(December 7, 2007) PCM's Erin spoke with Emmanuel and Carlos from MTV's Making Menudo. The young men competed against 15 other young hopefuls to win one of five coveted spots in the newest version of Menudo! See what they have to say about the fame, fans, and each other….

August 2008 Update: We caught up with Chris from Menudo, check out our interview with him here!

M: How're you doing?

E: Good, how are you?

M: Pretty good.

E: So you are traveling in your tour bus. Where exactly are you right now?

M: We're actually in Palm Springs, well past Palm Springs actually. We've just been working hard. We're going to be performing in the Parade today over here in Palm Springs.

E: Very cool.

M: We're going to be getting the key to the city also.

E: Oh! That's so awesome, congratulations!

M: Thank you, thank you, appreciate it.

E: So how have your lives changed? I'm sure you're much busier, now that you're chosen for the top five?

M: Well right now our lives seem completely different, you know, from being home and like pretending to be a star, and being a performer right now we're really working hard, traveling. Going from place to place and really wondering, being a performer, you know really performing and assimilating the experience right now.

E: That's great. Have you gotten recognized on the street yet, as being famous?

M: Oh yes, a lot! There'll be sometimes all five of us will be just like walking and, sometimes even individually, we'll be walking, just going somewhere, like to the store, and all the sudden we'll just get mobbed by girls. "You're in Menudo!"

E: (laughing)

M: It's crazy, but we love it, we love the attention and we love our fans and we love their support. Without them we wouldn't be where we are right now.

E: That's awesome and I totally understand. So how do you keep in touch with your fans? I saw that you have MySpace, is that a good way?

M: Yeah, we have our MySpace slash Menudo page, and then at MySpace we have our own personal MySpace and they can reach us through iaminmenudo.com, that's another way to reach us. We are the ones who answer the fan mail back.

E: Oh, you are?

M: Yeah. We're the ones that answer back. So, it's awesome because seeing what they write and all that inspires us to keep doing what we love and we also have to say now that our numbers are on MySpace.com/menudo so everyone can call us and give us messages and we'll reply them back.

E: Oh very cool, I'll have to check that out.

M: Yeah.

E: Do you get any very strange request or questions from the fans?

M: Oh yeah, I mean we've gotten a crazy few. I mean pretty much there's always going to be some crazy questions. I mean we always look at the positive, never at negative because positive always beats out the negative anyways.

E: Of course. That's a good outlook.

M: We're having a blast right now working with the best of the best, some of the producers and stuff like Akon we've been working with.

E: Oh, very cool.

M: We're just having an awesome time.

E: Are you working on a full album? I see that your single's coming out soon but what about a whole album?

M: Oh yes, yes. We actually are working on the full album. We've recorded more than about 40 songs so I mean we have nothing but just hot tracks. Hits man! The complete album comes out in 2008. I think its spring or something like that.

E: Oh, okay.

M: Yeah, but we have this EP coming out December 18th at Target so everybody go buy December 18th.

E: Awesome. What kind of sound is your whole album going to have?

M: Well we have everything. We have from R&B to Hip Hop to Urban Pop to Latin. I don't know we have some crazy stuff there, some unique stuff, and just for everybody to enjoy and it's weird because it's not we're not just covering the pop angle because you know all of us have our own unique individual styles. So as far as my style I'm a hip hopster, I'm going to do a lot of R&B, and we got a lot of songs that are covering the hip hop side, we have a lot of songs that are covering the Latin side, the urban side. We got tracks that are going to be singing in English and Spanish. It's crazy. I'm very picky when it comes to music.

E: Are you?

M: I can guarantee that the fans are not going to be disappointed at all.

E: Oh good. We're happy to hear that. Can we talk about the show for a little bit?

M: Oh, sure, of course.

E: Were you taping in Miami, is that where you were?

M: Yeah.

E: How was that?

