Jonas Brothers, you’re on alert! Nickelodeon’s newest series,
Big Time Rush, revolves around four best friends who move from Minnesota to Los Angeles to become the next big boy band. Here, we chat up series stars James Maslow, Logan Henderson, Kendall Schmidt and Carlos Pena about giving the JoBros some competition.
Tell us about Big Time Rush…Pena: It’s about four hockey-playing best friends from Minnesota who get this amazing opportunity to move to LA and become a music group. It’s all about our ups and downs and fights to make this crazy band work. We are the complete opposite of what you’d imagine a boy band.
Maslow: Actually, my character, James Diamond, is the only character that wants to be a pop star. I’m constantly singing and performing and my friends don’t put me down for it, but it definitely gets a little annoying. So when this
American Idol-type thing comes to town, my friends rush me down to audition. It’s a funny turn of events that leads to all four of us turning into this band.
Give us the lowdown on your characters…Henderson: I play Logan Mitchell on the show—he’s like the brains of the whole operation.
Schmidt: My character is very quick to speak his mind. When the guys get down, I motivate them with a big speech and they usually end up falling into place.
Pena: I’m the Spanish one. [
Laughs] I play Carlos Garcia, who makes everything a lot of fun—he has no filter and does what he wants. He makes sure the guys aren’t taking things too seriously.
Maslow: Talking about taking things too seriously—James definitely takes becoming a pop star very, very seriously. He wants it so bad it becomes kind of ridiculous. He’s cocky and narcissistic in a funny but loveable way.
Could anything ever break the band apart?Maslow: The only thing that could break us up is a girl, and that does happen in one episode.
What kind of music does the band play?Henderson: We all have such different backgrounds that it’s kind of a melting pot of different sounds—that’s been really cool.
Maslow: We’re becoming the anti-boy band. On the show, our producer really wants to turn us into this replica of ‘N Sync, but none of us really want that to happen, so on the show—and in real life—we put our own stamp on the band.
So, why does Big Time Rush rock?Pena: The fans are going to get to grow with us and go from Step 1 until we become this amazing band. The process is so interesting. I read the first script and I was like, “I want more, I want more.” It’s going to be really cool!
Henderson: It’s a lot different from what’s on the air now. We’re not famous people and we’re not looking to be famous. We kind of get thrown into it and we’re just guys who have a lot of fun and goof off and get into trouble.
Pena: It’s like a cartoon with real people—it’s so funny to watch.
A special hour-long sneak preview of BIG TIME RUSH airs Saturday, November 28, 8:30/7:30c, Nickelodeon