Photo by Shuran Huang/For The Washington Post
The consistently viral band Boy Throb announced last month that member Darshan Magdum’s visa has finally been approved, teasing the band’s next era and forthcoming tour. Washington Post Creator spoke to band members Anthony Key, Evan Papier and Zachary Sobania ahead of the group’s first concert — which was held amid speculation by the government and some online fans that they are an elaborate prank — to draw attention to Magdum’s visa challenges.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Dylan Wells: You are musicians, but I would also consider you creators. You all had a preexisting online presence, and social media has been huge for Boy Throb’s success. How do you think about your approach to social media?
Evan Papier: We started as content creators, but we don't see ourselves as that anymore. We are pushing past that arc of the content creation, because content creation was our key into the industry — ooh, write that bar down. But when it comes to content creation, we knew what it takes to get into this industry, and we had to do what we had to do.
DW: How do you feel like social media has changed the journey into music? To your point, it's very hard to break into this industry, and you've been able to leverage it to have this show today.
Anthony Key: I think it comes from doing something original. We came into the world of “boy bands are dead.” So we knew that if we were going to make a boy band, it has to be something different.
EP: Not K-pop though! Not K-pop. K-pop still had its boy bands
AK: Yeah I'm talking about in the American market.
EP: Just want to clarify that, because we know how it works.
AK: [I’m a] huge BTS fan. But in the American market if we want to do a group, what's something that no group has ever seen before? Therefore we have pink track suits, we have members who are very, very different. We have one that's not even in the country. I just feel like it's kind of a mixture that has worked together and in a storyline that people can follow. We're not just like here's a band, here's our music. It's like no, we have a story, and I think that's what has attracted these fans is that they want to be a part of the story. We're making history.
DW: How hands-on are you guys with your content? With figuring out the different videos you're gonna make, the funny edits — are you guys doing that yourself? Do you have a team doing that?
AK: Well, the thing that we actually spend the most time on is harmonies. We pride ourselves on being a vocal group over anything. I would say out of everything else that we do, I mean, yes, we have friends that will film videos for us. I know that you know [Sobania will] do some edits and things like that, but the main thing that we want to go over are our harmonies.
EP: Music is our backbone, and like without music, we don't think we'd be doing this today, because we want to be putting out music. We want to be singing for y'all. We want to bring back what harmonies used to be.
DW: Do you ever get inspiration for your songs from social media?
AK: Oh, sure.
EP: I think our music definitely comes just from being with each other and creating music together. We want to be different in the music we make. And that's why, we love all the stuff we've done because it's something that is so different than what people are making right now. “Number One Boy,” “Finger,” and “Can't Stop the Throb,” are so different sonically, but they're so beautiful together in a catalog.
DW: Are the next big pop stars all going to come from social media, like yourselves?
EP: I would say that a lot of people already have. If you look at the way the industry has gone on, a lot of the people who have gotten some push on social media are getting these record deals, are getting these huge distribution deals, and this is what's pushing forward the industry these days. I will say it's taken a little bit of a backseat compared to the way it was when the pandemic really hit and that was the main launching point. But I think right now that there's a nice balance in between finding music organically and finding artists to sign organically, and then also finding it through the age of social media. Because marketing is everything, and that's something that we have learned so much while doing this.
DW: You said the spur for your first concert was that the government thinks you are satire. You have a lot of fans who think you're satire as well, or think that this is all part of some bit. How do you respond to that and think about the presence you're putting out there?
EP: We know the government isn't taking us seriously right now. It's a waiting game. We're not going to be impatient. We're going to work to get their approval [for Magdum’s visa] and their belief that we are real. And to all the fans who say that as well, like the fans that are here today, those show us that we are real and we couldn't do it without them. Those are the ones that keep us going on and pushing.
DW: Who is your favorite creator you're watching online, or what is it that you're opening up when you're scrolling after a long day of rehearsal?
AK: I kind of doom scroll, so I'm seeing a lot of different creators all over the place. I’ve just been loving other artists, such as Katseye, and just love the journey that they're making.
Zachary Sobania: For me, like a lot of TikTok dancers, like Jersey Joe, the @danch.merk.
EP: Jersey Joe, we need to get with — not get with him, but we need to like work with him.
ZS: There's Nick Kosir, the dancing weatherman guy.
EP: Yes! You collabed with him, didn't you? Mr. Humble over here.
This Q+A is part of Verified, a newsletter that is published by Washington Post Creator, a new business outside The Washington Post’s newsroom that is focused on the creator economy and content partnerships with independent creators. Learn more about Washington Post Creator.
