Gender-bending artist trips up Travis McCoy

It's not easy staying on top of today's music scene. Just ask Travis McCoy, frontman for the alternative hip-hop band Gym Class Heroes.
Advertisement
Quantcast

During a recent phone interview, McCoy fessed up about having a crush on the lead singer for the band Tokio Hotel.

"In the U.K., their posters were everywhere," McCoy said. "I'm like, this chick is kind of hot. I'm like, I'm sure she's pretty young but she's going to be cute, she's going to be hot when she grows up — not a chick at all."

Nope, Tokio Hotel's lead singer is an androgynous-looking German fella named Bill Kaulitz, who has taken to dressing like a Japanese anime character when on stage.

"It was one of those "Crying Game' moments where you have to take a shower — it was bad!" McCoy said. "I'm like, how dare you — that's false advertising!"

Kaulitz and Tokio Hotel would further vex McCoy.

"My girlfriend, my ex-girlfriend (Katy Perry) was up for Best New Artist (at the MTV Video Music Awards) and they won," McCoy said. "I'm watching the speech thinking "Just say thank you,' you know, and he went on and on. I'm not a hater so I can't get really deep into these guys."

In the words of Ray Davies, it's a mixed-up world. As for Gym Class Heroes, there's no confusing who these hitmakers are. The band comes Thursday, March 19, to the Prudential Center in Newark as part of Lil Wayne's "I Am Music" tour with T-Pain and Keri Hilson.

"I love it," McCoy said of touring with Lil Wayne. "Honestly, hands down, it's the most relaxing, laid back, fun, family-esque tour we've done in a long time."

The Gym Class Heroes story goes back to Geneva, N.Y., where the members — also drummer Matt McGinley, guitarist Disashi Lumumba-Kasongo and bassist Eric Roberts — met in gym class in 1997. The guys released a few independent records early on and then a copy of their demo fell into the hands of Fall Out Boy hitmaker Pete Wentz, who signed them to his Decaydance label. The group's breakthrough album, "As Cruel as School Children," was released in '06.

The band's 2008 follow up, "The Quilt," taps a bit more into of an R&B and funk vibe in comparison to the more pop-leaning "School Children." Upcoming is a McCoy side project with T-Pain and a new Gym Class Heroes album.

"We just rock out and a lot of people like it," McCoy said.

No confusion about that.


Source http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20090317/ENTERTAINMENT01/903130336/-1/newsfront