Let’s be honest. We could all go about the rest our lives happily never hearing the term ‘YouTube sensation’ ever again. But there’s no other way to describe this trio of brothers.
Boyce Avenue are not the only band to perform emotional covers of contemporary songs and garner millions of fans and billions of views because of it, but they’re definitely one of the biggest acts to do it — and they’ve got the world tour to prove it.
The Manzano brothers — Alejandro, 29, Fabian, 31, and Daniel, 35 — got together in 2004, when Daniel moved back to their hometown of Florida after he graduated from Harvard Law. They started up two YouTube channels and racked up followers. They signed to Universal Republic for just over a year (2010-2011) before starting up their own label and going indie, producing a mix of original sings and covers.
They’re back in Dubai this week, performing at Emirates Golf Club tonight, and they sat down with tabloid! to talk about their best celebrity encounters and their favourite tracks of the year.
What do you have planned for your Dubai show?
Alejandro: This is part of our Be Somebody world tour; we created a set list that we felt was well-rounded. A combination of old original songs and new ones. Even the covers, we try to take a balanced approach of a few timeless classics and a few contemporary songs. Just a dynamic set of up-tempo to stripped, emotional songs.
We’re a few months into 2016, what’s been your favourite song released this year?
Alejandro: I think we all liked the new Zayn tracks. Those have been good.
You released your last EP in 2014. Any plans to release more records in the future?
Alejandro: On April 15, we’re actually releasing our second full-length album, third original release overall, it’s called Road Less Travelled.
You’ve done a lot of covers — what’s been the coolest celebrity reaction to one of them?
Fabian: Just recently, we had a show in London at The Roundhouse. Sarah Hyland who’s on the Modern Family [she plays Haley Dunphy] came out. That was pretty cool, because she was talking about how she and her boyfriend met because they were both fans of the band, and had seen a lot of videos and could relate. And so, on set, they were filming a movie, and it brought them together. That was a pretty powerful moment, because we’re huge fans of that show.
Alejandro: Yeah, that’s cool.
Fabian: It’s just crazy to think that other talents or creators or artists are out there, listening to our music or watching our videos.
Any covers you haven’t done yet that you really want to do?
Alejandro: I’d love to do Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel.
Fabian: Yes!
Alejandro: That one’s been a long time coming.
Fabian: Yes!
Alejandro: [laughs] We gotta do that one. Anything else? There’s some other good ones.
Daniel: Hmm.
Fabian: I mean, we grew up listening to music like that. We grew up listening to James Taylor, a bit of Jim Croce. We were influenced when we were younger by singer-songwriters, or vocalists like Steve Perry of Journey. But we’ve done a lot of those classics.
Alejandro: I think we’d love to do a Julio Iglesias song, at some point.
Fabian: We’ve only done one cover in Spanish, but we’re all pretty much fluent in Spanish, and our parents are Puerto Rican, which is a Latin province in the United States. I think doing some more Spanish songs is definitely overdue.
Being brothers, is it ever tough? Is there ever a Kings of Leon or Oasis situation where you’re at each other’s throats?
Alejandro: For the most part, I think we’re blessed that we get on really well.
Fabian: It’s funny, though, because two of my favourite bands of all time are Oasis and Kings of Leon. So I wish — ‘cause growing up, I would watch documentaries and their videos and stuff, and I was like, ‘Man, it would be so cool to be like that.’ I try to mix it up a little ... but no, we’re not like that.
Alejandro: [laughs] I think the difference is, because we’re independent, we do so many things on the business side on our own. If we had that kind of personality, of creativity clashing, then I feel like we’d just implode. The way we do content? They can have more separation, or maybe they do the set list, they tour, and then they can separate from each other. But we’re posting such regular content, and we’re always emailing and texting, that I think it would be way too much if we had that creative difference. In this new era of putting out music, it helps more to get along well. As cool, and as sexy as it may seem, that they’re fighting or whatever, it’s interesting to talk about, it just would not work for us.
Don’t miss it
*Tickets for Boyce Avenue: Be Somebody Tour are priced Dh200 (regular), Dh300 (VIP) and Dh400 (VVIP) and available on virginmegastore.me. Call 04-5521614.
