Kevin Jonas is the eldest member of the Jonas Brothers. The pop music group has been recording since 2006 and sold more than 20 million albums. The trio also has appeared on multiple TV reality series. The latest —Married to Jonas, featuring Kevin and his wife, Danielle — makes its debut Sunday on cable's E! Entertainment Television.
We caught up with Jonas recently to talk his tech.
Home automation
He had a Savant Systems unit for security, energy consumption and entertainment installed in 2010. "With all the travel I do, being able to know what was going on in my house when I wasn't there was very important to me."
Checking on his home – peace of mind on the road
He can monitor the action at his New Jersey home from anywhere in the world. "My doorbell (in New Jersey) rang. I got an alert on my phone, saying somebody was at the door, and it took me right to the camera. I was in Los Angeles, able to alert the authorities. And this person was escorted off the property." Without the automation, "I wouldn't have even known somebody was there."
Using an iPhone to turn off the lights
"From my bed, I can change the room temperature and adjust the lights without getting up, using the iPhone as a remote control."
On stage
When the band performs, Kevin Jonas used to use pedals plugged into amps to access different sounds on his guitar. No longer.
Now he uses a unit from the company Line 6 that uses software to pre-program the sounds (clean, distortion) at certain points in the song "without hitting a pedal. I'm foot-free. It's allowed me to be mobile."
Social-media clout
Combined, the three brothers have more than 14 million followers on Twitter, but even though they're part of the Millennial generation, they actually began their career at the dawn of social media.
The band formed in 2005, which is before Facebook became popular, pre-Twitter, pre-YouTube as a worldwide sensation. "The Internet has opened the door to so many great ways to interact with fans and talk to them in a way we've never done. We love it."
Jonas is on the Internet as soon as he wakes up. "I check e-mail first, then (the photo-sharing app) Instagram, then tweets."
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