Last week MP! hung out with our new popstar BFF’s Cover Drive. The Bajan band, made up of Bar-Man (the one with the dreads), T-Ray (the 17-year-old), Jamar (the Bruno Mars lookalike) and Amanda (the girl) sung us some tunes, christened Thing and answered loads of silly questions. Read on as they reveal their HUGE crush on The Saturdays, tell us their (frankly wimpy) Nando’s spice rating and teach us a Bajan phrase about a donkey’s bum…
You guys are originally from Barbados but are living all over the place at the moment, What do you miss most about home?
T-Ray: The obvious things; the sea the sand, weather, family, the food.
Amanda: I miss being able to drive around Barbados in a bikini top.
Barman: I miss not wearing shoes when going outside.
T-Ray: Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah!
You can take them off now if you want…
T-Ray: Nah, it’s too cold…
Amanda: I miss having to put shades on because of the sun… That’s what I miss.
Can you teach us some Bajan phrases?
T-Ray: Of course. There’s ‘Cha dread’ at the ending of ‘Lick Ya Down’, that pretty much means ‘Ah Man!’ or ‘Wicked’ so you can say “I just won a million dollars”…
All: Cha dread!
T-Ray: Or you can say “my dog just died”…
All: Ahh, Chaaaa dread.
Amanda: Do we have anything else? Jamar, what was that thing you said the other day that sounded like a real old Bajan would say it?
T-Ray: My dad said “What’s sweet in the donkey’s mouth is sour in the bum bum” That’s some things aren’t as good as they seem.
Amanda: And there’s ‘cuhdea’, when something’s really cute, or it touches you or you sympathise with something you can say cuhdea – like “look at that little kid in the gutter, cuhdea, let’s go save it” or “that baby is so chubby and adorable, cuhdea” or when you see a boy try to hit on a girl and fail… Cuhdea.
Have you picked up on any UK sayings yet?
T-Ray: We’ve picked up a few from our fans. We know ‘Pang’ and ‘Lang’.
Amanda: And ‘Fit’.
Barman: I say ‘innit’ a lot.
Amanda: And ‘Wicked’ we know what that means now.
T-Ray: We know what ‘your’ means.
Who are your favourite UK artists at the moment?
Amanda: My goodness, the UK is full of incredible talent. Adele, of course. She’s amazing, a worldwide phenomenon. Jessie J, Tinie Tempah, Dappy…
T-Ray: ….the ginger king Ed Sheeran…
Barman: Ellie Goulding…
Amanda: And Pixie Lott, we’ve met her a couple of times and she’s great. Rizzle Kicks are cool, Olly Murs, we’ve met him as well, we think he’s great, so much talent here…
T-Ray: The Wanted, they’re really cool.
Have you tried much British food? Yorkshire puddings? Marmite? Bacon buttie? Fish and chips?
T-Ray: We’ve tried fish and chips, that’s pretty tasty. Mushy peas, not so much.
Amanda: I skipped the mushy peas.
T-Ray: We tried vinegar on fries (scrunches up face)… Errr we don’t like vinegar on fries…
Barman: Nooooo.
Amanda: He (Jamar) likes it.
Jamar: It’s so strange for us to have it like that, but I like it.
Brown Sauce?
T-Ray: Naaahhh.
Amanda: What’s brown sauce?
T-Ray: Remember when we were in Scotland and I thought it was ketchup and put it on my fries?
Amanda: Ewwww.
Barman: Didn’t taste very good….
Yorkshire Puddings?
T-Ray: I’ve actually had them before and they were really good.
Amanda: I think I’ve seen them in Marks N Spencer, but I haven’t tried them yet.
T-Ray: Yeah you put gravy in it. Pretty good.
Marmite?
Amanda: Nope.
T-Ray: Nooooo.
Jamar: Never tried that one, no.
For Maximum Pop will you promise to try Marmite?
Amanda: YES, we will!!
T-Ray: Of course, we’ll do it.
Amanda: We’ll put it in our Weekend Lime (their weekly video podcast).
Bacon Butties?
T-Ray: Yeahhhh. Anything with bacon is amazing. Anything.
Amanda: Does Costa count? I like Costa? I like their salads too. Their blueberry muffins are pretty awesome too.
You admit that you eat in Nando’s everyday. What spice rating do you all go for?
Amanda: We’re all wimps, no-one goes for hot.
Jamar: Ehhhh? Speak for yourselves.
Amanda: That’s right, Jamar does go for hot.
T-Ray: I can’t have hot.
T-Ray: I get lemon and herb… Or Peri Tamer [the sauce on the kiddie menu].
Amanda: I like Peri Tamer because it tastes like BBQ sauce.
Barman: And I go for medium.
Amanda: When T-Ray’s dad was travelling with us, he goes for Extra Hot and he’s bald, so as he eats his head sweats and it starts to drip like he’s having his own shower. He basically erupts.
How far would you go to get a Nando’s black card?
T-Ray: For the last year I have been constantly promoting them. We did a jingle on the radio. We have the slogan Perfect Service, Perfect Chicken. Our CD Fielders (online fan base) hashtag it with us. Aaaand (starts singing) ” I would walk 500 miles and I would walk 500 more” to get a black card but apparently they’re restricting them but I’d still work hard for one. T-Ray for Nando’s President!!!
You’ve known each for a long time, do you all have different roles in the group?
A: Yes we do.
T: I’m the bank.
All: (laughs)
T: Literally, they all go broke really quickly and I somehow have money so I help pay for their food when they’ve run out.
A: You make us sound really bad. Honestly, that’s your role…
T: Well, you save money when you wear black for two years, so that’s how I do it. It’s cool.
A: What am I, what am I, I am the whip.
