Get your own Free Home Page(Profile, September/October 1997)
When I catch up with Nick Carter--the youngest Backstreeter at 17--he's in a van leaving New York City, where the group held a press conference the day before to announce the new album and an extensive world tour which will bring them back to Canada sometime around the start of 1998. Now they're heading home to Orlando, Florida, where they will continue rehearsals for their upcoming European tour, which will see them performing in front of some 350,000 adoring fans over two weeks.
Comparing this record to their debut, Nick comments, "I think it's a little bit more mature. Not too mature, but it's a step. Of course we still have the same feeling as the last album--whith the up-tempo [songs] and the ballads. Personally, my voice isn't as high. But we've pretty much stuck to the same thing because when you have something that works, why change it?"
Their smooth blend of R&B-inflected vocals, youthful good looks (none of the boys is over 25), and highly choreographed dance moves certainly worked for the millions of pre-teens and adolescent girls around the world who made Carter, A.J. McLean, Howie Dorough, Kevin Richardson, and Brian "B-Rok" Littrell stars in almost every country except their own. With Backstreet's Back, however, the Boys are hoping to generate the same intense reactions in America as they have internationally.
"Our fans are the ones who make us who we are, they're the ones who go out and buy the albums; they're the ones who spend all their time coming to our concerts. They make the Backstreet Boys."
"That's what we've been hoping for," Carter reassures, "to have jsut as many fans [in America] as around the world. At the same time, we're not going to leave our [international] fans int he gutter, who were there for us in the beginning. The plans we have right now are just to basically be ourselves, do what we did everywhere else. Why change anything for one place?"
As much as he might want a rest and savour his hard-earned success, Carter knows that chances of that are slim as the Boys prepare to conquer America the way they've conquered the rest of the world--by extensive touring and promotion. "We've pretty much been in and out of studios, travelling around the world, going to California to shoot music videos. We're non-stop! It's kinda like one of those things where you just gotta keep going," the youngest Backstreeter explains. "But I think after two albums, we're probably going to take a little bit of a break. Not any time soon. Maybe sometime in the future." Before the end of the century? "Maybe," Carter laughs. "Who knows?"
One break the Backstreet Boys would like is from the critics who have written them off as a New Kids On The Block for the 90's. "We not a band," Carter admits, although he balks at suggestions that they're just a bunch of pretty faces with no talent. "The critics are going to say whatever they want to say. People are going to have their opinions and you can't change that. If what they say is helpful, then use it. And if it's not helpful, then youtake it with a grain of salt."
Critical response is important to the band, though, Carter admits. To combat suggestions that the Boys cannot write or play instruments, Littrell wrote one song off the new album, That's What She Said, which the band co-produced. They've also discussed performing a version of Quit Playin' Games (With My Heart) on their upcoming European tour, with all of them playing instruments as well as singing.
Ultimately, it's the fans that Backstreet Boys want to please most. "They're the ones you make us who we are," Carter insists. "They're the ones who go out and buy the albums; they're the ones who spend all the time coming to our concerst. They've made the Backstreet Boys."
As for the fans in Quebec who first picked up n their music, the Boys reserve much love. "I think it's all about the music itself," Carter says when asked to explain their astounding success in La Belle Province. "If I go over to Japan [and] I hear a song in Japanese, but if it sounds good, why should I not like it? And it would be the same anywhere else. Music is music, wherever you go."
In the meantime, Carter and the rest of the Backstreet Boys are enjoying the success all their work as won them. All their families have been very supportive Carter says, and no one treats them any differently at home than they did before they became international pop stars. "We're still their sons," Carter says, "and all you need is a lot of support from your family." Navigating the cutthroat waters of the music business has been a lot easier with friends and family behind them. "You just have to have the right people helping you out," Carter concludes. "the right management, your family has to be there for you. You just have to keep your head on your shoulders and you feet on the ground."
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