X Factor- THE BROOKS twins // Interview, Live Review & Photoset

Meet Josh and Kyle Brooks; they may only be fifteen but are already making waves on the UK music scene. Already garnering comparisons to the likes of Justin Bieber, the Cardiff twins’ fan-base is growing by the day. And if you haven’t already recognised the twins from their X Factor audition (which has over 220,000 views on YouTube), then their cheeky charm and soulful harmonies will be on your radar very soon. Est.1987 headed down to spend the day with the twins as they performed at Thorpe Park for the Showcase Live wrap party. 

Click below for a live review, photo set and to hear what the boys said about that X Factor audition, being compared to Jedward and being tweeted by Chris Brown…

Kyle takes on the Angry Birds dodgems

Showcase live has been taking over Thorpe Park every Saturday this summer delivering the newest wave in musical acts to rollercoaster revellers. Today sees the season come to an end and what a finale it is, seeing the likes of Bailey McConnell, Canary Swing and Freddie Calls perform before The Brooks headline the afternoon. We caught up with the twins, Kyle and Josh, to have a natter, watch them perform, oh and ride the odd rollercoaster, or ten!

The Brooks twins rehearse backstage for their Thorpe Park performance

Practice makes perfect

First up- riding some 'coasters and watching the boys perform. Fans have been following the boys around the park en masse all day, so when it comes time to perform it’s no wonder that the stage is a sea of screaming girls, excited to see their new favourite X Factor auditionees. Joined on stage by just an acoustic guitar, the boys have nowhere to hide vocally, and as soon as the first song kicks in they prove that they don’t need to. Having only been singing together for the last six months the twins are new to performing, however they have the crowd in the palm of their hands. Opening the set with Katy Perry’s ‘ET’ the pair perfectly harmonise and deliver sweet melodies, much to the joy of the hundreds of fans who scream back in sheer delight. The crowd is growing by the minute as Kyle and Josh invite them to take part in a mammoth selfie with them. Keeping the set fresh, they mix things up a little and turn their attention to one of their original tracks, ‘Cinderella’. Admitting that this is the first time they have played it live, the mellow infectious pop-song wins everyone over and the crowd sings out as though it were a well-known hit. And the twins top off the set and indeed Showcase Live with a Michael Jackson medley to rapturous applause.

Kyle taking time out to catch up on fans' Tweets

The hundreds of fans aren’t quite ready for the set to be over just yet and scream their way into getting The Brooks to perform one more song. They may only be 15 and not old enough to quite remember Usher in his hey-day, however their impromptu rendition of ‘U Got It Bad’ is stripped back and near perfect. The highlight of the show, it brings their set to a successful end. If you didn’t know the cheeky twosome before today, then they have certainly made their mark on the Thorpe Park crowd, from all the screaming done not on the rides.

Stay tuned to see if The Brooks make if to the live shows on X Factor- watch them on bootcamp TONIGHT!

After a fun packed day of rollercoasters and music the twins took some time out for a chill and to catch up with us about their X Factor experience so far...

The twins ride STEALTH

Your audition for X Factor went incredibly well. How have you been dealing with how crazy things have gotten since then?

JOSH- We love it’s been crazy, it feels so unreal and hasn’t really sunk in yet

KYLE- It’s so overwhelming…

J- I didn’t expect it at all; all these screaming girls shouting our names

K- It’s not even that, it’s when you come to places like Thorpe Park and Soccer Six, people have paid money to come and see you; it’s amazing to know that they’re behind you wherever you go. I’ve seen people today that I saw at X Factor and at Soccer Six.

Have you always sung together?

K- It’s always been a natural thing for us…

J- We’ve always done it since we were young, we grew up singing together but it was only six months ago that we actually decided to officially do it as a two-piece.

Would you have ever considered auditioning separately?

J- When we were younger we were like, “Yeah, I want to be a solo artist and do my own thing”, but then you grow up and realise it’s better together. It’s a lot nicer having each other, I prefer it. Because we’re twins, we’re so close.

K- It’s weird to think that it’s all happening so fast, it’s scary.

J- It’s like another life, our life has changed so much from what we were doing; from being in school but now playing gigs and having fans coming to see us.

Kyle and Josh on STEALTH

Practising those harmonies

You’re 15; the X Factor has lowered the age limit so under 16s can audition. Some people have criticised the show for allowing younger people to audition; how would you respond to that?

K- I don’t feel we’re too young at all. If we go far in the competition, or even if we don’t, it has built us a platform for our music. It has changed our life; it’s mind blowing.

You’ve been compared to Justin Bieber, he started young as well; do you take that comparison as a compliment?

K- Yeah, definitely. I think people compare us to him because he started singing in church just like we did and people say we look like the Bieber twins without snapback caps on [laughing].

J- We do look up to Bieber a lot; we like his style and his music. Not a lot of boys would maybe admit to that, but we do.

K- One reason we wore bandanas is to try and keep away from the Bieber snapback look and also the Jedward comparisons; we have to be careful about that [laughing]. But yeah, we aren’t on the show trying to be the Bieber twins, we want to go on there and be ourselves.

J- A key thing of being an artist is being unique.

STEALTH

Backstage at Thorpe Park

And we hear Chris Brown is already a fan of yours?

J- Yeah, we had an interview with a local paper and we were talking about artists we liked and mentioned Chris Brown and then he ended up retweeting us after he heard he inspired our music. That was amazing!

How would you sum up your musical style then?

J- Pop and RnB.

K- Right now it’s more pop, but we want it to go more into RnB eventually. We covered Usher in our set earlier; we love him.

So, finally; as we know you’re twins but do you have telepathy?

J- [Laughing] Well, on X Factor, they put in a bit about how we wee together, when one of us needs the toilet then the other one does [laughing]. A lot of people have been asking us about this. It sounds quite weird; we don’t wee together

K- Well sometimes, there was an odd time we needed the toilet at the same time. Josh always needs the toilet [laughing]. One thing that is weird is sometimes he’s thinking of a song, and without me knowing I then start singing it randomly. Weird [laughing].

Thanks Josh and Kyle and good luck in X Factor! Watch their first audition below...

www.twitter.com/TheBrooks191