October 13, 1997
K | Kyla (VJ on Channel V) |
S | Shawn | N | Nate | W | Wanya |
Mike is there, but he doesn't say anything.
K - Hi guys, welcome to Australia.
N - Thank you, it's good to be back here.
K - Good. Now, congratulations! Evolution debuted at number one on the billboard charts, fantastic!
ALL CHEER AND CLAP
K - So, tell me about the album...the making of the album.
K - Back then, nine years ago, you were discovered by Bell Biv DeVoe?
ALL - Yes, Michael Bivins
K - How did that happen?
N - Well we were performing at a function in Philadelphia held by a local radio station.
S - (to Nate) We weren't performing.
N - Well actually, no, they were performing at an event held by the local radio station in Philadelphia. We met Michael backstage and we asked him could we sing for him. He said yeah, that as basically how we matched up.
W - It was something that, we never expected to get a record deal from it. I mean, we only went there to see the stars and hang out. I mean, we were local, and we just loved New Edition, and for them to be coming off stage, we felt like "Oh man, let's sing for them". And singing for them was definitely a blessing. It went from there and that's where it is now.
K - At what stage did you decide that music was going to be your career?
S - I think one of them, anyway. Besides the one where we were discovered by Michael Bivins, one show we had in High School, in our High School we called it the magical show because it was around Valentine's Day and it was a special Valentine's Day assembly. Because we went to a Performing Arts High School, every art department had a certain type of display for Valentine's Day. The dancers had theirs, the creative writers had theirs, and the artists had theirs, and we had ours. It was the four of us, and we actualy had a fifth member in the group at that time, too. We all saved up our pennies and bought these little two-bit outfits that we put on and everything, and we practised a routine for the whole assembly and everything. Before we went on and the curtain opened, it was like, crazy. Girls that we'd gone to school with for a good couple of years were screaming and hollering like we were an established group. From that point on it was just crazy afterwards. Because the day after the performance, it seemed that everyone in the group was looked at different. We were like, the most popular fellas after that show. It was just one of the most special moments of all our lives collectively, as a group. That in itself, launched the interest of being in a group, and making something out of this group a little bit stronger.
K - Did you guys record the latest album at home?
W - Yes.
S - Most of it. About, actually 80% of the album was recorded in our studios in Philadelphia called Stonecreek. It's actually 15-20 minutes outside of Philadelphia, where we're from. Basically, it made the recording process a lot more comfortable because of the fact that we were home and it was our studio. The studio was pretty much tailor-made for us, as far as the facilities there. We have a basketcall court and we have a little gym where we can work out and we have our individual offices where we can make our phone calls and we also have a lot of MIDI gear in each our office to basically make songs. So all of it is geared to us and it was a really nice change. And it was comfortable and it was relaxing to be able to stay in the studio as long as you wanted without neccesarily having to worry about overtime and overtime booking of a studio, running into someone else's time. All of the time was exclusively ours so that's what made the recording process this time a lot more comfortable.
W - We get recognised. I guess, y'know, the mob situation, it depends on you. I f you walk down a street and someone sees you, you can actually control the situation. If you start going (acts nervous) "Oh my God, they saw me" and try to walk away, or you can handle it "how you doin'? nice to meet you, nice goin'" And you can walk on your way. If you extend yourself to them, they very seldom chase you, and that's something that I've learnt, in dealing with the Philadelphia crowd.
S - I've also learned that a lot of times the things we do, I know I do, a lot of times, is just travel at night, where in the dark you can't really see anybody, so a lot of places that I do try to go to, and I'm sure I speak for a couple of other guys in the group, we try to do it when the sun goes down, when there's not as many people in the city we tend to just do our thing there to be less problematic as far as crowds and things of that nature.
K - You've worked with Mariah Carey, Brandy, who else do you want to work with?
W - We actually worked with LL Cool J on Hey Lover. We worked with various artists on the Vibin' remix. We did backgrounds for Michael Jackson on History. Backgrounds for Stevie Wonder on Jungle Fever a long, long time ago. I mean, a lot of those things people wouldn't really know about cause we were basicaly in the back. We'd like to work with Prince, we'd also like to work with Take 6, there's a lot of artists that we wanna work with just to tear down the barriers of it always being such a competition, just to have some sort of vibe with it.
K - Do you feel like leaders of male R&B groups?
W - It's a funy thing you said that, one of the guys from Az Yet yesterday, were in the hotel that we were at, and he was just so much complimenting, complimenting, complimenting. And I felt like it was a good thing, but I couldn't help but compiment them too, on their success. They said, if there was no Boyz II Men, there would be nous. I didn't know what to say, if I should say "thank you" or "no, that's not true", but we've always known that it could have happened to 4 other guys, there could have been four other guys that came out first. Around that time there were other people that were out, but this, right here, could have been 4 other guys and we realised that this was God-given, and that's what I told him. I said "If you guys had come out first, we would have been right behind you. Realise that everything that goes on with us was God-given." And that's the way I handled that situation.
N - Right now this is what we do. This is our third album, this is a very crucial album for us, and our goal is longevity. If we can stay consistent in the same frame that we are, then we'll be happy, but we've got a lot of work to do with this first, before we move on.
K - Can I just ask you guys to sing something a capella?
S - rain song, rain song
KIND OF SINGING CAN YOU STAND THE RAIN
ALL - "Sunny days.......
....Can you stand the rain"
W - That's also on Evolution. Check it out, in stores now.
K - Thanks so much for your time guys. I hope you enjoy yourself here in Australia.
ALL - Thank you.
K - And, good luck
S - Thank you.
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