James Bourne (Busted)

Turn off your international roaming because we're going across the pond to learn about one of the UK's biggest boy bands of the early 2000's. 

Busted was anything but! The pop-punk band rocked the UK charts with eight top-10 singles and four number one hits . . . but all good things must come to an end. Singer-songwriter and Busted co-founder James Bourne joins Lance to talk about the band's highs and lows, their big break-up in 2005, to reuniting with his former bandmates for a 20th-anniversary tour and new album! 

Plus, Lance and James remember the time they interacted with the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. Was it a bad experience or a thriller? Listen to find out! 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
This is Frosted Tips with Lance Bass and iHeartRadio Podcast. Hello,
my little Peanuts, It's me your host, Lance Bass. This
is Frosted Tips with me Lance Bass and my co
host Michael Turchin. Hello, the Turkey churching for you guys
and my husband. So I'm excited today because you know,

(00:26):
I love to reach across the pond and bring in
some British acts over here.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
We're going international.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
We're going international day with one of the best pop
funk boy bands ever, Busted Busted Stick. Yes, we have
James Bourne on the show today. Man, this man is
so talented, not only just you know, incredible performer, musician,
but he can write some songs. Yeah, so we're gonna

(00:56):
get into that. And I'm gonna go ahead and just
kind of start the sho show early because I know
we're gonna go along with this one. I have so
much to learn, yeah from James.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
He's done so much.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
So let's take a little break, will come back. James
Bourne is gonna be here and we have lots and
not to Nott's talk about. We'll be right back. Welcome

(01:28):
back to the show, all right. James Bourne, English singer,
amazing songwriter, musician known as the co founder of the
pop punk boy band Busted alongside Matt Willis in Future
Fight Star front man Charlie Simpson from two thousand and
one to two thousand and five. The band managed to
achieve four chart topping singles, multiple successful albums, and sell
out tours. James's other projects include the band Son of Dork,

(01:49):
mcbusted and his own solo music. Busted has reunited for
their twentieth anniversary and we'll embark on a reunion tour
in the UK this year. James Bourne, Welcome to Frosted Tips.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
So much having me on the show. Crazy, real, amazing
to be here actually because you know, obviously, uh grew
up loving and Sync.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
You know, so you knew who we were because it's
we didn't spend much kidding. Is that a joke?

Speaker 4 (02:16):
Yeah, you know under the President, nobody in the UK
knew who Sync was.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
Well because we didn't really, I.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
Don't know, we didn't spend much time people people knew.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yeah, I found that also, you know, British entertainers also
don't spend enough time in America too, And I think
it's like with Busted, I feel like, you know, you
were comfortable there.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
You're huge.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Did y'all try to break it in America or did
y'all just just say like, well, we love our you.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
Know, we we we we we had we We were
the reverse case of the problem that you were describing
that you don't have. Yeah we uh yeah we uh.
We started in the UK, and this was before my
Space and Twitter and you know, the social media thing
just didn't exist, and you know, but you got into

(03:03):
magazines and the radio and television and that's how people
started to you know, when when you tell when you
tell your friends you're leaving college or dropping out to
start a band, and they all kind of start to
wonder if it's real, you know, when they see you
on the in the television or in the magaz that's
when they start to be like, oh.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
Oh this is real.

Speaker 3 (03:21):
It's real.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
Yeah, that's what you always say.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
Well, I know because we started, you know, in Europe.
For we were in Germany for a couple of years
and I'd left high school. So all my high school
friends are like, what are you doing. I'm like, I
swear we're like the Beatles over in Europe, Like we
can't go anywhere.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
Because it's in the beginning.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
Oh yeah, they're like sure, and we come back to
America and no one knew who we were. Was like sure.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
So so because I because I feel like I like
to feel like I have my uh you know pop
music history trivia or on point did you start in Germany?

Speaker 1 (03:50):
We did, Yes, we were signed to Munich.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
That's what I thought. And and it's crazy. I always
felt like, you know, when the band, when my band
started happening and we started going into the business, I
felt it was it was really interesting because the you know,
en Sync was definitely a band that I knew about
and followed and was interested. I was interested in your

(04:13):
guys's story because when you see, you know, people having
the time of their life, you know, having a career
of music and you like music, and you think, I
have to escape, I have to find a way to
get out of this, like you know, taking exams and
trying to find a job. It's kind of a good option.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
So that was take that for me. Yeah, like watching
take that rise and I was just like, wow, if
we could ever get to that level, Oh my god,
they looked like there was having so much fun.

Speaker 3 (04:40):
Right and they did come before you guys, Just I
remember they were around in the kind of in the
first part of the nineties. They were around, and you
guys were sort of at the end of the nineties.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
Yeah, we started in Europe, we were there in ninety six,
but we didn't really come to America until about ninety eight. Okay,
before we get into the group and how it all starts,
let's go back to the beginning. James, where were you born.

Speaker 3 (05:03):
I was born in a town called Rochford, which is
an Essets, which is next to London, and I grew
up there, you know, until about sixteen years old. I
was living a very comfortable, normal life. I had a
perfect upbringing.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
Did you have a like, was your family into music?

Speaker 3 (05:24):
They supported that? I was. I was sort of the
first one. It was like where does that come from?
I was definitely like it was definitely like what do
we do with this? You know, and and it was
it was definitely. I definitely I definitely felt like, you know,
I watched Back to the Future when I was eight

(05:45):
in my you know, on a tiny television, and you know,
I saw the scene where he plays the guitar, and
I was like, I want to do that.

Speaker 1 (05:52):
Yeah, yeah, and what instruments do you play.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
Guitar and piano and I, you know, those are my
instruments that I would you know, I can play other instruments,
but I probably wouldn't feel like I would want to
play them in front of people.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
Were you self talk.

Speaker 3 (06:08):
Like yeah, like yeah, well I wasn't.

Speaker 1 (06:11):
I was.

Speaker 3 (06:12):
I taught myself how to play the piano.

Speaker 1 (06:14):
What would you say is the best instrument that you
know that helps you write your songs?

Speaker 3 (06:20):
Right now? It's probably a guitar and piano, and I
find that they both helped me depending on what the
song is. I would, you know, if I'm holding a guitar,
I write a song that might come out a little
bit differently to if I'm sat at a piano, or
if I think of a song, if I'm driving my
car and I think of a song, I might think, oh,
I can't wait to try and hear what that sounds
like at a piano or And it depends what it is.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
But do you remember the first song you wrote?

Speaker 3 (06:45):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (06:45):
How old were you?

Speaker 3 (06:46):
It was terrible? Uh, like thirteen? It was probably one
of the worst songs. Though I would never want anyone
to hear ever singing now her first song, Well, I
mean you start. I remember I started a band when
I was thirteen at school, you know. I it was
the kids in the band that I started when I
was that They all lived on the same street as

(07:07):
me well, and I would do band practice. I would
carry my amp and my guitar down the street and
you know, we asked, we're trying to find a play
when you're thirteen, Like, it's pretty hard to get to
play shows.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
And you can't even get into the clubs.

Speaker 3 (07:23):
Yeah you cain't. Well, yeah, we used to get kicked out.
We used to play in bars when I was like fifteen,
and I wouldn't They would find out that I was fifteen,
and I would get kicked out and I wouldn't be
allowed back in to get my equipment. So like funny
stuff like that would happen. But we played a show
at the school and we convinced the people at school
let us play and and it was kind of like

(07:45):
my first taste of doing it and as the older
that I got, or you know, we did that for
a few years, but you know, school ends. A lot
of the members of the band like, I think I
want to be a doctor. I want to do this,
and I never got serious about other stuff. It was
like always just there. And I would spend most of
my weekends trying to find auditions for people who are like,

(08:05):
you know, serious about music, wanting to do it. And
I would try and find my way into a lot
of things and and it would never work out. Like
I you know, didn't didn't get I wasn't I wasn't
having much success. And eventually I did one of those
things and I didn't you know, it was unsuccessful again,
but the person behind the group got in contact and said,

(08:29):
you're very young, but you know, we think that it
might be worth staying in touch. And there was another
guy that didn't get into that band too, and we
kind of didn't get into the band, but we started
our band.

