Not Your Average Boy Band

September 7, 2009

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you haven’t heard of V Factory yet, you will soon! The band’s first single, “Love Struck,” was released this summer along with its video counterpart. Not only can this hip-hop-meets-R&B group sing, they can dance!

Jared Murillo, 20, was an assistant choreographer on High School Musical II and is a trained ballroom dancer and former World and United States Champion. You can catch singer and dancer Asher Book as Marco in this month’s Fame! Wesley Quinn, who’s had 11 years of intense dance training, and Nick Teti, who taught himself to dance by watching Justin Timberlake videos, choreographed most of the moves in the group’s “Love Struck” video. And you may have seen Nathaniel Flatt on the small screen dancing in commercials for Target, Sony and the Disney Channel.

We caught up with Jared to talk about the group’s original choreography, the video and, of course, the comeback of the boy band!

 


DS
: How did V Factory get together?

Jared Murillo
: It started with Tommy Page at Warner Brothers. I was at a dress rehearsal for HSM: The Concert and he approached me and said, “I’m putting together a group with WB. I know you can dance. Can you sing?” I said I could, that I had grown up performing with On Stage Dance Studio in Utah. After that, he auditioned other guys and found Nick and Nathaniel. He found Wesley through a choreographer he had worked with in the past, and finally Asher through a vocal coach we work with.

 


DS
: What was it like, five guys who’ve never met coming together to form a band?

JM
: At first we were unsure of how we were going to mesh. We’re different ages and come from different parts of the country. But we’re like brothers now. We trust each other and help each other out.

 


DS
: How is V Factory different from the boy bands of 10 years ago?

JM
: The music 10 years ago was pop-ish and ’90s-sounding. The music we’re creating now is kind of urban with hints of edginess. We have some dance tracks, as well. And we come up with our own choreography.

 


DS
: Tell us about the “Love Struck” video choreography Wesley and Nick created.


 

 

JM
: Originally a professional choreographed the video, but the label didn’t feel like it suited us well. So we went back to the drawing board. Wesley and Nick’s choreography worked out because they know our style and what looks good on us.

 


DS
: What were the challenges of making the video?

JM
: The biggest one was making sure we were all right on the movement. In performance, there’s more leeway. Only the people looking at you at that exact second will notice a mistake. But with the video, it was a challenge to make sure we were hitting certain angles, lines and moves at the same time because the camera picks up everything.

 


DS
: What are the band’s goals?

JM
: To keep creating good music and dance tracks for people to relate to. Dance has become a huge thing in our society, especially with all the TV shows that involve dance. People want music they can dance to and groove to. Of course, we would love to have a Top 10 song on the Billboard charts eventually, too.

 

 

Photo by Smallz & Raskind