Oh, oh, oh, oh. Big Time Rush is coming to Manila.
The iconic Nickelodeon-formed boy band will soon embark on their first-ever Australia and Asia tour this coming October, with their stop in Manila scheduled on October 17 in the New Frontier Theater in Cubao. After reuniting in digital releases in 2020, after taking six-year hiatus, the band has been consistently dropping new music. Shifting from their original 2000’s boy band-reminiscent pop style, the group have transformed their sound into modern funky grooves with the same energetic feel from their earlier years.
On this note, Billboard Philippines had a discussion with Big Time Rush members, Logan and Kendall, on their reunion, what they looked forward to in first performances in Asia, and more. The duo delved into the rebranding of the group’s sound, and what brought them back to making music and performing live once again.
Billboard Philippines: 2024 will mark your 15th year together as a band (a big congratulations from Billboard Philippines on that note), what’s something you’ve learned about teamwork in this long period of practically being band brothers?
Logan: Brothers is right, it feels almost like real family in real life. You know, a couple of things that I’ve kind of attributed to the longevity of the band has been patience and letting go of ego, and I think having just a general respect for each other has been huge. And we always say this band sticks together because we laugh a lot. We still, we still really enjoy each other’s company, and we keep each other laughing. So those are a few things. I’m sure Kendall has a few more.
Kendall: I don’t know– I don’t know what the secret ingredient is, but Logan’s probably right. It’s laughter, because, believe it or not, it’s not all the time, but even when we’re together, like doing something with the band, even if we have time off, sometimes, most of the time, we’re still together. We choose to go to dinner together. We choose to see each other and visit each other and see each other’s families. Logan just came to my brother’s wedding. He obviously did not have to do that.
So, obviously, we like being around each other and I think that’s been the most amazing thing. And I think he’s right. We have a lot of respect for each other, and as we’ve gotten older, I think we’ve seen that we all have how our lives, you know, we all have our own lives, and we have to respect that. And so, yeah, teamwork definitely makes the dream work, and laughter is the key ingredient, for sure.
Your reunion as a band initially started during the pandemic, to give people light during those difficult times. As we’ve reached four years past that point, how would you describe the band dynamic in this new era of Big Time Rush?
Kendall: Well, you know, we have definitely realized over the years that we all have different skill sets. And that’s not saying that any one person is unskilled at anything. That’s the other kind of the trick of this whole thing is that everybody in this band is very, very good at a lot of things, at least in our, you know, world that that we operate in. Sometimes it’s hard to delegate, you know, there’s no way in a project like this, that being in a band that everybody can be involved at every single aspect of it. It’s just impossible.
You know, everybody does have a different life and (is) in a family and other things going on. So the dynamic has changed because we’ve been we began to really rely on each other a lot more. You know, we’re able to communicate a lot easier than we used to. We’re able to have more difficult conversations now. That doesn’t mean that things have gotten easier– I mean, they have, but it doesn’t mean that things don’t happen. Things still happen, and we’ve just made a real effort to not let things fester. And so, we always, if something comes up, we always try to talk about it. We always support each other. We’ve been there for each other through very difficult times, and so if anything, we’ve matured, we’ve gotten closer, but there’s still always our fair share of hiccups, speed bumps, stuff like that. But overall, I think we’re better than ever.
Logan: What you said even four years ago, some of the same things still ring true. Four years ago, there were no concerts going on, and we didn’t have any music, and we had been apart from each other for quite some time. There was one thing that we kept on going back to– life is short, and we had such a beautiful, we had magical moment back in the day, whenever we were filming and really kind of coming off the show, that we just thought there’s no reason for us to not do that again. And also to have everybody else be a part of that.
You realize how important is to play live music, because it is really something that is healing and it brings people together. And I’d say the only thing that’s really changed now for these last four years is that we’ve just become a little bit more, I guess, a little bit bigger dreamers in the sense of what we want to accomplish and what we can do. Because I think in the very beginning, it was, “Hey, let’s put out some music! Let’s do this.”
And after kind of seeing the reaction from fans and also seeing what we could do together as a group, it really just kind of ignited a fire within us to keep on challenging ourselves in the studio, keep on making our live performances better. And I think really now, at this moment, the sky’s the limit, and that’s been something that has really kept us together, is that unity of wanting to impress ourselves and really kind of see where we can take things.
Okay, that’s really cool. I really like the idea that the sky’s the limit. In that sense, what’s something new you guys have been trying to play around with experiment with in terms of your music, your performances?
Kendall: Well, with every new tour that we do, we try to add, obviously, we never want to take away. We’re always trying to. It’s like, “Yes, and,” you know?
First of all, even though we had screens and stuff back in the day, I don’t know if our animation, I don’t even know who did it. Like the stuff that’s like you see on the screens. We’re just so involved in every single aspect of it. The only thing we don’t do is set up the stage basically.
Logan: I think also even the venues we play that we had not done, certain venues that we’d always kind of put on our wish list years ago, and not until coming back, that were we able to kind of fulfill some of those.
Madison Square Garden was a big one, because New York has always had a special place in our hearts, because that was our first real performance was in New York. And LA is, is where we’ve lived for so long. So I know me and Kendall were over the moon when we were able to sell at the forum, and just like we’re talking to now, I’ve never been to Asia or Philippines or anything, so, I mean, those are, those are, in itself, such huge, huge mountains to conquer and climb on.