Speaker 1 (08:39):
Yeah, is that one busted began?

Speaker 5 (08:41):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (08:41):
Oh wow.

Speaker 1 (08:42):
So what was the name of your original band when.

Speaker 3 (08:44):
I was in when I was at school. Oh, it
was called Sick Puppy.

Speaker 1 (08:48):
Sick Puppy, Yeah, yeah, and.

Speaker 3 (08:50):
It kind of had like it was kind of you know,
we wanted to be like Green Day, but we weren't
quite that. And you know, like one of the guys
in the band had an uncle that was you know, musical,
and I remember what he was like, so, what's this
song about? And I was like devastated because I couldn't, like,
you know, I didn't know. I couldn't answer the question.

(09:13):
And I was like fourteen years old, and I was thinking,
why I don't I know how to answer that, and
I just kind of you know, there were a few
things that happened where I was like, maybe I have
a lot to figure out on me, you know, I like,
I know that I like this, but I'm probably not
very good at it. But this guy, this manager, who
was like, we should stay in touch, you know, play
me your songs. I would play them from that He
was from Los Angeles and he would cool every day

(09:34):
at four pm and play me some songs you wrote
and I wouldn't and he would just straight up tell
me down the phone that it sucked. And and it
was interesting to me because I knew that he was
I knew that he was a real person in the business,
and your parents and your friends they don't tell you that,

(09:54):
you know, And it was kind of good that it
was kind of good that he did say that to me.
So I spent the next year or two trying to
write a song that he liked, and honestly, that was
kind of why I sort of found my rhythm as
a songwriter, was having having somebody that I knew was
like like a reason to get better. There was sort

(10:16):
of like a reason I had, like if you know,
I got it, I wonder what it kind of was
like it kind of bothered me, but it was like
almost like a challenge, like maybe if I can write
something that he likes, you know, I I would improve.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
And so here there's a loose rule where every fifteen
songs you write, you finally get a hit.

Speaker 3 (10:35):
Like that's a good A good those are quite good.
Oh it's actually yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:40):
I heard it was like ninety nine song I haven't
gotten I think I've gotten to like nine songs I've
written my life, so I haven't gotten to that hit song.

Speaker 2 (10:46):
Ye this time it's.

Speaker 3 (10:49):
Yeah, it's I mean we we we we got on
a little bit of I think it depends as well
with with with songs that become hits, like you can
have a great song, but you know, it's partly like
if the right you know, the good people have to
record it too, and whoever has to record it has
to sort of be and it has to be poised
to sort of be in a position to have a
hit because you know, we know that having a hit

(11:11):
doesn't happen like in someone's living room and only it
has to sort of be recorded and sound great as well,
because sometimes you can have a hit if it's recorded badly,
it might ruin the song, right.

Speaker 1 (11:24):
Yeah, it takes all the elements, yeah, there all the planets,
the producing, the writing, yeah, the timing.

Speaker 3 (11:30):
Everything has to be Yeah, everything has to be in
the right place. And so for all the planets to
line up, it takes a lot of things that are
out of your control. But but you know, it was
like it was weird because eventually I did write a
song that this manager liked and it got us. It
was cool, what a good to school for And it

(11:53):
was their first song that we released with the band.
And you know, it wasn't like you know, And it
also wasn't like you know, it wasn't like we wrote
the song. I wrote it with my band mate. We
came home drunk one night and he had this verse idea.
But it was a cool idea, but it wasn't like
you know, it was a different lyric and some of
the words were the same and one of the words

(12:14):
rhymed was something that took us down that concept and
we finished this idea and it wasn't like completely finished,
but we knew it was better than anything we had,
and when we played it for our manager, it was
like it kind of really got the ball rolling for us,
and we kind of knew what kind of a band
we were going to be, and you know, it kind

(12:36):
of it made a lot of things known for us,
like that we were going to go down a certain.

Speaker 1 (12:42):
Yeah, what were your influences at that point as busted
who were y'all looking up to?

Speaker 3 (12:48):
Honestly, like you guys, y'all didn't want to dance? Yeah, no, No,
I would have actually quite liked that. Yeah, you know,
because I like Michael Jackson. I like the Jackson five,
and I felt like, you know, that's it's just like
the same as you guys, right kind of that's w Yeah,
it was.

Speaker 1 (13:08):
It was the Michael, It was the performances that we loved, Michael,
Janet Madonna. You know, we were always about what can
we do to entertain?

Speaker 3 (13:16):
Yeah, the showmanship, right, it's like a showmanship that comes
with that stuff. And I would have been really happy
and that I would have. I would have been very
happy in a all singing, all dancing boy band. But
I also love, you know, I love also bands like Blink, Gwin,
D two and Green Day, and I like it all.
I don't you know, I don't know. It's not too late. Yeah,

(13:39):
I would, we could start, I would do it.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
We could fulfill your dancing games.

Speaker 3 (13:43):
Because I actually do like to I like to do that.
But yeah, the thing is is I just like good music.
And I think some people see like the bands they
listen to, it's a part of their identity. It's who
they are. I want to be this kind of person,
So I'm going to listen to this music, and I
feel like it's you know, not often people just you know,

(14:07):
people like to their music to reflect, you know, an
image or something. So if you're everything, it's like you
don't know who you are. But I feel like I
I I do like everything.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
Yeah, a lot of people would think they'd have an
identity crisis. But you can get stuck in a box exactly,
and then you can't really do some of the art
that would be just incredible because of like, no, I'm
stuck in this little box.

Speaker 4 (14:28):
For yeah, and we're similar to that like we because
like we're fans of just good songs.

Speaker 2 (14:32):
Yeah, it doesn't matter what genre it's in. Like good
song is a good song, it's a country, it's rock.

Speaker 3 (14:37):
That's how I feel.

Speaker 2 (14:38):
Yeah, so yeah, we're kind of Yeah.

Speaker 3 (14:40):
I like everything, and you know, and I don't want
to be in a in a I don't want to
be like pigeonholed into a thing. It's I like to
try different things. I like to you know, I like
to write songs for my band. I like to write
song I like to write musicals for the stage.

Speaker 1 (14:53):
You know.

Speaker 3 (14:53):
I like to score things. If an artist that I
think is cool, even it doesn't even matter if they're
a non artist, if I could meet them on the subway,
you know, and I will. I will work with anybody,
you know, if they asked me.

Speaker 1 (15:06):
Yeah, you know, it's not that's great love. I mean,
you have done so much in entertainment. When did you
decide I'm going to tackle a musical because that is
an undertaking. I mean it takes years to do. Even
to get it up on the stage is almost impossible.
You did it? How did this come about?

Speaker 3 (15:26):
Yeah, it's it's and also I mean it's it's it's
it's nice that you understand that because because you know,
I lived in a building and there was somebody else
who I met. You know, it was when the band
got big in the beginning. We got our own places eventually,
and we were kind of living alone and.

Speaker 1 (15:45):
The y'all lived together at first.

Speaker 3 (15:47):
Yeah, we did.

