Boys who like girls

The band sure knows how to mix business with pleasure.

Boys Like Girls may be having the time of their lives strumming away at their electric guitars or singing their hearts out for all the world to hear. But beneath the sound and the fury are four young men as dead serious about values as they are with their music.

“Kids today grow up so fast. They should enjoy their youth more,” declares vocalist-guitarist Martin Johnson. He and his band mates, Bryan Donahue (bassist), Paul DiGiovanni (lead guitarist) and John Keefe (drummer) are in the country for the first time to perform at the Ayala Malls (tomorrow, Sept. 5, 7 p.m. at Trinoma Activity Center and Glorietta Activity Center on Sept. 6, 5 p.m.).

And so, Dance Hall Drug, one of the 12 tracks in their album, says: Dressed up just like a movie star. At all the parties they’ll know who you are. Wouldn’t it be great to be fashionably late? So why don’t you wait till you’re sedated? Don’t it feel like something’s not right in his kiss tonight? What I’m saying is: Do you, do you wanna lose it all? Cause this is more than just a dance hall drug.

The song has all the hooks a teenager can ever dream of: A lively beat that makes you get up and dance, guitar riffs, etc. But listen more closely and there’s more to it. There’s wise brotherly advice in there. And parents have every reason to relax and smile.

The band can sing this way because they’re speaking from experience.

“My songs are my diary,” says Martin. “Rather than keeping a journal, I write music. Every song is taken from a real-life experience and tells a story. Our album is basically a run-through of my life from ages 18 to 21, my relationships, what it’s like being thrown out into the real world and leaving my hometown comfort zone, losing my mother. It’s a commentary on life and my own personality.”

Don’t let those tattoos and ragged get-ups deceive you. Boys Like Girls tell it like it is because they know what they’re talking about. It’s a case of been-there-done-that.

That doesn’t mean that they didn’t have their share of fun. They did. “Oh yes, we’ve enjoyed ourselves alright,” Martin owns up. They enjoyed themselves so much as teenagers the foursome agree it is the friends they had at 17, when they were still in school that keeps them grounded. And no amount of crossover hits that have spawned shrieking fans and endless road tours can change that.

Their old friends and loved ones make coming home tired but happy from a road tour something to look forward to for each of them.
“We sacrifice a lot for our music,” says Martin. “We go on road tours and leave family and friends behind. That’s why we treasure the time we spend with our family back home all the more.”

Besides, he and his bandmates know those shrieking fans and the other perks that go with it exist in a bubble. It can burst any time.

Only the music — which the band describes as fun and energetic — will remain. That, and the friendship, that is.

As Martin says, “If someone offers any of us to go solo, we have no control over that. But as of now, we’re solid for each other.”

That’s a promise to stay from Boys Like Girls. And that’s good news for fans who want to see more of this rock band that has produced hits like Hero/Heroine and The Great Escape.

Besides, once you’ve been named Artists of the Year and one of Alternative Press’s 100 bands You Need to Know in 2007” the way the band has, you’ve got a reputation to live up to.

It’s tough, but Boys Like Girls doesn’t mind. The band is enjoying the grand adventure. And the best part is — especially for a parent like me — it’s imparting values in a language young people can best understand.