M: We were taping in Miami in South Beach and I mean it was just an all around great experience. It helped all 5 of us grow. Now we can definitely take a lot of criticism; we're used to pretty much performing in front of large, large crowds. As far as me and Emmanuel we always think before the show we had our own producers and we brought our own songs and our own beat. We always performed in front of people but as far as Monti and Chris and Jose they were pretty much new to the whole performing aspect. You know, they never really performed in front of large crowds like we had before. We were a little bit used to it. It's a little bit more tough to perform in front of a large crowd that includes Johnny Wright.

E: I'm sure!

M: After performing in front of that guy, we can perform in front of anybody. That guy is like he's just so blunt. He'll tell you straight up in your face "I don't like what you just did."

E: Oh no!

M: But he's an awesome dude. He knows what he wants and he made us who we are today.

E: The show in general there was 15 guys in 1 house, right? How was that?

M: Well, for me, I didn't have to pretend to be with the 15 guys because I was a surprise in the show. When I entered I was kind of afraid to not get along with some of the people but it was the other way when I came to the show it was like a whole new thing. Really, brotherhood and all that. It's awesome.

E: That's great. So did you get to meet the original cast of Menudo?

M: Actually we didn't, but we got to meet Charlie Mussel(?), one of the drummers back in the day. We also got to meet other celebrities that came on the show that were guest appearances. Funky J was there; Howie D from the Backstreet Boys was there, and Wilmer Valderrama was also there from Yo Momma and That 70's Show. There was a lot of influential people there. They were giving us advice, telling us about their show and how they tried to make it. Pretty much we learned a lot. It wasn't just like a TV show where we go and perform. People talked to us; people who had been in our situation.

E: Yeah, very cool. So you all grew up musically, with music in your households. What other kind of artists influenced you?

M: Well, this is Emmanuel, me, I think it was N*Sync because before I was a singer and a dancer but when I saw them perform it changed my whole way of seeing things.

E: Oh really?

M: [Emmanuel] N*Sync changed me. They're the ones who helped me sing at 13, 4 years ago. It wasn't easy because I don't have a musical background in my family. I'm the first one to do it, but its awesome how hard work really pays off.

[Carlos] I think for me, I grew up this way because I'm very very hip hop. I grew up listening to everything. Every single genre you can think of. I grew up listening to the 80's house music before I did my own generation of music because my father and uncle and aunt were break-dancers. They would always listen to 80's music, and always start break dancing, and I wanted to learn how to dance so they taught me. My father taught me how to dance. So I listened to 80's music, I grew up listening to Elvis. I would perform Elvis in talent shows when I was in elementary school. I would perform Garth Brooks, Enrique Iglesias just so many things. Now, right now, my favorite artist would be Chris Brown because the kid is just an awesome performer, and amazing dancer, and when he goes out there on stage he kills it!

E: He does. Did you see the MTV Music Award performance, with the black and white?

M: Yeah, I saw that, I saw that.

E: That was awesome, I loved that.

M: Yeah.

E: Okay, well what's next for you guys? Besides your album coming out is there a tour planned, or just special appearances?

M: Well we actually just got finished doing a lot of stuff. We've been in the Macy's Day parade; we've been in Hollywood Center, LA Center parade. Regis and Kelly also. We were in the Disney Christmas.
Yeah, the Disney Christmas special that is going to air on Christmas Day. We were on the KIIS Jo Jo Jam Tour. That is a tour from a radio station here in LA. It's awesome! We had a blast going to different schools and all that. Girls were going crazy.

E: I'm sure!

M: And, I mean it's just amazingly awesome, the feedback we get from them because on the Jo Jo Jam Tour we went to a lot of high schools and we performed but we don't have a single out yet. We have the pre single which is More Than Words, in Spanish, and a lot of the fans have heard it but it's not really an official single out there so it's not like everybody hears it on the radio all the time.

E: Yeah.

M: When we step foot on stage the girls were going nuts as if we've been around for years.

E: (laughing)

M: We loved it and it was an awesome feeling. We've got the Today show coming up, the Tonight show coming up. We've got so much stuff going on and pretty much we're starting already rehearsals for the commercial tour and we've got so many things planned, you know, and we're still also recording to make the album as hot as ever.