Speaker 2 (15:47):
We had.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
I love that dynamic. That's what we did. Also because
you literally, unless you're living together, you're not going to
know if this group's gonna last, because you'll find out
quickly who you're gonna hate.

Speaker 3 (16:00):
And we knew, we kind of we knew in the
beginning that our band was going to be short lived
because because Charlie, he moved out like about, you know,
after a month, and I remember when when the door
closed behind him, like Matt was like, this is how
it's going to go. But but you know, it was like, yeah,
it's true. You learn a lot about that. Yeah. So

(16:21):
so anyway, we've got our own places, and there was
a neighbor in the building who I met. There was
tennis courts, you know, it was one of those apartments
that has tennis courts and and I just was leaning
up against the fence one day watching these people I
didn't know play tennis, and he was like, you're that
guy in that band. And we became friends. And I
didn't really know that he was even anything to do

(16:44):
with with with with the world of you know, doing musicals.
I I just thought that we'd become friends. And he
was always telling me that I should, you know, consider
because I had another band after after the band split up,
and he was like, there's songs in this album that
lend itself to to the musical theater world, and I
it sounds like a lot of work. I don't know
if we can pull that off. You know. That's I
knew it was a lot because I did it growing up,

(17:05):
you know, and I knew how how hard it was
to do it. And there's a songwriter in Los Angeles
that you probably very well aware of, Andrews Carlson.

Speaker 1 (17:14):
Of course, and he's a friend of mine, and yeah,
it's Martin Dennis.

Speaker 3 (17:18):
Pop came out exactly. So Andrews and I are friends,
good friends. And I remember I was like sitting with him,
and this was after the band. I wasn't doing anything.
I was, you know, didn't really know what to do next.
And he was saying to me, you know, writing for
people is fun, but you should maybe think about doing this.
And I said, really, you think that that's a good
idea and he was like absolutely, And I was like huh,

(17:41):
And I really kind of looked up to him. So
I went back home and said to my neighbor, you
know that musical thing you want to write, let's do
it nice. And turned out he actually knew what he
was doing. Yeah, you know, he did a lot of
the heavy lifting on the book. I did a lot
of the heavy lifting on the songwriting. And we had
a good partnership and we wrote it originally for schools,

(18:05):
right because the thing about musicals it's hard to put
it on, you know, to put it on properly is
really expensive and a lot of work.

Speaker 1 (18:13):
But then it just to get a theater. I mean
sometimes it's four year wait to even try to get
a theater.

Speaker 3 (18:19):
That's how it is. Yeah, So, like, you know, we
we knew that to have an opening night would be
a nice deadline. We knew that if we had that goal,
we knew that we could probably motivate ourselves to finish
a first draft and go into a workshop setting and
to put some kind of presentation on and we did

(18:40):
that and a producer from the West End heard about it,
came down and said we're going to do it. And
so from page to stage opening in the West End
was about three years, which is shockingly quick. And I yeah,
but you know, and it was well received in the
West End and it nominated for Olivier Ward. But it

(19:01):
wasn't a financial success.

Speaker 1 (19:04):
What most aren't.

Speaker 3 (19:04):
No, And then after it closed, it got done by
schools everywhere and it started to make money and happen,
you know, on the amateur circuit. In October last year,
I got an email from the company that licenses the show.
Huge license came in from Japan. I was like, what

(19:25):
is this. In March this year I went to Japan.
Shows sold sixty thousand tickets in Japan. Whoaa and yeah,
I toured all over Japan and I was there and
I went to see it and it was translated into
Japanese and the show has been translated into five.

Speaker 1 (19:41):
What do you think resonated so much with Japan?

Speaker 3 (19:44):
Okay? They cast it right, Yeah, the people that produced
it and knew what they were doing. They cast people
that the Japanese people cared about. They made it in
Japanese you know, Japan like people talk about like and
I'm sure you've been in Japan, but it's like they
do love Western culture, but they're also very loyal to
their own traditions and they're very loyal to their own

(20:07):
culture and so and you know, the majority of you know,
Japanese selling music is Japanese language music. And so the
fact that it was you know, we had the guy
that you know, translated it into Japanese. He was able
to make it work fenetic, you know, with the words.

Speaker 1 (20:27):
Must be so hard.

Speaker 3 (20:29):
Yeah, And I had had dinner with him after the
show and he was talking to me about it, and
I was like, how did you do that, you know,
make it in it? Japanese language is so different from English. Yeah,
and I had a really interesting conversation with him. And
but you know, to see it, you know, because it
was sold out in this thing and went. When I
walked into this it was like being in a dream,
you know, because it's such a long time. Twenty thirteen

(20:51):
was the West Day and it's been a decade since
it closed in London to sort of show up in
the other side of the world, so it was a
you know, and since then there's been more interest in it.
But I think musicals are interesting because they can regenerate.
There's always new people that can that can be in it.

Speaker 2 (21:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
And well when you did it in London, what what
cast did you want to put together? I mean that
must have been so fun too, Yeah, think about, Wow,
I'm going to cast this person I've always loved.

Speaker 3 (21:17):
Yeah. Well, to be honest, it wasn't easy to get
the people that you know, we probably would have, you know,
out the first choices that we would have wanted that
probably wouldn't have wanted to make themselves available.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
Well that's the other thing. I mean, like with Broadway too,
it's just to get the person you want to see
if they have six months to take out of their
busy schedule. Yeah, it's it's almost impossible.

Speaker 2 (21:40):
That's it really is.

Speaker 3 (21:41):
Yeah. And so like if you like, I mean it's
hard to get say because some really like amazing A
list actors will do plays in London and even musicals.
I mean you get like Hugh Jackman does musicals or whatever.
But first of all, the show Luzerville's quite a young show,
so for young talent, I mean it's not easy to

(22:04):
convince someone who's on a huge TV show to come
and be in a musical that no one knows. Yeah,
and that's what I mean. Louiserville has got a little
bit more known in the last ten years. But it's
also it's not like it's a classic. It's not like
Hamilton or Laine Is or Wickets. It's it's a musical
that could one day, you know, have have some more
success if it keeps going. But it you know, there's

(22:25):
a lot of different levels to this, and convincing people
to do it is hard. Sometimes they have to know it.

Speaker 1 (22:33):
I'm always looking for something like that because if I
ever went back to Broadway, unless it was a show
that I absolutely just loved, you I wanted to do
a part. Great, But next time I go to Broadway,
it's going to be in a new musical because I
want to get Tony nominated. Yeah I want. I want
to open a show, and I would think, you know,
a lot of actors out there would just be searching
for that. Okay, this I can finally be a part

(22:55):
of opening a.

Speaker 3 (22:56):
Show and be a part of that good information to know, yeah,
yeah you was it that way? Yeah you? Because I've
written seven musicals now wow. Yeah, and time to write
seven musicals because I always writing something.

Speaker 1 (23:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (23:10):
And and the thing is one of the show that
I'm really excited about, uh, is a show that I
wrote with a guy called Stephen Sata who had a
huge hit with the show Spring Awakening. So he wrote
the book and the lyrics for that show.

Speaker 1 (23:24):
We saw that. I saw that opening Broadway, and then
we saw the revival where they did the the deaf version.

Speaker 3 (23:30):
Yeah, it was deaf West beautiful. It was one of
woods I think.

Speaker 1 (23:35):
Yeh, it was thinking.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
It was so good.

Speaker 1 (23:37):
Yeah, it was so good.

Speaker 3 (23:38):
Yeah, and it was wasn't that was on in LA
for a little bit too.

Speaker 1 (23:41):
I saw in New York, so I don't know when
it was here in LA, but it was special.

