interview // justina x R5

 image courtesy of hollywood records

guess who's going on tourrrr

spoiler alert: they're siblings and their names all start with R.

Last week I got to talk with R5's sole female member, sister Rydel (Yes, the very one mentioned in that infamous shower singing question) about EP's, tambourines, tour, and cheeseburgers. 

J: You guys are going on tour!

R: We are! Today is actually the last day of rehearsal, we're just working out positions, getting everything tight.

Whats the best part of rehearsing, for you?

 I think the best part, for all of us, is figuring out new things to do. We don't want it to always be the same, and we don't want to perform the songs exactly as they are on the record, we want to mix it up. Ellington adds scales, maybe I'll do a cool keyboard part, I don't know, just add as much as we can to surprise people, like "Oh, I haven't heard that before!" A new experience.

Well is there anything special we can expect from the show? 

You can expect a lot of loud, excited energetic-ness from us. Going on tour is our favorite part, so we put a lot into it. You're going to hear new songs, like our EP Heart Made Up On You, which we've never played live, and what's else..oh, I got a new tambourine!

That is VERY exciting. 

It is important. I tied some little streamers to it, it's very fancy. 

You have the tambourine, you can do anything!

I know, like that's my instrument right there.

Speaking of the EP, in an interview, one of your brothers said this was totally different than anything else you've done, really a new sound. Do you agree with that? How would you describe the sound? 

Yeah, I agree! It's definitely a new take on R5, we've grown up a lot in the last year. We've become better writers, better musicians, so that makes a huge difference. I guess you could say it's a little more mature, I think it's cooler. But I do love the last record. You could say it's a step up. Hopefully we do that with every album though, each one getting better than the one before it, you know? We just keep climbing the ladder.

 Yeah, it's a new game. How would you describe the sound of the EP and what you guys are going to be doing on tour to someone who's never heard your music?

Well it has the same R5 roots, sort of punk rock. Then there are a few songs that are a little darker, and we have more percussion. There's a lot more drum aspect, and I actually get to help Ellington play drums live, which is cool, I have this whole pad. So just a lot more drums, I like to think of it as jungle-y. 

I understand you completely.

What's your favorite song off the EP to perform, and favorite to listen to?

Favorite to listen to is Easy Love, it's a super sick vibe, and at the very end we did this special thing for the fans to laugh at. We haven't performed it live yet, but my favorite to perform is Stay with Me, in the rehearsals we were really jamming on it and it sounds so cool.

Does the band have a dressing style that goes with that when you're on tour, or is it more like "Hey dude I like this, I'm going to wear it today"?

Well with the boys it's definitely more "hey I like this". They just throw on something, it's chill, and it looks great. They're like that, they can just be cool. I put a little more time into it,  picking out my jewelry, what shoes I'm going to wear. The boys wear the same converse every night. Sometimes I wear dresses, and I'm feeling really girly, other times I'm feeling extra rocker, and it's jeans and a vintage t-shirt. It varies night to night, which is fun for me, because I get to change it up.

LIGHTNING ROUND:

If you could tell everyone something about the band that they probably don't know,

 what would you tell them?

Something people probably don't know about us is how involved we are in the whole process. We get to plan our own show, I'm a lot of the creative side. I pretty much design all the merch. I come up with the stuff we need, like "okay we need beanies, we need new shirts". I'm really involved in that part. The EP cover was on me. A lot of people don't know that, because with a lot of artists, other people can do that for them, but we like to be very much involved. 

On your last tour, you guys did R5 TV.

 Are you going to be doing any behind the scenes stuff this tour?

We were actually talking about that the other day, and we're going to try and put together like a tour diary, especially for the fans who are over seas, where we aren't getting to them this time around. That way they can keep up with what's going on while we're on the road. Hopefully a lot of fun vines will be going on, we're sort of newbies at that, but we're working on it.

What's a typical day in the life of Rydel?

Okay, an average day for me is I wake up, make the boys breakfast, or me and my mom, she's not here right now, so I'm doing it myself. If rehearsal isn't too early, I try and go to yoga or on a walk or something. I've been slacking on the yoga, but usually I can make it. Then we go to rehearsals right away, and rehearse all day. Then if we have a writing session or a recording session, we go straight to that. When we get home, I'll try to make dinner or we just order out, and we watch a movie, go to sleep, then do it all over again. 

Sounds like a good day to me! Any funny stories from today or yesterday?

Yes, actually! So we've been doing these "Ask R5" on our vine, yesterday was Ratliff's turn, and someone asked him if he could like do a leapfrog jump over Rocky, and in the vine (you can look it up,) he's like "I don't know, you tell me" and he shows a rock and his car key. Rock + key = rocky, and then he's jumps over it. For some reason, I thought that was the funniest, cleverest thing ever. I was 

laughing SO hard.

Just keep up the puns, and you guys will have a solid vine following in no time. 

Now, last but not least: one word to describe every member of the band?

I get to do my own? Sweet, okay.

Riker - Silly

Rocky - Hilarious 

Ross - Creative

Ratliff-....Sexy. 

:)

Do I have to do myself?

You do.

Okay, Um....smiley. 

Solid choice. Also, I'm just noticing on your twitter bio that you like food. What's your favorite?

Right now, I'm actually really enjoying sushi.  I used to not like it, but lately we've been eating it a lot. Also, a solid cheeseburger, with the works. 

R5's tour kicks off in Orlando on Sept. 3rd (there's still a couple of tickets for loads of stops!), '

and their EP, Heart Made Up On You is available now on iTunes.

 You can find details on everything at r5rocks.com

you should also probably follow them on vine

xx 

Justina

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