Tony Oller and Malcolm David Kelley of MKTO talk about their inspirations and new music [Exclusive]

TCC: Who are your musical inspirations?

TO: A lot. I love everybody from Kurt Cobain to anything Dave Grohl does. Michael Jackson, Justin Timberlake, I mean the list goes on. We got to hang out with a man by the name of Steve Perry, the singer of Journey, that's an influence of mine. I think it's all over the board.

TCC: I can tell. The first song you played as I was walking over sounded so different I wasn't sure it was you.

TO: That's the one thing, we want to make it to where the music's always evolving, and making the weird stuff I feel like is cool. It's not trying to fit in anywhere, it's just being unique. Sometimes the music needs that.

TCC: Do you change your performance style or anything when playing at different venues like the Topsfield Fair vs. stadiums?

TO: We try to, when we have our personal tours and stuff it's kind of a big party in a way, to a certain extent, nothing too crazy. It's all ages here [at the Topsfield Fair] and we try to be respectful of parents bringing their kids so we don't say the F bomb and stuff like that — which I don't think is needed either way. I think we get plenty of energy just off the performance and enjoying it. Because I feel like if we're enjoying it, [the crowd is] gonna enjoy it with us. It's just important to — we want the kids to enjoy it, we want the families to enjoy it.

TCC: Do you think your audience has expanded in terms of who it reaches as MKTO has grown?

MK: Definitely. I also think, especially with this EP that we put out, and we've been doing a lot of college tours so that's kind of our age group and definitely going with this new EP, we were singing and they were feeling it. The first album was kind of poppy.

TO: Which we like pop music.

MK: Yeah we love pop music, but we're adding that mature sound a little bit. We wanted to grow a little bit with the music and try something new but still keep it us by getting involved with all genres. We think it will speak to all sorts of groups.

TCC: Have you had any crazy fan experiences yet?

TO: We have some every once in a while. There's always some interesting — especially during touring, we have a bus and people kind of know which bus is ours and they'll just be all around it. Thankfully there's some kind of security. It's flattering, it's cool. We just very appreciate everybody that cares about our music.

TCC: How was the experience of the Emblem3 tour?

TO: That was a trip. It was a great experience. We learned a lot. You can't party as we once did. Because, it's just one thing we learned about from especially touring and traveling, it's a lot of traveling. It's very easy to get sick and at the end of the day, as much as we love it, it's also a job and we've got to treat it seriously. So we put that in the forefront, we just try to make sure we're being adults in the situation and when we have our personal time, we have our personal time but, we love it.

TCC: Since you came out around the same time as other young, male groups like Emblem3 and 5 Seconds of Summer,  how did you go about standing out?

TO: Just be us. I think there's always gonna be great artists. We live in a really talented world of really talented people. There's always gonna be people coming up. I think  the one thing you can do is just focus on your lane of music and do the best you can. I'm a firm believer in if stuff is supposed to happen it will, and it's out of your hands, all you can do is do the best you possibly can and work hard. At the end of the day if it's meant to be it will be. But I'm a fan of 5 Seconds of Summer. I don't think Emblem3 is together anymore... but that was an awesome opportunity they gave us to experience — just to tour, our first tour.

TCC: What's next, after tonight?

TO: We go home [to LA tomorrow] for a little bit, then we're back on the road. We've got like four shows this month. It's nice though. This was the first time in a few years we've really been home — this past month was the longest we've ever been home.

TCC:  How do you feel about how far you've come since you started?

TO: I'm very thankful. We just kind of want to keep — any time we get to do something we love, we're very appreciative. Hopefully it continues to grow. If not, we love acting, it's something we'd always love to continue to do and will continue to do either way. But if [music] works out great, if not it's been a fun ride.

You can follow MKTO on social media at @WeAreMKTO and check out their website.