The Group's Shawn Talks to All-Stars!
The Boyz are back! We're talking about Boyz II Men of course - Nate Morris, Shawn Stockman, Wanya Morris, and Michael McCary return with II, the follow-up to Cooleyhighharmony. Working on album number two, (it's their second album of original tunes), proved to be a challenge for the quartet from Philly, known for their awesome harmonies and smooth vocals. After all, how do you create an album that lives up toa debut album that sold millions and won countless awards? Boyz II Men know how. "I'll Make Love to You," II's first single release, went straight to number one on the record charts, and by now a second single, "On Bended Knee," has been released. Presently in Asia, Boyz II Men are getting ready for for a U.S. tour. Recently, the group's Shawn talked with All-Stars. Here goes-from Shawn "II" you!
All Stars: How did the group decide on the title, II, for the new album?
Shawn Stockman: Actually, it was an idea of mine. I happended to just think of it and I was kinda nervous about how the rest of the guys were going to take it, but, one day we were just talking and I said, "Fellas, I think I have a name for the next LP." I was kind of nervous and before I said the title, I was saying, "It's our second album," and blah, blah, blah-just explaining before I hit them with it. And they're like, "C'mon, just tell us." I said, "Well, I think the album should be called II. It's self explanatory, it's very straight forward." I told them my little ideas about getting the II out there, just a certain type of commercial advertising and things, and they were like, "That is great. That is fly, man." And I was happy. I really thought they weren't going to like it. But they fell in love with it and then ideas from them started coming out, and everybody was fully into it and I felt good about that.
All-Stars: There's a story behind putting together the new album. You started out working in Philly and ended up at Granny's House. Tell us about Granny's House.
Shawn: Granny's House is a studio in Reno, Nevada that basically has all the comforts of home. It looks like a regular house from outside, but when you go inside it has a full-scale studio. It has the atmosphere of any other home. It had the couch, it had the cable TV, it even had a cook who cooked great, great, three-couse meals. We were treated so nice there. Downstairs, in the back of the house, was a full 48-track studio where we worked on our music. The reason we did that was just to get away from a lot of the distractions that kind of got in the way of making the album. So we said, all right, we're gonna pick up our clothes for about a week and just go away and concreate strictly on recording. It was nice. It was real relaxing. There was a gym down the street that we went to when we weren't recording.
All-Stars: What made you decide to record "Yesterday" for the album?
Shawn: "Yesteday" was a song that we were introduced to in high school. It was part of our vocal choir repertoire. We all went to the High School for creative and Performing Arts and we had a lot of material that our teacher taught us. "Yesterday" was one of those tunes and we just fell in love with it. Even after we graduated we would still sing it and we thought that it would be a great idea to put it on the record.
All-Stars: It sounds great. You put your own spin on it.
Shawn: Thank you! We try our best. We're just glad it's doing as well as it's doing. I've just been told that the album is platinum here in the U.S. It's just really great how people have taken to the album and our music. People walk up to us, and even some people who we didn't expect to have the album, had it. Like a couple of rappers would come up to us and go, " Yo, your album's phat, man, your album's phat!" And we'd be like, "Thank you!" So it's nice that the album's reaching a lot of people. And some rock artists come up to us sometimes and say, "I love your music. Keep it going!" It's really nice.
All-Stars: Will we see Boyz II Men on tour soon?
Shawn: Look out for us next year, very early - we hope! And I would to say on behalf of the group, thank you very much for the support!