Introduced to the world with a multi-platinum debut LP,
Cooleyhighharmony, which totalled 6.5 million in sales, Boyz II Men quickly earned a reputation for being a hitmaking act. Now enjoying more brisk sales with their sophmore LP, II, the boyz turned men are understandably concerned that everything be everything to insure their ascenancy to the next level.
WU: Okay, talk to me about the new album in terms of going to all of those different cities and the reason why.
Shawn: Well,...we felt that we were entitled to use variuos producers such as Jimmy Jam an Terry Lewis to L.A. Reid, to Brian McKnight, and Babyface, to Tim and Bob, two producers under Dallas Austin's label camp, plus, Dallas Austin himself, Troy Taylor and Charles Farah from Character Productions, and ourselves. The reason why we had to go to different cities is obviously because there were so many different producers. That's another reason why it took us as long as it did for us to come out with the album, because a lot of people were asking us, 'Well, when's the album coming out, you know, you guys are taking so long' and so forth. I mean, it was a mixture of things, of a lot of things. For one, it was because we had obligations in between the production of the album, so a lot of times we had to stop recording, go off somewhere, and come back.
And then, you know, sometimes it's kind of a (head trip) because it breaks the flow... In the studio, you wanna be in there for (a long time), that's why a lot of artists black out for, like two or three months in the studio, because they just want to be in there every day. Because it's a creative process, it's something that an artist tries to just react on when they have it because they may not have that same type of flow again. Fortunately, with the different producers, we got different inspirations from them, you know, being that Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis is based in Minneapolis, we had to go there, Babyface in L.A., Dallas Austin is in Atlanta, and we just went to some other places for personal reasons also. We went to Granny's House in Reno, you know, it's just like a houselike studio, and we went there not only to record, but to get away from a lot of things, and just to like (regroup) on a more personal basis. And, another reason why it took so long is because of the other producers' schedules, like Babyface, we had to juggle with his schedule because he's real busy with other artists, and so is Jam and Lewis, just everyone else, Brian McKnight, you know, everyone just had other things that they had to do, including ourselves, so, we had to record based on each other's schedules when they, like, met. That's why it took so long. We apologize to all those people who wanna know why this album took so long. We're sorry. Hopefully, it won't happen again like this, and we hope that you guys like what we came out with.
WU: Okay, in terms of the different tracks on the album, are there any outstanding tracks-I mean, sometimes some tracks hit you more than others that you feel more strongly about than others. Is there anything like that on this album?
Wanya: Well, I guess for us, you could say that we're kind of biased in that case because all the songs that we sing and the songs that we write are, like we get into it. Even the songs that someone else writes, we get into them one hundred percent, and if we don't get into them, then we can't bring it across right. And it's just-I guess that would be up to the listener to say which songs are the (most) outstanding ones because if it were up to us, then we'd say that all of them are outstanding (Laughs).
Nate: A lot of groups make albums where they make three or four hit records and then throw in album fillers. We don't take album fillers to make an album, we say, 'Hey, let's put one hundred percent into every song and try to make every song a hit.' We're not trying to just fill up an album, get it out there and have a couple of his here and there. If we could, we'll try to hit all the time, we don't want to miss, that's the most important.
Wanya: The best songs win, period, you know. The songs that we have are the best songs, you know, the best songs for an album.
Nate: Right, 'cause we even sit aound and think about the songs that we've done, and we have at least 10 or 15 songs that we think are gret that didn't tmake the album because there were better songs, but we still feel that those ones are good as well.
WU: Well, what happens to those songs that never get on the album?
Boyz II Men: Well, we're not really sure. Maybe we'll save them or do them on something else, because a lot of people might be interested in them. I mean, sometimes we'll sit around, save them for soundtracks. I mean, we sometimes think that if it's a good song, it will last, no matter how long you keep it sitting.
WU: Now I understand that there was a radio station playing a rack off the album. How did this happen?
Wanya: There was one in Japan.
WU: Japan?? (Laughing)
Wanya: Yeah, really.
WU: How did this happen? (Giggling) Because this was shrouded in secrecy - I still haven't heard a track yet, that's how secret it is, and I'm doing the interview...
Shawn: Well, we're not sure exactly how that song leaked out to the radio stations...(unintelligable)...but radio statoins seem to have played just one song entirely, like, they just emphasized on one tune.
WU: What was that tune?
Shawn: It was a song called "Water Runs Dry." It's on the album...And, we're not sure how it happened, but usually in a case like that, it usually hurts the artist and the record company because the stuff is out way before it's released, and the result of that is that everyone looses out. Fortunatley, it's helped us because we've gotten some publicity from that and people wanted to know more baout the album, so I guess it what people's appetites as far as, like, wanting to hear the song. Because though they leaked it and a lot of people didn't hear it, and they only heard about it...
WU: (Laughing) I didn't hear it wither.
Shawn: See, it acted somewhat like an advertisement for people who wanted to hear us, and actually it was an honor, because in a way, I mean, for people to want to hear us that bad to where they'd take a third-generation tape and play it over the radio, no matter what condition it was in, that was great. That was like a great honor to us. We weren't mad, we weren't angry at all, but that shouldn't have happened. And, hopefully, it won't happen again, that's all.