different influences that we love. And it’s not only going to be men’s clothing. It’s going to be a women’s line as well.”
Disney is also planning to launch its own JoBros clothing line - aimed specifically at ‘tween girls. Those outfits are reportedly inspired by JONAS, which will begin airing in May. The show features the New Jersey natives as rock stars. Not much of a stretch, eh? Maybe, maybe not.
“It’s definitely an exaggeration of myself,” says Kevin. “He’s pretty out there, definitely enthusiastic about life and really likes to be in his own world. I have a blast playing the character.
“…(My brothers) play kinda themselves. Joe’s the frontman, Nick’s the serious one, very musical.”
Their eight-year-old brother, Frankie, also plays a role in JONAS.
“He does a great job,” says Kevin. “He’s very, very funny. He’s a superstar. I think he’s going to be in TV and movies for a long time.”
Will Frankie - or the Bonus Jonas as fans call him - end up as a member of the Jonas Brothers?
“Umm, I see him probably just doing his own thing,” says Kevin, “which is pretty awesome, at the age of eight, thinking about his own band and wanting to make his own band. It’s going to be pretty awesome for him.”
With all this awesomeness, of course, comes some awfulness.
Critics howled over the trio’s recent Grammy nomination for best new artist, then cheered with relief when British soulstress Adele won. The trio’s concert film, Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience, is currently rated as the second-worst movie of all time on The Internet Movie Database’s website. In this week’s episode of South Park, the brothers are portrayed as pawns of Disney - “packaged as safe and chaste, even as their music inevitably gets the kids all hot ‘n’ bothered,” writes blogger Ken Tucker on ew.com.
How do the Jonas Brothers handle the love and the hate?
“With any success comes negativity,” says Kevin.
“We just have to put that into the right mindframe and we really do appreciate our fans. We look towards them, we take every day one step at a time.”
Edmonton Journals
(c) Canwest News Service
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