Greg Raposo
Here are some of the highlights from the Interview.
Tommy2: What is your favorite place to go out and eat?
Greg Raposo: Some nice Italian restaurant. There’s a couple restaurants in my town that are really good but not one top place. The Italian restaurants in Queens are so good over there!
Tommy2: What kind of hobbies do you have other then performing?
Greg Raposo: Hanging out with friends and chillin’ around my town, going parking lot to parking lot doing not to much, but other then that I love sports. I love to play soccer and basketball. I’m always doing something.
Tommy2: How did the soccer team do that you were playing with last season?
Greg Raposo: Good, I don’t remember what the record was but we did pretty good.
Tommy2: With your performances and song writing, do you ever have the time to read? Are you into that at all?
Greg Raposo: I do a lot of reading for school, but I don’t do to much reading on my own. I read a lot more when I was younger. I like reading, so every know and then I’ll pick up a book. But I haven’t done any reading on my own for about a year.
Tommy2: As far as the Internet goes, and you always being busy, do you ever have the time to visit half of your fan sites, or reply to email?
Greg Raposo: Every now and then, I’ve been to a few of them. But its hard because I do this thing on my web site that’s called “Ask Greg Questions” so when I do get on I’m always sitting there as long as I possibly can. And then the next time I come there are like another hundred there. That is really time consuming so I don’t get to do anything like just chillin’ around the Internet kind of thing. But I do enjoy going to those things. Sometimes I’ll be checking them with a bunch of friends and they’ll be behind me laughing the whole time.
Tommy2: I heard you have a Lexus 300. Is that the car of your dreams or is that a decent first car?
Greg Raposo: That’s a car of my dreams. When I was doing my car shopping, I was looking at first at the Firebird, or the Toyota Supra. I was going for these fast, race cars but my dad was like “You know what Greg, look at this Lexus.” He brought me over and I was like “that’s a gorgeous car, a little out of my price range” and he was like “its a family car, a very very safe car” so my dad made a deal with me that if I get this car he would help me pay for it. So it worked out.
Tommy2: Right now, are there any performers out there that you really like?
Greg Raposo: Well, there are different performers that I like for different reasons. I like Britney Spears because she is hot. I’ve been listening to Rob Thomas a lot lately, Matchbox Twenty, Def Leppord, that kind of stuff.
Tommy2: What is your perfect ideal date?
Greg Raposo: It would be just me and the girl, we’d go out to eat first to somewhere small so we can have a little table, then we would do whatever she wanted to do. Maybe go to the beach, there are so many things you can do.
Tommy2: Your new cd is set to be released one month from today. What can your fans look forward to?
Greg Raposo: That cd is kind of like my diary, i’ve wrote five of the nine songs straight from my heart. This cd is the first thing my whole music career that I can really say is ‘ME’. Listening to the songs on the cd, I hear ‘ME’ in there, so buying the album your just buying a piece of me. That cd is something I will always have forever. Even when i’m 80 years old, to look back on and remember when I wrote those songs and why I wrote those songs. As far as the direction of the cd, we went more rocky, pop rocky, something that will be fresh to their ears.
Tommy2: When did you start writing for this cd? Are they all new songs or are some of them older songs?
Greg Raposo: One song, I wrote when I was on the Aaron Carter tour two years ago, so I wrote some of them a while ago. Some from then to more recently.
Tommy2: It’s just announced that your going to be touring with Aaron Carter, what can we expect from your life performance?
Greg Raposo: I’m really looking forward to it because I’ve done the Aaron thing before and I had such a blast last time. The part i’m not so happy about is that I don’t get to bring my band which kind of stinks because that’s basically the whole point of what i’m doing right now. But the album is coming out and there are a lot of fans in different parts of the country that I haven’t seen in such a long time so I’m thinking more about them then myself. So I’m going to get out there and be singing to tracks, so I’m going to make the best of it and enjoy it. I can’t wait! When you go out with a band it is such a full sound, so I can let loose and drop to the floor, drop to my knees, jump of the guitar and have a good time. Singing to tracks, its just you and a bare stage. I think on the Aaron Carter tour its going to be me, a stool and a mic stand. So i’m going to do audience interaction, try to be entertaining and have as much fun as I can.
Tommy2: Do you know how many songs you’ll get to perform?
Greg Raposo: Three to four.
Tommy2: Is there anyone you look up to in modern music that you can use as an example for your performances and writing?
Greg Raposo: Rob Thomas, especially for his writing, being a song writer and listening to his lyrics and being like wow he is a really good lyricist song writer. I like how he writes for himself and writes for other artists and I think that’s great.
Tommy2: Your family is very involved in your music, especially your mom and your aunt. What is it like to have them support you?
Greg Raposo: That’s awesome, it doesn’t get much better then that. I mean to have some one you can trust, especially in the music business. There are a lot of, I guess you can say, crooks. People will lie to you and say they are your best friend and when you turn around they are stabbing you in the back. So having your family involved is a really secure feeling. I’m really thankful for it.
Tommy2: A lot of people know you from a group called Dreamstreet. Was there a point where you knew you really made it or an amazing experience that you can share with the fans?
Greg Raposo: There were a lot of those times, I started in that whole project when I was 11 or 12. It was me and Chris in the group first and we worked all summer long and then we brought in Matt, Frankie and Jesse. So me and Chris have been in that group for so long! Since I have been able to see it grow and grow and grow, I remember we were shooting the Dreamstreet music video, it was fourth of July and they set it up right under the firework area and it really slapped me in the face and made me go WOW. I remember we were so close to the fireworks that pieces of flame and cardboard were falling right beside us. I remember actually a piece fell on Jesse and burnt his arm, that’s how close we were. It was really loud and they had a big screen behind us shooting pictures of us, and they had a camera, and fog, it was just really loud and intense. I remember in the middle of a take where I actually started tearing and I couldn’t believe what was going on. The whole crew of people, and I actually started tearing and had to stop for a second. Claudia the choreographer came on stage and we all got into this little huddle thing and we were all just amazed wit this whole thing.
Tommy2: With you doing your own thing, do you have time to stay in touch with the guys anymore?
Greg Raposo: Oh yea, being with them for such a long time we became such close friends. Matt was over at my house last weekend, and Jesse was over at my house last week. We still talk on the phone and people are like ‘well what are they doing now when you talk to them?’ and its like were friends, so were on the phone talking and its not about business. Its about stuff like “hows your girlfriend” stuff like that. Were still really good friends.