When we let teen-pop superstars the Jonas Brothers guest-edit the Music section of Time Out New York last July (TONY 719, July 9–15), we asked the guys what music they admired most. Along with the expected tally of chart toppers (Shania Twain, Kings of Leon) and not-so-expected buzz acts (the Zutons, Phoenix), Nick Jonas, the group’s youngest member and musical brain trust, made a more surprising admission: “I’m also a big fan of Minneapolis funk,” he told us, adding for emphasis, “Love the funk.” Little did we know at the time that Nick had already snuck away to Nashville with the Administration, a new band stocked with former members of Prince’s New Power Generation, to knock out a funk-steeped debut album, Who I Am, in slightly more than a week. Nick and his group are playing two shows at the Beacon Theatre on Thursday 7 and Friday 8; the initial single, “Who I Am,” is out now, with the full album due in February. We recently sat down with Jonas to find out how the record came about—and to admire his tight-lipped secrecy about it.

Time Out New York: You told us that you were into funk when you guest-edited TONY’s music section last July, but I don’t think any of us expected it to manifest itself quite so quickly. Where did the process for creating Who I Am start?
Nick Jonas: The writing started about a year ago. I started to write these songs—“Rose Garden” being the first song I wrote, and “Who I Am” and the rest soon after that—that stylistically weren’t necessarily like the Jonas Brothers sound. Just from the writing of it on acoustic guitar, piano or whatever it was, I could tell that it was going to be different. I had about six or seven songs done, and I met with our management team and told them about this idea I had to record this record with a band of guys who are experienced and well-versed in this style of music.

Was there a specific reason you did it in Nashville?
There was a studio there that I’d heard about, and there were a couple different projects that we even thought about going to record there at one point, but we never got the opportunity. I just think it was also about getting away from me being in my element, somewhat. I talked to my brothers and they were excited and very supportive of it. Then I met with John Fields, our producer, and told him the idea and played him some of the songs. He loved it, and we worked together to put together the band. His Minneapolis connection with [drummer] Michael Bland and [keyboardist] Tommy Barbarella, that’s how that got started, and then he’d done a session with [guitarist] David Ryan Harris on a Jon McLaughlin song. We all went to Nashville and recorded this in about eight days. It was recorded like a real raw record from the ’60s or the ’70s, before they had Pro Tools.

It’s commendable that you were able to keep this completely buttoned-up when we spoke before.
It was pretty quiet. I was actually surprised that it was that quiet for that long. I was super-protective of it, and I still am very protective, just because I always wanted it to be the right setup. The way it came out was a bit of a shock to a lot of people, including us, but I think that it was kind of great the way it happened. We’re just excited now that people will listen to it, and hopefully they’ll like it.

Did you ever stop to wonder what a Jonas Brothers fan might make of your record?
Going into the recording process, I knew it would be something different—although I didn’t know how different it would be. For the first time in my life, I think, I said, Just do what you need to do now, think about how you’re going to set it up and what the setup’s going to be like. I had about eight months to do that, to lay in bed before I went to sleep every night and just think about each step. So far, the response has been great. “Who I Am” is a bridge track: It kind of has a little bit of that Jonas Brothers sound, but it definitely does introduce some new sounds, and gives you kind of a taste of what it will be like.

You’re on the brink of making this transition toward the adult artist that you’re going to be. Some people negotiate that leap safely, like Justin Timberlake; some people not so much. Does that concern you?
With this project in particular, I want to have a big part in the setup of it and the day-to-day management of it, but the part that I can’t and shouldn’t feel pressure about is the placement of it, where it is on the shelves and the perception of the project. My hope is that people just give it a shot, whatever it is, and that’s their own decision. For me, it’s just me expressing myself through these songs.

Parts of Who I Am sound like a breakup record. Was there a difficult experience that kicked off this whole process for you, as in Neil Young’s Tonight’s the Night or Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreak?
I think the experience was the moment when I kind of went through the list of double meanings that I could use. So “The Rose Garden,” “Conspiracy Theory,” “Olive & an Arrow” and “State of Emergency” were basically the only ones from that list of probably 50 of these ideas that I had that stuck. And “Rose Garden” being the first one, I think it did have a personal connection with me, but it was also a story I was trying to tell, a story that, yes, I did feel a connection to personally, and there was something I could relate it to, but I also wanted it to be general—about how everyone can find their safe place in the rose garden, whether it’s a person in their life, an actual place or a thing that makes them feel safe. There are some songs that are personal, about relationships and things, but what I’ve tried to do, like my idol Elvis Costello does, is kind of put a disguise on it. We speak a little more literally in Jonas Brothers songs, and this one I wanted to disguise with a story.

