V Factory Will Leave You “Love Struck”

When you think of boy bands, you would probably think *NSYNC or the Backstreet Boys. But there are a new crop of groups coming up, including hot new pop group V Factory. Made up of Asher Brook, Wesley Quinn, Jared Murillo, Nick Teti and Nathaniel Flatt, V Factory is the next group in the new wave of boy bands to make a splash. Sure, they sing and dance circles around some of the competition, but they’re definitely a boy band for the next generation. Put together about a year ago by Warner Brothers A&R vice president Tommy Page (who was working with singer Ashley Tisdale at the time), V Factory has a little more edge than some of the other groups in their genre.

When we spoke to the group’s lead singer Asher Brook, we asked him about the resurgence of the boy band and whether or not he thought the world was ready. “What’s really cool is that yeah, I think it is coming back. There’s not a lot out right now boy band wise but I think people are responding to it better than they were in the past.” He quickly backtracked on that statement, pointing out the obvious success of groups that came before and continued “There’s been a gap…the younger audience that we’re targeting has definitely missed out on that in the last couple years. I think it’s the perfect time. There’s been a good enough gap and with us, we’re coming out with new music, new dances and I think we’re trying to stay up to date with what’s on the radio but still have our own sound.” And when they’re competing for the affection and attention of the younger audience against acts like the Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato, it is most definitely important for them to know who they are musically.

But just because I mentioned those pop acts doesn’t mean V Factory is anything like them. In fact, they’re much more like Flo-Rida than Nick Jonas. Asher says that the fans are “really vibing” on V Factory’s sound, which he described as “pop with an urban influence with kind of an edgy dance feel.” Finding their sound wasn’t something that came instantaneously for the band. It took them a lot of time to figure out what their niche in the market would be. They went for a more urban route with the song “She Bad” which features rapper E-40. They realized that urban solely wasn’t their direction and instead turned to a production duo from Sweden called Twin. “They’ve kind of created almost what we want for our sound….It seems like whenever people hear our stuff they can describe it as V Factory.”

After listening to some of their songs, they definitely have set themselves apart from other groups that may be out right now. Their songs are incredibly infectious; in fact, as soon as we hear their single “Love Struck”, we can’t help but to dance around! The group though, is as diverse as the sound they’ve worked so hard to create. Band member Nick Teti aka Nicky T is a big fan of Justin Timberlake, while Asher is a fan of Stevie Wonder and Jared and Wesley are fans of James Brown and Michael Jackson respectively.

As a group though, Asher says that they would “love to tour with a Lady GaGa type.” He also adds, “we all have different interests in music which brings us all together.” And though they may be lumped into musical circles with previously mentioned artists like the Jonas Brothers, don’t expect them to follow their same route to stardom. When we asked about the response to their single “Love Struck” Asher told us that they started promotion with Radio Disney. “We didn’t want to go the whole Disney route,” he explains. “But we love Disney and they were a great platform to start with but we’re thinking definitely mainstream. We were on Billboard and Music Choice.  [The single] has been number one on XM Radio. For being only a month out, we’re pretty proud of the success of Love Struck.” And you know who’s to thank for that kind of success? Their fans. “Luckily we haven’t gotten the crazies yet,” Asher laughed. “We have very dedicated fans.”

The band tries to keep up with their fans as much as possible, whether it be through Facebook, Myspace or Twitter, plus their Youtube channel where they post almost as many videos as their devotees. “We like to constantly interact with our fans. We have really cool fans; different events that we’ve had we didn’t think anyone would show up and there were a couple hundred girls there showing support. So far so good.”

And with those fans in mind we asked our last question…the fan message. “I want to thank them for getting us to where we are now. Without a fan base, you’re really nothing so all your thanks have to go your fans. Just keep requesting our single, keep having faith and look out for the video coming soon. Just keep requesting the single; radio stations won’t play the song unless you’re getting people to call in.”

For more info on V Factory, check them out on Myspace: www.myspace.com/vfactory, Twitter: www.twitter.com/vfactory or their official website: www.vfactorymusic.com.