So Jedward were at Summer in the City this year and we literally couldn’t even.
If you’d visited the TenEighty press room at lunchtime on Creator Day, you would have found three of our team sat around a table bellowing along to their 2011 Eurovision entry, Lipstick. We unironically adore Jedward, and the only way we could express our excitement at being in the same building as them was through the medium of song. And FYI it’s a total banger, don’t @ us.
Little did we know that, a few hours later, Jedward would ACTUALLY VISIT THE PRESS ROOM and SPONTANEOUSLY PERFORM THE SONG THEMSELVES. They even customised the lyrics as they went along (“You look at me and I got TenEighty in miiiiiiind”). It was the greatest event in recorded history and your faves will never.
There was also time for a ten-minute interview with the boys. We asked questions about YouTube, and got answers which covered the Olsens, Tyler Oakley’s hair, Dodie Clark’s eyebrows, Kendall Jenner’s lips, encounters with wild birds, and the hypothetical possibility of extracting the Harries twins from their home. And everything in between.
Here’s what happened…
DANIEL: “Tell me how you two feel about YouTube as a platform. You’ve done vlog-type stuff on your JedwardTV channel – why did you start that?”
EDWARD: “Basically, me and John, we’ve always made videos. We had made over 500 videos just randomly, and we never really saw ourselves as YouTubers. It was just a thing that we always did.”
JOHN: “And we used to go to, like, Germany—”
EDWARD: “Cos we never had a major record label, but we always used to go to countries, and like, ‘How do people know us here? I can’t believe they even know us’.”
JOHN: “And even for our albums, we made our own music videos. We made like 25 of our own music videos, so…”
EDWARD: “Yeah, we always filmed videos. Like, our last one we did, we found all the locations that Justin Timberlake had in his video: we went to the diner, we went to the barbershop, we went everywhere. So we like editing, we like iMovie – we’re total nerds at editing videos. And we like colour-grading. We’d go to see movies to see how they were shot.”
JOHN: “But we’re going to do a lot more, and get better, and make more. We made like 500 on our channel, but then we decided just to focus on writing songs and making music. So we wrote a lot of songs that haven’t even been released.”
EDWARD: “But it’s cool. We always meet YouTubers, and they always come up to us and go, ‘Oh my god, you guys’—”
JOHN: “And all of the YouTubers, they all saw our YouTube, and they’re like, ‘We saw your videos, and then we started being YouTubers because of you guys’, and it’s kind of cool just to be setting a cool example.”
EDWARD: “Yeah, cos eight years ago, me and John, people were like, ‘What are you doing?’, and then now everyone has Jedward hair.”
JOHN: “Yeah, it seems more accepting to what we were back in the day. It was like, ‘Wow, your hair’s so big’, and now everyone’s got big hair and stuff.”
EDWARD: “But it’s like… do you know when we were on TV? And everything that we did on, like, Graham Norton and Alan Carr – all the big shows? It was like what people are doing on YouTube, but we did it on the main TV. And even Big Brother—”
JOHN: “They want to ask questions.”
DANIEL: “What YouTubers do you two like watching?”
EDWARD: “nigahiga. Smosh. Dodie.”
JOHN: “Shane Dawson. Jenna Marbles. Just a bit of everything, whatever comes recommended. I like makeup tutorials, they’re kind of relaxing sometimes.”
EDWARD: “Basically, we met Dodie [because] a fan on Twitter had her as a picture, and I was talking to this fan like, ‘Oh hey, what’s up?’, cos I thought it was her, and I was like, ‘Your eyebrows are awesome’. And then eventually, after, she told me it actually wasn’t her. And then she linked me to Dodie, and I told her the story. And then she came to Ireland one day, and I saw it on my timeline, and we all ended up going out the whole night. It was a crazy night. And Jack was there, and Hazel, and all her friends. And then I got them loads of Coca-Cola.”
JOHN: “It’s cool meeting, though, because everyone knows… like, you talk to someone on Twitter, and stuff like that [happens]. I do it as well—”
EDWARD: “We share the exact same Twitter, so people are always like, ‘Who was I talking to?’”
JOHN: “Hazel’s there, and she’s, like, at her merch stand, and we’re talking about her snail. And it’s weird, because I’ve only watched the first videos there recently. Like, just yesterday and today. And I was like, whoa, it’s a YouTube channel. Cos some of them are making really different types of content—”
EDWARD: “It’s cool there’s twins here. There’s Niki and Sammy. And there’s other girl twins – Lydia and…?”
EDWARD: “There’s loads of twins. It’s crazy.”