The album has a dramatic arc that heats up in “Conspiracy Theory,” the hard, crunchy funk tune that should raise a lot of eyebrows, and peaks in “Vesper’s Goodbye.” Then in the last song, “Stronger Back on the Ground,” it sounds like you’ve gone through your dark night of the soul and found your spiritual grounding again. Am I reading too much into it?
When I play the record for people, I can’t play it song by song. I have to do the whole thing, and I almost get frustrated when it’s like, “Play a couple tracks you like.” It’s a story, an arc, like you said. There are moments of…not sadness, but down moments, and then it picks up. And the funny thing about “Vesper’s Goodbye” is that I was actually writing that song with a friend of mine [P.J. Bianco] who I’ve written a lot of songs with. We were in a studio, and one of the TVs was playing James Bond, Casino Royale. We’re watching it, and it’s the scene where she’s underwater, this emotional scene, and without any music. We looked at each other and said, “There’s so much emotion in that scene, that would make a great song.” We had just listened to the Kings of Leon record and were inspired by that, so we started playing this with that visual going on in the background, and it just worked. It’s kind of fun to tell people that, because they’re like, “What happened in your life?” And I’m like, “James Bond!”

So the songs on the album are meant to form a complete statement?
And I think that with the shows, too, that’ll be a major thing. Just in rehearsals, kind of experimenting with different things, like “Olive & an Arrow” especially, it’ll be an emotional experience every night, just pouring so much heart into these songs. And also vocally, they’re some of the most challenging I’ve ever done. It’s going to be interesting to see how I handle all of that, but I’m looking forward to it.

Was it intimidating to play with people like Barbarella and Bland?
Definitely intimidating. Sonny Thompson, too, who was the bass player in the New Power Generation, and plays guitar in this band. Sonny and Michael Bland both have perfect pitch; Tommy is kind of the reserved genius who sits back in the corner and just does his thing. The only one in the band who doesn’t sing, but he’ll give a musical suggestion and it’ll blow your mind. And obviously John Fields, the relationship that we’ve had for years now: He’s the bandleader, we all follow his direction. Having the producer there kind of helps when we’re performing the songs live, but it’s a great dynamic. It’s really funny, because we hear from a lot of people that when they see it for the first time, they’re questioning, Is this really going to work? And then they see it all together, and for some reason, the dynamic of all of our different ages and styles and backgrounds just kind of clicks.

Going back to our earlier interview, what funk records and artists were you were listening to, growing up?
The Minneapolis connection in general: Prince, the Zapp and Roger records, all that stuff that kind of has that funk and pop appeal, combined with a little bit of rock. Another big inspiration on this one was the more kind of blue-eyed soul sound, which was the Bill Withers inspiration. You hear it on “In the End,” “Olive & and Arrow,” those different sounds. He did this amazing live recording where it was just him and his band in the studio with a very small audience. And we watched that, and the drummer’s got the wallet on the snare drum, all these different elements that really showcase his soul and heart in these songs, and we tried to capture that.

In the best funk, there’s a complex tension between the sacred and the profane—something sanctified but slightly edgy by Stevie Wonder, or Prince pushing it way over the top. How much of that were you exposed to, growing up, and did that tension cause you any personal conflict?
I kind of date my musical discovery back to when I was 13 years old, getting my iTunes account and using that as a major tool to discover new music. Obviously I’d been introduced to the Bee Gees growing up, the Beatles, Carole King’s Tapestry and all that. Going through and downloading those, knowing that I loved those records, it would tell me, “You should also get this.” So next it was Prince and Elvis Costello and Johnny Cash, all these different artists who I talk about as my major inspirations. And it was really around that 13-years-old time where I made the decision for myself whether I wanted to listen to a song or not. If there were songs that were a bit more explicit than I would have liked to listen to, it was my call whether or not I would get it. So it was fine: I got the greatest hits first, and then moved on into more of the records.

You’ve told your fans and followers that this is by no means the end of the Jonas Brothers. Do you have a timeline for how long you’re going to let yourself explore this before the band comes back together?
Well, I do my tour in January, my record comes out early February, and in mid-February we go back into production on our TV show [Jonas]. As far as a new Jonas Brothers album goes, we’ve released four in about three and a half years, so we all kind of said, “Let’s take our time.” It can be expensive to be a Jonas Brothers fan with that many records out there! So we’re going to take our time on the next one. I wouldn’t be surprised if we went to a castle somewhere, stayed there for two months and just took the time to make an album that we’re really proud of.