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Post by Admin on Jun 8, 2014 2:02:28 GMT
The “I Want It That Way” band celebrated its 20th anniversary and released its eighth studio album, “In A World Like This,” last year. Backstreet has been recording new music steadily since its self-titled 1996 debut, never going more than five years without an album release. To put that in perspective, pop acts such as 'N Sync and the Spice Girls haven't released an album in more than a decade and 98 Degrees and New Kids on the Block both waited more than a decade before recording another album. Backstreet performs Wednesday at FirstMerit Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island along with Avril Lavigne. In October, the guys will take part in a four-day Backstreet fan cruise, in collaboration with Carnival Cruise Lines. Here, band member Brian Littrell talks about where Backstreet goes from here and pictures a day when the general public gets past the boy band stigma and gives the guys their due. Q: Backstreet is now 21 years old. What keeps you guys from calling it a day and going your separate ways?A: We're having fun doing what we're doing. Backstreet has been around a long time. Normally groups like us have a shelf life of two to four years. We always wanted to have a long stay in the music world. And we've been able to do that the past two decades. Nobody from our music genre in the '90s is around anymore. It's a solo artist's market, not a group market. Q: Could you imagine a scenario where you guys are still releasing music and touring together into your 50s?A: Well, we're close. Two of us are in our 40s, I'm about to be 40 here in a minute, AJ (McLean) is late 30s, Nick (Carter) is the baby. He's got a while. I don't know if we'll be touring all over the globe all the time like we are now. We've been extremely busy the past two or three years with this 20th anniversary tour. But yeah, I could see us still doing this in our 50s. I don't see why not, as long as we're having fun and enjoying it. I would hope somebody out there will still want to hear a Backstreet Boys song when I'm 50-something. There would be less dancing though. We do a lot of dancing at our shows now. We dance our butts off. It keeps us in shape. Q: Is there another band whose career blueprint you've been trying to follow?A: For me, the band that comes to mind is Bon Jovi. They blew up during the hair band movement in the 80s and then … nobody wanted them. So they went to Europe and continued to tour and selll records. And the next thing you know, the tide turned and they came back to the U.S. and now they're doing stadiums. That's kind of the blueprint that's happening with us. We exploded in the mid-to-late '90s and then there were 10 million groups like us … and the pop music sound went away. Backstreet has been growing abroad and making records and continuing to tour. Now, here we are 21 years later and people are kind of falling back in love with the Backstreet Boys. Q: Your son is 11, which means he wasn't around during the height of the boy band hysteria. Does he grasp who you are and what you've accomplished?A: Baylee grew up around the time of the Never Gone tour (in 2005). He gets who Daddy is. Baylee is a little entertainer himself. He opens up for us on tour and sings two songs before Avril Lavigne. Some of the other band members have younger kids and babies. It's harder for them to grasp that “Daddy is a superstar.” Q: Do you feel like Backstreet's last few albums have been as good as its first few?A: Yeah, I do. The music is just as good. I think we've had a lot of great songs. I think it's a little more raw and not so overproduced anymore. People today just want to hear what you are. With our latest record, we wrote like 85 percent of it. That's why it's a special record to us. We now own ourselves. We have our own label after outliving our contract with Jive Records. A lot of people gave up on us but we kept kicking and making music. Q: The Backstreet cameo in “This Is the End” might have stolen the show, which wasn't easy to do in a star-studded comedy. When you guys filmed the movie, were you at all concerned the audience would end up laughing at you rather than with you?A: No, not at all. We had a conference call with Seth Rogen to talk about the idea. We felt like it was going to be something super funny — a big surprise. Everywhere we go now, people are like, “Dude, I saw ‘This is the End.' That was cool.” Hopefully some day Backstreet Boys are in heaven singing, just like in the movie. Q: Do you still find yourself daydreaming about certain goals or scenarios or have you achieved everything you've wanted to?A: I daydream about Backstreet Boys accepting a Grammy one day. We've been nominated many times but never won one. So I think that would be a nice thing. Grammys are hard to get. Your peers and the people in the music industry are the ones voting, not the fans. People have to respect you across the board. We'll keep working at it. Q: It's easy to dismiss Backstreet as just another boy band, but the record sales tell a different story and put you on the list of the best selling artists of all time. Do you feel like the band gets the respect it deserves?A. I don't want people to think I have a chip on my shoulder. Backstreet Boys have achieved so many things. I'm extremely happy where we are in our lives. I'm OK with our persona. I know what we are. I know we're super talented and have great music and loyal fans. Maybe one day the world will pat us on our back and say, ‘Hey, well done, guys.' Maybe on the 30th anniversary, when we're in our 50s and not dancing.
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Post by Admin on Jun 19, 2014 5:57:56 GMT
The Backstreet Boys had three conditions for the crowd at its concert Saturday at First Niagara Pavilion: go crazy, be loud and act like you’re 15 years old. The audience delivered, screaming and swaying through the approximately two-hour show, part of the “In A World Like This” world tour. And the band delivered, too, with hit after hit highlighting a range of songs from its 21 years. The group, made up of Kevin Richardson, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell, A.J. McLean and Nick Carter, got down to business with a James Bond-esque entrance that featured the men looking suave in slimming suits, black dress shirts and patent shoes. Their sophisticated styling colored classics “The Call,” “Don’t Want You Back” and “Incomplete” with a mature air. The night proceeded like a roller coaster, building in tempo with dance-laced renditions of songs such as “All I Have to Give” (complete with hat choreography) and “We’ve Got it Goin’ On” before slowing things down with a sampling of ballads. For the romantic slow song “Breathe” off their latest album, they invited everyone to turn on the flashlight feature on their smartphones, illuminating the amphitheater with thousands of tiny white lights. Later they demonstrated the depth of their talents with an a cappella take of “Drowning” and an acoustic treatment of “10,000 Promises,” “Madeleine” and “Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)” with each band member playing an instrument. As the boys changed outfits, they kept the crowd entertained with a comical pre-recorded Q&A with the band and a sneak peek of scenes from their upcoming documentary. The Backstreet Boys know how to put on a show. In the past they’ve pulled out pyrotechnics, surrounded themselves with back-up dancers, and even flew into arenas on harnesses during the “Into the Millennium” tour. But this was a no-nonsense night of music that kept the boys in the spotlight the whole time. They didn’t rely on big bands and elaborate sets to dazzle crowds. They did it with their on-point vocals, dance moves, instrumental accompaniments and even some personal tales about Pittsburgh. (Who knew Mr. McLean’s first acting teacher was born and raised here?)
