Boys World On Their Latest EP me, my girls & i, & Festival Life

No matter what you’re going through in life, Boys World always has your back. The five-piece girl group sits comfortably in front of the camera during their Zoom interview with StyleCaster. “Out of 10, how bad does a breakup feel?” Makhyli asks the group. Almost immediately, Olivia, Queenie, Elana, and Lillian shout out numbers that exceed the parameters: “Eleven!” “Fifteen.” “Twenty!” The girls laugh and say it depends on the person who broke up with them. Elana reels them back in with a poignant truth. “One thing that can get you through a breakup, but also won’t get you there in the moment, is that you will always be okay,” she says. The rest nod in agreement. She continues, “You’ll think back and say ‘Wow, I was really sobbing heartbroken and I can’t even cry now.’ Time does actually heal.”

Breakups, heartaches, going out with your girls, and absolute boss energy are all central themes to their latest EP, me, my girls & i The eponymous single’s music video shows the girls getting over a breakup at a hot pink-filled sleepover while they sing, “Heartbreak, that’s a rite of passage / You don’t have time to be a sad bitch, so come on!” Every song on the EP is sprinkled with determined messages of keeping yourself up above water after a falling out, but some songs also delve into the myriad of emotions you feel right after it.

The members of Boys World aren’t strangers to these complicated feelings. Formed in 2019 by KYN Entertainment, the fivesome moved in together after being scouted online, right before the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the course of four years, the Gen Z girl group (whose name is an acronym for Best of Yourself) shared their individual experiences of falling in and out of love with each other and pushed those emotions into their songs and on social media. “It feels so natural,” Olivia says about living as a group and their growing confidence. “We went through the stage of individuality. We are different, but we are one. I think that helped us grow like a self of individual competence of ‘I know who I am and I know when I can incorporate it into the group.’”

Now, they’re ready to show themselves to everyone IRL with their stunning pop vocals and choreography. The group performed their first festival on May 13, 2023, in San Diego, California, and will embark on a mini-tour called an EAST COAST SUMMER in August 2023. StyleCaster caught up with the girls to talk about writing their EP, crying in the studio, and dressing up as men for TikTok.  

What was the story behind the song “me, my girls, & I?” How did it all come about? 

Olivia: We wanted a girl’s night out anthem—one that you could pregame with. Honestly, one that really embodies the feeling after the summer of 2022 when we went through heartbreak, healed, and we got each other out of our beds, out of our heads, and put on the m-fing dress. All the lyrics in “me, my girls & I” are very personal. We wanted to create a mantra of “Head up you know you a bad bitch” and all that to say, “Yes I am!” It’s something to put on when you’re doing makeup.

Lillian: It’s a song to put on repeat that just feels good, like an affirmation.

Olivia: We just wanted to write a song that was about getting up, shaking ass, not being sad and being there with your girls.

You performed the song for the first time in front of an audience a couple of weeks ago. What was that experience like? 

Olivia: It was the first time being on a big ass stage. Performing an unreleased song at the same time as being on a big stage for the first time was surreal. 

Queenie: Also, when you’re performing in front of people who don’t know who you are and where it’s just a festival and you’re performing at the festival, it’s really exciting to see so many people run up to the stage. When the intro played, I saw people come up to the stage and it gave me this adrenaline rush. Like “Oh shit, I gotta pick it up. I gotta perform.”

Elana: We always get so excited to perform something that’s unreleased and see how the crowd reacts. Also, the dancing that we did for that song we choreographed some of it ourselves so that was exciting, too.

Do you girls have any pre-show rituals to pump you up? 

Lillian: We do a little huddle. We just kind of all chip in and say something motivating. 

Olivia: Remembering your whys. “Why you’re doing this”

Queenie: Also remembering certain things in the show that we’ve changed that day.

Makhyli: We also do a mini-speech.

Olivia: Also this hand thing where we say “1, 2, 3, Boys World!” but we have to work on the timing of that. 

