BSB Dolls? Move over Ken n Barbie
04 Jan 2001 AUSTRALIA
They might be huge, but you won't see Backstreet Boys dolls any time soon. They tell CAMERON ADAMS why.
By CAMERON ADAMS.
The new breed of pop bands seem to release an album a year. Is that because the market is so competitive if you take more than a year off you'll be forgotten? Nick Carter: Bands like AC/DC used to release an album a year. Kevin Richardson: Def Leppard did that too, and Journey, I think they released four albums in three years. We're not the only ones to do that. But it's something we want to do. We want to keep releasing new
music to our fans. We feel it will set us up for a long career, instead of just releasing one album and touring the world with it three times. It's a theory that our management believes in and we've incorporated
it into our lives.
You are quite vocal about how your previous managers exploited you. Did you ever think about quitting? Richardson: Well, there was a point where it was like, "We've been taken advantage of" and when we found out how things really worked, we thought, "This isn't worth it". We had reached the point where we weren't going to continue - about three years ago - but we stuck together as the five of us. We went and found the right management team, looked for a long career. Most pop bands only last for three or four albums or five years. You've been together for eight.
Do you think you can keep going? Richardson: Definitely. We've found a nice balance between touring, working and giving time for each other to do different things, whether it is getting married and spending time with our wives or families.You can burn out. We almost reached the burnout point two years ago.
Is the constant pressure of being in the world's biggest pop band a stress? Richardson: You just have to do the best you can, make the best music you can, and hopefully everything else will just take care of itself. If it doesn't, that's the way it's meant to be.
Is it true that Cheiron studio, the Swedish production team behind most of your hits, is closing? Richardson: Kinda. As a whole, the Cheiron group ... well, there's a couple of guys in there pairing off, doing their own thing. They're all friends, but the company itself is splitting up. They've reached the end of one of their publishing contracts, they want to start afresh, experiment some more. Howie Dorough: It's not what it used to be, they say. They say they've lost the vibe, they think it's time to move on. We'll still work with people like Max Martin. Richardson: We've created a great relationship with Max, we've made some beautiful music together.
With everyone having that Cheiron sound, especially your rivals 'N Sync who also work with the same producers, does it bother you? Richardson: That's why we started co-writing with Cheiron, to get some of our own sounds in there. But we've always worked with other producers and written our own songs in the past. Brian Littrell: It's just that the quality of the songs we've written in the past weren't up to the Backstreet Boys quality. Now we've had the experience of working with some of the greatest songwriters in history, we're living it. When you have an opportunity like that, you have to take it on board and use it to your benefit. You can't help but be inspired by that and learn from that, take it on board. You have to take it with you, this career is for a lifetime.
Can you see yourself writing a whole album yourselves one day? AJ McLean: Writing yeah, maybe, but not producing it by ourselves for a while. If the songs we write are good and they're hits, we'll do it. A lot of (pop) groups' downfall is that they throw together an album just because they wrote it. Dorough: Some bands try writing their own follow-up album after they have success and it's not as good as their last one. But they want to get involved in songwriting because they know writing is where the
money's at.
Have you had Backstreet Boys dolls manufactured yet? Richardson: No. We don't want Backstreet dolls in toy stores. That's sacrificing our name and the integrity we've worked hard to build up. McLean: It's raping the market, taking advantage of our fans and saying, "We're in it for the money, here's some dolls and pillows and bed sheets". It's too much. We have merchandise, T-shirts and posters
and books, but it's official stuff that we've approved. Littrell: Every single day companies call our managers saying, "Can we do some blow-up furniture?" and we're like, "Get a life". We have records to make, we're not worried about that. Richardson: It's so obvious when people are just trying to cash in. We're not in for that.
Black & Blue (Zomba/Jive) out now.
Source: Herald and Weekly Times Limited