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Post by Admin on Jun 23, 2014 0:05:47 GMT
Avril Lavigne, soon to be 30? Say it aint so. Yes, the pride of Napanee, Ont., who sings Here’s To Never Growing Up on her self-titled fifth album from last year, will hit the big 3-0 in September yet still looks like the teenage artist who broke big with her 2002 hit Complicated. “I like to have fun, your (looks are) often a comment about your spirit and your heart,” said Lavigne on the phone recently from Texas where she was opening for Backstreet Boys. “I feel young but yeah I’ve lived a lot,” she said in an exclusive interview with QMI Agency. “I’ve been doing this music career for over a decade and travelling non-stop. It’s kind of crazy. I don’t have a plan yet (for my 30th birthday) ... but I’m hoping for a big party.” As for motherhood, Lavigne – who plays her only solo show in Canada at Casino Rama on Tuesday night – says it’s still a ways off. “I’m really focused on my career at the moment,” she said. “Down the road, I would love to be a mom, just not right now.” As for motherhood, Lavigne – who plays her only solo show in Canada at Casino Rama on Tuesday night – says it’s still a ways off. “I’m really focused on my career at the moment,” she said. “Down the road, I would love to be a mom, just not right now.” “The experience was a lot of fun, really exciting,” she said of collaborating with Kroeger. “We got into the studio and we booked a week together and then it just turned into making the whole record together (she laughs). And then we started dating towards the end so it’s cool. Him being Canadian, we had a lot in common, and then both being travelling musicians.” Still, Lavigne – who says coming home to play to a hometown crowd in Ontario is “exciting” – gets back more often that you might think to see her family. “When I was a younger, like a teenager on the road, they’re not necessarily where your priorities are at,” she said. “But yeah, as I’ve gotten older I’ve realized how closer I am to my family more than ever. That’s just a part of growing up and stuff like that. I've spent a lot of my time in Los Angeles and just really missed my family and was like, ‘You know what? I want to spend more time with them ‘cause they’re the people at the end of the day that are really there for me, that have my back.’” She needed support when there were charges of being “culturally insensitive,” or even “racist” in her latest Hello Kitty video featuring expressionless Asian women dancing in the background and her singing Japanese lyrics. “It’s very apparent that I’m not doing anything inappropriate or wrong and that I love Japan and I love the culture,” said Lavigne who added her largest music market is Japan. “I wrote that song with the Japanese lyrics in it for Hello Kitty because of my experience there. I love Japan and I went there and I shot the music video there authentically with this Japanese director. And Tokyo is one of my favourite cities in the world. I love the culture... I think that anyone who read that stuff was probably like, ‘Whatever, she just made a music video.’”
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Post by Admin on Jul 2, 2014 5:56:06 GMT
Are you ready to spend some time with the Backstreet Boys on the high seas? Well then the Backstreet Boys Cruise 2014 is for you! During the cruise which begins in Miami, FL on October 24, 2014, the BSB are throwing a Studio 54 theme night, and judging by the costumes that the guys are wearing in this promotional video, it looks like it will be all kinds of crazy fun and groovin' baby. Watch the hilarious promo video above and check out the cruise's itinerary here. The 2014 Backstreet Boys Cruise sets sail October 24th. For more information and to book your cabin visit backstreetboyscruise.com. The fab five rock the crowd with their '90s classics — like "I Want It That Way" and "Backstreet's Back" — for Old Navy's public fashion show in New York City's Bryant Park.
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Post by Admin on Jul 3, 2014 4:24:09 GMT
Judging by the pop quintet’s Wednesday night performance at Darien Lake Performing Arts Center, the real Boys can be found in one of three moments: Their final two songs, “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)” and “Larger Than Life,” lush with still-sharp pop choreography and Swedish synth. Or maybe when it was they sang the title track of their 2013 album, “In a World Like This,” which features all of the Backstreet harmony but few audible traces of the ’90s boy-band hoopla. It could be either of those, or in the many moments like them: The concert was about three-fourths greatest hits from Backstreet’s 21-year career; the rest was comprised of the band’s newer work. First, though, fans got a double deal with Avril Lavinge as the opener. Admittely – and maybe this is because the first time I saw her, it was at First Niagara Center – it was strange to watch Lavigne as an opener. The tour must be a tricky balancing act for her, too, since protocol demands that an opener push the headliner. Lavigne isn’t a warm-up act, but she played the role well in her 45-minute, nine-song set. Favorites included the bouncy “Sk8trboi,” which brought the crowd to its feet and the “I’m With You,” which became a grand sing-along. On her first-ever single, “Complicated,” Lavigne added a funky twist to her lyrical delivery (think Cyndi Lauper in “She Bop”). Shortly after Lavigne departed the stage, Backstreet emerged for a nearly two-hour set of dancing, singing and even playing. Even in Backstreet’s heyday, theirs was never completely bubblegum pop. But in their new music, and even in their presentation of Backstreet classics, most traces of sugar have been replaced by something more solid.
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