Joey McIntyre says that reuniting with the '80s and '90s boy-band New Kids on Block to do an album and yearlong world tour made him feel, well, like a kid again.
McIntyre says he was so energized, he found himself in a recording studio two days after New Kids' last show in July, writing solo music for the first time in more than five years.
''I think New Kids was amazing and we're just so grateful for the opportunity and did a lot of performing and it just inspired me,'' McIntyre says in a recent phone call from his Los Angeles home. ''It gave me a lot to say and so I'm saying it.''
The result is ''Here We Go Again,'' a seven-song EP, released Dec. 8, that not only showcases the smooth vocals that made McIntyre the New Kids heartthrob, but also moves McIntyre, at 38, into edgy electronica and other musical genres.
McIntyre also is back on the road, on a five-date, weeklong tour that brings him to a sold-out show Friday at The Note in West Chester.
McIntyre, was the youngest New Kid -- just 11 when he joined and 21 when the group first split. After the split he spent the next decade and a half since releasing six solo discs.
Like ''Here We Go Again,'' the discs were independently produced, but found an audience -- the most successful, 1999's ''Stay The Same,'' hit Billboard's Top 50.
McIntyre says he was so energized, he found himself in a recording studio two days after New Kids' last show in July, writing solo music for the first time in more than five years.
''I think New Kids was amazing and we're just so grateful for the opportunity and did a lot of performing and it just inspired me,'' McIntyre says in a recent phone call from his Los Angeles home. ''It gave me a lot to say and so I'm saying it.''
The result is ''Here We Go Again,'' a seven-song EP, released Dec. 8, that not only showcases the smooth vocals that made McIntyre the New Kids heartthrob, but also moves McIntyre, at 38, into edgy electronica and other musical genres.
McIntyre also is back on the road, on a five-date, weeklong tour that brings him to a sold-out show Friday at The Note in West Chester.
McIntyre, was the youngest New Kid -- just 11 when he joined and 21 when the group first split. After the split he spent the next decade and a half since releasing six solo discs.
Like ''Here We Go Again,'' the discs were independently produced, but found an audience -- the most successful, 1999's ''Stay The Same,'' hit Billboard's Top 50.
But New Kids is quite a force -- having sold nearly 18 million albums -- and the reunited group in 2008 found enough fans left to push a new disc to No. 2 on the Billboard chart and sell out most of the 140 arena shows it played. (A DVD from the tour, ''Coming Home,'' recently was released).
That, McIntyre says, gave him the incentive to again record solo material, despite his reservations -- and those of others.
''I heard all these no's -- 'No, don't do it, don't do it.' 'You're crazy, don't waste your time.' 'The music business is crazy now,' '' McIntyre says. ''I've been doing it a long time and it's very easy to go, 'You know what? I made enough music. The New Kids -- this thing was great. Let me sit back.' ''
Overcoming that doubt also prompted him to make the record more edgy, McIntyre says.
''I think to drown out all those no's, I had to really say something and feel something,'' he says. ''And the music had to kind of reflect where I was coming from. ... I had a lot of angst and I just wanted to go for it.''
McIntyre says it helped that he clicked instinctively with the production team -- ''guys that wanted to get to another level, and wanted to do stuff that is kind of weird and quirky and ... to push the envelope. I came in with the ideas and they were great in kind of facilitating that message.''
An example, he says, is the thumping title song, which he says grew out of his ''attitude.'' Its autobiographical lyrics -- ''just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in'' -- are ''about staying in the fight and going for it again,'' McIntyre says. But its quirky sound was the producers' idea.
''I just had this idea,'' McIntyre says. ''They were like, 'Well, lay it down,' and I grabbed a mic and I was so close [to it] that it distorted. But it sounded cool.'' So the producers kept the sound and added Auto-Tune distortion to ''put a little spin on it.''
McIntyre held the new disc to an EP for two reasons: ''The No. 1 reason might be patience with me, which I don't have a lot of,'' he says with a laugh. ''I just loved what we were doing, I loved the music we were making, and I was excited to get it out there.''
He also says that after getting six or seven good songs, ''you eventually kind of hit a wall a little bit. And then you can drag out the album process for another six months and you start adding filler.'' Instead, he says, he wanted ''to have the best songs and ... that same cohesive energy.''
McIntyre says he'll likely do more shows later ''and then eventually want to get down south.''
But he's also busy right now with his own ''new kid'' -- a second son, Rhys, born Dec. 13. His first son, Griffin, is 2.
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