Tour: ‘It’s kind of crazy’

as their fans, or “Rushers,” refer to them — and fellow Nickelodeon TV star Victoria Justice launched their “Summer Break Tour” last Friday at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Los Angeles. The tour stops Sunday at Oklahoma City’s Chesapeake Energy Arena.

“They’re very down-toearth guys, and they’re really funny. Like when you get all four of them together, it’s just guaranteed to be a good time. They crack me up,” Justice said in a separate phone interview.

Schmidt acknowledges that he and his bandmates — James Maslow, 22; Carlos Pena, 23; and Logan Henderson, 23 — tend to be a dynamic combo.

“When all four of us are together, it’s kind of crazy. I don’t think we’re nearly that energetic apart. Like in my own personal life, I don’t think I’m that crazy. So that’s definitely something that happens when we come together,” Schmidt said from L.A.

In the spirit of the 1960s sitcom “The Monkees,” the Nick show, which launched in 2009, follows the fictional lives of four high school friends who move to Los Angeles, ink a record deal and become a charttopping boy band.

At the same time, the foursome makes the original music that makes the series. Their current “Summer Break” is their fourth tour and it’s supporting their third album, “24/Seven,” which they released June 10 through Nick’s partnership with Columbia.

“You can imagine, being that all four of us were writing, by the time we came to assembling it, we had like 60 songs. So it was really hard to choose and ... when we did, we just tried to make it as easy as possible and just say ‘Look, best song wins.’ And that’s how we did it. And this album is full of just the best picks of what everyone wrote,” said Schmidt, who has been acting since he was 11 years old.

“We’re proud of it because, yeah, a lot of people say that they write their music. But I think 13 out of 15 of these songs we literally wrote ... and I don’t think it really happens that often with like TV show projects.”

Before “Big Time Rush,” the Wichita, Kan., native had earned acting credits on series like “Frasier, “Gilmore Girls” and “CSI: Miami,” but as a teen, Schmidt also started his own band, Heffron Drive.

“The lessons that I’ve learned in the last four years of songwriting have been probably the most priceless parts of it,” Schmidt said.

“That’s what I want to do most, honestly, in my career after — you know, I don’t know how long Big Time Rush goes — but after that, I would love to write songs for other people and write songs for myself.”

Schmidt said he hasn’t heard for sure if the TV show will be back for a fifth season.

“Even if there isn’t a TV show, the music continues on. We still have a record deal as well.”

While he and his bandmates are close friends — they often vacation together and are planning another group holiday after their Mexico shows in August — Schmidt said they are looking to the future beyond BTR.

“We all support each other. ... I think everybody wants to like express themselves in their own individual way coming up soon, you know, because we all are in our early 20s. I think everyone’s itching to kind of do whatever music they want to do. At the same, we all know that Big Time Rush is an amazing band,” said Schmidt, who recently played some Heffron Drive acoustic shows in Germany.

“It really is a dream come true. You know, people who have a sort of job like this say all the time, ‘It’s a dream come true.’ And it really is. But it’s so much more than that. It’s more than I can really put into words. But I’m kind of having a great time, and I’m only looking forward to the future.”