The Jonas Brothers: ‘The Thing That Was So Special Is That We Felt That Love’

Recently reunited, American pop rock group The Jonas Brothers joined RJ Brooke Reese for a special edition of Chart on Beats 1 on Apple Music. The band talks about what music has influenced and energised their comeback, their new track “Sucker,” their forthcoming album and more. Read below:

Brooke Reese: I’m just going to start with this. Over 17 million albums sold worldwide, a six-year hiatus and now the Jonas Brothers are back!

Kevin Jonas: Hello.

Nick Jonas: Hello!

Brooke Reese: How are you guys doing?

Kevin Jonas: We’re doing fantastic. It’s been an amazing day.

Brooke Reese: Yeah?

Joe Jonas: Our song dropped at midnight with the video and we also announced that we were back yesterday morning, so things have been moving very fast. The last 24 hours, 48 hours have been insane for us, but the best party almost. We see fans on the street and we’re smiling ear to ear with them, feeling like we’re giving them hugs again. We see familiar faces and just watching the response online is nuts. So, kind of what we, more than we wished for.

Brooke Reese: Yeah. That has to be really special, too, right? That it’s been all this time and people have been holding their breath that there will be a reunion from the Jonas Brothers. And the fact that even before you announced that the song was coming out, on my Explore page on Instagram, it was already hilarious videos and memes being me showing up at the Jonas Brothers reunion tour and people dancing in the rooms and things like that. That must feel really special that people were still waiting for you guys to come back together after doing your own things to come with this new music.

Nick Jonas: Yeah, I mean, I think for us, the thing that was so special is that we felt that love, and this goes throughout the whole time. Going to Joe’s stuff with DNCE, my solo stuff. The fans had been unbelievable. They’re all that and the noise, the chatter started to get louder as we got closer to the time we were going to announce it and it made us feel really good stepping into this because there are those unknowns and it’s been a long time. Questions about it, who the fans are, if they are still fans. But they really showed up in a big way and laid an amazing foundation for us to be able to step out, take a bold step out with our first song “Sucker” and have some fun with it.

Brooke Reese: So, I heard that you guys have already written 40 to 50 songs together, new music.

Nick Jonas: Yeah.

Brooke Reese: So why was this the one? Why was this the one that you were going to put out, “Sucker”? Why was this, “Okay, we’re back and this is the track that we’re going to put out”?

Nick Jonas: I think it spoke to all of us in different ways. One of the biggest things for me was that, I think Ryan Tedder, who wrote the song and produced it, came on as the executive producer for the album as well.

Brooke Reese: Amazing.

Nick Jonas: We started writing with him and getting a sense of where we wanted to go musically and he said, “I’ve got this song that I think could really work and I think it perfectly marries where you were musically, Nick and your solo stuff and where Joe was with DNCE and the thing that I loved about it right away was how aggressive the beat was and in your face it was. It felt just like a fresh take on pop rock soulful music, and that’s where Ryan is so great to find those special moments for artists to kind of lean into, their influences and find a sweet spot for them. And it was just a really fun process recording it and then making that video, which we had a lot of fun with our leading ladies.

Brooke Reese: Yeah, I know. The Internet can’t stop talking about it.

Kevin Jonas: That’s great.

Joe Jonas: Neither can we.

Nick Jonas: It’s so awesome.

Nick Jonas: Yeah, we’ve been talking about it all day, but we don’t get tired of talked about them.

Nick Jonas: Yeah.

Brooke Reese: Oh, I know. God, how lucky are you guys?

Kevin Jonas: Very. The most lucky.

Brooke Reese: Very lucky. Three very, very beautiful, amazing women who they all get along, right? You guys have so much fun together.

Joe Jonas: No. We had to pay them a lot of money that day to be in the same room and it was a little tricky.

Brooke Reese: Spread the rumors.

Joe Jonas: Separate dressing rooms and –

Brooke Reese: Demands

Joe Jonas: Umbrellas to hide from each other and stuff.

Nick Jonas: We actually CGI’ed them into shots together.

