Description

We chat with the guys from Honor Society to learn more about the complexities of pop music, and what they were going for on their album, Fashionably Late.

Transcript

Rebecca Brayton: Combining funky pop rock with R&B flare, the guys in this New Jersey band, part themselves of being accessible to their fans. Hi, I'm Rebecca Brayton and welcome to watchmojo.com and today we’re speaking with Honor Society. Well, we like to start by having you guys tell us how the band originally got together? Jason: The band originally started with me and Michael, we actually met in high school in art class. And playing some bands in high school and basically three friends of ours, through different musical circles, I met Andy and Alex and it's been a little over two years that we've been playing together. Michael: We've always been friends, sort of first, you know I think I'm not sure sometimes people think that a lot of bands and acts kind of put together but we all have a long standing friendship. Rebecca Brayton: How did you guys like to describe the sound? Do you consider yourselves a boy band at all or do you kind of shun that? Michael: Yeah, I think that’s an unfortunate title. Anyone who sees the show will definitely see a band. You know we’ve always been a rock band and we just decide to make pop music, because it's the kind of music that we love. But it's basically funky, up tempo rock music. Rebecca Brayton: What would you say is your musical philosophy as a group? Michael: I don’t know if a lot of people know sort of like the complexities that go into pop music, you know Michael Jackson records were some of the most sing-a-longable music since the Beatles, yet you have someone like Quincy Jones who’ s such a jazz minded, you know very deep musical, theoretical producer, you know making those songs. The point I'm trying to get to is we’ve always said that our in-house musical philosophy is to sort of make those complex-type songs seem accessible. Andrew: We used to write songs of Jess on acoustic guitar or a piano or both, and we think that a good song is really something that can stand on its own in the really stripped down setting, and it's a very collaborative effort. We all write together, it's usually all four of us in a room at one time. And our record fashionably late, most of us, Honor Society, the four of us. We did do some co-writing with the Jones Brothers, his mother is friends of ours and it's such a col experience to like sit in a room, the four of us to get other outside ears and musical hands on the music, it's a lot of fun. Rebecca Brayton: Now, you mentioned you worked with Jonas Brothers, how’s that helped you? Michael: You know they gave us our shot, when we look back on your history, you know one day, definitely that was the turning point, them becoming interested in our project and singing us to their label. You know they saw something in us that we believed in ourselves, but gave us sort of that bigger platform and it we’ve been awesome friends, you could just watch them walk into a room and you learn how to sort of carry yourself, how to perform, and how to be professional. Rebecca Brayton: Let's talk about the album. What were you guys going for, and what do you think will you evolve to in the future. Andrew: We are a rock band and we make pop music, and so the record is unabashedly pop, that’s what we wanted to go for. The album shows the full picture of Honor Society, just in terms of like the range of music. Michael: We know where our spectrum is, you know depending on how we’re feeling at the time, you may hear a really more R&B pop album, or maybe a more raw acoustic, rock. I honestly feel I'm very blessed, with these guys in the band, really the sky is the limit. It's really where our heart is, it's how the music is going to sound. Rebecca Brayton: Thank you very much guys. Oh yeah, thank you.