Speaker 3 (23:45):
Yeah. Yeah, you know what I'm really regretting. You know,
I've actually never seen I saw a production of Spring
Awakening at n y U because we went there to
do the original workshop of the new show that was
writing with Stephen and and but everything else I knew
about the show was from the soundtrack they're listening, or
from YouTube actually promo stuff on YouTube of looking at

(24:08):
the Tony Awards, you know, that kind of stuff. But
but yeah, sort of like working with Stephen was really
cool because I was a fan of that show and
I was a fan of like his work. And we've
done a lot of you know, now we've written two
shows together and but you know, none of them have
made it to Broadway or the West End yet, but

(24:29):
the plan is hopefully to get it there.

Speaker 1 (24:31):
So which one do you want to work on that?
Which one do you want to bring to the stage.

Speaker 3 (24:36):
It'd be nice to see, you know, it'd be nice
to see Murder at the Gates get its opening.

Speaker 1 (24:41):
And what's that about?

Speaker 3 (24:42):
You know, it's it's a murder mystery musical love murder mystery. Yeah,
which is you know, it's a young cast, and you
know they're fucked up rich kids and sorry, I'm not
allowed to say that. Yes and so so so they

(25:03):
are in a gated community. They're the first house in
the gated community. The dad's greased a few palms. They're
in early so they're kind of isolated in this big house.
And yeah, the the lead, you know, the lead, the
leading part, Cameron. It's her birthday party and she's gone
through a breakup, her mom's died, and the dad's already

(25:23):
banging the housekeeper, and you know, her friends have all
ghosted her, and they've all shown up on her birthday,
like she's like mortified that they're there. And it's a
murder mystery and the first murder is real and the
play becomes real and they're locked down in the house
and it's and it's a musical. So it's like, I
love it.

Speaker 1 (25:42):
Well, my favorite movie is Clue.

Speaker 3 (25:44):
I don't know if you yes, So it's a it's
a lot, like it's a lot like this is very
speaking to me. This is like Clue meets Clueless.

Speaker 1 (25:51):
Yeah. Hello, that's the best combination. Yeah, yeah, that's perfect
because I always thought Clue that story would be an
amazing musical, Like why haven't they turned Clue into a musical?

Speaker 5 (26:02):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (26:02):
Well this this is definitely down that street.

Speaker 1 (26:04):
Nice. Yeah, well, good luck with that.

Speaker 3 (26:07):
Thanks.

Speaker 1 (26:07):
I can't wait that.

Speaker 5 (26:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (26:22):
All right, going back to Boston, what what year did
y'all get together? Two thousand and two?

Speaker 3 (26:27):
Two thousand and two was the year that we got signed.

Speaker 1 (26:30):
Okay, Yeah, so you know, in England, you know, and
especially I mean here in America at that time too,
a lot of groups, I mean, just you you guys,
had tons of boy bands, tops of you know, punk bands.
I mean, there was just lots of groups. How did
you how did you think you were going to be
able to stand out amongst all that competition.

Speaker 3 (26:51):
I don't know if we thought that actually in the
beginning a good thing, but yeah, I remember, like when
we were I remember we're going to get signed. I
remember the kind of thing that people were saying about
us was we don't know how it fits. Yeah, that
would come back, that would be the feedback. You know,
people would sort of they would like us, and they

(27:12):
would we would perform live in the office and all
that stuff, and a lot of people would say that
about us. It's like, we love it, we just don't
really get where it belongs. So we don't know what
it is. Because it was pop music and it was
you know, our problem was we like dancing Kamblink. You know,
we like both things. We liked. You know, I think

(27:32):
there was people couldn't put us in that box right
because we would just talk about the music that we
liked and say, well, we like this and we liked that.
We like everything.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
Your band was the perfect melting pot of the trol era. Yes,
but it's like if all the groups of child just
kind of had a baby, I feel like, yeah, Busted would.

Speaker 3 (27:50):
Be that exactly. Say, we did that show and eventually,
but like and it was really fun day. Actually that
was a really good memory. But it was like that
in the beginning. And then we played for Simon caw
and he was sort of on the very it was
the beginning of his television fame, but it was so
early for his TV career that he was still an

(28:12):
A and R guy at a record company. You know,
he wasn't like completely a TV mogul. He was, he
was venturing into TV mogul world, but he was still
a guy that had an office in a record company. Yeah,
And we went to that office and we played for him,
and it was very scary, you know, because he was
the guy who was nasty to people and he just

(28:33):
said right there and then he offered us a record
deal and we were like jumping up and down in
the road outside him, we're going to get signed. And
then that kind of sent ripple effect through the industry
and we met with whoever we wanted after that, and
then we ended up not signing to him, but we
signed to Universal and which you know I would have.
Actually I was probably the one that was saying we

(28:54):
should sign to him. But you know, in a band,
it's like a lot of opinions, and was not you know,
I wasn't exactly upset about the deal that we got
with you know, Science, with the Universal. It was actually
a very you know, just it was better than my deal.
Really well you mean you I mean, this is the
thing with you know, when eventually we went to Germany.

(29:18):
I remember I met Lou Pullman and he came in.
There was a band there called Natural and we would
see them a lot. If when we were in Germany.
It was like in that era.

Speaker 1 (29:28):
Yeah, because Natural came a little after us, because that's
when we left Lou once we found out he was
screwing us so badly. And then yeah, he came out
with Natural and O Town and so crazy. I'm telling
you have to. I did a documentary on him called
The Boy Band Cohn. So if you want to really
know the crazy.

Speaker 3 (29:44):
Yeah, I've heard, I do. I do want to. I
do want to watch that because that's amazing because I've
I've heard about that and it's pretty intense. He's seemed good.

Speaker 1 (29:53):
I think a warning to other bands and you know,
young bands getting that first deal. Definitely watch that doc
before you signed that.

Speaker 3 (29:59):
D He's strikes me as like sort of like a
catch me if you can music manager. Oh yeah, right.

Speaker 2 (30:06):
And that's what he kind of was, because it's just the.

Speaker 1 (30:09):
Way he could lie. I mean, you believed everything this man.
I mean, he was family, we loved lou But I
mean everything he said you just believed.

Speaker 3 (30:18):
How do you feel about him now.

Speaker 1 (30:19):
I'm totally at peace with everything? Yeah, I mean, I
you know, it took a lot of therapy. I think
you know, the older you get, the more you're like, wow,
why do I still feel this way about this person
twenty five years ago? And then you kind of just
get to a point where I don't care anymore. I
forgive you know, it shouldn't eat on me at all,
And I do that with so many people in my life.

(30:40):
I just I don't care anymore. I just want to
move forward and look to the future and never look back.

Speaker 3 (30:44):
Huh. Yeah, it's interesting.

Speaker 1 (30:46):
Did youn't have bad management at first?

Speaker 3 (30:49):
We were we were lucky. Yeah, I think you know what,
you know what I think about this. It never goes
exactly the way you want it to go oh, like
you know, and I don't know. I've never met anyone
where it has. And you know, I've experienced in my career.

(31:09):
I've you know, I've been in a band, I've I've
helped other artists, have helped other bands happen. I've written
for other artists. I've been on even on the music
publishing side. You know, I've signed people, and I've seen
what it's like to be on the other side when
you have someone who's hopeful of having a career, and

(31:31):
that I think is very challenging because you know, as
a as a manager, if it's going if it's not
going well, you're kind of a blame. And if it's
going well, why isn't it going better? Right, I'm not
I'm not saying that. I'm not I'm not. I'm not
justifying any of any of that extra stuff that because
because that's like criminal activity. Yeah, like but like so,

(31:56):
but what I'm saying is is that even so like
it feels like when I think when you you know,
we've both been quite lucky in our careers, and I
think that there's a deep sense of appreciation and gratitude
that even though you can go through because I did
go through some stuffy It wasn't directly from management, but
they would think there are things that have happened that

(32:18):
have been very difficult, but you the the appreciation and
the gratitude that you have for the success that's happened
is greater.