Nick Jonas: Yeah.

Brooke Reese: Right, right, right. That makes sense.

Kevin Jonas: We were going to come out with this months ago, but the CGI took forever.

Brooke Reese: Yeah, yeah. You want it to be exactly up to par. No one little green screen left in the back like, no.

Joe Jonas: They love each other.

Brooke Reese: Yeah.

Joe Jonas: They call themselves the J Sisters.

Brooke Reese: Oh!

Joe Jonas: Or sista’s. And they got the video to where it should be. I mean, it was so fun to be on set with them and just really throw this idea at a wall and they were totally down and so they brought it to life. It was amazing.

Brooke Reese: The video is absolutely fantastic. Who wrote the treatment for the video? Because it’s very Alice in Wonderland theme.

Nick Jonas: We came out of retirement basically as a band for this whole thing and so it was only fitting that we pulled Anthony Mandler out of retirement. He’s doing films and commercials now and sort of music videos are no longer his main deal, but we have been huge fans of his work for a long time and asked him if he would take a shot on this and he came with a brilliant idea. We wanted to keep it fun, lighthearted and not take ourselves too seriously.

Brooke Reese: Yeah.

Nick Jonas: And we want it to be something that was visually stunning and kind of striking right when you saw it. And he took that and turned it into this idea that what if you all lived in this sort of fantasy world in one big house together. And we were just down and to have a good time and mess around on set.

Nick Jonas: And I think having the ladies there as well really helped us all come out of our shells even more and just settle into it. And it was a great process and he’s just the best and I think really nailed this video for us.

Brooke Reese: It really did. It looked absolutely amazing, especially because I think there’s something really cool about, like you said, you guys coming back from “retirement”, right? Jonas Brothers are back, but then also this is where you’re at in your life. You know what I mean? These are the women in your life. You’re much more grown.

Kevin Jonas: Yeah. We’re so proud to have the best partners with us for this ride. And so when we were talking to them about doing the video, it was just, “Yes, of course. Let’s do this thing.” And this is exactly where we’re at in all of our relationships together and this joy and happiness. It’s just amazing.

Brooke Reese: How does it feel because people are so invested into your relationships? You know what I mean? Because before, when you’re younger, it’s just like the Jonas Brothers and girls are just obsessed with you and then you get older and it’s like people, I don’t know, there’s like a switch that happens as you get a little older where people start to stay on your relationship.

Joe Jonas: Yeah, I think you, you definitely keep some things private.

Brooke Reese: Of course.

Joe Jonas: Just so that way, you know that’s true to you, but I think we’re also really proud of who we are as people and our partners and being able to do creative stuff like this where it’s different. And we get to be authentic to us as musicians, but also as a family. That’s where we’re at.

Joe Jonas: So, this video concept just made sense and yeah, people, they want to know every detail.

Brooke Reese: Of course.

Joe Jonas: And hang on every word or every tweet or whatever it is. But, we’re happy and we’re not hiding anything. We’re thrilled to be a part of this.

Brooke Reese: Yeah. I do want to know, though who’s idea it was to hang you from the red rope because it looked really painful in the music video.

Joe Jonas: It wasn’t the most comfortable.

Nick Jonas: Oh, he enjoyed it

Joe Jonas: Sophie enjoyed it. She was there taunting me while I was up there. As I was uncomfortable and then she was playing in her character.

Brooke Reese: Yeah.

Joe Jonas: She’s a pretty good actress. Come to find out.

Brooke Reese: I mean, not pretty good. Very good.

Joe Jonas: Yes, very, very good.

Brooke Reese: That also leads me to another thing, which obviously we have to talk about, which I feel like you know where I’m going with this, but do you guys all watch Game of Thrones?

Joe Jonas: Yes.

Brooke Reese: Are you fans now?

Kevin Jonas: Of course.

Nick Jonas: 100%

Kevin Jonas: I mean die hard.

Brooke Reese: So do you ever no spoilers prior to the episodes or are you watching it for the first time and she’s, “Yeah”?

