  Big Time Rush |
Big Time Rush want to slow things down a bit.
The Nickelodeon stars-turned-real life pop sensations plan to take their time with their upcoming third album, says member Carlos Pena Jr. -- and yes, he gets the irony.
"I've been in a rush for five years," he cracks from a hotel in Philadelphia. "Normally, we tour, rush through an album, put it out and then go shoot episodes of the show. This year, we're going to take a little bit of time to write, find the right songs, pair them with great episodes and great storylines and then put the album out. We're not going to rush through it. Finally."
Of course, that's all down the road. Right now, the 23-year-old singer and his bandmates -- Kendall Schmidt, James Maslow and Logan Henderson, also his co-stars on their Monkees-inspired series -- are literally bouncing their way across North America on their Elevate tour, which hits Canada this month.
How do Canadian fans compare to other countries in terms of screaming?
You know what? The international fans definitely are louder. We just did a show in Puerto Rico, where we'd never been before, and you could tell. So I'm looking forward to doing a nice long stretch of shows in Canada. Then we'll really see the difference.
Could the band exist without the TV show?
I think the music could stand alone, but I don't know if it would be as powerful. The show has definitely been our main audience. We have four million kids watching. So when you put a song out, four million kids hear it. When you put a song on the radio, you're not going to have four million people listening. It's a blessing and a curse being on Nickelodeon -- it's gotten us where we are now, though some people are standoffish to us because of that. But we have to be grateful that Nickelodeon gave us this opportunity. Abandoning the show would not be the best idea.
No, but at some point the show has to end. Will the band carry on after that?
That, I think, is the end goal. This probably is going to be our last season. We have done almost 100 episodes, which is great. But yeah, the goal is for the music to carry on -- and for us to do other ventures.
What do you know about the Canadian band Rush?
I've heard of them. I don't know them that well, and don't listen to their music. But right at the beginning of our band, I overheard some guy talking about Rush in L.A. I was like, 'Oh my God. This guy is talking about our band, but he doesn't know it's Big Time Rush.' Then he started naming songs and I was like, 'That's a whole different band.' That's how I got to know about Rush.
