BBMak's Road To Glory
By: Sabrina Soto

Hailing from the Northwest of England, the guys of BBMak have cracked the U.S. pop music market wide open, and taken a seat among the hottest acts in the industry. Mark Barry, Christian Burns and Ste McNally have sold over a million copies of their debut album Sooner or Later, and their single "Back Here" has been a huge radio hit. amuZnet recently caught up with the band in Las Vegas, and they told us all about their lean years and their stunning success.

amuZnet: How do you like being in America?

Christian: It's cool. We just finished being on tour from October 'til the 3rd of December, we had a great time.

Mark: Yeah, we're really happy - we've worked so hard this year, especially for a new band without really having any big hits in the U.K. or in Europe. To come over to America and the first single being such a big hit, we're really happy. All the work's paid off.

How do you describe all the fans' reactions everywhere you go? They really scream for you.

Mark: It's cool.

Christian: We always slip them some money to scream. The fans outside.

Mark: You gotta pay them.

With all that's happened to you this year, what stands out as the most memorable or the most exciting?

Mark: I think all of a sudden, when the first video hit TRL, it just shot up really quickly in the last three or four months - it's gone crazy for us guys. And I think we turned up in L.A. to do this mall for KIIS FM in L.A. and we were expecting a few hundred kids to show up and we were just going for an appearance to say hi, and it turned out that two-and-a-half thousand people came out just to see us say hello and we kind of turned to each other and said, "Shit."

Who are you inspired by?

Ste: Like musical influences? It's different for all of us. I grew up listening to the Beatles, Billy Joel, Led Zeppelin, the Doors.

Mark: I like the Beatles. I'm a big, big fan of the Beatles, bands like the Eagles, ELO, Hall and Oates, Chicago.

Christian: Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathaway, Maxwell, D'Angelo.

Mark: So between the three of us, we like classical to rock.

How do you keep your feet on the ground?

Mark: We use super glue. No, we worked so hard and when we started like five years ago, we had nothing and we were unemployed for two years, and we were scrimping and scarping just to get enough money for a demo - so every little bit of success we've had so far, we really do appreciate it, 'cause we work for ourselves and that's how we're gonna stay.

What are you going to spend your first massive pay packet on?

Ste: Pizza.

Christian: With loads of Ferraris on it.

How did you get by in the time when you were unemployed?

Mark: Well, we were getting say $50 a week off the government when we were supposed to be out looking for proper jobs, which we weren't - and so seven days a week for eight hours a day, we'd be in our bedrooms writing, just singing together, just practicing and practicing. And we were getting help off our families, they would give us money to go out and buy a drink and stuff like that, but it was quite hard 'cause all our friends are going out on holiday and vacation and buying new clothes and cars and stuff. At times we were like, "Maybe we should go out and get proper jobs." But now we're so glad we didn't.

What would you say to your fans about perseverance?

Ste: You just gotta believe in your band, believe in your bandmates, stick with it and don't give up.

Mark: A winner never quits and a quitter never wins.

Is there time for relationships now?

Christian: Not really, about five minutes in about an hour.

Ste: We're gonna go to a party tonight and work on that one.

Last time in Boston, you said you wanted to see Las Vegas - it was one of the top places you wanted to go. Have you seen it yet?

Ste: We've been there a couple of times, but unfortunately only staying a couple nights -we had one fun night out.

Mark: We said that before we lost loads of money.

Christian: It was just a blur to me, I just remember this.

Mark: I was there last year - my sister got married last year - it was the guys' first time to be there, earlier this year. We've had a great time. We've had a really great year and we'd just like to thank everyone for the support.