Kevin Jonas: She will not. I’ve asked, she will not tell me anything.

Brooke Reese: Yeah.

Kevin Jonas: And I’m okay with it because I really don’t want to know, I want to see it happen.

Brooke Reese: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Kevin Jonas: But I guess Joe knows what’s maybe going on. I don’t know. Maybe not.

Joe Jonas: I can’t say anything, but I don’t really know much because she doesn’t watch the show anyway, which is quite funny. If you ask her, she’s, “I actually don’t know.” I’ll be with her and I’ll be, “Oh my God, that’s blah blah blah from the show.” And she’ll be meeting them for the first time because a lot of times they shoot in separate places.

Brooke Reese: Oh, right, right.

Joe Jonas: And so many different seasons. But I have to usually tell her what’s happened in the show, which is quite funny.

Brooke Reese: Yeah. So you guys haven’t gotten married yet. You’re still engaged.

Joe Jonas: No, we’re engaged. We’re getting married this year.

Brooke Reese: I was going to say, were you guys waiting for the filming and traveling and all of that to wrap before you kind of decided to ?

Joe Jonas: It was more so just the decision of life. I was excited to get married right away. I mean, when I proposed I was, “All right, cool. What do you say like three months.”

Kevin Jonas: Vegas?

Joe Jonas: Because I was just riding the excitement –

Brooke Reese: You’re “I love you. Let’s do this.”

Joe Jonas: And she was, “Yo, calm down.” So it’s been a nice long engagement, which has been really good for us and I’m kind of figuring our life out together and now that this is happening as well, the Jonas Brothers stuff, again, we’re just, and she’s also incredibly busy with Dark Phoenix coming out and Game of Thrones, so in the right timing.

Kevin Jonas: Those small projects.

Joe Jonas: The small little films and TV shows.

Brooke Reese: Yeah, yeah, just a little thing that’s the biggest thing to ever happen to HBO.

Joe Jonas: Yeah. Just the biggest show of all time.

Brooke Reese: Obviously, congratulations. You got married and it was everywhere.

Nick Jonas: Yeah. Thank you.

Brooke Reese: And I feel like the celebration just continued and continued and continued.

Nick Jonas: It’s still going.

Brooke Reese: I feel like you had six weddings.

Nick Jonas: We had 68 weddings. No, we had two weddings,

Brooke Reese: Yeah.

Nick Jonas: But we had a bunch of receptions. It’s pretty common in Indian culture to do multiple receptions. She’s got family all over India and friends in different places and so, yeah, there was a few there. And then, our parents were gracious enough to throw us one at their restaurant in North Carolina, which was very sweet. I got to hang with all their friends out there. And there was actually one more planned for our friends in LA, but we were “we’re done. We’ve hit our limit.”

Brooke Reese: I think we’re all wedding-ed out.

Nick Jonas: Yeah. And knowing too that later on this year too, Joe and Sophie’s wedding, and so we just said “Alright. We’re just going to stop.”

Brooke Reese: Then you guys are going to have to do five weddings and then it’s just like everybody’s gonna have to one up each other.

Nick Jonas: I like to party. Bring it on.

Brooke Reese: What was your decision, by the way, to share that with the world? Because you guys were very open about your relationship, about getting married, the details of your wedding. What made you decide to be “All right, you know what? Let’s share our love with the world.”

Nick Jonas: I think this kind of goes to the stage that we’re all in, in our lives and I’m actually going to include us within the wedding question you just asked, which is we’re trying to bottle up happiness. The world is a really dark place at the moment and it has been for what feels like a very, very long time. And so if we can have any role in bringing a smile to people’s faces, whether that’s with our relationship and our love and the joy that we feel or whether it’s with our music and not taking ourselves too seriously, having fun. That is, as an artist, your greatest opportunity and pleasure is to be able to bring some joy and happiness to people’s worlds. So we’ve been saying we’re trying to bottle up happiness and that’s the main goal. And I think the wedding and all that, our relationship and being open about it is kind of another aspect of that.