Top of the Pops

Not only do Ike, Tay and Zac sing in a band together; they speak at the same time, have the same thoughts and, even spookier, hardly ever fight.

TOTP: Why is it that you three all seem to want to talk at once? One at a time now.
ZAC: Well...
IKE: It’s because..
TAY: Hahaha, it’s true we do! I think it’s a combination of being brothers, working together and spending all our time together...
IKE: We always seem to know what each other’s gonna say..
TAY: Yeah and the weird thing is that we even do it when we’re not doing interviews. We’ll just be at home and we seem to know what each other is thinking...then we just
come out with it at the same time!
ZAC: We look at each other as if to say, ‘What’s going on?’
TAY: It’s spooky!

TOTP: Are you still sharing the same bedroom?
ZAC: Yep, we’re still all in the same room, but we kind of like it like that.
IKE: Yeah, I mean we have huge hotel rooms on tour but there’s no place like home.
TAY: I like to be squashed in with my brothers - we have such a laugh even if it is kind of a squeeze.

TOTP: But now baby Zoe’s on the scene does it mean young Mackie moved out of your parent’s room and in with you lot as you predicted last Christmas?
[A worried silence from the boys]
IKE: Hmmm, well he’s definitely moving out of our parent’s room but I hope he’s not moving in with us.
TAY: That would be tricky, we won’t be able to turn around if there’s four of us in there...
ZAC: Not if we want our Lego to fit in our room, too!

TOTP: It must be hard for your younger sisters and brother when you’re away from home so much.
IKE: I guess so, but they’re home-schooled too, so it means they can come away with us a lot of the time.
ZAC: Yeah, they love coming away with us. Sometimes, if it’s just a short trip or something we just go away with our dad, but mostly the whole family with us.
TAY: The thing is Jessica, Avery and Mac aren’t used to the different time zones. When they come over to Europe they’ll be like waking up at three in the morning because their bodies think it’s daytime!

TOTP: How come you three aren’t ripping each other’s hair out when you spend so much time together?
TAY: I think we have a pretty cool relationship...
IKE: Yeah, I mean we have to work together so there would be no point in fighting the whole time. Even when we do, we get it over pretty quickly.
ZAC: Yeah, sure we do. [Pulling Isaac over in mock fight] Aaaaarrrrrggh!
TAY: And besides, we’re all into doing the same stuff...you know...motorbikes, Lego, rollercoasters...

TOTP: Ahem, rollercoasters? Is that a hobby?
ALL THREE: Yeeeeaaaahh!
IKE: We love scary rides. We went on this ride in Canada - they tied us up together, attached us to a wire and pulled us 150ft in the air.
TAY: [Becoming rather excited] Yeah, and at the top there’s a little speaker and the controller asks if you’re ready and then...
ZAC: [Barely able to contain his excitement]...and then we say, ‘Yeah’, and you pull a ripcord and drop 150ft but all the time you’re hanging from a wire. It’s just like falling off a cliff. I would imagine!
TAY: To say it took my breath away is an understatement! Then again, I’d do it again tomorrow!

TOTP: Zac, you don’t look too sure?
ZAC: Ike and Tay aren’t usually worried about it. I’m the one who usually backs out. I may think I want to go on a ride and then when I’m actually at the top about to do it I change my mind and shout, ‘Oh my Gawd, what am I doing?’
TAY: Well, Zac can sometimes get a little bit of motion sickness, you know if we’re on a rocky plane ride or something!
ZAC: Yeah, and then I’m like, ‘Bleeeurrrrgh!’

TOTP: Surely, you must fight about who has to tidy your bedroom or do you employ someone to do your chores now you’re pop stars?
ZAC: No way! It’s good to get home to normality and do chores and stuff, in fact we even enjoy it!
IKE: Well, obviously we don’t want to do chores all the time but it is kinda good to be at home.
TAY: It keeps us down to earth. Being at home doing normal stuff keeps our feet on the ground.

TOTP: Don’t you sometimes wish you could be normal all the time instead of doing endless travelling, photoshoots and interviews?
TAY: We very rarely wish that!
IKE: We’ve always said that even though there’s a lot of work behind what we do we may as well be working at something we love.
TAY: When we started we were doing shows to about 15 people. That was interesting but we’d much rather be playing to thousands!
ZAC: So we have to keep working hard and giving the fans what they want. If they didn’t buy our records then we couldn’t carry on doing what we love best!