The boys: (make whipping sounds)
T: Oh God…
A: I’m the whip because sometimes the boys, you know, like most boys do need putting in line and you know, whipping into shape. So I act like the whip. I don’t really take a lot of, you know, slack.
B: Troubleshoot, and repeater…
T: If you need reminding of something or something needs fixing, you go to Barry.
J: I’ll be the laid back department. If there is such a department where people just chill.
T: If we’re being honest Jamar is actually the house-husband, he washes the clothes as we can’t work the washing machine. He is also the messiest. That’s why he knows how to use the washing machine.
A: He also keeps us fashionably late. So if we are trying to get somewhere on time, Jamar is that anchor that will hold you back for a while.
So Jamar with your laid back attitude would it be fair to say you are the most Bajan of the group?
J: Oh yes.
T: Yes, he’s constantly on Bajan time.
J: I work 5 hours behind.
Who makes the best cup of tea?
All: Jamar.
T: He drinks lots of tea.
What’s the method?
J: Love. Love and affection.
Can anyone do a JLS’ Aston style backflip?
T: Yes, when I was in third or fourth year my friend and I joined a cheerleading squad to learn to backflip. Funnily enough the person who was supposed to teach us never showed up so I ended up teaching myself.
A: He backflips on the beach all the time.
You’re known for your covers, what’s your favourite cover you’ve done?
A: My favourite is the Adele and Bob Marley mash-up medley we did recently…
T: Mine has to be the ‘We Found Love’ one we did recently…
J: Mine would have to be ‘The Lazy Song’ cuz it just describes an average day.
B: Mine would have to be the Bob Marley medley we did.
Who would you love to cover one of your songs?
A: You know what would be crazy is if No Doubt would cover one of our songs.
B: Whoaaaaaahhh.
J: Yes!
A: That would be incredible.
T: I don’t know what I’d do.
A: I’d be hyperventilating.
A: Who else?
T: Rihanna.
A: I love to see our fans cover our songs. We’ve had a couple of fans cover and we see them on YouTube, we love it. That’s great too.
J: The bassist of No Doubt signed my guitar. We had a jam session with him in LA and he was great and told us loads of stories. It was amazing.
You’re obviously great at thinking of names (you named our mascot and all your pets have amazing names!) What do you think of Beyonce and Jay Z’s baby name (Blue Ivy)?
A: Oh my gosh, it’s beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. They must be so happy and so blessed to have their first child so it’s a beautiful name for a beautiful child, I’m sure.
You opened for Rihanna on the Barbados leg of her tour, who was the most starstruck when you met her?
T: I don’t know because none of us were on Earth at the time.
A: We we were all pretty starstruck.
J: Yeah.
A: I got the most hugs and touches, so you know I claim that.
T: Yeah, but I put my hand around her waist as I made sure I was next to her in the picture.
A: Yeah well, she had her hand around my waist…
T: And her hand around my shoulder so…
Why do you think Bajans make such amazing pop stars – what’s your secret?
T: It’s in the water.
B: Yeah.
A: No, it’s in the sunshine, in the sea. In the Caribbean we hear lots of pop music on the radio, we get a lot of UK music and US music, and then we have our Caribbean music, our calypso. So our brains are just flooded with all this music all of the time. So I think naturally when you’re creating music this things tend to fuse so pop music naturally comes out but there’s this Caribbean twist and that’s what makes it cool.
Amanda – Tinie Tempah was trying to track you down on Twitter, would you let him take you on a date? What should he do to impress you?
A: I’m not dating right now, but for Tinie I could make an exception. Just because I am such a huge fan of his but you know what is really funny, is that I met him a year ago and he must have forgotten who I am… You know, c’mon T, this is not how you impress a lady – by forgetting her. Hahah. But yeah, I’d let him take me on a date.
Do any of you have any major celebrity crushes? Maybe we can do some matchmaking…
T: I’d like to say I have many celebrity wives. There’s Rihanna of course, Alexis Jordan, Frankie from The Saturdays, Katy Perry, I’m very sorry about your divorce but that just makes me more eligible as a bachelor for you right? And Nicole Shrizenger on some days…
J: Wow, that”s a really big list. I Like Nicki Minaj, for sure, she’s hot. All The Saturdays too.
B: I like Rochelle from The Saturdays.
So, The Saturdays are favourites of the boys?
T: Yeahhh, give us a holler girls…
How would you impress MP! on a date?
T: You know, I’m a good listener. I know girls like that. We could watch a cute movie. I know girls like romantic comedies, I like them too.
A: I’d go and see a romantic comedy. I think they’re a good way to connect, you show emotion, some tears. That would be a good way to connect, right?
J: I’m an old romantic so there’s this place by my house. It’s a cliff and it has an open view of the moon when it’s out and you can go down onto this balcony onto the beach so I’d take a girl there.
A: So cheesy.
B: I’d take them out to dinner at a nice restaurant. And then we’d go to Jamar’s cliff. I’m taking that idea.
J: The good thing about mine is that you don’t have to spend money.
A: You know what’s another nice date? Ice Cream. Everybody loves ice cream and there’s no movie that you have to talk over. It’s not expensive like dinner and you can enjoy the ice cream and talk. Enjoy each other’s company.
T: Unless you’re lactose intolerant.
What flavour are we talking about here?
T: Chocolate.
A: There’s one called, I think, Roche, you know like Ferrero Roche? It’s like Hazelnut and Chocolate. That’s the best.
J: Cookies and Cream all the way.
B: Yeah, Cookies and Cream for me too.
- Cover Drive’s single Twilight is out now on iTunes.
- Or, if you’re feeling lucky click here for the chance to WIN one of 5 *signed* copies of the CD.
Which member of Cover Drive would you want to go on a date with?