E: Oh my goodness. Do you have any free time at all?

M: Honestly? No.

E: (Laughing) No, not at all. Well, what did you do for fun when you do have time?

M: Well, we sleep. (laughing)

E: You probably don't get to do that too much. (laughs)

M: Yeah, sleeping is our hobby, but we really don't get to do our hobby too much.

E: Oh my gosh.

M: I mean, literally, it's been crazy this past week and I can honestly say within this past week we've literally traveled the whole country.

E: That's crazy.

M: It's been crazy because before, you know, none of us really traveled anywhere. We performed in wherever we were from. We're going around the country.

E: And now you've been everywhere!

M: Yeah.

E: Very cool. Have you ever been to Delaware? That's where we are.

M: No, never been there, but I'm excited to go.

E: And you should be excited because it's fun here and there's nothing to do, but it's fun anyway.

M: We drove through there though.

E: Oh, you did? Probably on i95? Probably right up I-95 to New York!

M: Probably. I was sleeping.

E: You were sleeping. See? You do get a chance to sleep.

M: Maybe a couple of hours on one of the tours. It was kind of weird on the tour bus, especially sleeping with the 5 guys because you know how we play pranks on each other.

E: Oh, do you? Everybody's probably scared to go to sleep.

M: I know, like, I lock the door because of that. I don't know, probably use some whipped cream or something like that.

E: Oh, the hand in hot water? Oh yeah.

M: (Laughing)

E: When you're on the road, do you have a chance to see your family and friends or how do you keep in touch?

M: Well, I think it depends when we can, because we're so busy and all that, but they give us a break sometimes in Christmas to share families with. We also have a guardian with us. A parent rotates each week. So we get to see our friends. Not that much, but we get to see them.

E: That's nice. Well, we'd like to get a better understanding of you guys as a group, so we have a type of superlative thing. So I'm going to give you a superlative and you're going to tell me what guy in the group best fits that description.

M: Okay

E: Are you ready?

M: Yeah.

E: Okay, who's the funny guy in the group?

M: I would have say, I think we're all funny but Emmanuel got a unique funny. You know, because his accent is strong. We all love his accent. He's gotten so much better at English. He can say anything, you can understand him, but just the way he talks; he'll be so serious and we'll just start laughing. You know?

E: That's funny. Okay. Who is the one that's most likely to get the girl?

M: Well, I have to say Carlos is like the lady's man. He's always hooking up with girls, so yeah.

E: Okay, how about the trouble-maker.

M: I'd have to say all of us. We get in trouble in different ways, but all of us.

E: Okay. Who's the sweet one?

M: The sweet one? There is no sweet one!

E: There is no sweetness here! How about momma's boy?

M: (talking over one another) I want to repeat that 50,000 times, Monti.

E: Okay, who has the best smile? I know you're guys but…

M: I don't want like brag or anything, but it's me, Carlos, you know.

E: Awesome. Who has the worst hair?

M: That would be Monti.

E: Okay, who is the one who's most likely to get carded at the movies?

M: Chris of course, because Chris looks really young, like 15.

E: Does he?

M: Yeah.

E: Oh my gosh, so young. Okay, who's the best dressed? Best fashion taste?

M: It's that we all have different styles and we all look good in our own way.

E: You all look good?

M: Yeah, you know, we try.

E: Okay, cool. Who's the slacker?

M: The slacker… The what?

E: The slacker, the laziest.

M: Oh, Jose.

E: Okay, last one, who is the messiest? Who just makes your tour bus a mess?

M: Jose. Yeah, Jose.

E: All right, very cool.

M: We all work hard in the way we are. You know, we all pretty much trash it, but Jose takes that spot for right now.

E: He wins, right now. (laughs)

M: Yeah.

E: Okay well that's all we have. I want to thank you so much for calling us.

M: Thank you!

E: And good luck with everything, and go take a nap!

M: Okay, (laughs), appreciate it. We'll be seeing you in Delaware soon!

E: Oh, thank you. I hope you do come.

M: Bye.

E: Bye!