JOHN NORRIS: So, welcome. As we said before, MTV US finally.
ALL: Yes, U.S.!
JOHN: I was asking AJ earlier about this Walmart thing that you guys have just finished, right? How's it been? How has the response been?
AJ: Really good.
BRIAN: We got a lot more people than we really expected to come see us. The material we had, the record company supplied more material for the specific Walmart such as the single and posters and stuff, so it was really, really good. I mean we were stuck in a hot parking lot, but there were a lot of people that came up to see us.
KEVIN: It was weird doing shows over in Europe and then coming over to the heartland of the U.S. where people can actually understand what you are saying totally which was cool.
JOHN: Also weird, I would imagine, the fact that you were going from anywhere from eight to fifteen-thousand seat venues over there to, as you say, doing a Walmart. Is that a good thing in the fact that it is sort of a challenge to be back at square one?
ALL: Yeah.
JOHN: Was it deflating to the ego to go from one to the other?
HOWIE D: I think it keeps you humble, if anything. Our feet are definitely on the ground. Actually, we're getting ready to do a tour in Europe but we are actually doing thirty- thousand to fifty- thousand seat stadiums...
BRIAN: Open air...
HOWIE D: ...to doing a Walmart which is maybe a thousand people and stuff like that. We have done a couple shows here and there in the States. It's good like I say, ya know, America here is our homeland. It's always been the biggest challenge for us to make it here. You know, so we're willing to go back and do high school tours and stuff like that, like we did in the very beginning.
JOHN: Exactly. It's been a few years but you guys did play smaller venues at one point.
HOWIE D: That's how we started out, high school and middle school tours.
JOHN: It doesn't happen that often that American artists make it huge overseas and then come back here, but I mean it's gotta' be weird the times you were back home whether it be in Orlando, or wherever to be around and not be like immediately mobbed or to be able to go places.
NICK: I think it was kind of a relief sometimes when you come home from Europe and doing the big tours and everything and you get to come back and just relax and go out with your friends and do whatever. But now we want it here. We're looking foward to it.
HOWIE D: We used to actually joke about it calling it the "No Fan Land," we would say. And, I mean, the fans that we pretty much have out here in our houses and stuff were actually international fans from Europe that found out our adresses and stuff like that. But pretty much other than that we were normal people. We were able to walk up and down the streets, go to the malls and go to the clubs and do our own normal lives.
JOHN: Speaking of tourists tracking you down, Nick, I heard that you guys had to to put a fence up?
NICK: Yeah...I live in Tampa which is like an hour and a half away from Orlando and they would shuttle tourists to my house in buses, selling maps, and next I had to put up a security fence. It's gotten that bad. They were actually coming up on the lawn and taking plants out of it and stuff.
JOHN: Has anyone considered moving as a result of this?
ALL: Hasn't gotten that bad yet.
HOWIE D: We had to change our phone numbers. They actually got printed in magazines: adresses and phone numbers.
JOHN: As things start to get underway here in the States, what are your thoughts about America? Are you a bit skeptical? I mean pop music is, for the last few years, has had a rough time in this country. I guess it has been more rock oriented to a large extent. Are you psyched by the fact that the Spice Girls, Hanson, acts like that are breaking a bit more this year?
AJ: I think now it will be a little more easier for us than it would have been two or three years ago before the pop scene started making a massive come back. Now we actually have a story about our success in Europe or Asia and Europe and Canada and it starts to bleed back down into the U.S. now, so and we just had a lot of time to prepare ourselves and show the U.S. what we are all about and just be really prepared and give them a really good show.
BRIAN: A lot of things work in circles such as clothing and even the music buisness. You know, when pop was big, you know when Boys to Men came out with their second album, it was pop oriented R&B, but totally different, and it blew up. And then it went rap and then it's gone alternative, and now rock and now it's kinda making its way around. So, I think it is really good for us because the fact that we have been gone for so long, we got a chance to get really tight amongst each other because we've been all over the world and now it's time to come back and say, you know, we are Americans. Everybody thinks we are from London or somewhere and we're like, no, sorry we're from Florida. So, it's exciting, I mean we have a major story to tell.
JOHN: Was it dissapointing at first that it didn't get going quickly in this country?
HOWIE D: Well, like I said, we always wanted to make it big here in America. And we hoped that it would take off here first, but like you said the timing, I think, is really important and the time we released "We Got It Going On", I think grunge was still really kinda' in and alternative and rock was in and rap and I don't think pop music, you know, was. I don't think America was ready for a group like us yet, so that's why we released it over in Europe and internationally and it just exploded over there 'cause, you know, I think the scene was more ready at the time there for us. But I think now it's coming back and I think, you know we've got it going on again.
JOHN: I mentioned the Spice Girls earlier, and I don't want to put you in too much of a situation having to analize the U.S. pop market, because you're not record company executives, obviously, but do you think that there is a difference for a girl group like them versus a guy group? Do guys have more of a challenge in this country, you think, more than girls do in getting MTV and radio airplay? AJ: I think there are a lot more guy groups, a lot more mainstream guy groups and male pop bands and male bands, period than there are for women . And I think the fact that they are starting a whole new image and a whole new line of groups is kinda cool for them, you know? But for us it's like being in Europe: there are a lot of like boys groups and when we come over here we like to blend more or less with the vocal harmony groups. We consider ourselves like that: Boys II Men, Jodeci, Shy... groups like that.
JOHN: In this country, if you are an R&B oriented harmony group, it's o.k. Those guys have had no problem at all. But if you are five guys who do anything pop oriented at all you sorta' get this New Kids tag. They certainly had their share of success, but...
NICK: I think our album and our music is not just oriented as pop. When you listen to our album it's more of a variety of music. From dance music to mid tempos to some R&B ballads, you know? Because we have had producers like PM Dawn, Full Force [who] worked with us and it's turned out really good.
HOWIE D: You know, I think we have realized here in America we definitely have a challenge and we probably really have to prove ourselves, but we just got time. That's just gonna' take time, that's all we got right now, is time and we're willing to do it. Whatever it takes to prove it.
- MTV News Gallery
February 1, 1998