Photos by Aibek
While the BACKSTREET BOYS (gratefully) acknowledge their debut success to millions of teenage and young adult fans, their goal is to grow along with their audience. "We're a vocal harmony group," BRIAN explains. "On our last album we wanted to bring back singing as the focus and hopefully with MILLENNIUM we'll break down a few more doors. The album has a lot of personal influences. The lyrical content is a little bit more mature. Wherever this album takes us we want to keep our fan base, but expand it to all ages, older and younger, boys and girls, all nationalities." One of the lyrical themes the BACKSTREET BOYS explore on MILLENNIUM is their appreciation for their fans in songs such as "Larger Than Life," "Spanish Eyes" and "Perfect Fan," a song written by BRIAN about his mother. They also reveal a harder, edgier sound on "Don't Want You Back." The album showcases just how much these five extraordinarily gifted vocalists have grown--both individually and harmonically--since the group began six years ago. On MILLENNIUM, each of the five BACKSTREET BOYS unique musical contributions emerge, catapulting their trademark harmonies to even more passionate heights.The BACKSTREET BOYS' incredible journey began in Orlando, Florida in 1993. It was there that then-high school students AJ McLEAN, HOWIE DOROUGH and junior high school student NICK CARTER began to encounter each other at local acting auditions. The three young men became friends and, inspired by Boyz ll Men and Color Me Badd, formed a singing group. The trio then decided to expand, by two. They were introduced by a mutual friend to KEVIN RICHARDSON, whom at the time was performing at Disneyworld. Then after unsuccessfully scouring Orlando for a fifth member, KEVIN recruited his Kentucky-based cousin BRIAN LITTRELL. BRIAN relocated and the BACKSTREET BOYS were ready to begin chapter one of their amazing story. At first, the group concentrated on their favorite cover tunes--including Shai's "If I Ever Fall In Love"--but eventually began to find their own distinctive sound. Stressing their strong harmonies and a blend of pop and R&B, the vocal quintet began trying to secure a record deal. Willing to sing for anybody anywhere, the group resorted to such classic tactics as performing a capella in the foyers of local record label offices.
Quickly their talent and tenacity began to pay off; within six months of forming, they became one of Florida's hottest live acts. They played high schools, Grad Night at Sea World and scored an opening slot for Brandy. With an indie single "Tell Me That I'm Dreaming" and a whole lot of stage experience, the BACKSTREET BOYS entered the next chapter in their rise to superstardom. Their then-manager was friends with A&R executive David McPherson (who was at Mercury at the time) and in a canny move, called him on her cell phone from one of their live shows so that he could experience first-hand the pandemonium the group generated. Jive signed them soon after.
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