Singer/ Songwriter Takes Her Latest Album to a New Level
by Chris M. Junior
A lot has happened to Boys Like Girls in a short time-such a short time that it's gone by in a blur for bassist Bryan Donahue. "Every day, week and month seems to run together," he says good-naturedly.
The youthful Boston-area rock band's rocket ride to major-label status began in the fall of 2005. That's when Donahue says he joined forces with drummer John Keefe, singer/guitarist Martin Johnson and guitarist Paul DiGiovanni (later realized to be Keefe's cousin) to form Boys Like Girls, the name being Johnson's idea.
"When you think about it, there's no such thing as a good band name," says Donahue. "So we tried to come up with something easy, simple, fun and youthful-something that describes the music we were writing and us personally."
Like many bands just starting out, Boys Like Girls was budget-challenged, but that didn't prevent the group from having the means to record. Using a laptop, BLG made some demos in its rehearsal space and shortly thereafter posted recordings of the songs "The Great Escape" and "Thunder" on MySpace.com and purevolume.com.
"It seems like it's a necessity nowadays," says Donahue of posting tunes online. "They were among the first songs we had written. 'Thunder' is an older song from a band that me, John and Martin were in. We decided to do it acoustic because it was such a simple and emotional song."
The band had modest goals in mind. "We just wanted to see if we would get a response," says Donahue.
That they did, and from a high-profile producer. Matt Squire, whose studio credits include discs by Panic! at the Disco and Cute Is What We Aim For, recalls receiving the band's purevolume link from Matt Galle, his manager. "I heard 'The Great Escape,' and I was hooked instantly," Squire says.
According to Donahue, Squire e-mailed Johnson, who told the rest of the band that Squire expressed interest in working with BLG on a full-length album. Boys Like Girls, aware of Squire's reputation and his "amazing-sounding records," says Donahue, wanted to work with him.
From March through early May 2006, Boys Like Girls teamed with Squire at his studio in Beltsville, Md., to record the band's first album for Red Ink/Columbia, which signed BLG around the same time.
"He's a very involved producer," says Donahue of Squire. "He gets so passionate about music that he immerses himself in it. He only thinks and talks about the band he's working with at that time."
Squire remembers the band members as "extremely pro" during the recording process, despite their youth (ranging in age from late teens to early 20s). "We spent a lot of time in pre-production, where the band would play together, and that's where all the arrangements and vibe decisions were made," says Squire. "The actual tracks were then recorded with our pre-production tracks as guides. John recorded his drums alone but was playing to pre-recorded live tracks of the other instruments."
Boys Like Girls' self-titled Red Ink/Columbia debut was released in August. Donahue is comfortable with the band being tagged as emo (in fact, BLG's own MySpace page uses that classification), but says the band's sound comes from various influences. "John and I like jazz and more artsy stuff," he explains. "Paul is a big blues guy; I have a big classic rock background. Martin has country and musical theater stuff in his background. So when we all come together, you hear in our music the different aspects."
Last fall, Boys Like Girls toured America with Lostprophets, Spitalfield and others. The band's touring pace has been tolerable up to now, says Donahue. "This is a big country," he says with a laugh. "Out west, there's a day's worth of driving between cities, but what can you do? You have to go. The drives can get a little brutal sometimes, though. We have a good system worked out. There are four of us in the band, and then we have a tour manager and a merchandise guy. We divide up the mileage by six, and then we each [drive our share]."
Following its North American tour that begins this month and stretches into late March, Boys Like Girls most likely will do what's come natural at this point in the band's career. "Some bands will tour, go home, have a week off and not see anyone else in the band," says Donahue. "We get home and sleep for a day, and then we call each other up and get together and hang out until we have to practice or tour again."
