Get ready to meet your new favorite band. Not only do they have one of the coolest names around, but they’re all around nice guys. BoyMeetsWorld sat down with us to talk about their new Christmas album (they released it for free to listeners!), favorite holiday movies, fireworks, music festivals and more!
Young Adult Magazine: How did you guys get your start in music/meet each other and form a band?
BoyMeetsWorld: Craig – “Easy… Brad, Ryan and I are brothers and naturally have been playing music for all of our childhoods/teenage years. Brad picked up a guitar when he was around 15 I believe, then started teaching me when I turned 10 and bought my own guitar from my birthday money. Ryan started playing drums and took lessons from the drummer of Brad’s band at the time a few months before I started learning guitar, so our household had to have been pretty annoying to our parents and sister around that time period, haha. We actually met Patrick on Craigslist right before we started BoyMeetsWorld in the summer of ’12, and Drew’s been a friend of mine and Ryan’s in high school, so we picked him up when I had to step up to the frontman role of the band.
YA: Why a Christmas album?
BMW: I wanted to record a Christmas album because I loved listening to bands play Christmas songs when I was growing up, plus I had written a few Christmas songs while I was away in college a few years ago, before even thinking about starting this band up.
YA: What does Christmas mean to you?
BMW: It means everything to me. It’s the one time out of the year when everybody is home from school, work, military, and is enjoying the Holiday together. There’s also nothing better than sitting by the fire on a snowy winter night.
YA: What is your favorite holiday song?
BMW: Craig – Baby, It’s Cold Outside
Brad – White Christmas
Ryan – O Holy Night
Pat – I’ll Be Home For Christmas
Drew – Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree
YA: What is coming up next for you guys?
BMW: Staying extremely busy, that’s for sure! We are 90% confirmed for a slot on South By South West, and will be routing a Spring tour around that, which we’re ecstatic about. Summer plans are still being worked on, but they just might involve Vans Warped Tour a little bit 😉
Also, keep an eye out for new music and a possible full length by the end of 2014!
YA: What’s your biggest success to date?
BMW: We’ve had quite a bit of successes that I’m very grateful for, but I think the release of “Do What’s Best For You” was pretty successful. Releasing and pressing your very first EP is a pretty cool feeling, and our release show was incredible. Also, winning a slot on Warped Tour this past summer was awesome.
YA: Your holiday album title, “Merry Christmas, Ya Filthy Animal”, is a reference to the hilarious comedy, Home Alone –– What is your favorite holiday movie, besides Home Alone?
BMW: Craig – Elf
Brad – Christmas Vacation
Ryan – How The Grinch Stole Christmas
Drew – It’s A Wonderful Life
Pat – Christmas Vacation
YA: What is your writing / recording process like?
BMW: Our writing process is pretty simple, as one person (myself, Drew, or Pat) usually comes up with the basic structure of a song, and the rest of us just throw little ideas out from there to piece it all together and give it our own signature style. Our songs are usually 75% finished before we even bring it to the table and show the rest of the band. Recording works out nicely, because I like to think of us all as solid musicians that can each bust our parts out pretty quickly. When we go to Moonlight Studios here in Cincinnati, we like to joke around and have a little fun during the process. Eric, the engineer is a joy to work with and definitely contributes to the goofiness we have in the studio.
YA: What inspired you guys to give away this album for free?
BMW: We wanted to give away this album for free as a huge thanks to anybody who has supported us thus far into our career as musicians and just people in general. We definitely are making our mark here in Cincinnati and are looking towards expanding our fan base as far as possible, so hopefully putting our album up for free download has helped gain a little bit more exposure and listeners.
YA: What is your favorite holiday, besides Christmas?
BMW: Fourth of July, duh. Who doesn’t like to blow up things and irresponsibly play with fireworks?
YA: You guys seem to have a certain 90’s nostalgia thing going on (Home Alone reference, BMW reference)…tell us a little more about that.
BMW: Eh, I think it just coincidentally turned out that way. We came up with our band name long before the album title. I think it just happens to be certain things that we grew up with that we wanted to tie into our material.