Their new album "Millennium"
The Millennium World Tour
Changing their name from Backstreet Boys to Backstreet Men
Around The World
Goals
Favorite songs from "Millennium"
Overcoming Hardships
Songs on Millennium written by Backstreet Boys
HOWIE D: It's definitely a growth for the Backstreet Boys. I feel that our sound has evolved. The lyrical content, the vocal quality, the message within--it is the next step for the Backstreet Boys. We took a lot of time to work on this album and really put some hard work into it and we hope that everyone enjoys it.
BRIAN: We're very proud of our new CD. We've taken a lot of time, a lot of effort and put a lot of our emotions into it. The CD means a lot to us and we take our music in high regard and we want everybody else to as well.
KEVIN: I think the first single "I Want It That Way" is reminiscent of our last album. But on the rest of the album, there are some tracks that are gonna raise people's eyebrows a little bit. They're probably gonna go "Wow, that's the Backstreet Boys?"
NICK: It's gonna be about a two-hour show with about 18 songs. We are doing it in the round, so that was another difficult challenge for us to try to take on. We wanted to step up to another level because our last tour was pretty successful. But we also wanted to set trends and just be on that next level, so hopefully that's what this tour will do for us.
CHANGING THEIR NAME FROM BACKSTREET BOYS TO BACKSTREET MEN:
AJ: I don't think we'll ever change the name Backstreet Boys. We've been boys since the group started and that's kinda like a slang term here for us. You have the Beach Boys, and they're all in their 50's and 60's and they're still boys, so we will always be Backstreet Boys for the duration of this group until we turn 60 or 70.
AROUND THE WORLD:
NICK: I think our main priority is definitely to hit a lot of countries on this world tour where we haven't been yet. Places like Russia, South Africa, Iceland, the Middle East. We realize that there are a lot of Backstreet fans around the world--we want to make sure we get totally in touch with them.
AJ: Oh, yeah we definitely remember Chile. We were kinda stuck in our hotel room, for however many days we were there--like almost a week. We were practically under house arrest! We couldn't leave the hotel, but Chile was incredible for us.
GOALS
HOWIE D: I think we still have a lot of goals set for ourselves--we're striving to constantly make each album bigger and better. We're very fortunate to have the success we had on the last album. It's very hard to top that. So, if we come anywhere even close to that, I think we'll be very content. But I don't think there is ever a time that we're going say "okay, this is exactly where we want to be, this is the best that it can be." I think that we'll always strive to be bigger and better. And as long as we're content with ourselves, our music will hopefully last for years as long as everybody likes our music.
AJ: "Don't Want You Back" is probably my favorite song because it is a complete opposite of what you've heard on the previous Backstreet Boys albums--talking about love and relationships. It's talking about not wanting to be with someone--I just don't want you back, you're out of my life, goodbye, see ya. And when we perform it live, the choreography is phat and the whole vibe onstage is really cool.
NICK: I think "Don't Want You Back" is a very good song as well as "Larger Than Life" because I love rock music and that's the closest thing we've come to doing rock. I also like the song "Spanish Eyes" because it's a really unique sound.
HOWIE D: Personally, we've been through a lot this last year, with Brian going through heart surgery and a couple of us having deaths within our families. And even though we've had our most success within this last year, I think that because it has been such a trying year for us, it has helped grow stronger as a group. We're stronger now than ever and we all have each other's backs.
KEVIN: 1998 was probably the most successful year of our lives. From the outside it probably looked like we were just having a great time. But there was a lot of internal stuff going on. Brian, my cousin, went through heart surgery and then we lost our grandfather to cancer. We lost one of the producers (Denniz PoP) with whom we'd been working for the past four and a half years to cancer. Howie lost his sister to lupus.
BRIAN: It means absolutely nothing to me if I can't be healthy and have a proper mind-set about doing something that I love.
And when you face things like we did last year, it's not fun anymore. It got to a point where it wasn't fun and it didn't mean anything really to me, except to get out on-stage and sing--and that's why we are the Backstreet Boys, because we love to do this.
KEVIN: We co-wrote several tracks with Max Martin. Brian and I each wrote two tracks on the album. I wrote a song called "Back to Your Heart" with Grammy Award-winning songwriters Gary Baker and Jason Blume. I went to Alabama and spent a week at Gary's home and I got on the piano and started playing a song that I'd been working on. I started singing it a little bit, he picked up his guitar and about two hours later we had "Back to Your Heart."
BRIAN: I wrote "The Perfect Fan" about my mom because she's always been the perfect fan. I think everybody has a mother figure to whom they look up or someone who has been there to guide and help them through life. I wrote the song about a year and a half a ago. We were on tour in Spain and when I finished the production, I went home to Kentucky and I had my high school choir sing on the record. So it was kind of allowing them to enjoy some of the success that I've had. It was cool to give back. I wanted to thank them.