What was it like when you were recording songs in the studio? Were there any funny memories that happened?

Elana: When I was in the booth recording “Funeral,” I had my own ritual where I brought up pictures of a time of my life when I was going through a breakup and it was just really traumatic for me. I sang while looking at the pictures and it really helped bring out the emotion. It got me through so much. So that really helped, but I thought at the time it’s not really funny but I guess it’s funny now. 

Makhyli: There’s a funny-not-funny moment but we were doing an interview on the couch and Olivia starts crying in the booth while we were filming a food haul. She comes out and we were like “Should we keep going?” and then the cameraman pans over and we were like “we got the content.”

Olivia: I had to walk out because I was reaching a place in my freaking head that it was just hard not to cry about it. Hopefully, we hear it in the vocals. That I was actually crying in there. 

Lilian: This does not match the song at all, but “me, my girls, & I.” When we were recording and I don’t remember why, it was just a really hard day for me and I had just gotten finished crying when I recorded my second verse part. I was sobbing right before I recorded. 

Elana: We’re not always sad in the studio!

Olivia: There’s a fun story about “me, my girls, &  I.” The clinking that you hear in the beginning is actually live. Me and Lillian actually did take a shot during that writing process. We were taking a shot with the other writer and the producer.

What was your favorite song to personally write or record? 

Queenie: “Mantrum” just because my verse was disrespectful and I relate to it so much. 

Elana: “Mantrum” was special because it was just very exciting to see everybody get on there. I like “So What.” I felt like that was the easiest to record. I left early because my mom was in town I remember. But I just went in there, did my verse. I was like, “All right, bye!”

Makhyli: I love “Wrong Side.” Something about stripped back and the power we’re giving, it blows my mind.

Lillian: That was definitely my favorite too. It was a breakthrough for our vocal producer and I at the time because I always had this problem where I would hold my voice deep in my throat. That was a bad habit that I used to do. So this song was the first time where I projected out and was not holding back. 

Makhyli: Me and Lil had similar but different issues. He literally was like, “Grab a piece of candy, you’re gonna grab Skittles and put it in your mouth. Put in your tongue.” We got like sciency in there and because have a lot of tongue tension. It was a bit crazy, but it worked out and I got some candy in the process.

Being a Gen Z girl group, your social media presence is amazing. What goes into planning a TikTok video or a series like “Boys Talk,” where you’re sitting in a car and talking about your personal lives?

Olivia: I mean, we’ve always wanted to have a podcast, but we can’t really have a podcast. So we’re like, TikTok podcast, let’s do that!

Makhyli: We want to stay close to the fans at the end of the day, like using Discord with them.

Lillian: We’re always used to seeing things that other people do that work. And we’re thinking, “Okay, how can we turn this into a girl group kind of thing?” I feel like that’s what sets us apart from a lot of other groups.

Queenie: It’s not even a girl group thing. It’s a Boys World thing because Boys World is fucking chaotic. So we turn this into a chaotic like series.

Olivia: We usually have a content day, every week where we think maybe four videos that we post throughout the week. 

Elana: The other day, we did a “Boys Talk” dressed up as men. We also did a dance battle dressed as men, so we’re excited.

What are you looking forward to for the rest of the year as a band? 

Queenie: We’re performing on the East Coast and plan for four shows, some in New York and Toronto.

Makhyli: I would love to make some new merch. We’re going to go on PicsArt and make new things.

Olivia: New merch, more fans, East Coast tour.

Elana: We’re wearing all the hats here. We gotta be creative. 

Queenie: We’re currently figuring out our setlist right behind the laptop.

Do you have any spoilers for the setlist?

Lilian: It’s gonna be a lot longer than what we’ve been doing. It’s double the show. There’s gonna be some little surprises that you wouldn’t really expect. We’re doing more than just dancing and singing. 

Makhyli: We might have something that’s a little bit worrisome. *Everyone laughs* You’ll see it on social media.

me, my girls & i by Boys World is out on June 23, 2023.