https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MsCH_2uFSM


There was hardly any rest time for The Click Five in the 4 days that they visited Singapore. Yet, UrbanWire was able to claim some time from the boys’ hectic schedule to have a personal chat with them – and it was as personal a chat as any fan would have hoped for.

A massive Ministry Of Sound (MOS) gig, an opening act for the Black Eyed Peas at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, hours of meet-and-greet autograph sessions, a guest performance at the Live The Dream finale, a surprise visit to 2 lucky secondary schools and an endless line of interviews and radio shows.

The Click Five sure had a jam-packed schedule prepared for them in the 4 days they were in Singapore (Oct 22 to Oct 25). But Boston boys, Joey Zehr, Ben Romans, Ethan Mentzer, Joe Guese and new front man, Kyle Patrick, felt it was all worthwhile as they met with possibly every single fan, who had the potential to scream their lungs out, through the various events that the boys were scheduled to be at.

“It’s crazy man,” shared Kyle, as he let out a huge breath while reminiscing the electrifying crowd that he’d seen in Singapore. “The bottom line is that it’s really cool to be doing something in Boston that we created in the studio and have it travel across the world and be successful and have people connect with it.

“We’re here to play music and if people like it, that’s awesome. Especially if the people who like it are from across the world, and in Singapore, it’s crazy.”

Strange Experiences with Fans

Fans have done the weirdest things just to get up close with The Click Five. The boys recalled an experience on the road with one significant girl who forced herself up the group’s bus trailer with her mother just to get a picture with the boys, who were all half naked and in bed at the time.

“The weirdest part is that her mom kind of enabled it,” laughed Joey. “The mom was driving the car that cut off our bus right in front of us and forced our driver to slam the breaks. The girl got out and ran up our bus.

“And then we wake up and the daughter’s asking for pictures. We turn to each other and all of a sudden, the mom runs up the bus with the camera.”

“We’ve talked about it before in press and we’ve also seen that girl at shows and we just laugh at the thought of what happened,” said Ethan. “It’s just funny. We also had some people find our house. Apparently the address was on Wikipedia last summer so that was pretty weird.”

Surprising CHIJ St. Joseph’s Convent and Zhonghua Secondary School

Speaking about crazy fans, The Click Five had their eardrums banging hard when they gave surprise visits to CHIJ St. Joseph’s Convent (SJC) and Zhonghua Secondary School on Oct 23. The group was faced with hundreds of ecstatic female fans, who were told that 987FM was going to be distributing to them “exclusive The Click Five merchandise”. Little did they know or expect the merchandise to be the boys themselves. The male students from the 2nd school, however, kept their cool in the estrogen-dominated environment.

“That was a trip,” said Ben. “We didn’t even know what we were doing. We just thought, ‘oh cool, we’re going into a class and teach arithmetic or something and look stupid’ but it turned out to be such a wild experience, and now my ears are still ringing.”

“At the 1st school, the students were so loud,” shared Kyle. “They were all jumpy and welcoming and just crazy, which was awesome! The 2nd one was a little more reserved because it was a mixed school, while the first school was an all-girl school.”

“You could tell they were really reserved,” explained Joey. “Even when you go give them a five, they didn’t know if they were allowed to do it.”

“It was cute because the students were separated into 2. The girls on the right and the boys on the left,” said Kyle.

“We should’ve just had a mass dance right there,” was Ben’s response. “But we really enjoyed ourselves. The students were such passionate fans. Back at home, it’s nothing like that.”

What the Boys Were Like in School

As the group recalled their experience during the school visits, we wondered what the boys themselves were like as students of the Berklee College of Music.

Kyle admitted to not being the focused student that teachers usually hope for. “I didn’t find school to be very informative for me and I was not necessarily the best student. I didn’t fail or anything but I was always the ‘B’ or ‘C’ kind of student. I would have much rather been jamming with my friends and learning new music and writing music and recording stuff than being in school.”

“I think we were probably all good students,” shared Joey. “Certainly in college – and I can just imagine in high school too – we were all the type of people that were more involved in what was going on outside of school; the type of kids who did what needed to be done to get good grades, but who weren’t the overachievers in school. Especially in Berklee, we were more interested in playing in our band outside of school.”
The Jennys in the Boys’ lives

And that avid passion for music ultimately worked out for the best. The Click Five has now a fabulous collection of well-received hits under their belt and a huge international fan base. Most recently, their single, “Jenny”, from their 2nd album, Modern Minds And Pastimes, made it to number 1 in Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, and in the Philippines. The group attributes the success of the single to how it reflects a part of their lives. So, then, is there a Jenny in each of their lives right now?

“I meet a new Jenny everyday”, said Ben. “I’m in a new Jenny situation everyday. It might not even be a person, because the song is more about confusion. There are so many bizarre situations that we can possibly meet and that’s reflected in the song”

“There are the occasional Jennys in our lives,” Kyle elaborated. “Jenny isn’t a specific girl. It’s more of a symbol of that type of relationship where the girl is indecisive and puts you in the run around.”

“But as far as love’s concerned, I think we’re all pretty fine with our current girl situation,” laughed Joey. “But all of us have gone through interesting ups and downs in our relationships over the past 3 years of being on the road. But, cliché as it is, that certainly has helped shaped some of the emotion that you hear on our record.

“It certainly is hard being on the road with girlfriends being back at home. It’s hard with our families too, because we all have siblings who are closer to home than we are, so we’re the kids that are out more than twice compared to the others. But at the same time, all of our folks are very supportive of us.”

Five Boys in One Imrie House

Back in Boston, Massachusetts, the boys used to live together in a house that was nicknamed by many of their fans as “Imrie House” after the group’s 1st album Greetings From Imrie House.

“We actually moved out of the house about 2 months ago,” revealed Ethan. “We’re just living with friends for now.”

While they were living together though, one can’t help but wonder what it’s like for 5 boys to maintain a place.

“We’re all a big mess,” said Ben.

“But Ethan seems to be very tidy and clean,” added Kyle. “I don’t think anyone of us actually trash the place. We all kind of keep our own place in order, but my place is usually ridiculous. There was a month period in our house when you could not see my floor. There was a foot-high of just random crap.”

“It was awesome,” commented Ben, eyes wide open. “I freaked out!”

The boys get along very well and hardly allow untactful quarrels to take place among them, simply because of the common interest that they share. This is a bunch of boys who love making good music and could not care less about the glamour and fame of the music industry. In fact, when it comes to papparazi and rumours, the boys have fun laughing at them.

“There’s this rumour from a spoof documentary made about us that said that Joey has Gonorrhea because all his girlfriends had Gonorrhea. From that documentary, people also thought that Ben was an asshole, and then Ben would go around and ask ‘am I an asshole?’” teased Ethan while doing his best Ben voice.

“Oh, there’s even a rumour that Ethan’s hung well,” joked Joey. “But I don’t know for sure. I’ve never seen it!”

Joey, we’re hoping you won’t have a disturbing reason to.

Read UrbanWire’s coverage of The Click Five’s opening act for the Black Eyed Peas here!