"The pop-culture landscape is a different world than it was three years ago. Back then, the Jonas Brothers were at the top of the boy-band heap, with a sitcom (“Jonas”/“Jonas L.A.”), a TV-movie franchise (“Camp Rock”), and a successful concert film to their name, on top of a recording career that saw them delivering albums at a reliable rate of one every year.
Then things seemed to stop. The television show was canceled and the band split from longtime label Hollywood Records, both of which left the Jonas Brothers without the substantial promotional heft of Disney behind them. Perhaps more ominously, a new generation of boy bands like One Direction and solo acts like Justin Bieber filled the vacuum created by their absence. And, lest it be forgotten, the onetime kings of teen-pop are no longer teens themselves.
But Joe Jonas isn’t concerned that his group has lost touch with its core constituency. Just the opposite, in fact.
“It’s interesting to see how, going to a show, the audience has really grown up with us,” says the 23-year-old singer. “Three years is a lot, and seeing audience members with beers in their hands and things like that, it’s pretty hilarious. So it’s kind of cool to see that our fans are growing up.”
That’s where the Jonas Brothers, who play the Bank of America Pavilion on Monday, currently find themselves. The challenge facing them now is how to transition smoothly from being a Disney act to being an adult band. According to Jonas, there are pluses and minuses to their newfound freedom.
“It definitely feels good to be in control of what we want to do musically and even what we’re going to do with the stage or where we’re going to tour,” he says. “But it’s definitely a weird feeling, like starting over and repositioning ourselves musically. We got in the studio and had [younger brother] Nick produce the record and make it 100 percent just us in control of what we’re making. So that was definitely a huge change for us.”
In their favor is the fact that one recent antecedent successfully navigated a similar scenario. The teen-brother pop band Hanson quietly kept on after their apparent hit-making days were over, eventually garnering a solid critical reputation while cultivating a fan base loyal and large enough to sustain them.
“I think it’s very cool to see how they have their core audience that will follow them anywhere,” says Jonas of Hanson. “And the same for us. We have a very strong group of fans that travel cross-country to see shows. And that’s rewarding for us to see that the audience has continued to grow and grow and feeling like the fans are just getting bigger and bigger as an audience. So it’s nice.”
Dylan Sprague sees much the same thing from his vantage point as program director for Kiss 108, which is hosting a VIP acoustic performance with the Jonas Brothers at W Boston the day of the concert. “We’re excited to see how large that fan base still is, and we’re getting the inkling that it’s still very, very big,” he says. As for the group’s progression into a grown-up pop act, he doesn’t view it as a definitive break from the Jonas Brothers’ past.
“I don’t know that it’s much of a transition,” he says. “It’s just a growing process. I don’t want to put words in their mouth, but I think that they’re all in different places in their lives than they were a couple years ago. . . . I think it’s just a natural maturation for them.”
While the upcoming album “V” is the Jonas Brothers’ first as a group since 2010’s “Jonas L.A.” soundtrack, it’s not as though the brothers haven’t been busy. Joe released a club-oriented solo album, “Fastlife,” in 2011. Nick, 20, has kept up his acting career with appearances on shows like “Smash” and “Last Man Standing.” Elder brother Kevin, 25, began a reality-TV career with “Married to Jonas.” And they’ve continued to tour.
“Right now,” Joe Jonas says, “we’re plotting next year to really focus on music and working on this record and touring this record and hopefully getting to some different cities that we’ve never been to. I mean, we’ve never been to Japan, we’ve never been to Australia. And there’s fans out there, so we’d love to make our way over there.”
As for the upcoming birth of Kevin’s baby, Joe points out that it fits in snugly with the band’s album and touring cycle. “We’re really excited,” he says. “I’ll be an uncle for the first time in my life, and I’m really looking forward to it. And I think it’s somehow worked out pretty good, time-wise.”"
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