24 seconds with The Backstreet Boys

By Joe Leary
24 Hours Vancouver

The progenitors of the entire boy band craze of the 1990s, the Backstreet Boys amassed sales of nearly 200 million albums worldwide while scoring 13 Top 40 hits, making them the No. 1 act in both concert and album sales between 1997 and 2005.

Joe Leary spent 24 seconds with Nick Carter and AJ McLean.

24: Do you ever try to put a number on how many times you've faced the cameras and microphones in interviews?

NC: We lost count a long time ago. We could guess, but I really don't even know where to start.

AJ: It's a lot ... I mean whether it's between print interviews or TV, photo shoots, radio interviews ... thousands!

NC: I try to think of how many planes we've been on before and how many miles we've flown. It's crazy, really - we've been blessed.

24: How savvy have you gotten in interviews over the years? Do you ever look back and think, "Why the hell did I say that?"

NC: Oh yeah ... why the hell did I wear that? I mean, that happens ... that goes through our minds all the time, but that's the evolution and I think if you pay attention to yourself and watch yourself, you can learn something from yourself from the past and make it better in the future.

24: Canada was one of the early believers in the Backstreet Boys. Why do you think Canada got onboard before other nations did?

AJ: I think at the very beginning of our career - where music was - I think just the way of life here in Canada and the people's mentality of music and the fans here were just a lot more open-minded to it. The U.S. is a little bit more fickle; they may love you one day and they may hate you the next day. There's so much music now on radio of every different type of genre on one radio station at any given moment: You could hear T Pain and then you'll hear Carrie Underwood. I think now, especially, everybody around the world is a lot more open-minded to really good music, but Canada definitely embraced us. You guys rock - period!

24: Let's go back a dozen years or so when BSB first hit and launched as phenomenally. Did you have any idea that it might go the extent that it did?

NC: No. We just kind of rode the wave to see what would happen and we're still in that same mind frame. We enjoy what we're doing in the moment and I think when you enjoy it and you're competitive and you're happy, great things happen. I think our chemistry is amazing and has been for years, back then with each other and our bond, but you really don't know. I think that's what's great about it because I feel like it's a not a time to look back and say, "Oh, look at all of the things that we've done." It's a time to look forward and say, "What are we going to do next?" And that's where we're all at now.

24: Over the years you've obviously not only grown as human beings, but as artists. How are the 2008 Backstreet Boys different from the earlier incarnations?

AJ: The overall sound, the feeling of the group, the chemistry of the group, where we are, how we kind of exist together now, I mean, just the whole morality is just really, really positive and really good. We're all hyped and we're all ready to go back in the studio and make a brand new record. We're all older now, so I think there's a newfound respect between us all - we can almost finish each others statements now.