Speaker 1 (32:25):
Than of course.

Speaker 3 (32:26):
And I think that if that and I think if
and I think if the if you're if you're fortunate
enough that like the balances out that way you can
say that.

Speaker 1 (32:36):
Yeah, and it's all about how you pivot. Yes, I
mean that's the challenge right there.

Speaker 3 (32:39):
And experiences that you had with it, right, so think
about like the things that you learned from it, like
think about you know what, what you now know from
those experiences is probably invaluable stuff. You know.

Speaker 1 (32:50):
Oh gosh, And I'm glad I did it. I'm glad
I went through that. It's such a such a young age,
you know, I got through all the worst parts of
my career, you know, than negative parts by the time
I was twenty four years old. Yes, so you know,
I I.

Speaker 3 (33:04):
Just it's a real privilege.

Speaker 1 (33:06):
Yeah, I mean it really it's a blessing for sure.

Speaker 3 (33:09):
Better than going through it when you're fifty.

Speaker 1 (33:11):
Yeah, and I'll just get screwed and I have no
time left exactly. Okay, so the group is together, you
come out with the first song that you wrote for
the group, which was a you know, smash hit. What's
interesting to me is and it's funny because the year
three thousand, the song you wrote, I think that was
your second release maybe.

Speaker 3 (33:31):
Yeah, the second Yeah, it was a second one.

Speaker 1 (33:33):
Because I know y'all did. Your first hit was number three,
then it went number two, and then you went number one.
So I went three to two one, which was we stopped.
We went to number two, got beat by the Teletubbies
and we never went back to England.

Speaker 2 (33:44):
I think that's what that was. That's what that.

Speaker 1 (33:48):
Teletoby's premiere and the theme song went number one and
it was tearing in my heart. That was going to
be our big breakout in England. And then it just
went number two and then no one ever talked to
They're like, oh, tell a Tubby tellotovey tell never coming back.

Speaker 3 (34:02):
Yeah, but you know, but it was a banger. But
you know, year three thousand wins to number two and
it's bigger than all the number ones we had.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
Yeah, I'm like, bye bye, Bye, it wasn't number one,
it wasn't our number one, but it's a class the
one people know.

Speaker 3 (34:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:14):
But it's funny because when he was like listening to
the group, he was like, yeah, it reminds me of
Joe Broke, like Jonas brothers, like the American you know,
the British versions other brothers, and they're the ones they
first started getting attention because of the song year three thousands.

Speaker 3 (34:28):
Yeah, that year old over the beginning.

Speaker 1 (34:29):
Yeah yeah, and most people in America obviously don't know
that it was an original song.

Speaker 3 (34:34):
But no, and and it's you know, it's such an
interesting story because you know, my band broke up, and
you know, the industry, I think there were people that
you know, there were people in the record industry that
are Transatlantic people. And there was one of those guys,
guy called Dave Massy And wait, I.

Speaker 1 (34:53):
Know Dave Massey. How do I know Dave Massy.

Speaker 3 (34:55):
Well, he's been he's been around.

Speaker 5 (34:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (34:58):
Yeah. He he called me in like two thousand and
six and he you know, he was like, Hey, it's Dave,
and he was like, you know, I've been I've been
writing songs that Nick Jonas have been recording as you know,
very young. He was still when I went to Stockholm
for the first time. He was the one recording the
songs that I was writing when I was there with
those those genius dudes.

Speaker 1 (35:19):
And when did you meet that share on studio group?
Because we were there when Dennis Pop was still alive.

Speaker 3 (35:25):
That's how I know you were you were you You
were there at the time when everyone wanted to be there.

Speaker 1 (35:29):
Yeah, it was the Robin the Ace of bass, like
it was the moment for Sweden.

Speaker 3 (35:35):
Yeah, you I really want to I would love to talk.
I mean, I would talk to you about that for
you know, I would really go down the rabbit hole
with you. But I think the thing about that whole building,
by the way that building is fascinating, the way that
you know, the way the live room is shared by
the different control rooms, and you know, but I was

(35:56):
I always wanted to go there and work with those people.
And eventually, when I kind of got my own thing happening,
I was invited to go there. But Nick Jonas was
recording the songs I was writing when I was there,
and it was like Dave Massey called me and said,
it's not going to happen for Nick's solo career, and

(36:17):
Nick's like probably still really young at this point. He
was like, but he's got two brothers, and we like,
you know, doing like something like busted, and maybe we
can record Year three thousand if that's okay. And I
was like, yeah, but I don't think you need my
permission for that, and then you just cover the song.
He was like, there's a couple of words that we
don't want to say on radio Disney. And I was like, oh,
like what and he was like, well, we don't want

(36:38):
to say this, and we don't want to say that,
and I can't say sex. Yeah, exactly, and they.

Speaker 1 (36:43):
Were wearing their purity rings at that point.

Speaker 3 (36:44):
Well exactly. It was there were some lyrics that I
understood that couldn't be in it, and I was like, look,
I really don't want to stand in your way, and
I also don't want to rewrite the song because the
song's a song. There's a couple of words you want
to switch out and switch them out, but I don't.
But like, I'm sure that you know, you're probably better
at knowing what they are than it than you know,
and so I think, you know, they just figured it

(37:04):
out and then I honestly didn't think that I would
ever hear about it again. I thought that was the
last that I would hear of it. You don't think
you can't predict that, no, of course, you know. So
it was like when I came out here. I remember
I was a friend's house and there was a Miley
Cyrus concert and the television was on and I was
in the house and I heard a song that I

(37:25):
thought was familiar and realized after about forty seconds in
that it was actually your song. Yeah, And the guys
on stage singing with the Jonas brothers and the kids
in the house were like, this is huge. I was like,
really that was that?

Speaker 1 (37:45):
Yeah, that must be some nice residuals coming in from
that song. I mean, two big groups doing that.

Speaker 3 (37:50):
Song when the band breaks up. It's nice to have
stuff like that happening.

Speaker 1 (37:55):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (37:58):
But and it's also kind of know it's it's nice
because it's just it's sort of like a it's a
sign that you can kind of continue on really and
try and do other things. There's more than there's more
to life than just doing one thing. You can have

(38:18):
success with other things.

Speaker 1 (38:21):
Yeah. One fun thing, y'all did was you know band Aid?

Speaker 3 (38:25):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (38:25):
Which funny, Yeah, you know so, But I mean, I'm
pretty sure most people know Google if you don't know
what band Aid is? So y'all did do they know?
It's Christmas? The remake with incredible artists? You had Paul McCartney,
Chris Martin, Bono, you guys, what was it like? Did
you did you get to meet any of these artists?

(38:46):
Did y'all get to perform it? And you get to
geek out that that's Paul McCartney standing right next to you.

Speaker 3 (38:51):
You know, if you watch the video, Paul McCartney isn't
there's a huge crowd of people. Everyone in that crowd
of people with people that were there other day that
we were there with with. The funny thing that happened
was it was one of those weird things where it's
like it's big news, you know, it's it's national news.

