The Jonas family is very tight-knit, but no one gets along better than twin brother and sister Joe and Brexley. They've been inseparable for their entire lives, and even during the Jonas Brothers years, when Joe was off touring with Nick and Kevin...
It's 11:00 sharp when I reach the studio, and Kevin is already there, but, as always, Nick is late. He shows up after twenty minutes, but makes up for his tardiness with the content he brings us. He's already written a few lines of two different songs, and I only need to take one look at them to tell they're good.
"Okay, I know usually we write the whole song start to finish together, but after we decided we were gonna do this again my creative juices started flowing and I didn't want to waste them. I wrote a more upbeat chorus for one song and a mellow verse for another," Nick says.
"Don't worry about it, man. Let's just hear it," I tell him, and he clears his throat, lightly singing the chorus first.
"More to love when your hands are free, baby put your pom poms down for me. Come on shake it up 123, baby put your pom poms down for me. When you move I fall to my knees, baby put your pom poms down for me. Come on shake it up 543, baby put your pom poms down for me."
"That's gonna be a banger, dude," Kevin says, nodding appreciatively.
"I see you, coming up with more adult lyrics now that we're not signed under Disney," I say, smirking a little when he nods sheepishly.
"I figured since we're older, we could have a little bit more adult songs," Nick explains, and I nod.
"It's good, Nicky. I like it."
"Let's hear the other one, and then we can work on both songs today. Why don't we just use these two as our singles, and the rest of the stuff we write will be part of the album?" Kevin says, and we all agree, so it's settled. Then, Nick sings us the verse of the second song.
"Such a thrill of a lifetime. What a night for a good time. Let the beat be your lifeline. Make it feel like the first time."
"It sounds more like mainstream pop music, more so than the other one does, but it's good to mix in a balance with singles," I say, and Nick nods.
"Should we start developing the upbeat song, since it's more our style? And then hopefully some good ideas for where to take this song will come to us?" he says.
"Yeah. I already have ideas for the first song," Kevin says, and, grabbing a piece of paper and a pen, he starts writing things out.
"I want you on my team, want you like a kid just wants a milkshake. And I won't let it go to waste if I get a taste, I'm gonna drink the whole thing. You hear them saying yeah, every time feels like a revival. So get up, right now, we're coming for the title. Woah, Kevin, keeping the dirty theme going, I see!" I joke, peering at the paper and reading his new lyrics out loud.
"No, no, that's good! That matches my original idea for the song! That could be one of the verses, and then we could say they come from miles away, just to see how you get down. Feels like an earthquake, every time you come around," Nick adds on, grabbing the paper from Kevin and fiercely scribbling down the lyrics.
"I like that. The end of that verse should be you hear them saying yeah, every time feels like a revival. So get up, right now, we're coming for the title. Just like how Kevin ended the other verse," I say.
"Sounds good. I say we start the song with part one of the chorus, and then lead into that verse that you two just created. It flows well. Then cut back to both parts of the chorus, and then put in the verse that I made," Kevin says, creating a flowchart on another piece of paper.
"Yeah, that works. And then both parts of the chorus again? Is that what you're thinking?" I say, and he nods, still writing. "Cool. Yeah, that would probably sound nice."
"Then I think all we need is a bridge. We already have two verses," Nick says.
"Ladies to the left, fellas to the right. If you wanna see me put my pom poms down, then sing it to me baby, sing it right now. And then just repeat that one more time," I suggest.
"That actually makes perfect sense," Kevin says, writing it down. "And then we just finish out the song with a higher version of the chorus, I'd say."
"That might quite possibly have been the quickest we've ever written a song," Nick says, giggling a little bit as he looks at the roughly penned lyrics and chart.
"Yeah, probably. And I think it will be a good one," Kevin says, and I nod.
"What should we call it? Shake It?" I say.
"We could. Or Pom Poms," Nick says.
"Oh, yeah. I like Pom Poms," I say, and Kevin writes it at the top of the paper. One song written, one to go.
"So for this next one, it's more calm. We already have what I designed as the first verse. I was thinking we would write a pre-chorus for this song as well, making the chorus not so heavy. This is supposed to be a lighter song," Nick explains.
"That's a decent idea. Let's make it all light and airy, then. We'll add in some oohs, and then repeat make it feel like the first time for each pre-chorus. It should lead nicely into the real chorus," Kevin says.
"Yeah. And the chorus should be something like come on let it set you free, right here, right now, where you're supposed to be. You know how I like rhyming song lyrics," I add.
"I love that. Throw a make it feel like the first time at the end of that, and you've got yourself a winner," Nick says.
"Okay. And then verse two, so let's toast to the good life. Just let go and free your mind. Let the beat be your lifeline. Make it feel like the first time. Then back to the pre-chorus, then the chorus," I say.
"The bridge should say let your heart control your mind, make it feel like the first time. I think that would carry the song over well," Kevin says.
"Yeah, it would. Then we end it with the pre-chorus and chorus again. Right?" Nick says.
"Yes. And we'll name this one First Time; it only seems fitting," Kevin says with a smirk.
"I think we've got ourselves two songs, boys!" I announce, and we celebrate for a few minutes before coming back to reality.
"It's going to take us about a year to record these, produce them, and make music videos. You guys know that, right?" Nick says, and Kevin and I nod.
"I have no problem waiting to release. I just want these to turn out as cool as I think they're going to right now," I say.
"Same," agrees Kevin.
We draft up a quick tweet on our combined account, dropping both song names in a sentence, all caps, so hopefully people catch on and get excited about this like we are. It's pretty clever if you ask me.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Well, thanks for a productive day. We've got a busy year ahead of us, but it should be very worth it," I say.
"Yes, it will be. These songs are going to be great. Thanks for getting them started for us, Nick," Kevin says.
"Yeah, thanks Nick."
"Thanks for helping me develop them, guys. I'll see you back here next week for recording, then?" Nick says.
"Of course. See you guys."
And then we go our separate ways. One year to go, and then we're back for real, with new music for the first time since 2009. It's quite an amazing feeling.
