After an unseasonably wet spring in Southern California, the sun peeped out to warm and fragrant Wednesday afternoon. The sun wasn't alone! Backstreet Boys were also trying their best to heat things up in Los Angeles during the filming of thier latest video for the gorgeous love song "I'll Never Break Your Heart," off their multi-platinum self-titled debut CD.
The location for this historic event wasn't what you's expect in the land of limousines and movie stars. Instead, the video producers chose a quiet site warehouse district located between the suburbs of Baldwin Hills and Culver City. Although the area looks peaceful, once you venture inside stage 2 of Century City Studios it's non-stop action and energy of the Backstreet Boys' variety.
"This is a performance video, a narrarive where they are focusing on the guys' individual personalities," says Jive Records video commissioner Linda Simmons, as she walks Tiger Beat around the elaborate set. She explains that each of the guys will be performing their portion of the video on a unique set design to highlight there personal interests. "Nick, for instance, his set-up is like his game room---Nintedo, japanimation figures and all kinds of things like that. Howie---he's more like a businessman and music man strumming on his guitar. AJ's set is a little bit more sleek, more sophisticated and high-tech. That is his kind of personality. AJ is the funky one of the group. Brian's set-up was in a little bit more earthly, kind of an indian feel---the red earth and white wood furniture. Kevin's set (contains) a mixture of African and Edwardian artwork."
It's obvious tht the video for "I'll Never Break Your Heart" is the most elaborate production the guys have done to date. However, unlike past videos where their awesome dance moves took center stage, the new video takes a moment to put each Backstreet Boy in the spotlight. "We really wanted to focus on the guys, develope their personalities with beautiful close-ups of them. Let fans see what they're really like." explains Linda.
The video is scheduled to filmover teo extremely hectic days. Tiger Beatarriveson time to catch some of the last moments of Howie's portion of the shoot. Just as Linda said, the set is filled with guitars and has a sharp modern feel. The video is also being filmed in both English and Spanish--- a first for the Backstreet Boys and something Howie has wanted to do for a very long time now. "I've tried to influence the guys to translate a couple of our songs into Spanish," he says. "I think it's personal being I'm apart Spanish because my mom's Puerto Rican. It's part of my blood and i want to reach out to everybody out there."
AJ who cut his hair short and dyed it blond for the video, stops by. "I'm still learning the words to the Spanish version---wish me luck!" he says with a sheepish grin. "This was the first time we ever sang any of our songs in anything besides English." Howie and AJ explain that they've also been asked to record their songs in Italian, Dutch, german and a few Asian languages. "It's kind of a challenge for us," says AJ.
Now it's Nick's turn to film close-ups in his red costom-designed room. He's very intense while he mouths the words to "I'll Never Break Your Heart" and he looks abolutely gorgeous! Also watching the proceedings is a 15-year-old model named Jessica Mion, who's been hired to play Nick's "girlfriend" in the video. She explains, "each singer has a 'girlfriend' that they kind of fight with and at the end we make up with them. That's the scene I'm doing with him." Although she admits she's not a huge music person (although she does like BSB), the pretty blond teenager is thrilled to be working on the video. "It's really cool," she says. "(Backstreet Boys) are really down-to-earth, moreso then you'd expect. And I'm espeacially excited cause i'm just getting started in the industry, so it's really neat."
When Nick takes a break from performing, we got a moment to ask him what it feels like to be a part of the most famous guy group on the charts these days. "I haven't really felt it yet." he says with a laugh. "It hasn't really taken effect . It takes a while and time is what we've got."
Suddenly, Nick's called back to another take. As we watch , Brian stops by to say hello. What does he think of Backstreet Boys' conquest of America? "It's exciting. really exciting." he says. "It's something we've always wanted and it's nice to have a story to tell when you come back home to everybody---to say we finally did it. We made it!"
Later on, Tiger Beat runs into the last BSB Kevin, as he eats lunch witha bunch of his L.A. friends that he's invited to the set. The Most notoriously intense Backstreet Boy has an easy smile these days now his's groups future in the US is assured. he says he's tired, but very happy. "We've just finished up a European tour right now we're shooting a video for our fourth single!" he exclaims. "So far, we've had three top five singles in the U.S. which is not bad. So, we're really excited to be having the success here that we've had all over the world"
This is not the complete article. I am not sure if ii have the whole thing i'm going to check and if i do i'll add the rest later!!"