(39:15):
And I remember we were going in to record that, Dad.
I remember as we were walking in, it was like
a delay by like five minutes on the news, and
we went in, the news was on and we saw
ourselves on the news five minutes later. Oh that was
just five minutes ago. And stuff like that and then
you know, we went in and I was pretty like,
I was so like there were so many times back

(39:36):
then where I was kind of like just like caught
up in what was happening or I have missed really
key things. And this guy comes over and was like,
thanks for being here. And I said to my band mate,
I said, who was that? And he goes it was
Bob Geldof.

Speaker 1 (39:51):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (39:53):
I was like, I was like, oh, it sounds like me. Yeah,
And but he was wearing the iconic T shirt that
he wore in the original band, and you know, he
did a he did like a speech about, you know,
remember the reason why we're here. And you know, I
think when you're in when you're when you're in a
band and you get invited to be a part of

(40:13):
something like that, you can get caught up a little
bit in oh, who's here? This is a fun experience.
But then it's like what he did is he kind
of he took that away and was like, this is
why we're here, you know, and he and it was about,
you know, people are starving in Africa.

Speaker 1 (40:30):
But I'm sure a lot of money was raised for this.
Do you know how much? Ultimately it was?

Speaker 3 (40:35):
I don't know, but I know that. I know that
there's a reason they try to do it every now
and then because you know, like but but yeah, I mean, yeah,
it was. It was a it's so crazy. Yes, it's
interesting you know about that.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
I love that little because I've always wanted I was
a part of something like that. Michael Jackson put something
together for September eleventh. I'm so confused if it ever
came out, because I feel like that song never really released,
but I remember recorded.

Speaker 2 (41:05):
I don't know nothing exactly.

Speaker 1 (41:07):
Yeah, we did a whole band aid type.

Speaker 3 (41:11):
Was this for horror? No? Not? This was for September eleven.
I believe he did a Hurricane Katrina thing, didn't he?

Speaker 1 (41:17):
Oh maybe he did that too. I forget, Well he
did so much, didn't Yeah, and the Black Eyed Peas
did one.

Speaker 3 (41:24):
Because there was that night when you you performed with
the Jackson's.

Speaker 1 (41:27):
Yes, that was in New York.

Speaker 3 (41:28):
That was before right before nine eleven, two days before. Yeah,
And you know I remember it well because I watched
that and so yeah, because David Guest did that, didn't he?

Speaker 1 (41:41):
Probably? Yeah, I mean it, everyone did that show.

Speaker 3 (41:44):
I produced it. Did he produce the show for TV?

Speaker 1 (41:47):
Oh yeah maybe, yeah, yeah, I think he did.

Speaker 2 (41:49):
He did.

Speaker 3 (41:50):
Yeah, and and and it was crazy because a friend
of mine, you know, so Matt from my band, was
in a reality TV show with him.

Speaker 1 (41:59):
Which one was it? It was in the jungle, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:04):
And you know, they became quite good friends in there,
and when they came out, I would I would hang
out with you know, them all the time, like in
the month afterwards. Everyone, you know, when you've kind of
been in a jungle together, everyone wants to hang out
all the time. Yeah. And so I met David through
my friend in my band, and it was through him.

(42:26):
I actually ended up producing a song for Tito Jackson's.

Speaker 1 (42:31):
Kids, the Three T Yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:35):
Yeah, who who Actually, I really I really liked those guys.

Speaker 1 (42:41):
I remember Three T because they started the same time
we did in Europe, so we would always run into
them in Germany. Yeah, And I thought it was so calm, like,
oh my gosh, we know, like some Jackson's.

Speaker 3 (42:50):
Yeah, yeah, it's pretty it's kind of it's kind of amazing.
But what was it like because you because when you
when you did the show with them, because you you
danced with.

Speaker 1 (42:59):
Was it machine, yeah, dance Machine. Yeah, it was the
last performance of the Jackson five, which was like insane.
So we go there and we had done some stuff
with Michael at that point, we had become good friends,
and we had just he had just performed with us
at the VMA's uh, and we had released pop and
had no idea if he.

Speaker 3 (43:19):
Oh my god, that performance is so good.

Speaker 1 (43:21):
He comes at the end and starts dancing.

Speaker 3 (43:22):
That's just sketch, right, that's just say.

Speaker 1 (43:24):
Yeah, had no idea he would really show. Literally, I'm
on stage and just hoping that when that etch a
sketch came up, that he was gonna be so you didn't.

Speaker 3 (43:31):
Know that he was.

Speaker 1 (43:32):
We had he said he'd be there, but there was
no rehearsal and and we couldn't even tell MTV. MTV
had no idea this was going to happen. They thought
somehow they thought Janet was going to show up. But
then it happened and it was just a moment.

Speaker 3 (43:47):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (43:47):
And then we did his thirtieth anniversary you know special
two days later, and it had you know, Whitney, but
everyone hit that stage, and I mean Brittany and Usher
and I mean just everyone, and we had no idea, idea,
you know, I knew, we knew we were going to
do Jackson five fun, but I had no idea Michael
was actually going to do a concert and just do
a full on set. And it was the first time

(44:09):
i'd seen him. You didn't know that, No, not at all,
And so I sat in that I went into the audience,
might have to see this, and I had a tear
in my eye. I'm like, I get it. I get
why people cry. Now, what is this?

Speaker 2 (44:20):
It's just a single tear.

Speaker 3 (44:21):
It's just weird. The Michael Jackson thing. I mean, you
saw it. I mean when it was like a different thing,
wasn't it. Yeah, when you because because it was, it
didn't matter. It didn't matter who you were. It didn't
matter how successful you were, it didn't matter how many
records you sold or how what the hell was going on.
He was just sort of above everyone.

Speaker 1 (44:45):
It didn't get bigger than.

Speaker 3 (44:46):
That, and it didn't matter. Yeah, it was just.

Speaker 1 (44:49):
His influence on everyone. That's what's so spectacular. Any artist
you talked to, whatever genre, they always bring up Michael.

Speaker 3 (44:57):
It's crazy. It's crazy, and I can't I remember, you know,
And it was it was actually crazy because for me
that's where it all started. Was like being a Michael
Jackson fan, and I remember seeing I waited up because
you know, in England, the time difference is a bit different,
so I knew that there was something going on. It's

(45:18):
the VMA's right, the extra sketch thing. So when that happened,
it aired in England. When it happened, it was like
two am or something.

Speaker 1 (45:27):
Oh yeah, yeah, I was probably live it too.

Speaker 3 (45:28):
Yeah, And I remember like waiting up for it and
falling asleep and like waking up, and then when it happened,
I remember, you know, you guys on stage. I remember
watching thinking there's something about this performance that's a little extra,
because there was a lot of set in it. It was, yeah,
and I was like, I was like, there's something going
on here. And I was literally like keep my eyes

(45:50):
open so they want to miss it. And I remember
that like that whole thing was just so crazy.

Speaker 1 (45:58):
That's what I couldn't stop just watching the audience because
I mean, it was great that Michael was right next
to us, but I just watching everyone's kind of jaw
to the floor because no one expected that this has
been a while since we had seen Michael almost to anyone, Yeah,
he's been you know, he was kind of on a
little hiatus for a while. Man, and you know, to
see jay Z and Beyonce and everyone's like, oh my gosh,

(46:18):
I need to go back, Like, yeah, I know this guy.

Speaker 2 (46:20):
I know, this guy is my friend.

Speaker 3 (46:22):
But when you when you when but on the on
the Madison Square Garden thing, when you were all there,
right and you were dancing, did you like look to
your left?

Speaker 1 (46:30):
Yes, right the whole time. If you watch my performance,
I'm not even looking anywhere except to my left or right.
I'm like, what what is my life right now? I'm
here with the Jackson freaking five. Oh it was amazing.
But be able to say that we were the last
performing the Jackson five is just such a that's just
such a moment.

