You guys have been insanely busy, touring with our own British band The Vamps.
Our last show in London, we had...
We had them come on for a show.
Oh my gosh! We should meet. And we're like oh you guys should come up on stage with us,
so they played Counting Stars with us at our last London show at Indigo2.
And what were the boys like?
They were really nice. Really cool, really chill. We get along great.
Yeah, it was cool. We really collaborated with them just for this one performance, and
we were like alright. What do you want to do? Um, you know, kind of... Like figure out.
We had a sound check in like five minutes. It was all put together very quickly, and
it turned out awesome. Really easy to work with, yeah. They were super cool. They were great dudes.
Oh my God. This is amazing because I had so much kind of Twitter support for you and The
Vamps collaborating.
-Oh really? -Let's make it happen.
Is this in an option?
Yeah, yeah. Definitely.
Oh yeah, we'd definitely collaborate again.
I think we probably only collaborate with people who we get along with, and I feel like
we do get along with them very well.
Every time we see them it's like - what's up - buddy buddy.
But you were touring in the States before you were here, right?
Yeah, we've been touring everywhere. We did six weeks in Europe, three weeks in Canada
and then a few weeks in America doing festivals and our own shows as well.
And then we stopped in Portugal for two shows, and now we're here.
So it used to be pretty put together, and now it's kind of spread all over the place.
We're going to Australia and like other places soon. We just announced tour dates in the
US though. So we're very excited.
And you did tweet that potentially, you've got some new songs.
Ooh yes. The works, baby.
Actually, I just listened to the final master version of the EP.
Oh you did? I haven't listened to it.
It's on my phone. It's on my phone.
Oh snap. We've got the goods in our pockets.
It's really good to have the finalised EP too because all our friends that we really
want to hear their opinion on it. We'll like play it for them, and they're like dude, that
song... And what's funny is they all have different favourite songs. Everyone says oh
that song is amazing.
Hopefully they say that.
Yeah, hopefully they're telling the truth.
Are we kind of sticking to the same vibe as before, or is there a bit of variation?
It's been sort of a natural evolution. Not really trying to change, but not really wanting
to stay the same really.
Yeah.
It's just the next step for us.
It's older and kind of newer, but it still sounds like R5.
It's a whole year later from when we did Louder, so it's just kind of naturally evolved like
they said.
Our musical tastes and preferences have changed, so naturally the music we make has been altered
a bit.
So whose advice will you be seeking? Anybody we know?
Oooh... Pretty much everyone and anyone.
We like everyone's opinions.
If you guys want to hear it, we'll play it.
-Really? -Yeah.
I mean not with the camera, but once it's turned off yeah.
Do you have any kind of celebrity mentors that been in the industry for awhile and you
kind of really want their advice?
Not any that I'm close with. I would love to hear what Paul McCartney has to say, but
he wouldn't care.
I think he probably would.
He would care. He'd love it. So, you know, obviously kind of the style's changed a bit.
The stuff you're writing about. How's that changed?
In certain songs, we are a little bit deeper or a bit more emotional, especially like toward
break ups and things not working out, which we really didn't touch on in Louder. Louder
was just more like an easy listen. It was upbeat and happy, and that is still very much
true with our newer stuff, but on one or two songs, we'll talk about a break up not working
out, which we don't do very much.
More detail.
Yeah, it's a just a little bit deeper in some aspects, but for the most part they're all
still about girls.
I'm really excited about this record though. I'm really happy with the direction that it's
gone, and I think it's really good for us in the long run.
Um surely the best thing about being in a band is if one of you does sort of break up,
you then have all your friends around you the entire time to make you happy again.
Oh yeah, it's like surround them with love.
That actually makes it a lot easier, especially if you're going on tour because then you're
kind of getting away and you have everybody and you're kind of getting out and forgetting
about the rough break up you had.
Who's the person in the band that everybody goes to for those long, deep, meaningful chats?
Rocky?
It depends. I feel like we all kind of trade off. I think it depends on what the question is.
I agree. We all have our like sense.
Or even, I don't know. The five of us always are like in a circle like talking about one
thing at a time. It's never like a one on one. I mean, occasionally there's situations,
but the five of us are very, very close and really open with all aspects of our lives
together so I think yeah, if I wanted to talk to somebody else, I feel like I'd just go
to all four of them.
And we're really close in age, so we're somewhat experiencing the same things at the same time,
so that also helps. But yeah, sometimes we give the same advice too, which is kind of
helpful.
That's great. I mean, I wish I had best friends all the time.