Interview: Savvy

Tommy2: Hey, it’s Tommy2 and today we’re in DeKalb, IL with Savvy prior to their performance at the Girl Scouts of Northern, IL 100th Anniversary Celebration. How’s everybody today?

Andrew Bowen Stern: Doing great!

Shaylen Carroll: Wooo!

Alan Shaw: How are you Tommy?

Tommy2: I’m doing good. Now, I want to make sure that everyone knows who’s speaking here, so lets have everybody introduce themselves and tell us something special about yourself… how about your favorite pixar movie.

Andrew Bowen Stern: Ooh!

Shaylen Carroll: Ooh, this is a hard one. Okay, I’m Shaylen and my favorite Pixar movie… I’m going to have to go with Monsters, Inc.

Andrew Bowen Stern: This is Andrew, my favorite Pixar movie is Finding Nemo.

Drew Reinartz: This is Drew, my favorite Pixar movie would have to be The Little Toaster.

Tommy2: Wow…

Shaylen Carroll: I forgot about that movie

Tommy2: Man, you’re showing your knowledge there. That’s digging down deep man.

GiGi LeMaire: My name is GiGi and my favorite Pixar would have to be Finding Nemo just like Andrew.

Alan Shaw: Hey what’s going on everybody I’m Alan and my favorite Pixar movie would have to be Toy Story.

Andrew Bowen Stern: Which one? One, Two or Three?
I like all three of them. I think my favorite one is the first one though, just cause that’s the one that started it all.

Tommy2: Well, last week you premiered your new single, Young & Reckless at your concert in Arizona. Why don’t you give us the details, where did you worked on that song and where did you record it.

Drew Reinartz: We actually recorded that song in Paris, France far aways from home. We recorded it with RedOne and his team, Teddy Sky and Jimmy Joker.

Andrew Bowen Stern: Yeah!

Drew Reinartz: Great team, we love those guys. They’re great people to work with and I mean it was just kind of, we walked in and it was just right to work and it was interesting the way they work as well because it was side by side. Like the engineer was in front of us and we’d record and look over be like “good?” and he’d be again, again, again.

Andrew Bowen Stern: Yeah, like we weren’t in a recording booth. It was very weird just in the studio.

Tommy2: The open approach.

Shaylen Carroll: It was interesting because we’re really talkative, so you can’t talk while you’re like in there with each other and we are like sitting there making each other laugh and I’m like stop it guys. So it was a very fun experience.

Andrew Bowen Stern: We were being Young ‘N Reckless in the studio.

Shaylen Carroll: Absolutely!

Alan Shaw: Ahh-ha-ha-ha! (joking)

Andrew Bowen Stern: Get it? Just kidding!

Drew Reinartz: I don’t get it?

Savvy: (Laughter)

Tommy2: Oh, I get it.

Savvy: (Laughter)

Tommy2: Okay, did you guys get a chance to see any of the country when you were there?

Shaylen Carroll: Yes, a little. We got to site see a little bit.

GiGi LeMaire: We saw the main sites.

Andrew Bowen Stern: We had one day. We got to go to The Louvre, of course we went to the Eiffel Tower which is really cool. We went to Notre Dame which was amazing.

GiGi LeMaire: We went to the arc…

Andrew Bowen Stern: Arc de triumph.

Drew Reinartz: Oh, we went to Subway

GiGi LeMaire: We went to Subway! There Subway was so good.

Alan Shaw: Chicken flavored chips made by Lays.

Shaylen Carroll: And this is what we got out of our trip!

Tommy2: So if there’s any fans of yours from France they can send you guys those Chicken flavored chips.

Savvy: Yes!

Tommy2: And I hear you’ve already shot a music video for Young & Reckless, are there any details you can tell us about it yet?

Andrew Bowen Stern: Oooh!

Shaylen Carroll: It’s Young ‘N Reckless.

Alan Shaw: It’s amazing.

Andrew Bowen Stern: It’s a huge party, so it’s really yeah! I think everyone’s going to love it.

Drew Reinartz: They’re going really enjoy the fact that there’s different levels to it. It’s non-stop ride.

Alan Shaw: It’s cool to because we actually got to give our ideas for the concept and Wayne Isham the director is like really good at bringing those concepts to life. So yeah, it’s going to be really cool.

Tommy2: Why don’t you share that story you had about when you met him? I heard something happened there.

