The long wait for the Backstreet Boys are over. BSB are back with a new hit - and a brand new album filled with amazing pop tunes! OKEJ has met the whole band in Germany and were - with a few other magazines in Europe, choosen to do personal interviews! In this number of OKEJ you can read everything that said on the pressconference - welcome to heaven!
Outside the hotel Dorint in Germany have you heard
warnings that the BSB-fans can be kind of messy in a serious way.
The hotel entrance are framed with fences, but outside is just about
50 girls who is really calm.
Is that a sign that the Backstreet Boys isnīt that popular anymore?
Hardly! Inside in the hotel itīs hundreds of journalists from differents countries in Europe, and you can count the TV teams up to 12!
Everybody are waiting to ask question to Nick, Kevin,
Howie, Brian, and A.J.
The fact that the Backstreet Boys are back is news all around the world. For the first time the album is realesed at the same time worldwide. 
OKEJ has been choosen with a few other magazines in Europe to do exlusive interviews with the guys after the press conference, but press conferences just have to be checked out.
First it is premiere listen to their new album Millennium.
This album is really great! Backstreet Boys is returning with a very strong album. The first song Larger Than Life; a fast, almost hardrocking popsong, itīs fantastic!
Well, enough of this, to the press conference:
Are you directing to a new audience now?
-We are trying to grow and be better all the time, I think, says Brian. Like you know we are not a boyband
- we are an a capella group - so I think that are fans are maturing and growing with us. We are not directing to any special group. We are just trying to do quality music. Our lurics has matured. Itīs not just subjects like "I love you" and "Iīll never break yor heart" anymore. We have become more deeper and what ever it leads us I hope the fans will follow us.
Why donīt you want to be called a boyband?
Nick: When we first got to Europe we got trown in the boybands team, and we have worked really hard to get out of there!
Kevin: We were bundle together with all these other bands. But back home in the US a band is a bunch of mucians with instruments guitarrs, drums and keyboards - or a parade band with trumpets. When someone described a boyband like "a group with gorgeous guys who donīt need to know how to sing, because their producers are taking care of those things", we realized that we donīt want to have that "boy band" stamp on us.
Howie: We thought that we were pretty lucky as, when we debuted, started a new trend: a band who really can sing!
It has been roumors about soloprojects.
Does that mean that BSB are splitting up?
Nick: Itīs a good moment to once and for all put an end to that roumor. I think we have got that question 50.000 times! The answer is no. We are not splitting up! Right now we are focused and know what we want to do in the future, and we have realized that this is what we wanna do.
I think that we can do other things too, that we are talking over together, but what ever happens, itīs always gonna be a Backstreet Boys.
A german reporter drops a little bomb!
What do you think about sex before marriage?
A.J. seems to thinks itīs not so funny when all the journalists are laughing. Brian says:
-What has that have to do with music? Because itīs that we are here to talk about, isnīt it?
Then Kevin saves the situation:
We are saying that we are young, religious men - but we are not saying that weīre perfect! We donīt tell what you should or shouldnīt do. Some of us, grew up in a very strict and christian home, but I still donīt know what I feel is right. During our trips the last 6 years we have come across alot of different cultures and religions - but I know that itīs only one God, one power! I was raised with that should wait with sex after marriage, but that doesnīt mean I follow all the rules.
How do you see on gays?
-We love everyone, donīt think anything else, says Kevin real quick.
-They are human beings, just like everybody else, says A.J.
Is anyone in the group gay?
- No, we like girls, says Kevin. All of us. We donīt discriminate anyone, however. I have many gay friends in the entertaiment buissnes and we are hanging out without a problem. People always seems to think that if you are in a boyband you have to be gay, but thatīs not true.
Brian: At least three of us is gay if you belive the roumors on the internet...
What can you say about the tour?
Kevin: We donīt want to reveal so much, but we are really exited abuot the tour. One guy who have worked with David Bowie and Kiss have designed the show. The stage, wich is going to be in the middle of the arena, is a five side stage! What a challenge is gonna be to perform there!
A.J.We was really worried about the fans when we had to move the tour and the press wrote some bad things about us, but we changed our manager and it was the old one who had planed the tour in the wrong time. We wasnīt redy.
What do you feel about the millennium?
Kevin: Iīm looking forward to it with mixed feelings. I grew up with the Bible, and the Revelationbook says that itīs the end of the world
the year 2000. But it feels like a fresh breeze to start a new century. Itīs a new start for us too.
This is one of the years eagerly awaited albums.
Donīt you get stressed of all the attention?
Nick takes the microphone and answering a little bit low-voiced.
-Thank God that we have our second album behind us. That was hard! This was a little bit easier. We have recorded few of Denniz Pops last songs, and we have becomed more deeper, like in I Want It That Way. Last year was a very hard year for us with all the tragedies; Brians heart operation and Howies sister who died in Lupus, but we have taken us out of all the hard things that have happened. Now weīre strong, and this album is the proof of it.
Brian: After going through a heart operation you look at life in a different way. Life itīs the most important, all the money in the world, career and celebrity doesnīt have a chance. Without life or health and happiness you donīt have anything!
Whatīs the weirdest thing fans have ever done?
A.J.: They have done alot of crazy things!
A few have sneaked into our bus, or showed up in our dressing room with torned jeans after climbing over a barbed wire fence!
Kevin:I remember once, outside the TV-station VIVA in Germany, when fan destroyed things for over half a million crowns! They were like crazy, they jumped on cars and crashed shop windows. It was kind of scary!
Howie: I have had fans helping in the garden. My mum invited them in for some soft drinks!
What do you think about charity?
Kevin: We are very positive about that. Brian has a heart fund and Howie got a fund in his sisters name. We want to do whatever we can to help other people, that is like a thank you to everyone who have supported and helped us.
Howie: We would like to start a BSB-fund too fight all the diseases. It could be as big as Live Aid.
During the tour we are gonna give 1 dollar for all that come in from the concert tickets to charity.
Are you planning a BSB-movie?
Nick: No, but we have got some offers. Right now we want to concentrate on the music. Many bands who have done movies split up and hasnīt been able to give 100 %.
Are you out on the net surfing?
Brian: When we are out, no one belives that itīs us! Those times we have chatted it have been such a pressure that it has crashed.
Nick: I go in on different homepages. Itīs fun. You find out loads about the guys that you didnīt know - or donīt want to know...
Anders Tegner OKEJ
Translating: Katarina (editor of Larger Than Life: Backstreet Boys)
