Following the epic sell out ‘Boys Are Back’ Arena tour last year, halted midway through due to the pandemic, 3 of the original members of the 90’s bad boy, boy band Ritchie Neville, Sean Conlon and Scott Robinson who sold over 20 million records worldwide, amassed 3 UK number 1 singles and 3 Top 5 albums, with their debut album going in at number 1, got together remotely during lockdown and have written their first album in 20 years!
‘Time’ is set for release on January 28th, we caught up with Sean Conlon from the band to talk about recording, early memories, the lack of social media in the 90’s, comparisons with other boy bands and those killer dance moves.
You’re releasing a new album ‘Time’ which is due to be released in January 2022, tell me about the process involved, (writing/recording etc), especially being restricted over the lockdown period.
It was a little tricky at times as we could only get together to record when we weren’t in lockdown. There was a lot of sending things back and forth across the internet and phone recordings of different ideas.
Did you have more control over the song-writing for ‘Time’ than you did for your previous releases? Were you more involved in the song-writing process?
We were very involved in the writing for previous releases but not so much the production. For this album we were involved in every step of the process.
What about in the studio, would you say that you are all ‘hands on’ or do you tend to let the producer and engineer do the heavy lifting?
We were definitely hands on with all the production. Once the ideas were there though and the production was done, we brought in an engineer to enhance it.
Do any of you play any instruments on the new album or did you use other musicians and concentrate on the vocals (and dance moves)?
Yes we played or programmed most of it apart from a few bits here and there. Things like live strings on time for example, we needed to bring in professional musicians. :)
Being in a group must have been exciting for you back in the late 90’s, so many ‘firsts’ – which of these do you remember the most?
I remember our first big show. It was a radio 1 roadshow and I was petrified. I tried to get out of it, as I was that scared. But somehow I got through it. The first step is always the hardest. :)
You were often compared to New Kids on the Block, East 17, the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC for your music style, these were massive acts back in the day, did you ever feel out of your depth or do you think that you managed to ‘hold your own’ in the ocean of Boy Bands?
We definitely held our own. :) We had similarities to them all being a boyband, but we also had our own style which made us stand out and gave us our own identity.
I guess you’ll have a ready-made fanbase from the people that loved your music the first time around, are you also hoping to tap into the youth of today?
We welcome anybody to listen to our music, older, younger and middle aged alike.
Social media didn’t exist back in the 90’s, how different would things have been for you back then if it were around?
Well being as famous as we were was difficult enough back then. So, with the added pressure of social media and people filming everything you do on their phones, it would have been really hard to deal with I imagine. Plus we had such big mouths we would have been in trouble all the time.
I imagine that you were under quite a lot of pressure back in the early days owing to being signed to a massive management company and record label, how do things compare these days?
We do what we want to do, which has pros and cons. But if we want to have time off with our families for example we can communicate that with each other and accommodate each other. Back then there wasn’t a lot of empathy for things like that from each other or the management and label.
Your live performances include a mixture of older and newer songs, what reaction do you get to the newer ones?
The reaction has been really great, which was a relief as we were worried about that. In our song Reset for example, there is a part of the song where the crowd sing ohs back to us. The first time we sang it on tour the whole theatre was singing it back which gave us such a positive feeling.
Your dance routines were quite ‘full on’ when you performed live, are you all match fit and able to do the same these days or have you toned things down a little?
There’s only one move in If ya getting down that we have taken out. But it’s only cause we decided it looked a bit silly, nothing to do with fitness. The rest we’ve kept the same.
You performed some live shows in Sept/Oct 21, how did these go and are you hungry to get back out there once the new album drops?
We love playing live that’s what we do. When we’re unable to gig because of covid for example, it’s really difficult and frustrating, as we can’t do what we love. It’s been a difficult time for everybody in all walks of life.
Finally, there are MILLIONS of bands and acts out there, please share a few with us that you’re currently enjoying?
There is some great pop out there now as there has always been. Some of the acts I really appreciate are Dua Lipa, Charlie Puth, Selena Gomez, Chainsmokers, Billy Eilish and One Republic to name a few. Love a lot of the songs and production of these artists. But there are many more I could add too.
We’d like to thank Sean for taking the time to chat to us and we wish him and the rest of the group every success with their new studio album ‘Time’ which will be available digitally from January 28th 2022.