Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with In Real Life About Their Debut Album and Upcoming Tour
Two years ago, Sergio Calderon Jr., Chance Perez, Drew Ramos, Conor Michael Smith, and Brady Tutton came together and formed In Real Life. In that short time, they’ve accomplished more than many have in a lifetime: they worked hard to find their sound, headlined their first tour, released their debut album, and established themselves as one of the hottest bands in the industry. We caught up with the guys to chat about their debut album, She Do, their upcoming tour, and had them answer your fan questions.
PC: Congratulations on the album! It’s an incredible debut. How have you guys been able to hone your sound so early on in your careers?
Brady: That’s a good question. It’s something that we’ve been working on the last two years and something that we talk about a lot.
Conor: We’re still figuring it out. Some other bands take two years to put out a song. For us, we did a lot of experimenting. There’s a lot of variety, which you’ll hear on the album. There’s Spanish…
Chance: There’s straight pop.
Conor: There’s a bunch of different stuff that we were experimenting with to find out what worked. When we found “She Do” and a couple of other songs that made the record, we knew which direction we were going.
PC: There’s a lot of meaning behind everything you all do, from releasing your debut album on your two-year anniversary to performing here tonight at Planet Hollywood. When you look back at the last two years, what moment has stood out to you the most?
Sergio: Geez.
Conor: Wow.
Sergio: For me, it was when we did our first headline tour. For most, 300 people at a venue might not sound like a lot, but for us, we were all trippin’. We couldn’t believe these were all of our fans that came to see our own show. It was the first time we really headlined a show. When we did that headline tour, it was a huge step for us.
PC: You’ve been a band for two years. We imagine you know a lot about each other. What’s one thing that fans would be surprised to learn about the person to the right of you?
Drew: Brady likes to paint his nails. I feel like people don’t know that.
Brady: Really?! Although Conor Michael Smith is the rapper, I feel like he had a pop appreciation as a kid.
Sergio: Michael loves 2012 pop.
Brady: Especially “Party Rock”. He’s a pop fan.
Sergio: That was when pop was at its peak.
Conor: Something that people don’t know about Sergio is that he’s a very faithful man. In the last few months, I’ve really noticed the dedication. He’s not outspoken about it, but he has a dedicated relationship with his religion.
Brady: Yeah! He’s not going to be like, “Church on Sunday!” but he does go every Sunday.
Conor: It’s really inspiring.
Sergio: Thanks, brother.
Sergio: Chance Perez? He’s a great songwriter. When we’re coming up with melodies, we’ll all just start singing random words, but Chance’s first draft is always dope.
Brady: Very true.
Chance: Thanks, man.
Sergio: Sometimes I’m like, “What the heck? Where did you come up with that?”
Chance: When Drew believes something isn’t right, he’ll stand up for it. Whatever he believes in, he’ll stand up for it.
Sergio: Truth.
Brady: So true.
Sergio: 100%
PC: What can we expect with your upcoming tour? Will we see that boy band medley?
Brady: The medley? Oh! The boy band medley.
Drew: Ohh…
Sergio: To be honest with you, no.
Drew: I liked the medley!
Conor: I enjoyed it too!
Sergio: We had it in there because we didn’t have a lot of original songs out at the time. Half of the set was covers. We enjoyed it, though! It was cool.
Conor: On this tour, we’re trying to bring more of everything. There’s a lot that we all did before Boy Band that we didn’t get to do last time on tour. It was our first tour and it felt overwhelming to do it. I think fans will see more personality from this tour. They’ll see what each of us brings to the table.
PC: You’ve accomplished a lot in two years: you’ve headlined your first tour, you’ve done tons of TV and radio appearances, your debut album is now out. What’s the next chapter look like for you guys? What do you hope to accomplish?
Brady: There’s a lot of original music that we have in the can right now, actually.
Chance: That’s something that I’m most excited for. The next album that comes out will be a lot of originals that we’ve written together.
Brady: Even after “Tattoo”, I didn’t feel that dope, but after this album, there are a good amount of songs we’re excited to release. I would be comfortable releasing any of them.
Conor: It’s reliable to rely on other people; you can have a song do well, and we sung on it, but for us, it feels a lot better to write our words.
Fan Questions
PC: What’s one question that you’ve always wanted to be asked?
Brady: This one dude once asked me, “If you could have dinner with any person, living or dead, who would it be?” I don’t know the answer to that question.
Conor: Oh, man. I don’t know. There’s so much about these guys that I’ve learned in the last two years that the fans don’t know. I guess it’s those personal things. Sometimes they’re uncomfortable, but those are the ones that people resonate with the most.
Sergio: I was thinking the exact same thing. There’s so much about each of us that’s not out there.
Chance: I’m not sure how I’d be asked this, but I’m a huge Marvel/Pokémon fan. It’s something that I get super excited about, but not a lot of people know that.
PC: If you could collaborate with another boyband, who would it be and why?
Sergio: Any of the boy bands out right now—they’re all amazing.
Drew: Jonas Brothers
Chance: Yeah! Jonas Brothers.
Conor: I’d choose Boyz II Men.
Brady: That’s a great choice!
Conor: That’d be so fire.
Brady: I would go with One Direction. That’s our era.
Chance: I’d go with One Direction, too.
PC: What was the hardest thing about putting this album together?
Drew: Trying to get the last songs on there.
Sergio: [laughs] That was hard!
Brady: We were on the phone with Johnny Wright for two hours.
Sergio: Two hours straight with our managers and the label. We were trying to get these songs on.
Conor: Here’s a little backstory. Originally, the album wasn’t going to have “Don’t Go” or “Loveless.” We were like, “Damn. We’re going to put out this new album. We have to have something new on there. We have these two songs…” “Don’t Go” wasn’t finished yet; we still had to track vocals. It was a process, but we got it! The fans seem to be really happy about them.
Sergio: It was dope. We wanted “Don’t Go” on there because we wrote it. We’re glad it’s out there.
Brady: It was literally a situation where we were like we have to have these vocals out in a day. We had to plan how to finish this song in a couple of days.
To keep up with In Real Life, follow them on Twitter and Instagram. Pick up your copy of She Do on Amazon Music, iTunes, or stream it on Spotify, and get your tickets to the For U Tour here.
Photo Credit: Shervin Lainez
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