On Thursday (April 19), boy band PRETTYMUCH is taking to the streets of the Big Apple for an extra special treat for their fans — literally. The quintet recently teamed up with Kellogg’s to promote the release of Chocolate Frosted Flakes and are giving out a chocolate vinyl of their new tune “Hello” at Kellogg’s NYC.
In celebrate of the cereal, the band filmed a music video in Los Angeles in March where they got silly in the kitchen with Tony the Tiger, traded dance moves with the iconic mascot and challenged him to see who could perform better in an old-school aerobics class.
Billboard visited the video set and caught up with PRETTYMUCH, consisting of Austin Porter, Nick Mara, Edwin Honoret, Brandon Arreaga and Zion Kuwonu, to chat about their forthcoming EP. They also revealed how much they appreciate Simon Cowell’s brutal honesty, the pressures of being a boy band in 2018 and why they jokingly refer to themselves as “pre-famous.”
What’s happening on April 19?
Arreaga: This is our first record release and it’s very sweet… no pun intended! We’re pressing the song onto a chocolate cereal vinyl. It’s the first cereal vinyl ever made, which is pretty dope. And so the song comes with that one and then the regular vinyl. You can play the chocolate vinyl and listen to it and you can eat it, which is tight! We’re going to be giving it away to fans and whoever pulls up into New York. We’ll have limited-edition amounts to give away and are really excited to share this with our fans.
How many times can you play the chocolate vinyl before you eat it?
Porter: We’ve been told seven to 10 times — if you can last that long before getting hungry.
What is the story behind “Hello”?
Honoret: We had recorded it before this partnership opportunity, but we figured it embodied the campaign pretty nicely. It’s high-energy and it’s really happy. It’s a good-vibes song, so I feel like it goes hand in hand with the brand of Tony the Tiger. Let your great out! That’s the focus.
It’s basically about how there is always that girl who never paid you mind or wasn’t that interested and now that she sees you on TV, now she wants to come and say “hello.” It’s like, where were you when I was at my low low?
Porter: We’ve all had a girl like that from back home. But for me, I was pulling inspiration from friends. They didn’t think I was cool. Or maybe they did and they just didn’t want to hang out with me till now. And now they are trying to hit me up.
You have quite the growing fanbase. Does that seem surreal at this point?
Porter: We love our fans. They call themselves Beanz. It stands for Brandon, Edwin, Austin, Nick, Zion.
Arreaga: Before we were PRETTYMUCH, people knew that we were living together but we hadn’t released that we were a boy band yet. We had this Beanz sign made because we thought it was cool. Everybody was just calling us the Beanz Gang or the Beanz Boys and so when we came out with PRETTYMUCH, they were like, “Well what about Beanz?” and someone said, “Let us be called Beanz. Make it a fandom.” And we were like, “Yeah let’s do it!” We’re not complaining.
What does it feel like to be a boy band in this day, tasked with helping to bring back this trend that was once so insanely popular?
Mara: I feel like we have a lot of weight to carry. Back then, boy bands were huge and pop was so big. Right now we’re in an experimental stage of music to where it’s like you look at a boy band and you are like “Oh.” People kind of have a negative connotation to it. But we think we’re cool. And we keep it cool.
Honoret: Yeah, I think it’s a different time now because if you look at Migos, you can categorize them as a boy band. So now we want to break the stereotype of boy bands being this pop star idea. We’re a boy band but we can dance, sing, make art. We like fashion, we like hop-hop music and we want to do a lot of different things. We want to make it a culture and a lifestyle versus make it be five guys that can dance and sing.
What is different about PRETTYMUCH versus *NSYNC and Backstreet Boys?
Mara: We don’t know necessarily what went on behind the scenes with those groups but with this group, I just feel like we are just a lot more invested on the creative side. Compared to everyone else? I’m not sure. But I know we are heavily on the creative side.
Porter: Writing, producing… And I feel like right now specifically in a weird way it’s almost harder to get a name for yourself and easier at the same time. It’s harder because there are a lot more people out there trying to do the same thing as you and then it’s also easier because there are a lot more platforms to put yourself out there.
Arreage: I like to say in the beginning, I don’t think even Simon or the label knew what they were getting their hands into. We are learning more and more every day and at first, we were so naïve and we were letting everyone tell us what we should do. At some point, Simon told us, “Look. You guys are the ones that need to drive the ship.” And from that day on, we started driving the ship. Now, the label and anyone at our team, which is a great team, give us the resources we need and they push us forward. We all write. I produce. We are so in it with the ideas. We come up with our music video ideas, the concepts. We take pictures — our cover art, even down to that. We make all of that stuff. We want to be so hands-on. It feels so rewarding because we put so much time and so much effort in and it’s great to see it start to bloom into a beautiful flower.
What’s it like working with Simon Cowell?
Kuwono: Once when I was singing for him, he told me mid-song, “Zion, I hate this song. Can you sing another song?” And I was like, “Yeah.” It worked. I respect it. He’s super soft inside but brutally honest. I love it.
Honoret: Most of the time I feel like a lot of people sugarcoat it. He just doesn’t sugarcoat it. One time we did a performance and we went back and he was like, “I didn’t like it. I did not like the performance at all.” It pushes you to want to be greater than what you thought you were. But we hang out with him all the time. We go over to his house and he has smoothies and little knickknack foods. And when all the business talk is over, it’s just fun to just have real-life conversations with him.
Porter: It takes a real friend to tell you when you’re doing something wrong.
Honoret: Everyone will tell you that you are great, but very few people will tell you that you suck when you suck.
Do you have any new music in the works?
Arreaga: We have all kinds of stuff coming that we are looking forward to. We’re putting out our first EP, PRETTYMUCH an EP, which is really exciting! It has four songs that are a mix of some songs that fans have heard already and some new ones, which we hope they like too. Then we are going on tour with Khalid in May, which is going to be so much fun and such a cool experience that we are blessed to have. But beyond that, for 2018 we are just going to keep creating and releasing music. We’ve been in the studio a lot and have some really dope songs coming together that we are excited about.
Honoret: We just want to get more music out to the fans. They definitely deserve it. They got us here. So as long as they have more to live off of, as long as it makes them happy, we’re happy.