JOHN: “The only twins in my life are Mary-Kate and Ashley. They have a new fragrance out. It smells good.”
RACHEL: “Have you ever met Jack and Finn? You should meet Jack and Finn.”
EDWARD: “We need to meet everyone.”
JOHN: “JacksGap?”
EDWARD: “Oh, yeah, yeah.”
JOHN: “Yeah, it’s weird, cos they all go off to college and stuff, and then they’re all, like, making documentaries. But yeah, I think me and Edward should go, and go to their house, and extract them from their house, and go, ‘You go in that room and you make us some videos.’ [laughter] I wouldn’t do that! But anyway, what are you asking? Yeah, they’re good, I like those guys. I used to see them, as well, on YouTube. Cos like, you know when you’re on YouTube, somehow you just find your way on to these different channels?”
EDWARD: “There’s this, erm… Our fan from ages ago… Do you know Sqaishey? She’s a duck, she’s a gamer, do you know her? She’s a massive gamer YouTuber. But she was our fan ages ago.”
JOHN: “Real nice. All the gamer YouTubers are real nice.”
EDWARD: “Yeah, so we met her, and she used to make loads… John just spilt water on himself.”
JOHN: “It’s in my belly button.”
EDWARD: “But we would always encourage her, and now she makes all these crazy videos of Minecraft. And our cousins are obsessed with YouTube.”
JOHN: “So we’d see different generations. Our old cousins, they were all like, ‘Oh, YouTube’, and just watch one or two videos. But now, it’s like a set thing. Everyone is on YouTube, and they’re all quietly on their iPad like, ‘What are you watching?’”
EDWARD: “But me and John, like ages ago, there was this wild bird that flew into a room we were in, when we were recording our first album, and we called it Chalky. And just a couple of weeks ago, we were in LA, and a bird flew in John’s head, so we were like, ‘Chalky’s back!’”
TEOH: “So who are your favourite YouTubers?”
EDWARD: “Of all time?”
ERIN: “If you could put one YouTuber on the next cover of TenEighty, who would it be?”
EDWARD: “Jenna Marbles. No, let’s think about it, okay? I’ll think about it while we’re doing the questions. Is there only one person a year?”
ERIN: “We’ve done double covers, so—”
EDWARD: “Guess what, guess what, guess what, guess what? There’s this Irish magazine, and we were on the front cover, and Kylie and Kendall [Jenner] were on the back cover, and they sent the magazine to them, and they Instagrammed it – so we know that we were in their house. We made the front cover.”
JOHN: “And it was before Kylie Jenner had lips or anything, so this was like, way back.”
EDWARD: “Yeah, so we were really happy with that.”
JOHN: “Anyway, okay, we’re going to think about that question.”
TEOH: “What advice do you have for anyone who’s starting out on YouTube?”
EDWARD: “I think to be consistent as a person.”
JOHN: “The advice I have is, the people they’re watching online, not to be replicating their mannerisms, and how they act, and how they go on. Cos I was at VidCon, and here, and I’m meeting people, girls and stuff, and the way they act and talk, it’s kind of like… all kind of talking at the same… So stay true to your own originality, who you are as a person. Cos they always go, ‘Well I don’t know what’s going on here with Jedward’. It’s like, what are you talking about?”
EDWARD: “Cos some people give us a hard time, making out that we’re some weird species. It’s like, what are you talking about? You’re doing exactly the same thing as me.”
JOHN: “I feel like you’ve got to just keep on doing your own thing. I feel like – in life, online and stuff – people are your friend one day, and then are not your friend one day, and there’s all these crazy—”
EDWARD: “Like, the tragic moment someone unfollows you and you’re still following them.”
JOHN: “Like, what was the problem there?! Like, we’ve got big YouTubers who follow us, unfollow us, unfollow us…”
EDWARD (going back to the cover star question): “Tyler Oakley! We met him before he had his Jedward hair.”
DANIEL: “Did he base his hair on you?”
EDWARD: “We met him. He was like, ‘Ah, Jedward, it’s you’, and then we were like, ‘Ah, it’s you’, and then he tweeted about it. And then a couple of weeks or whatever later, he had the quiff. And so has Miley Cyrus. Anyway we’re really upset that Dan and Phil aren’t here this year. They were here every single year, and we were hoping they’d be here this year.”
TEOH: “Yeah, they’re doing a tour.”
EDWARD: “They’re in Australia. We were in Australia in… 2013? And the koala was really fascinating—”
JOHN: “Have Dan and Phil been on the front cover?”
TEOH: “No.”
JOHN: “What?! Why not?”
