By Tan Ling Ai - New Straits Times March 19, 1998
The members of 98 Degrees look normal, with the exception of Nicholas Scott Lachey, who is lean and tanned. However, the video and album cover of the group's song, Invisible Man, portray a sexy group.
The twentysomethings also act their age, constantly ogling at women.
"We love girls, especially Asian girls. they are exotic and beautiful," says Jeffrey Brandon Timmons, 24.
"My ex-girlfriend was Asian."
The pop rhythm-and-blues quartet from the United States was in Kuala Lumpur recently with its manager, Paris D'Jon, as part of its "Invisible Tour", to promote its self-titled debut album.
Besides Lachey (also 24) and Timmons, the others are Justin Paul Jeffre, 25, and Lachey's younger brother, Andrew John, 21.
Still on the subject of women, Timmons says the first video they recorded of Invisible Man was boring. "It was in black and white and only showed us dancing and singing in the rain. There were no women."
Initially, the group wanted to dance with women, but their record company had other plans.
"They wanted to introduce us, so they wanted the video to concentrate on the four of us, and it wasn't in colour because they wanted to highlight the song," says Timmons.
Invisible Man was a world wide hit and got recognition for the group outside the US.
The quartet then recorded a new video of Invisible Man, and this time it featured women at a party with them. The niw video will soon be available on the MTV Asia Channel.
The goup's 14-track album showcases its tight and smooth vocal harmonies, sometimes sounding like an African-American group.
The group is attached with Motown Records (a PolyGram company), which includes Stevie Wonder and Boyz II Men.
Timmons says the group can be pushy, but in a polite and classy way.
In fact, it got to sing the US National Anthem at a baseball game by first singing outside an office lobby.
"They didn't reply when we sent our demo," says Timmons. "So we went there and when thhey wouldn't see us, we stood outside the lobby and sang our hearts our. We got a call from them the next morning with the offer."
Their persistence also got a song they wrote, Completely, into their album.
Each of us had written about a dozen songs and was keen on having our producers listen to them and pick a few. They didn't seem to have the time, so during a meeting, we brought in a demo of Completely, a track we'd just completed, and played it."
Needless to say, the producers were bowled over.
The album also contains a track written by Diane Warren, Was It Something I Didn't Say, which was recorded by 98 Degrees for the soundtrack of a television series.
There is a cover version of The Stylistics' You Are Everything as well. The vocals give the song a groovy feel.
The group first released a 13-track album last year. A new album, with 14 tracks, was released this year.
98 Degrees started with Timmons' college bank which he formed with friends. After his third year at kent State University in Ohio, the group went on tour.
His friends got homesick and quit, forcing Timmons to rope in his older brother Michael and an acquaintance, Lachey. Michael left for an acting career and Lachey called in his brother Andrew and friend Jeffre.
They called themselves Just Us but changed it to 98 Degrees because it was "hot" and they believed numbers stick better in the mind than letters do.
The group will continue its tour to Singapore and Indonesia before returning home to finish a song they are recording with Stevie Wonder.
The song, True To Your Heart, is the title track of Disney's new animated feature Mulan (based on a Chinese Folklore), which may open here by the middle of the year.
After that, the group will go to Canada for an unplugged concert before heading home for a Stay In School show (a project to encourage US children to finish school), with some professional basketball players.