What are the goals for the new album ‘Black & Blue’? Kevin: Firstly to get some new music out to the fans.
Also to make more great music. We’re not trying to
shatter any records. If that does happen, then great,
it’s a bonus. We feel that if we make good records,
then the sales will come. But it’s more important for
us to make records that we are happy with and to grow
as artists.
How did you come up with the title ‘Black & Blue’? Brian: We racked our brains for several weeks for a
title that would best suit the record we had recorded.
Then one day we were doing a photo shoot and we were
all dressed in black, against a blue background. And I
got a flash of instant genius and thought “Wow, black
and blue”. Everybody picked up on it. It’s a little
older, harder and a bit artsy. And it’s good because
we don’t really have to put a picture of our faces
with it.
Nick: It’s gonna be like our symbol. Like each nation
has its flag, it’s gonna be like our new flag. It
represents us.
Tell us about the first single ‘Shape Of My Heart’? Kevin: It’s about someone being selfish within a
relationship, when you put other things - like your
job or something - infront of your relationship or
partner.
You’ve now traveled the world. Can we expect to see
any international influences that you may have
absorbed along the way? Kevin: There is some Spanish guitar on a track called
‘The Call’. There is some R&B influence and flavour
that we got from Babyface. The album has a nice
variety of sounds and each song has its own identity.
You’re not hearing the same thing over and over again.
Tell us about the lyrics on ‘Black & Blue’? AJ: The concept of these new songs are unique. They
are not typical of us at all, because you can only
sing “I love you” for so long! These lyrics are more
real. People do cheat [ *cough splutter* ], people do
mess things up in relationships. Life and love is not
all rainbows, happiness and perfection. We wanted to
expose the darker side of love as well as the good
side.
How do you decide who sings lead vocals or harmony
vocal? Nick: Generally we just feel it out. We all know each
other’s voices really well and know what will suit.
Sometimes we just go in to the studio and sing and see
who is vibing and feeling the song more.
Your songs are recongised all around the world – how
does that make you feel? Howie: It’s unbelievable. If you think about actually
where we came from, and to where we are now – we’ve
certainly been blessed by God. It’s so good to see
that our music brings happiness to so many people.
Tell us about the bond within the group? AJ: The fact that we are not a manufactured band helps
us alot. You develop a certain bond together and you
continually learn things about each other.
Particularly with three of us being long term friends,
and two of us being family. It’s the perfect
combination, instead of being from five different
states, not knowing each other and then being pieced
together and meeting for the first time. We’ve grown
so much together. It’s so much better this way. There
are so many groups being glued together and that’s one
of the main reasons that we’re still around – because
we are real.
Brian: We’ve seen so many bands come and go. They have
a big song or two and then they disappear. They don’t
have the bond that we have.
Is there much rivalry/competitiveness between the
current wave of boybands? Kevin: Not that we are aware of. Not coming from us.
Whatever the other bands do is their business.
The live show is such an important part of the
Backsteet Boys – do you write with that in mind? Kevin: Now with a bunch of tours under our belt,
sometimes when you’re working on a song, you can
envisage what the fans would be doing live and you can
certainly use that as motivation.
What goes on in the tour bus? All: (laughs) Just regular stuff. Alot of video games,
sleeping, eating, making phone calls. We can’t tell
you our secrets!
Tell us about your connection with Elton John? Brian: Essentially, his people called our people and
asked whether we’d like to work with him and we said
“Hell yeah!”.
Kevin: We were on the road and we were asked to be on
the ‘Road To Eldorado’ soundtrack on a song called
‘Never Say Goodbye’. We went in to a studio to record
our part; unfortunately Elton wasn’t there though.
Although he did call and thank us. So we had a small
connection. And then they called us and asked us would
we do the Grammys. We jumped at the chance.
Tell us about the Backstreet Boys comic? Kevin: Nick has been talking to us about developing a
comic for a long time. He is always doodling,
sketching and doing caricatures or all five of us.
It’s his hobby, and he has finally made one of his
dreams come true.
Nick: That’s pretty much correct. The whole concept of
the comic is four years in the making. I love it!
What are some of the internal bad habits of the band
that you have now outgrown?Howie: Nick hasn’t outgrown any of his bad habits!
Kevin: I don’t think that any of us have outgrown our
bad habits. We’ve still got them. It’s what makes us
us.
Nick: Kevin has stopped stressing out so much now that
he’s married. I still try and stress him out. It works
occasionally. But not as well as it used to.
What are you like when the five of you are together
and no one else is around? Brian: We always find something within each other. We
feed off each other really well. As the band grows, we
have become emotionally closer. There’s always ups and
downs. This is a rollercoaster ride and we’re in the
best years of our lives. With all the success and the
milestones we deal with together, we’ve also had to
deal with losing family members, surgeries and all
types of other painful experiences in between. Outside
of every interview and every photo shoot, there is
always somebody trying to get at us. But when we are
in our circle of five, nobody can get to us and nobody
within the five is trying to get to any of us. We
disappear within ourselves.
Source: HMV Magazine