THE BACKSTREETBOYS: Are Back In Town

Two years after Unbreakable, their least successful album, the ’90s heartthrobs return with their seventh album – This Is Us. And if you have faith in their words, it’s their “best album” since Millennium, which included ‘I Want It That Way’ and ‘Larger Than Life’.


Giving the claim credence is the single ‘Straight Through My Heart’, a
pop song with a hook reminiscent of their past works. In this
interview, AJ McLean talks about the new single, the possible return of
Kevin Richardson and why the ‘Quit Playing Games’ video makes him
cringe.


While the new single does sound current, AJ says it feels exactly like
the monstrously-successful boy band of the nineties. “I’d use two
words: Backstreet Boys. Obviously we've worked with a current producer
so it's got an updated sound, but the one thing that we were very
adamant about, after hearing feedback from fans, was that we wanted to
go back to being us. There was a formula that worked for us and this is
exactly that,” he says.


The single was sculpted by famed Lady GaGa producer RedOne, who
surprised the Boys with three songs at the last minute. AJ says, “It
was really down to me and Nick because we're friends with a couple of
guys who work with RedOne. I kept bringing up GaGa because I have a
crush on her, so Nick called the guys we know and finally we got
through to Red. Then it sort of fell apart and didn't happen and we
lost hope. Then, just when we thought we were done making the record,
we got a phone call from our management saying Red had three amazing
songs for us. We did them and we got our first single!”


AJ reveals that the band had thought of releasing another song as the
first single, but after listening to what RedOne did with ‘Straight
Through The Heart’, they knew which was the right choice. “We had a few
options before we worked with Red, but then we heard 'Straight Through
The Heart' and knew it was meant to be. It hits the nail on the head.
It's Backstreet Boys. It's dance, it's pop, it's urban, it's current,
it's fresh, it's new. We actually had a good problem, which was having
five or six options for the single. We made this record hit for hit and
we honestly believe it's our best since Millennium,” says AJ.

The other producer who worked on the album is Max Martin, who has moved
on to bigger things since producing the early Backstreet Boys hits. AJ
says, “We met him (Max Martin) while we were touring the last record
just to see if he was even interested. Obviously he's busy with Pink
and Kelly Clarkson and people like that. He sent us a track called
'Bigger' and we loved it; it's like the new 'I Want It That Way'. He's
one of the reasons why we've had the hits that we've had.”



Fans will be surprised to know that, for this record, the Boys shed
their pop/R&B roots for a club sound. “We went into this album
wanting to do pop and R&B, which is what we're known for, but we
really pushed to have more up-tempo songs so we could bring them to the
live shows. My favourite song on the record is called 'PDA', which we
did with Kevin Borg, who's the Black Eyed Peas' musical director. It's
pretty awesome, definitely a club record. Before we got with RedOne, it
was looking like the first single, so for all we know it could be the
second!” he said.


Kevin Richardson quit the group before the release of Unbreakable.
AJ has gotten over the fact that he’s out of the group, but says that
it is possible that he will make a comeback with the next record.
“Definitely easier. It's been almost four years now. What was a little
bit nerve-wracking is that this record is exactly what Kevin wanted us
to do before he left. He heard some of the songs when we were demoing
stuff and he loved it. We're still contracted for one more record, so
hopefully, maybe, he'll be back for the last one. That would be pretty
awesome! Since he left, we've told him the door is always open. He's
family.”


Going back to the old days, AJ says that watching some of the old
videos can be embarrassing, especially ‘Quit Playing Games With My
Heart’. He says, “Oh dear God! Some of them we can live without! Not
the video, but the wardrobe, which only really made sense in that time
and era. Hands down the worst of the worst was 'Quit Playing Games'. We
were in the rain with fluorescent shirts showing our pecs and stuff.”

http://www.planetradiocity.com/musicreporter/interview.php?interviewid=353