Kelly Orr (center left, in pink), 22, and Matt Moody (center right), 26, named their addictive new pop band Teen Hearts as a shout-out to kids at shows who show the love with that particular emo gesture. "We're all about love," Matt says, "and making shapes with your hands."
The band's self-produced debut, The Heart Beat, is out today on iTunes. It starts off with the poppy, peppy "Hands in the Air," a catchy clap-along, and finishes with a cover of Ace of Base's "The Sign." We grabbed coffee with the boys in Los Angeles to talk about their hardcore roots, quizzing their audiences on who's queer, and how they hooked up with Jeffree Star.
Out.com: You're also in a hardcore band, Mikoto, together. How did you get from that to Teen Hearts?
Kelly: People say that I have a 14-year-old girl's musical sense. And I wanted to do something that gave Matt the opportunity to do more than in our hardcore band. I saw so much potential in his singing voice. I'm the lower voice --
Matt: I'm the one that goes ridiculously high.
Kelly: I'm just using him for his voice.
Who musically is a fair comparison for this band?
Matt: Aqua!
Kelly: Fuck yeah.
Matt: Like a hellogoodbye, a Cobra Starship, a Metro Station. What we're doing is a little like those bands, but nobody is pushing it this pop. We're not afraid to totally treat it like we are 14-year-old girls. Like, What about a light-up pink drum set? Even from a design aspect -- which is all Kelly -- our colors are teal and baby pink. We're not afraid to take it over the top. We covered Ace of Base. We both looove Wham!
Kelly: Yeah.
Matt: There will be a "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" cover.
Kelly: It's undeniable. Snap those fingers!
You've already got a lot of passionate fans. Tell me about them.
Matt: With bands that come from Disney, there's definitely this barrier between, They're my fans, and I'm this thing. Our fans bring us cupcakes and friendship bracelets. I'd rather have a million friends than a million fans.
Kelly: A lot of our fans have no idea that Matt is gay. They'll ask us questions [on MySpace], and actually I've referred a couple kids to him.
Matt: I've had quite a few kids message me and say, "I'm bisexual," or, "I'm gay. What did you do?" You don't want to say the wrong thing. I'm so far removed from when I came out -- I'm not entirely aware of what it's like for a 15-year-old kid right now. I know it's probably a little better than when I came out. I was 15. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't an after-school special like, "Oh, we love you!" It was like, "OK, I wondered why you were on the diving team."
Kelly, do your audiences assume you're gay, too?
Matt: Everyone assumes that Kelly is gay. The Pope assumes that Kelly is gay.
Kelly: I mean, look at me -- I wear a fucking fanny pack. We've done little tests on tour. We line up the whole band and say, "Who in this band is gay?"
Matt: It's not even a, "hmm," it's a -- [pointing at Kelly] "Him!"
Kelly: I don't care that people think that.
Matt: Girls love that about you.
You're going out on tour with Jeffree Star. How did that happen?
Kelly: I thought it was a big joke. We heard that Jeffree was starting his own record label, and apparently a ton of our fans went to his MySpace page and were like, "Sign Teen Hearts! Sign Teen Hearts!" And he IM'd me one day and was like, "Okay, I get the point. I love your band. Tell your fans to stop harassing me." We became really good friends. A lot of the new pictures on his MySpace, I took those photos. I legitimately love this kid. He rules.
Matt: He's a really genuinely sweet dude.
On MySpace you list both Bill Cosby and the Golden Girls as major influences. If you had to choose between them --
Kelly: Bill Cosby.
Matt: To what? Hang out with? Watch?
Kelly: Bill Cosby. To hang out with, watch, marry -- Bill Cosby.
Matt: I'm gonna go with the double G.
Well aren't they darling! Thank you for featuring them. :D
Posted by: vampicorn | October 21, 2008 at 09:07 PM
They had me until the Jeffree Star mention. I've lost respect for so many people who are friends with that disgusting and racist man.
Posted by: Katie | October 22, 2008 at 05:38 PM