Blurring the lines between dating and making music can be a risky move -- but it's starting to pay off for Mark Ballas and BC Jean.
While he's mostly known for his moves on "Dancing with the Stars" and she made waves writing "If I Were a Boy" for Beyonce, the dating duo are prepping some big things for 2016 with their band Alexander Jean.
The two just performed two packed shows at The Venetian Theatre in Las Vegas, opening for R5. With the release of their EP any day now, toofab's Brian Particelli chatted with the couple about the very Hollywood way they met, how they decided to join forces musically and their New Years Resolutions. Keep reading for the very candid convo!
toofab: We're here in Las Vegas, you guys just played ahead of R5 -- how was it hitting the stage in Sin City?
BC: We had a great time. This theatre is beautiful. When we sound checked, we knew it was going to be fun show. Sometimes when you open, it's not as full, but there were a lot of people there with a lot of energy!
Mark: The theatre is just stunning and the sound quality was just incredible. I'd say it was about 85%-90% full when we went on stage, they were a very attentive crowd and it just went really well.
toofab: Have you guys played Vegas before?
BC: I've played Vegas. [But] This is our first time together. The vibe's better just playing together for me.
Mark: It was quite tame for Vegas. It's a younger crowd.
BC: I played Hard Rock last time and that was a little wild.
Mark: The audience, they wanted to come listen to music and be at a show, so it was a great audience.
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toofab: So take us back a little, you two met at an event you were both playing separately, started dating, and then formed Alexander Jean?
BC: We were playing a charity show from our friend's living room. I was performing before him and we had never met before and he played after me and he liked what he heard and then saw and I liked what I heard and saw. I was more on the "Let's work together" page and he was "Let's go on a date."
Mark: When I got there, I was expecting 10-15 people, but it was crammed. There were 200 people there, you could not move in this house. I got there, came in one song into BC's set, and I couldn't see her. I could only hear her. I remember going to my cousin saying, "Whoever that is is incredible, amazing." I remember sitting, listening to the sound of her voice, her voice has so much texture and whiskey and roughness to it ...
BC: I was probably drinking whiskey.
Mark: I was expecting this Janis Joplin-y looking, hippie person in her mid-40s. And then I saw her and went, "Oh, I like that!" I played my set and she stuck around and watched.
BC: He was like the most talented person there. His skills were beyond, and he gave a lot of extra hip thrusts, which was pretty entertaining.
Mark: I was showing off.
BC: Then he hit me up for a while and I was very …
Mark: She blew me off for two months!
BC: I was just not in the place for a date, it just made me nervous, I wasn't ready for anything like that. But eventually, I thought, you seem like a nice guy, I thought he was super talented and then we went out for Taco Tuesday and we were there five and a half hours. We started hanging out a bit, turned into dating, we still were doing separate things career wise, and then eventually we decided a year and a half into our relationship, let's just write a song. We wrote a song for fun.
Mark: We'd always kept business and the music out of our relationship. After we wrote the first song, we were like, "This is interesting. It's an interesting sound, we should go record it." Recorded it the next week, live instrumentation, produced it ourselves. That one's gonna be on the EP, it's called "Head High." We were both feeling like maybe the reason we weren't doing our own stuff solo was we were meant to do it together, so why don't we do this project. We put [first single] "Roses and Violets" out and it just did its own thing, it was great because nobody really knew it was us.
BC: We wanted the music to speak for itself, so that's why we did the cartoon image [as the single art]. People get mad, in the business. Publicity teams are like "Let's tell them it's you!" [But] we were like, "No, please don't!"
Mark: We just want it to be about the music and everything else. Not "The Girl Who Wrote," "The Guy Who Does" ... The song went to #1 on the singer-songwriter chart, stayed Top 10 for a while as well, went to #6 on the overall chart and charted in 7 countries, it's been awesome.
toofab: Were you at all worried about mixing business and pleasure?
BC: Were you worried?
Mark: No, I wasn't.
BC: No, I wasn't worried at all to be honest. We just clicked really well in the studio, we trust each other. We respect each other a lot. I teach him things, he teaches me things, we exchange the power that way, which is nice.
toofab: I saw you answering some fan questions on Twitter, where you revealed you guys always share a kiss backstage before a show.
Mark: It's not really a ritual, but we don't usually see each other half an hour before playing.
BC: He learned that I need my space. I need my diva time, my meditation time. I'm an anxious person and he's just cool and calm and used to performing. I'm used to performing too but I, for some reason, get nervous. I need to zen myself out and keep quiet. And when I'm ready, I come and get him and we warm up and just give a little kiss before we go. Even if we're kind of annoyed with each other.
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toofab: Will we see you two hitting the road in 2016?
Mark: This is hopefully the prequel to going out on a full blown tour. Opening for R5 has been great, that's what we'd like to do, is get on a tour we can open for a consecutive amount of time, then hopefully get our own at some point. Getting on with an R5 or anyone, the wish list is like Adele next year, Ed Sheeran. Taylor [Swift], we know you love new music. Florence and the Machine would be great!
toofab: And the new EP drops when?
BC: Planning on putting it out early this year. We want to keep creating, put out the EP, go on tour. That's my plan … that about your plan?
Mark: [Laughs] Yeah, same. It's pretty much finished mixing, it's just those tedious things, like turn this up a hair. We're just doing that right now and hopefully we'll be done by early January, then we'll get it out, play some shows. What we'd like to do is have one EP come out, follow up shortly with another one and then a full length album. Going the independent, doing it ourself route for now. We had some label chats but this feels like the right thing right now.
toofab: Now you guys are here for New Year's Eve, do you have any resolutions?
BC: I'm very big on staying positive. I think that you can manifest your own destiny, so I'm constantly trying to keep optimism in my presence and surround myself with people who are doing that as well. Just to keep seeing the future in a positive light.
Mark: Trying to stay open minded, forward thinking, work hard, stay focused. I'm really passionate about this project and it feels, for the first time in a while, it feels like this could be it. I really want to keep it moving forward. I want to get in the best shape I've been in in a while.
toofab: And will you be balancing this project with "Dancing with the Stars" when it returns?
Mark: It's still early to tell. There's no offers that have gone out yet and I will address that when it comes!
