by Susie Salva
Boston based rock-pop band, Boys Like Girls, put forth an exhilarating DVD entitled appropriately, “Read Between the Lines” on Columbia Records. This DVD puts you front and center to these scene kids experience chronicling the band’s live performances, candid interviews and offstage antics. Watching this DVD you feel a genuine affection for the band as they come off as down to earth and grateful for their astounding success.
“Read Between the Lines,” is a 100-plus minute DVD centering around 45-minutes of concert performances featuring 10 songs recorded live during the Soundtrack of Your Summer Tour. The DVD release traces the band’s career from their early days of eating Ramen Noodles and sleeping on each other’s floors, to headlining their hometown arena just a few short years later.
Combining historic band footage, candid interviews with Martin, Bryan, Paul, and John the band also showcases some MySpace contest winners interviewing different members of the band. A touching moment on the DVD is when the band performs live for a kid that has requested their performance as a Make a Wish dream granted true. “Read Between the Lines” is a dream come true for fans, who can relive the excitement of the band’s live performances, access exclusive behind-the-scenes interviews, and backstage footage and experience personalized accounts of Boys Like Girls tornado-like rise to fame. A comprehensive photo gallery is also included.
Since its release in 2006 “Boys Like Girls” has sold more than 600,000 albums in the United States alone and has been certified gold by the RIAA. Following in the success of lead singles “The Great Escape” and “Hero/Heroine”, the latest single, “Thunder”, has already sold more than 350,000 copies.
“I feel like it’s been a wonderful chain of events,” says Boys Like Girls frontman Martin Johnson. Regarding the seemingly meteoric rise of his band. “It didn’t start feeling rapid until last spring, the first time we heard “The Great Escape” on the radio. Since then it’s been a whirlwind. We base our success on the amount of kids singing the words back to us. Watching the number grow from 30 kids in basements and churches to thousand of fans in arenas is the most amazing feeling in the world.”
Their name was derived as sort of a joke. Martin says, “ I thought of the name as a joke at 4:30 in the morning. We eventually fell in love with it. I think of it as social commentary on the constant chase between boys and girls. Wherever you go—from high school to a crowded bar—it’s what makes the world go round.”
The members of Boys Like Girls are humble in the face of the group’s burgeoning success. “We haven’t changed at all as people,” Martin allows. “When we go home Bryan still drives around the 15 passenger van and we all still live with our parents, we all still do the dishes and take out the trash. We love our fans, so being recognized in public is a compliment to us because the people we care about the most are those who love our music. None of us are ever to busy for a photo, autograph, or a quick conversation.”
“The Internet was huge for us,” Martin admits. “It’s a blessing. It lets the fans—not the industry folk—decide who gets attention! All our early promotion was entirely based on the Internet, from the millions who watched our videos on YouTube to the millions who streamed our songs on MySpace. Word of mouth at cyber speed was basically the way we built our fanbase.”
Boys Like Girls will head back into the studio later this year to begin work on the group’s sophomore album yet to be titled. They plan to be getting down to writing and recording a new album filled with the unforgettable melodies, insightful lyrics and uplifting sounds that make Boys Like Girls one of the great American bands to watch in 2008 and beyond. These guys are the real deal. For more on Boys Like Girls go to: www.boyslikegirls.com or www.myspace.com/boyslikegirls.
