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Random.
 Andy-Iese Tolo-Paepa is in the same room as an extremely loud stereo system, and Tolo-Paepa - or Jesse, as he's better known - opts to take the cordless phone out of the lounge room and shuts the door behind him. This of course, creates further problems with the line's reception so eventually the music is shut down completely.
Tolo-Paepa, together with Xy Latu, brothers TJ and Wayne Tauvao, and their cousin Donald make up Random, inaugural winners of Channel Ten's latest mega-scaled talent quest, The X-Factor. For those who may not know, Random are not just a group by name, but also by nature thanks to their impromptu formation during the long hours lining up for the show's Brisbane auditions.
"We had met each other once before," he clarifies, "but just briefly. We met at a talent quest, where we just said to the [Tauvao] guys that we thought theirs was an awesome performance that night, and that we hoped to see them soon, and then we left. The next time we saw them was in the X-Factor audition line. Me and Xy were there together as Rough Diamonds so we both knew what we were capable of and TJ was going to audition as a solo artist in the 16 to 24 year old category, his older brother Wayne and Donald were just there for moral support. Because we had our guitars out we started to jam together and then we just said, 'Why don't we all go in as a group because we don't have anything to lose', you know? So we went in as a group, got through and then we won."
One would have thought that the sudden change of tack might easily have worked against them, due to all the time and preparation both camps took prior to the try outs.
"No, not at all," defends Tolo-Paepa of their decision and of the fortuitous-five's last minute choice of Gregory Abbott's Shake You Down as their audition song, "because we all performed the same flavour of music and we all love r'n'b. Because we had three main singers, we just divided the song up so everyone had a piece, and then we sang the chorus off the hook and everyone had their own harmonies, so it just all worked pretty well. We're just a group that formed with all of Australia's eyes on us, you know? Everyone could see what actually goes on with a group that's just starting up, and then all of a sudden we produced something that sounded really good, and because we were all joking around and stuff too they all seemed to love that side of us as well."
Given Tolo-Paepa and Latu's past history as Rough Diamonds, which played support slots for Sean Paul and KCi & JoJo, it comes as no surprise that the Aussie r'n'b outfit has now scored the much coveted Boyz II Men warm-up gig.
"Yeah, that's massive for us, eh?" he chimes. "Like for me, just to be able to sing with one of my idols I can't believe that we've actually got that. And it's not just only in Australia, but it's in New Zealand as well so it's a really big gig for us. [Growing up] I was surrounded by them, I had my sister who'd be listening to Boyz II Men and I'd be the little brother who used to steal her tapes to listen to."
Just a few days before our chat the guys played before the hip-hop artist simply known as Joe at Melbourne's Metro Theatre.
"That was unbelievable too," he states, "because we actually performed as Random for the first time, and when they were announcing us the crowd went wild and we were backstage and we could hear them call out, 'Random, Random, Random,' you know? And that's not even our city, so it was unbelievable to hear that."
With all this newfound attention shown towards the lads, and the high demands expected of them, I wondered if they're ready to take on the task.
"Throughout the show it was a huge learning process for us," he avows. "So moving from The X-Factor to the bigger stages when we tour around Australia will be hard to get used to at first, but what we've done on the show has helped us to be ready."
Steve Jones
 | Random are currently recording their debut album and will be touring with Boyz II Men in September. |
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