TEOH: “They’re a bit difficult to pin down.”
EDWARD: “I’m going to pin them down for you. Jeez. Let’s do this. People need to go, ‘Come on, this is for YouTube, can we get you on the front cover? Stop being so hard. Come over here, and let’s get you on the front cover of TenEighty.’”
TEOH: “I’ve got one more question, because I’m trying to make sure—”
EDWARD: “Guess what? We had a magazine in Japan, okay? It was called Super Jedward. And fans paid £160 to buy the magazine. And it was 1500 copies sold. Mental. It’s like the Madonna magazine.”
TEOH: “So one more question about this, then everyone will probably ask other questions: How do you deal with negativity online? I know, in your career from X Factor, you’ve obviously had a lot of ups and downs…”
EDWARD: “I think, especially with magazines and newspapers, everyone’s always getting fired, so if someone writes a bad article about you, that person will probably be gone. The next year, you’ll be on the front cover. Don’t worry about it.”
JOHN: “As long as you keep rebirthing yourself like a phoenix, you’ll be back in. I feel like, the audience that is your audience, just keep making them happy, and doing stuff for them, and if they like it, they like it. Cos you could have the whole of England knowing what you’re doing, but then they’re not necessarily going to even care what you’re doing in your music, or different stuff you’re doing. So just do it for the people that care.”
EDWARD: “And it’s all about longevity. It’s not about just going straight and doing everything. Cos what are you meant to do after that, if you do everything? It’s about keeping the pinnacle moments, and then giving it a break.”
JOHN: “Or it’s like… this is going off topic, but it’s more just about not being like, ‘Oh, this is my mum’, and ‘This thing I’m doing right now, this is it for me’. If it doesn’t work, it’s fine. You’ve just got to keep on going, ‘Alright, I did that’, then move on to something else.”
EDWARD: “Yeah, cos people really build up things, like ‘This is my moment’.”
JOHN: “Keep moving on. Always keep moving on, and it all becomes part of your story. You’ve just got to keep going.”
EDWARD: “Yeah, because sometimes, you’re making a video, and you’re like, ‘Oh, god, I didn’t look good, what was going on?’, and then you look back and you’re like, ‘That was really, really cool. I was okay.’”
JOHN: “You know in your life, when you’re like, ‘Oh, jeez, I was going through a hard time there’, or something? Like, stuff was happening behind the scenes, but then… At the time, I thought, ‘Jeez, this is crazy right now’, and then you look back in four years or whatever, and you’re like, ‘Jeez, I’m still rocking’.”
EDWARD: “Cos the thing about it is, me and John have gone out on stage, and felt so tired. We’ve had, like, matinee show, evening show – two-and-a-half hours on stage – and you just have to keep going.”
JOHN: “This isn’t Dr. Phil, Edward, this is TenEighty magazine.”
EDWARD: “You’ve got to look after yourself. You’ve got to eat loads of food and be healthy.”
JOHN: “Loads of YouTubers are drinking and smoking. There’s a whole partying scene.”
EDWARD: “And the thing about it is, people on YouTube: don’t get so sucked into what everyone’s talking about, and what they think. Don’t let your whole fan world guide what you should be doing, because you’re the one that started everything. You know where it’s heading.”
TEOH: “Brilliant. Thank you so much.”
DANIEL: “We love you. We were listening to Lipstick earlier, and all singing really loudly—”
[Jedward do an impromptu performance of Lipstick]
JOHN (grabbing Daniel): “This guy knows exactly what’s going on. He’s making out he doesn’t know what’s going on, but he knows what’s going on. He was playing Lipstick. He told me to sing the song.”
DANIEL: “Well I’ve had a lovely time.”
ERIN: “Would you do Eurovision again?”
EDWARD: “Loads of other countries always want us to do it.”
JOHN: “We’re writing and making loads of songs, okay, so we wrote a lot of three-minute songs.”
EDWARD: “When we’re writing songs, we always try to make sure it’s Eurovision potential.”
JOHN (reaching to switch off Daniel’s phone): “We’re sorry for wasting all the memory on your phone.”
DANIEL: “No, it’s alright, you can—”
[Recording ends.]
Photos by Aria Mark and Rachel Kiki.
Want more from Summer in the City 2016?
For more images of our encounter with Jedward, click here. Check out our Summer in the City tag, where you’ll find all of our coverage from the event.
- Creator Day at Summer in the City 2016: Photo Recap
- Saturday at Summer in the City 2016: Photo Recap
- Sunday at Summer in the City 2016: Photo Recap
- Five of the Best: Summer in the City 2016
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