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R5 grew up listening to amazing bands, and INXS was one of those bands that they will always pay tribute to.

JustJaredJr.com spoke with writers/producers Ross and Rocky Lynch about their “Need You Tonight” cover that made the five-song cut on their new EP, New Addictions.

“The most recent time we toured in Australia, we covered ‘New Sensations’. One of the band members in INXS, he was tweeting it out and telling everyone how great it was. People really seemed to dig it,” Ross says of the random, but amazing cover the band did. “The 30th anniversary of the band is coming up and so, we did just another recorded version of this song for the EP.”

He adds, “We also grew up listening to INXS. They were one of the biggest influences of us starting R5. It was a lot of reasons [for us to include this song on the record].”

“Need You Tonight” might just be one you see R5 perform at their show tonight, too.

Ross says, “When it comes to our live shows, it’s very spontaneous. It’s very much a ‘we’re gonna get up there and we’re gonna change the set list around and play songs that we’ve never played before’.”

For instance, in New York a week before, is was so spontaneous that Ross forgot to tell everyone what he was doing.

“We had played ‘Fly Away’ by Lenny Kravitz, and it came together in a very spontaneous way. I had asked them all backstage if they knew how to play the song and got a unanimous ‘Yea…kind of.’ Nothing went wrong in the set at all, but for whatever reason, I just started to play the song, without any warning to anyone else. Everyone started playing it with me, thankfully, and it turned out really sweet.

“There are a lot of things like that where we’re not prepared but it works out.”

If you missed them, get the stories behind “If“, “Red Velvet“, “Lay Your Head Down” and “Trading Time“.

R5 love collaborating with their friends, and the story behind “Trading Time” is exactly that — the product of a jam session with Ocean Park Standoff.

Writer/producers Ross and Rocky Lynch opened up to JustJaredJr.com on how a jam session turned into one of the most meaningful songs on their new EP, New Addictions.

“A lot of people at the label were suggesting that we should meet and maybe write a song together, so we did and it started a great relationship,” Ross says of the bands’ meet-up. “We’re all really good friends now.”

He adds about the song, “‘Trading Time’ is the product of our first meeting. We were actually just hanging out in the studio and this came about. We were flirting with this idea that time is the most valuable currency that we all possess. With the chorus of the song, meaning, I’m giving you my most valuable currency in exchange for yours. It’s really a romantic song.”

We spoke more about how writing without deadlines and writing with friends tends to result in much more meaningful songs from R5.

“We’ve written songs for movies that I’ve been in,” Ross says, citing an upcoming song for Status Update that we’ll hear soon. “If it’s a situation like that, and there are certain deadlines, we have to finish a song. But as far as writing with friends — we only like to write with friends now.”

He adds more, “We’ve found that you can never really fall in love with a song that’s rushed. The way we like to write is truly, 100% encouraged and motivated and we’re feeling the music, or when it’s with friends and we’ve having a really good time.”

“That’s when the best songs come from us. We do try to work really hard and we want to release new and more music all the time. We’re in the studio every day.”

If you missed them, get the stories behind “If“, “Red Velvet” and “Lay Your Head Down“.

R5‘s brand new EP, New Addictions is out in less than five days now, and JJJ fans are getting more anxious to hear the new music.

JJJ exclusively spoke with writer/producers Ross and Rocky Lynch about probably the most suggestive of all the tracks on their EP, “Red Velvet”.

“This is the most sensual song on the EP,” Ross told JJJ without questions. “Very suggestive.”

“That song came about actually during our holiday in Colorado. We always like to go back home for the holidays in the mountains and we play hockey there, only this past winter, the lake didn’t freeze over, so we were actually stuck in the house. The house had a piano and I had just started to play this riff and it turned into ‘Red Velvet’,” he adds. “Most of the song that you hear on the EP, is a voice memo that I created off a one take where Rocky and I were just jamming.”

Rocky adds about the making of the track, “With that song, Ross just recorded just a little piano and vocal in just one take and then one night, was just feeling myself (laughs) and ended up going in our house studio around 10 at night and put his little voice memo up and produced the entire song for the whole night. Before I knew it, it was actually like six in the morning after all that.”

“Something happens when you just get in this zone when writing or creating and just everything just feels so good,” he added. “[The result] was exactly what I wanted and it was awesome.”

Ross also gave a tip to fans when listening to it — turn it all the way up.

“When you listen to this song, when you close your eyes and turn it up really loud and it’s just a ‘feel’ song.”

Stay tuned for more stories behind the songs of R5‘s new EP, New Addictions.

With just five days to go until R5‘s brand new EP, New Addictions, JJJ set out to find out the story behind their new songs.

Writer/producers Ross and Rocky Lynch opened up about them all in our exclusive interview.

“If” is the first song off of their EP, and as Ross reveals, this wasn’t the original title at all.

“We had a bunch of different titles that we were going to call it and we kept switching it. We ended up going with “If” just because we think it sounds the most intriguing,” he says. “If you see the word ‘If’, you’re going to wonder what it’s about; and the song really is about wonder.”

He adds, “It’s our take on a modern love story. We all have social media and are all constantly on our phones looking at Instagram girls and whatnot and ‘If’ asks the question of ‘what could we be together’. This is someone you’ve never ever met before and you play a whole scenario in your head where you imagine a life together.”

The lyrics aren’t truly suggestive in nature, but the tongue-in-cheek meaning is there.

“In the second pre-chorus, we say stuff like ‘cool like icicle’ and it’s a little cheeky,” Ross admits.

He adds, “This song too was only written in two days. Often times, we have a longer writing process where we’ll stay on a song from weeks to months. There’s really no time limit on them, but we like to make all our songs the best that they could be. “If” just happened fairly quickly and we were maybe pushing a deadline (laughs). We had to get it done.”

Stay tuned to JJJ for more stories behind the songs of R5‘s new EP.

R5 are just days away from releasing their all-new EP, New Addictions.

JJJ had the chance to speak with Ross and Rocky Lynch about the new record, and got the scoop on all their new songs and more.

But before we reveal the stories behind the songs, Ross and Rocky gave us five amazing recommendations of new artists to put on our playlists asap.

Spoiler: over half of the recs are of their friends’ bands.

“I know we’re naming our friends, and I don’t know if we’re just lucky to be friends with them or we’re in a certain place where you think that your friends make the best hits,” Ross says.

“I don’t know what it is, but I honestly do love all of their music.”

Check out the artists that R5 recommends you put on your playlist asap…

R5 are just making our week!

The band not only announced a release date for their New Addictions EP — May 12th — but they also shared three new sneak peeks of their songs!

Ross Lynch, Riker Lynch, Rydel Lynch, Rocky Lynch and Ellington Ratliff have released a new listen to “Red Velvet“, “If”, and “Lay Your Head Down” all on their Instagram.

We seriously, can not handle this! We need the full songs asap!

R5 is in New York City right now, preparing for their concert TOMORROW! Are you going?

R5 have just announced the release date for their New Addictions EP, and fans are shook.

The band –Ross Lynch, Riker Lynch, Rydel Lynch, Rocky Lynch and Ellington Ratliff — have been teasing fans with new music (like “Red Velvet” which you can taste here), but now there is a solid, totally real, it’s-finally-coming day to look forward to.

Friday, May 12, is the day the R5 Family should mark on their calendars, because that’s the day New Addictions is coming to you!

Thank you, Riker, for spreading the news!

See what fans have to say about it… inside!
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