R5

“I think the next year will be heavily international,” Bruck said. “The band has more time now to hit new markets – Asia, South America. Technically, we went to South America for the first time last year; we played Buenos Aires and two markets in Brazil. We’ll go back and play 10 or so. Asia will be a big focus. Obviously the plan is to grow them in the U.S. too.”

R5 is composed of vocalist/rhythm guitarist Ross Lynch, his siblings Riker, Rocky and Rydel, and friend Ellington “Ratliff” – hence the five R’s. Although Ross has a background as a performer on the Disney Channel’s “Austin & Ally” and “Teen Beach Movie,” and the band is signed to Disney’s Hollywood Records, R5 didn’t start off as a Disney vehicle with Ross as a heavily promoted frontman.

“We didn’t overly push Ross. It was about R5, always,” Bruck said.  “I think for a few shows, though, promoters might have snuck it onto the bill.”

That didn’t mean they didn’t have to work around Ross’s shooting schedule, nor did it mean that anyone was hiding Ross behind a potted plant, but even Ross said recently that there were times when the shows were offered for a $1 ticket.

“We started pretty grassroots. It was a rock ‘n’ roll touring development,” Bruck said. “I think it was April, May 2012 we started on the West Coast and did a 10-15 day run of 200- to 400-cap rooms.”

These days, after about 300 more gigs, the band is selling between 2,000 and 4,000 tickets per night. And even without a radio smash, Sometime Last Night debuted as the No. 1 pop album and the single “All Night” has 4.3 million views on YouTube.

The band, having traveled 23 countries so far in its career, returns from Europe in October and launches a three-month North American tour Jan. 26.