Speaker 2 (46:49):
Just hold on.

Speaker 1 (46:50):
Yeah, I'm going to put that on my resume.

Speaker 3 (46:54):
And and yeah, your life must have changed after that.

Speaker 1 (46:57):
I mean it was crazy. I mean yeah, I mean
it's uh, it was. It was interesting because that was
definitely probably the all time high for in sync, that
moment and that special and then nine to eleven happened
and everything just pop and just disappeared. And I don't
think anyone's ever recovered. I think that was the downfall
of ZYNC. I think that was the start, yeah, because

(47:19):
I mean I don't think anyone really recovered from that, Yeah,
because no one was doing concerts, film was done. I
mean just everyone was in such a depressed mood that
no one was thinking about music or going to see
a concert of a boy band. And I feel like
that it just kind of music and fun music fizzled
out after that for a bit.

Speaker 3 (47:37):
No, wait, that that wasn't the end.

Speaker 5 (47:40):
Was No.

Speaker 1 (47:40):
We had another album, Celebrity after that, which was great.
It was great, but it was considered a flop. Come
it sold six million albums and it was and it was.

Speaker 3 (47:51):
Considered such a such a such a disaster.

Speaker 1 (47:54):
Yeah, people were like, oh, that's the end of ensync.
They didn't they didn't beat no strings attached? Like, who's
going to beat no strings attached? Was just that was
an insane time that will never happen again.

Speaker 3 (48:02):
Until two point four million albums and week once Yeah, yeah, six.

Speaker 2 (48:07):
And a half million.

Speaker 1 (48:08):
Yeah, and that was considered.

Speaker 3 (48:10):
Like, isn't that the fastest selling album of all time?

Speaker 1 (48:12):
Until A Dale beat it a few years ago?

Speaker 3 (48:14):
Oh really? Yeah, Well eventually that yeah, eventually, but that
was a good run.

Speaker 2 (48:18):
It was a good fifte years run.

Speaker 1 (48:20):
Yeah. Yeah, But I liked having that title because it
was the only thing that I could hang my hat
on for a while. And then the Dale just comes
in sweeps it back, and I'm thinking, well, that will
never be broken because no one camps out for albums anymore,
and no one buys an album the singles market, and
then the Dale comes in and just kills it.

Speaker 4 (48:37):
I just do it on four million the first she
had three points something insane in the market that no
one buys albums that, Yes, that is crazy.

Speaker 2 (48:47):
Not to get back together and does do a new album?

Speaker 1 (48:49):
Yeah, just to beat it if you want to get
a celebrity album was brilliant. I loved that was great.
Celebrity to me was great because we were finally coming
in to our own as musicians. You know, the first
two albums, you know, you're just so busy, You're you're
just trying to make everything work. Finally we had time
from No Strings Attack to Celebrity, we had some time,

(49:10):
we had some off time, so we were in the
studio writing and so most of that album was written
by you know, one of the members of en sync
and it just was more of our style. It was
very it was evolving, for sure.

Speaker 3 (49:22):
I thought that too.

Speaker 1 (49:23):
Yeah, so it'd be interesting to see where that would
have gone after that. But yeah, we were definitely growing up,
I think, And.

Speaker 3 (49:29):
And do you think, because I think a lot of
people want to know what it would be like if
you did it now.

Speaker 1 (49:36):
Yeah, yes, everyone's wondering. Hey, we'll see never say never.
What are you excited about right now? Out what you're

(49:58):
working on?

Speaker 3 (49:59):
I'm excited about the band coming back.

Speaker 1 (50:01):
Yeah, we just well tell us about the twentinth anniversary.
What's I know you're going on tour? Are we going
to get new music with it?

Speaker 3 (50:07):
Yeah? We were listening a new song in a couple
of weeks.

Speaker 1 (50:09):
Oh nice, what's it called.

Speaker 3 (50:12):
It's called called Good One, Good One, all right, and
it kind of, you know, it's a bit different, it's
a bit you know, it's a bit something new from
what we've done before, but it still feels like a
busted song. But yeah, I'm excited. I'm sort of excited
to go back on tour because it's been like five
years and the pandemic really stopped everything. Yeah, and so

(50:33):
I'm excited about that what's.

Speaker 1 (50:35):
Your favorite part about Because what I love about this
industry is you get to tour for a few months,
then you get back in the studio for a few months,
so it never gets boring.

Speaker 2 (50:45):
You know.

Speaker 1 (50:45):
By the time you're kind of like, ah, I kind
of wish this tour would end. I'm getting a little
I'm not sweating anymore. Then you get in the studio,
and then by then the study you're like kind of
tired of being in this box right now, I want
to get back on the road. Yeah, so it kind
of I don't know, it equals out.

Speaker 3 (50:58):
The seasons changing, Yeah, yeah, studio, being on stage.

Speaker 1 (51:02):
And obviously do you have a favorite I liked.

Speaker 3 (51:05):
I liked them, But I love to record. I like
to I think like making music and releasing music is
just as important. Sometimes I go through times I make
a lot of music, I don't release any music, and
it's like breathing in and not breathing out. You know,
it's like kind of, oh, yeah, you want to release
the stuff you're excited about, and then sometimes enough time
goes by and you're grateful that you didn't.

Speaker 1 (51:25):
Yeah, you know, oh yeah that was I say that.
I say that all about all the time about and Sync.
I'm so glad that no American label signed us back
in ninety five ninety six, because we wouldn't have made
it at all. Thank god we got to go to
Germany fill it out. Yeah, train ourselves better, figure out
what our sound was, and then come back to our

(51:45):
country because they would have laughed us out of this
country if we were released in ninety five, it would
have just never worked.

Speaker 3 (51:51):
Do you think they like having that story? That foundation
of overseas like with Germany was very key.

Speaker 1 (51:56):
To Yeah, definitely, it's It's what bonded us the most.
It made us family. We really got to know what
our sound was. You know, we worked with techno and
things that we would just never touch today, right, but
we just had to had to test it out and
see what happens. And we really listened to our fans.
So we would do with something and the fans would

(52:17):
just go crazy on something we didn't think that they
would even like. We would just kind of go with it, like, Okay,
this is what the people want, Let's give it to them.
Let's finish with this because we have some fan questions
for you. So Lubortha wants to know what is your
favorite mcbusted story that no one knows now for your
Americans listening, mcbusted is a joint group, yes, form McFly

(52:38):
and Busted. Yes.

Speaker 3 (52:40):
I think the thing about that's most I think the
craziest thing about that whole thing, the way happened, was
how easily it could not have happened, and what happened
as a result of it happening is so crazy. It's
like such a sliding doors money kismas. Yeah, because I had,

(53:01):
like I had a relationship that was went back, you know,
to the beginning of McFly. You know, I was a
big part of that band, starting and working with Tom
before he knew who his band were, And I think
I was a big part of inspiring like what the

(53:21):
band became and and a lot of people when they
got signed and like you said, you know you make
the en sync and backtreet reference in England, it was
a little bit like bustin McFly had a little bit. Yeah,
it was a little bit of that going on. And
I think that a lot of people in interviews would

(53:43):
say to me, do you think that you're sort of
doing the right things doing putting you know, so much
work into this other thing. You know, you're in this
thing and now this band becoming big now. And I
never really thought of it that way. I just loved
writing songs and I loved I didn't think that I
was phasing myself out. I thought I was, you know,

(54:04):
I thought I was just doing more stuff. But eventually,
when my band broke up quite recently after that, I
did wonder because you know, the management who managed both bands.
I wondered if they would worked hard to keep busted
together if there wasn't another option. And and but you know,
very quickly, when my band broke up, I wasn't just
not in my band. I wasn't really in the equation

(54:25):
at all anymore. So it was so like two bands
that I was sort of very much a big part
of my life that wasn't around. And then ten years
later when I visited them, I'd been living in the
States for all these years and I came back and
to see them play that performance, it was like one
of the guys, you know, in the band. It was
like a joke almost to go out on stage and

(54:46):
play some songs. And I think people that could have
quite easily not happened.

