Made up of brothers Alejandro, Fabian and Daniel Manzano, Boyce Avenue is a band that got its big break through YouTube, where they have over 7 million subscribers and became famous for performing covers as well as original songs.  

The Manzano brothers are also known for interacting with their world-wide fan base on the Internet, so their recent partnership with Marriott International's #LoveTravels campaign comes as no surprise since it's very much web-oriented and shares their love of traveling and getting to meet those that support them.

Enstars recently chatted with the oldest brother, Daniel, about the campaign, their fans, music and more.


(Photo: Mark Davis/Getty Images Entertainment)

ENSTARS: So how did this partnership with Marriott for their #LoveTravels come about?
Daniel Manzano: Well, speaking on the engagement with Marriott International, it's been pretty progressive as far as like the digital space and what digital content creators are doing. And we got to meet a lot of people at the company and we really enjoyed the experience and when they reached out to us about this campaign it just seemed like the perfect fit since as you know we are a band and a large part of what we do is travel-related.

What do you hope people take away from your involvement with the campaign?
We really hope that our fans can see that because of them we're able to do what we love for a living, which is to play music and travel the world by putting on concerts. It's really what we love to do... It made us want them to share more of their own stories about travel and what that means to them.

Since you're in a band with your siblings, do you have trouble keeping the peace?
(Laughs) We're like best friends so for us it's actually fun. It's like a long, extended sleepover for us. We grew up in a really, really intimate household... I think we learned to really respect each other and so once we started working together as musicians I think a lot of those lessons we learned earlier in life carried over.

You guys started out independently then signed with Universal Republic Records before returning to being independent. What spurred the return to being an independent act?
When we signed with a label... We wanted to be a rock band and get our music out to everybody, but what we didn't realize was that they were just sort of, well, they were expecting us to do all the work and they were just hoping it would work... It ended up being a really bad marriage so to speak... We found ourselves really regretting that we couldn't do the things that we used to do online through YouTube. There was a lot more red tape with being signed, but it was an eye-opening experience. It taught us to be grateful for what we had and still have, which is a lot of people around the world who were really supporting us. They were spreading our videos and sharing our music. That's why we went back to being independent so there's none of that red tape between our fans and us.

Why do you think fans have been so dedicated to your band whether you're signed to a major label or not?
I think there's candor and a certain amount of passion that's evident in our videos, music and what we do. I also think there's a certain amount of consistency and by that I mean we are who we are and we do what we do. I think people like that.

Do you have any tips do you have for someone else looking to start their music career on YouTube a similar platform?
I don't think it's all about talent at all. You have to be hardworking since a lot goes into making videos. There's a lot of time, a lot of thought, a lot of planning going into each video. So hard work, dedication, consistency and honesty are very important.

Your band has covered many songs on your YouTube channel, but which has been your favorite and why?
I'd have to say the "Story of My Life" cover video that we did because we toured with the One Direction guys and we're friends with them before they were even huge and it's a song of theirs that I just think is the coolest to date. It's the first time we all had regular singing parts and it was just fun.

Your latest cover is Jesse McCartney's 2004 song "Beautiful Soul." Why did you guys choose to do that one?
We like to cover songs that are relevant and we put our spin on it and we pick the songs we pick with thinking they'll get people the most excited... We think "Beautiful Soul" has a really beautiful message at its core and it has good lyrics and it was a great pop song when it came out. Our challenge was to see if we could do it acoustically now and have people still love it. It's fun for us.

Do you have a personal favorite original song from your catalogue?
We don't really play it live anymore, but "Briane," which Alejandro and I wrote together about a friend of mine whose wife unexpectedly committed suicide and that was a moment that really affected me and got me thinking. We wrote that song and put it out and it wound up having a really positive effect on a lot of people... I think it's the first song my brother and I ever co-wrote together.

Are you currently working on new music?
Yes! We're actually really excited because we are moving pretty quickly along with finishing up our second full-length album. There are so many songs we're excited about... That's the next big thing for us; to release this album and tour for it.

Tags: Boyce Avenue