In the era of new boy bands dominating the music world, one band is original and has insane dance moves and insanely catchy music. Their melodic bops will have you hooked instantly. The band, PRETTYMUCH has songs such as “No More” featuring French Montana, “Would You Mind,” “Summer on You,” which was written by Ed Sheeran and their smash hit “Solita.” The guys; Nick Mara, Edwin Honoret, Austin Porter, Zion Kuwonu and Brandon Arreaga has had an insane year that included releasing an EP, two hot singles and touring with Khalid on top of just finishing their FUNKTION Tour, which was absolutely “funky” in the most amazing way possible. CelebMix had the chance to talk with the guys at their last show on the tour in Boston, MA.
How did everyone meet?
Edwin: We were doing our own things, Nick and Brandon were really into dance so we got Scotty by Sony Music take us out to an audition and we actually, us four, met Brandon a year later in LA, a month before we were going to move to LA to finesse the PRETTYMUCH thing.
What’s the story behind the name “PRETTYMUCH?”
Nick: It’s an inside joke
Brandon: We were just going through names and we were wondering what we were going to call ourselves and we were joking “what if it’s PRETTYMUCH?” We use to say “PRETTYMUCH” all the time, so we were just like “hey, sounds cool, not too serious, easily marketable.”
You guys released an EP and two songs this year, what’s your favorite song that you’ve released this year?
Edwin: For me it’s a battle between “Real Friends” and “Solita.” I love “Real Friends” for the song itself, but I love “Solita” for the vibe that it gives off, it’s a really fun party song that everyone can get down to.
Austin: “Solita” because of Rich the Kid being on it.
Nick: “On My Way” still does it for me
Zion: Yeah, “On My Way.”
“Solita” and “I Like It” by Cardi B have very similar vibes!
Brandon: I remember the day “I Like It” came out and we got done with “Solita” maybe a month prior and we were just hyped because we knew it was going to be so fresh and then “I Like It” came out and we were like “nooo” but it was all good since the song did well since the hype was around it. It’s just funny because I remember when Edwin sent the link in our group chat.
You guys have a huge fanbase, what does it mean to you guys that fans have changed their lives because of your music?
Edwin: It’s crazy, I was having a conversation with one of the fans outside and told her how she came to almost every single show, like don’t you get tired for seeing the same show? You could basically do the show if you wanted to. She said “mainly I pull up now because of all the friends I have in different cities, we’ve been friends online talking about PRETTYMUCH.” It’s so cool to know that fans have the chance to meet each other and share their love for us together at these concerts, so they just fly out and meet each other.
Brandon: We haven’t done international stuff besides going to Japan and the U.K. so a lot of the people meet on social media because they’re a fan and when they meet other fans online they become friends. Some of the fans will pull up to meet and greet and they have journals of hand written notes that all the people have written to us, so it’s cool to see the friendships connect countries.
Austin: That’s the one thing that’s kind of funny, it reminds me of all these online video games where all these kids have no place to go and they have this love for this weird thing and they all kind of make their own community online, it’s like that same feeling.
What’s the hardest part about living together?
Austin: I just like staying on top of the messes. We all have friends over, and from working too much when we enter we just kind of leave our stuff wherever and it just kind of becomes a mess and it kind of takes all of us to look at each other and be like “ok we gotta clean this place,” or like appointing different jobs to to everyone, like we all have a thing that we keep in line.
How was the tour?
Brandon: It’s been good honestly. To see how many new faces we see, because we’re still growing, we’re still on our come up. It’s crazy to think that when we were in LA, we did The Roxy earlier this year and there were like 400 people and then almost a year later we were at The Wiltern, sold out, 2600 which is like crazy to meet all these new people. It’s really inspiring to us, it gets us excited to do the next tour.
What has been your favorite memory of 2018
Austin: Favorite memory was definetly going to Japan and just the amount of touring we did and also the song releases.
Edwin: Going on tour with Khalid
Brandon: For the first time, performing three songs live that we produced, we wrote, so that has been super cool.
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