Speaker 1 (54:52):
And it's where you say, because you had the same management.
I always wonder that too, because our management also did
dustin solo project, and I'm wondering what if we had
separate management with the band as still continued somehow, you know,
would they have figured it out, like, Okay, we're going
to figure this out where y'all can still make music
within sync and still have this solo Yeah.

Speaker 3 (55:11):
Because it's interesting. It's interesting because I think, like now,
when when people are incentivized, there are people who matter
in the equation. Your manager is a big part of that,
and there has to be a common goal, right, and
that's what that is. It's like, yeah, I think all
of a sudden that night, even though Busted was effectively

(55:35):
a broken band, when I did it by myself in
front of their audience, it worked. It was like it
was a live you know, so it's a live and
then we're going to fill in the missing pieces with
the whole band, which is going to make it more exciting.
And that's that. And it kind of led back to
Busted and it was sort of like a stargate back.

(55:57):
This thing that kind of started ten years ago though,
was a stargate back to the future.

Speaker 1 (56:02):
That's great. Yeah, back to the future, always compact fact
all on the same note. Fan for Life one four
three wants to know did Macbusted start because of the
n KOT BSB the New Kids on a Lot BSB collab?

Speaker 3 (56:18):
Do you know what we spoke about that? Actually, because
because we we we did wrap we when we were
talking about it, it was like definitely a reference point.
I wouldn't see that tour, so I wasn't sure if
it was them on stage all at the same time
or if so.

Speaker 1 (56:34):
I didn't see that tour either, but I think they
all went on the stage at a certain time.

Speaker 2 (56:37):
Yeah, it was like back and forth, and.

Speaker 1 (56:39):
It's like what jay Z and Justin did you know
on that tour?

Speaker 3 (56:42):
It just kind of like so in that case, in
that case it must have been similar to that. It
was really interesting. There was not really It was a
very uh fifty to fifty on what the opinion was.
If it was even a good idea. Oh yeah, some
people because it was a bit of a gamble that.

Speaker 1 (57:01):
Well it worked. Yeah, Will or when Will Busted tour America?
From J Martin seven twenty.

Speaker 3 (57:08):
It's a really good question. I would love to do it.
I just don't know, I don't know if it will happen.
If we did, it wouldn't be It would probably have
to be. It's hard to justify a tour of America
that would be on the level that we would tour
right here, right you know, We're just the truth is
is I don't know if like doing all this stuff
with the Jonas Brothers will, you know, will make any difference.

(57:29):
I just think that our audience seems to be where
it is, and if that changes, amazing. But I i'd
like to think, you know, in a dream scenario, we
could make sense of touring here. But and I would
love to do that, but I just don't know.

Speaker 1 (57:44):
Okay, yeah, sweet, Well we have another question.

Speaker 2 (57:47):
You are just recently released the umbab two.

Speaker 4 (57:50):
Point zero with Hanson Hanson, Yeah, and also two point
zero with the Jonas Brothers song.

Speaker 3 (57:56):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (57:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (57:57):
So, and it's funny that I was read that and
I was like, I've been telling Lance they need to
do like a two point zero.

Speaker 1 (58:04):
In sync two points if they ever did of a.

Speaker 2 (58:06):
N Sync song, which would be amazing.

Speaker 3 (58:08):
It's just it's an interesting thing to do because I
think there's a lot of love for these old songs.
People love these songs, and if you can create a
new way, a new version. I mean if you look
at like back back in the day, like even like
songs in the seventies got recorded like hundreds of times,
you know, and you know the song is like the
land and the recording is like the house, and you

(58:28):
can build a lot of houses on the land. You know.
It's like a different version is also a good idea.
You also want to be careful though, because you can
don want to release a bad version. Yeah, you don't
want to like yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:41):
And it also kind of I mean a lot of
fans will never be happy with remake things. They're like, no,
you can't touch the original.

Speaker 3 (58:48):
I know. It's like what it's kind of like you
can't really know.

Speaker 2 (58:52):
You can't win.

Speaker 5 (58:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:54):
All right, So before we let you go, we need
to know what are we watching on television right now? What?
What what musicians do we need to be looking out for?
Can you give us any good bits?

Speaker 3 (59:04):
Yeah? I like White Lotus, Yeah really yeah? Yeah. I
like both those seasons. That was really cool. I you know,
I like a lot listening. I like Bruce Hornsby, I
like the Top Gun soundtrack. I like listening to film music. Yeah,

(59:28):
I like listening to James Taylor. I was actually a
friend of mine told me about a really cool artist.

Speaker 1 (59:38):
I don't know how to pronounce his name, Oh Dejon. Yeah, okay,
I write that down.

Speaker 2 (59:43):
Yeah, right there.

Speaker 1 (59:43):
And we need new music. I know, we always need
good recommendations. Dejon. All right, we're going to do that.

Speaker 3 (59:48):
I really really good and songs are really good and
he's nice.

Speaker 1 (59:55):
Okay, we'll check that out. James, it was so great
to catch up with you. Yeah, see you again.

Speaker 2 (01:00:00):
So interesting.

Speaker 1 (01:00:02):
I love that you're here in Los Angeles, you know,
most of the time. So I'm glad that we're going
to be able run each other because there's lots of
things we have things to do. Yeah, yeah, we got this.
Is there anything you would like to tell your fans
out there? And how can everyone stay in touch with you?

Speaker 4 (01:00:15):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (01:00:16):
No, thanks for listening. This is fun to talk to
to you guys. And I'm on Instagram and social media
and I try to post when I'm getting really bad
at posting, but yeah, I mean I'm always doing something
and it's usually on my socials.

Speaker 1 (01:00:33):
All right, we'll be we'll be checking it out all right, James,
thank you so much for being here.

Speaker 2 (01:00:38):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:00:38):
Yay, mister James Bourne. Everyone love. I'm gonna say.

Speaker 2 (01:00:43):
It, very nice guy.

Speaker 1 (01:00:45):
I mean, every single guest is just the nicest guy. Uh.
I'm glad we got we've met, you know a few
times throughout the years Miami. Now he lives in LA.
But I didn't really know the full of James. I know,
and we share the same first name, and.

Speaker 4 (01:01:03):
I remember I remember like his group vaguely, and I
just remember like different magazines or stuff, seeing like McFly
and Busted, like the European ones and uh. But yeah,
so it's actually kind of interesting now to like now
see the whole history of those men.

Speaker 1 (01:01:18):
Well, I know, all right, guys, Well that is all
the show I have for you. Please stay cool out there,
yes hot one, be good to each other, don't drink
and drive. Take care of those animals, especially in the heat.

Speaker 4 (01:01:30):
Yes, lots of water and put them inside, keep hydrated.

Speaker 1 (01:01:34):
And we will see you next time on frosted tips.
But until then, stay frosted. You missed it, Turkey, those
aren't over there, and until then, stay frosted. Hey, thanks
for listening. Follow us on Instagram at Frosted tips with
Lance and Michael turchinar and at Lance Beast for all

(01:01:55):
your pop culture needs

Speaker 4 (01:01:56):
And make sure to write his review and leave us
five stars six if you can, and see you next time.