After an unseasonable wet spring in Southern California, the sun peeped out to warm a fragrant Wednesday afternoon. The sun wasn’t alone! Backstreet Boys were also trying their best to heat things up in Los Angeles during the filming of their video for the gorgeous love song, “I’ll Never Break Your Heart” off their debut CD.
The location for this historic event wasn’t what you’d expect in the land of limousines and movie stars. Instead, the video producer chose a quiet site in a warehouse district located between the suburbs of Baldwin Hills and Culver City. Although the area looks peaceful, once you venture inside Stage 2 of Century City Studios it’s non-stop action and evergy of the Backstreet Boys’ variety.
“This is a performance video, a narrative where they are focusing on the guys’ individual personalities.” says Jive Records video commisioner Linda Simmons as she walks Tiger Beat around the elaborate set. She explains that each of the guys will be performing their portion of the video on a unique set designed to highlight their personal interests. “Nick, for instance, his set-up is like his game room-Nintendo, Japanimation figures and all kinds of things like that. Howie-he’s more like a businessman and music man strumming on his guitar. AJ’s set is a little bit more sleek, more sophisticated and high-tech. That is kind of his personality. AJ is the funly one of the group. Brian’s set-up in a little bit more earthy, kind of an Indian feel-the red earth and the white wood furniture. Kevin’s set [contains] a mixture of African and Edwardian artwork.”
It’s obvious that the video for “I’ll Never Break Your Heart” is the most elaborate production the guys have done to date. However, unlike past videos where their awesome dance moves took center stage, the new video takes a moment to put each Backstreet Boy in the spotlight. “We really wanted to focus on the guys, deveope thier personalities with beautiful close-ups of them. Let the fans see what they’re really like.”, explains Linda.
The video is scheduled to be filmed over two extremely hectic days. Tiger Beat arrives in time to catch some of the last moments of Howie’s portion of the shoot. Just as Linda said, the set is filled in both English and Spanish-a first for Backstreet Boys and something Howie has wanted to do for a very long time now. “I’ve tried to influence the guys to translate a couple of our songs to Spanish,” he says. “I think it’s personal being I’m part Spanish because my mom’s Puerto Rican. It’s part of my blood and I want to reach out to everybody out there.”
AJ who’s cut his hair short and dyed it blonde for the video, stops by. “I’m still learning the words for the Spanish version-wish me luck!”, he says with a sheepish grin. “This was the first time we ever sang any of our music in anything besids English.” Howie and AJ explain that they’ve also been asked to record versions of their songs in Italian, Dutch, German and a few Asian languages. “It’s kind of a challenge for us.” says AJ.
Now it’s Nick’s turn to film his close-ups in his red custom-designed room. He’s very intense while he mouths the words to “I’ll Never Break Your Heart” and he looks absolutely gorgeous! Also watching the proceedings is a 15-year-old model named Jessica Mion,who’s been hired to play Nick’s “girlfriend” in the video. She explains, “each of the singers has a ‘girlfriend’ that they kind of get in a fight with and at the end they make up with them. That’s the scene I’m doing with him.” Although she admits she’s not a huge music person (although she does like BSB), the pretty blonde teenager is thrilled to be working on the video. “It’s really cool,” she says. “[Backstreet Boys] are really down-to-earth, more-so than you’d expect. And I’m especially excited because I’m just getting started in this industry, so it’s really neat.”
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