Well, certainly, the Philippines and the rest of Asia will be so excited to have you!
Big Time Rush and your music as a collective have become such a quintessential part of people’s childhood to early teenage years– What was it like to transform your sound from what it used to be back then to the modern grooves you’re putting out now?
Kendall: It was a challenge. It was a challenge, and we’re still exploring too. Every new song is a new possibility of a different direction. We’ve tried a bunch of different things, and I don’t think anything we’ve tried has gone in the trash. Everything that we’ve tried is a maybe. And we’ve even done songs that we would never have done before, obviously, that aren’t some that are out, but some that aren’t out. We’ve gone, “Could we even do this? Does this sound like Big Time Rush?”
And then we always kind of just say, “Well, what is Big Time Rush?” I mean, Big Time Rush is a, it’s almost a music collective, because we’ve never had, I mean, you can describe it as pop, sure, but there’s some songs that are hip hop, some songs that are rock, some songs that are ballads, some songs that are piano. So, we can basically do anything. And now that we’ve gotten older, we go, “Oh, we can do anything.” There is no one here is telling us what rules to play by.
And so Logan and I especially worked tirelessly in LA for months and months and months, writing songs, and we try to figure out something that would work, yeah.
Logan: I think with both of us specifically, we’ve maintained a childlike mentality of being in the studio and just being excited and staying curious. It’s great to have a friend like that in the studio who is the same way, who wants to chase down a feeling or chase down a sound, because not everyone is like that.
I think you can get into that type of trap whenever you’re younger; to say, “Oh, this. Maybe we should do something that sounds like this, because this person has done it.” And I think there was a lot of that going on, especially whenever we were making music years ago. And now I think we’ve just settled on ourselves to feel more comfortable at figuring out, “Hey, what is something that we like, or what’s something that you feel interested in?” And that’s, that’s, I think, something that keeps us together and keeps us working so hard. But yeah, we’ve had so much fun the studio.
Kendall: I love you, man.
Logan: I love you too.
So you could say, like, a part of it is fun, a part of it is bromance. It’s really just feeling yourselves in the studio.
Kendall: Yeah, just being open. Yeah, it’s about being open in the studio. Sometimes, I mean, Logan even has to remind me. Sometimes, I’ll be like, oh, you know, we, we, we have this thing that we’re aiming for. We need to try to aim at this target. And he’ll be like, “Nah, let’s be free!” And most of the time we end up hitting the target anyway, because we weren’t, holding back. We were just kind of exploring, trying different types of music.
You know, making music is not like, glamorous. It’s not like someone’s bringing in the champagne and feeding you grapes. I mean, you’re sitting there for hours and hours and hours trying to come up with two words often to finish a thought, and you’ve racked your brain through everything to try to finish it.
So we just try our best to have fun. And sometimes we go in there and we’ll go, you know, “This ain’t it. This is the session today, you know, this just isn’t it today.” And we’ll leave, and we don’t beat ourselves up about it. We go, “Well, you can’t expect to hit 10 out of 10″, you know”.
Logan: Write another song tomorrow.
Kendall: Sometimes, yeah, write another one tomorrow. Try again.
Logan: And for the record, I will say, if anybody wants to bring champagne and or grapes, it’s totally fine by me. Just want to get out there.
Kendall: Yeah, totally fine.
Okay, that’s noted for the concert!
You’ve already touched on this earlier, but this upcoming tour will mark your first-ever performances in Asia. What’s something you’re looking forward to during your tour around Asia? Anything new you’re looking forward to trying in the Philippines?
Logan: Food. I really want to try some different Filipino food. So, food from the Philippines, because, I mean me and Ken are huge, huge foodies. And so we usually try to carve out good space and good time wherever we travel, to really go and and check out just the the culture and everything that’s going on. So that would be one for me.
Kendall: I’ve known the Filipino people– I mean, Filipinos that I know in the States are great people. They’re so kind and thoughtful. For the very a little amount of time that I spent, I went to the Philippines one time, went to Manila one time, and it was for like, 24 hours. But everybody was so nice and lovely and interesting to talk to. I’m looking forward to even though I was an adult when I went like I was grown enough to pay attention, I don’t think I even had a chance to really even just look around. I think I was in a car hotel, and then back in a car, and then gone.
So, I’m excited to just open my eyes and just take it in. You know, see a new place, and I love taking photos. I take film photos on a little point-and-shoot camera. And so when I go to a place, often, I’ll just walk around with that camera and just take pictures of things that I find interesting. It could be a building, it could be an alleyway.
Logan: I need some new ones for the Gram, so you could help me out on that.
Kendall: On occasion, if Logan’s with me, I will take a picture of him on my film camera and then send it to him so that he can post it.
That’s part of the teamwork! You guys have to help each other with your content.
Logan: Yep, if you want me to perform with you, you gotta give me some pictures. So take photos.
That’s equivalent exchange. Yeah, I’m really excited for you guys. I’m excited for you guys to try Filipino food. We really pride ourselves in our cuisine.
Moving on, what’s something long-time Big Time Rush fans can anticipate in your performance in Manila?
Logan: Well, I was just going to say that we’re trying to hit everybody with that perfect amount of nostalgia and the perfect amount of new, fresh music. I mean, again, they haven’t seen us here, so they’re going to be in for a wild ride. We have so much energy on stage, and it’s just one big party. And I think people are really, really going to love that.
Kendall: It’s going to get loud. For sure.