The Teen Beat Times Interview: BBMak

It's only been a few months since the three charming Brits of BBMak rose to national recognition with their debut album Sooner Or Later.  Chock full of sweet pop melodies, intricate harmonies, and passionate song lyrics, the album is a must for your CD player!  Here at TEEN BEAT we are all about BBMak, and we asked 'em a few of our must pressing questions.  Read on to get cozy with the BBs!

TEEN BEAT: How's the American reception been for you guys so far?
CHRISTIAN BURNS: It's been absolutely fantastic.  We recorded 90% of the album in America.  The response  we're getting from people in the media, the people at MTV, the people who hear the music; everything is going really well.

TEEN BEAT: Do you guys ever go on the Internet?
MARK BARRY: Sometimes, yeah.
CHRISTIAN: We check out music websites, and we check out our friends, see how other bands are doing.  We just got a labtop, and we're really getting into it now.   We don't really have a lot of time to go on the Net, but when we do...
MARK: We try to e-mail our friends, and reply to messages we get from fans, because it makes them happy to get a message from us.  We keep them up to date about what we're doing.
STE MCNALLY: I'm really behind, because I don't even know how to turn a computer on!

TEEN BEAT: What's the strangest thing about yourself you've seen on the Internet?
CHRISTIAN: Just stories, totally made up.
MARK: We see all these silly pictures of ourselves.  People put our heads on other people's bodies.
CHRISTIAN: A lot of people make their own websites, and people will put on these pictures of us, and we're like "Ahhh!  Where did they get this picture?   We're making funny faces!"  And some people do drawings of us.  Some of them are really nice, really amazing.
MARK: And some are really, really bad!

TEEN BEAT: How are your families reacting to your success?
CHRISTIAN: Really, really good.  When we first started, we were unemployed and we had no money, and they could have easily said, "Go out and get proper jobs," but they really supported us from the beginning and they helped us a lot.   Now we're doing very well, and doing what we want to be doing, they're just the proudest people in the world, jus tlike, they can't believe it.  They're so happy.
MARK: The thing is, we've been away, on the road, so when we go home, they're playing our songs non-stop-you just can't escape your music.  You don't even want to hear anything about the music when you go home!  It's like, talk about anything else.

TEEN BEAT: Have you had a chance to watch any American TV?
BBMAK: All My Children!
STE: VH1's Behind The Music is really cool.

TEEN BEAT: What are some other bands you like?
MARK: For me, it's a lot of R&B, like Stevie Wonder, Destiny's Child, Maxwell, D'Angelo.
STE: For me it's the Beatles, the Eagles, Billy Joel, Eric Clapton, Led Zeppelin-all the oldies and the goodies.
CHRISTIAN: For me it's the Beatles-that was my biggest influence, Paul McCartney-the Eagles, Billy Joel, Beach Boys.
STE: I love pop and rock.  I love oldies.
MARK: I think it helps through, because there are elements of everything in our music.  There's bits of soul in harmonies, there's the rock 'n roll, the pop melodies-I think there's a little bit of everything in our music.

TEEN BEAT: Have you had the opportunity to meet anyone who's impressed you a lot?
BBMAK: Destiny's Child.  We love them!  They're so beautiful, aren't they?

TEEN BEAT: Who's the sloppiest of you guys?
STE & MARK: Christian!
CHRISTIAN: I'm probably the most untidy.  If you ever came to my bedroom you'd see why.
MARK: It would take you one hour to walk from one end to the other, because of the clothes on the floor.
CHRISTIAN: Ste is the tidiest.

TEEN BEAT: What's the funniest thing that's happened on stage?
MARK: Just the usual things.  When you're dancing and you get into it, and you turn around, and you lose your place.
STE: We did Smash Hits' tour of the UK with 5ive and Westlife, and we're playing and the guitar strap snapped, and it dropped, but I caught it, and I had to start playing on my knees.  I couldn't stand up again.

TEEN BEAT: Now that you've made an appearence on All My Children, do you hope to do any more acting?
MARK: We're open for anything.
CHRISTIAN: [All My Children] was fun...It was different for us, because we're singers, not actors, so it was quite fun for us.  It was a change.  We'll do anything-Rocky 6, or Jaws, or Back To The Future 9.   But it was good fun.  We want to concentrate on our music.  If you watch All My Children, you'll see why we don't want to concentrate on acting!
MARK: Especially me!

TEEN BEAT: What's ypur favorite movie?
STE: The Rock.
CHRISTIAN: Mine's The Rock too.  And Back To The Future, and a film called License To Drive.
MARK: I like Goodfellas and Casino.