Alan Shaw: Okay, so this was in the middle of the day. We were doing B-roll for Universal and everything and then the question was “what does everyone do in the group?” And then before someone could say something, I just randomly said “well I’m Asian.” And then everyone just staring laughing and then Wayne actually played off of it and he was like “Oh, well I’m Isham.” And that was like our inside joke for the day. It was hilarious, Wayne’s a character.

Tommy2: Well you guys won’t give us too much in terms of details, but I’ll bet Alan you’re willing to tell us what shoes you wore for the shoot.

Alan Shaw: I wore by Cheetah shoes – my Jeremy Scott’s.

Tommy2: Alright we got the exclusive right here. We know what shoes to look for… and back in August you signed with Cash Money Records so how much has that changed your day to day life?

GiGi LeMaire: I actually have a story. I was walking to the park the other day and a bunch of people playing basketball, they said “oh my god look – there’s GiGi from Cash Money.” And I’m like what’s going on here? And I sit at the park table and everyone from the basketball court comes over and I’m texting and I look up and there’s just a bunch of people and they’re just like.. “so what’s it like?” It was awesome, it was just so random. Like, that’s never happened before so it’s really changed our lives.

Andrew Bowen Stern: It’s cool too cause I feel like Cash Money just dominates the radio. Like every radio station you turn on you hear (Lil) Wayne, Nicki (Minaj) or Drake or one of them. And, so it’s cool to drive and you just hear like a Cash Money song come on and you’re like “hey, we’re signed to this record label.”

Shaylen Carroll: It was really actually interesting before we were like getting signed, in the week that we were supposed to find out about everything. We kept… what song by Nicki (Minaj) when we got in the car?

Alan Shaw: Moment For Life.

Shaylen Carroll: Moment For Life! Every time we got in the car that song would play and we were just like guys, it’s a sign!

Tommy2: Like a little sign?

Shaylen Carroll: And then we were driving and we saw the name Slim somewhere and we were like “guys it’s another sign” and then after that we found out and…

Andrew Bowen Stern: We’re superstitious.

Savvy: (Laughter)

Tommy2: Now for people that aren’t in the business, that’s something most people don’t realize is that these contracts take a long, long time. Was that really painful?

Shaylen Carroll: Oh my goodness!

Andrew Bowen Stern: Every day. We would ask.

Shaylen Carroll: Every time somebody wanted to ask – like they were like, so what’s the big news? I’m like “Oh you don’t understand. I wish I could tell you but I can’t.”

Andrew Bowen Stern: We’d call Ron our manager like every day and be like “so how close is the contract?” “Ahh… we’re working on it.” It was like six months.

Drew Reinartz: This is Drew, but I mean even though being signed, it hasn’t changed who we are as people. We’re still just down to earth, I mean people are like you just said, what’s it like. I mean they tell us to make music the way we’ve been making music before so, that hasn’t changed us as people at all.

Tommy2: Still the same people, but… since we talked a year and a half ago.

Shaylen Carroll: Too long!

Tommy2: Your music and performances have changed radically. Tell us about that?

Shaylen Carroll: It’s actually been amazing. We got to go into the studio last March/April with Chucky Klapow and Kim Klapow and they actually choreographed a whole entire new show for us. And it is so much… you get to see it today! But, it’s super super exciting, it’s very upbeat. We have an MJ (Michael Jackson) Medley in there and then we have a new cover song. We’re doing our labelmate Jay Sean, we’re going to do Down by him so, we’re excited for all the little surprises. And then we’re probably working on another show pretty soon!

Andrew Bowen Stern: Hopefully, with the new music!

Tommy2: There’s more stuff to come for people that have seen some of this.

Shaylen Carroll: We have to keep surprising people.

Tommy2: You mentioned Chucky who’s a mogul, he’s a big guy and then you also mentioned RedOne. When you guys are working with these huge names is it a little scary?

GiGi LeMaire: At first

Andrew Bowen Stern: Like GiGi said, at first a little bit. But you kind of don’t really think about it when you’re in there. It’s kind just like… we were driving down the road the other day and I was like guys we recorded with RedOne?

Shaylen Carroll: Yeah, I know when Starships by Nicki Minaj came on and she’s like RedOne. And we’re like… okay?

Andrew Bowen Stern: Red and like Chucky, they do such a good job making you feel so comfortable. Like as I guess iconic as they are in the industry, they really make you feel real comfortable and free in there. Because you should feel free in the studio, so yeah that’s how we feel.