With their first studio album in five years, the Backstreet Boys seem to have reappeared and are about to take the world by storm. But how long are they in it for this time, wonders NIKI CHEONG, as he speaks to band member Howie Dorough in a phone interview from Florida.

BOY bands from the past decade have come and gone – some more quietly than others. While splits from bands like Take That almost caused a national emergency, others like 911 or Code Red just disappeared into oblivion. Who? Exactly. That said, many bands have taken the cue from the Rolling Stones, with band members doing their own stuff but not officially calling it quits.

The Spice Girls did it, and every now and then, rumours still crop up about a possible reunion; Take That has just announced a reunion tour (with, or without Robbie Williams) and *N Sync is ... well, still taking their break.

For the Backstreet Boys, their “sabbatical”, in 2001, couldn’t have come at a better time. While the official word was that they wanted to take a break after 10 years of non-stop working, there was also the fact that fellow Orlando boys *N Sync were proving to be a major competitor. But the break gave the group the rest they needed – band member A.J. McLean needed time to win his battle with drugs, Howie Dorough and Kevin Richardson needed time to mourn the death of family members, and Nick Carter and Brian Littrell had to pacify their egos and work on their solo careers.

The Backstreet Boys (from front left): Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, AJ McLean, Brian Littrell and Kevin Richardson, have reunited after a four-year hiatus.

Their first major appearance was, incidentally, in Kuala Lumpur at the Force of Nature concert, which coincided pretty well with the release of their first single Incomplete from their latest album Never Gone (ironic, considering they’ve been gone for almost five years).

While songs from the album have yet to emulate their previous releases that topped the US charts (their highest chart ranking thus far for this album is #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 for Incomplete), it seems that support from the fans has yet to wane.

“We have the best fans in the world,” Dorough explained. “They’ve grown up, we’ve grown up and our lives and music have changed but we still have their support. We’re so lucky to have fans who are such loyal people”.

Indeed, they have already sold out indoor and outdoor arenas across America and Europe as part of their Never Gone World Tour, which was held in conjunction with the release of Never Gone earlier this year.

They start the Asian leg of their tour in January, culminating in Singapore on Jan 24 before heading to tour Australia. The concert will feature a string of their greatest hits, as well as nine new songs. Critics have already hailed their concerts as a great comeback, albeit much more toned down from the usual extravagant concerts which have in the past seen them flying across stages.

“The tours have calmed down a bit, we’re all getting older,” Dorough said. We still do some of our trademark dance routines for the older songs but now, we also play with the band ? Nick gets on the guitar and Kevin on the piano.”

However, just like their music and concerts, it appears that their priorities have also changed.

While Carter has released his solo album to lukewarm response, Littrell is also hoping to make it solo-wise, with a Christian-inspired album due out in early 2006 as well. Even Dorough has been working on a solo record which he said will be a Latin-English crossover album.

“I think it’s hard to deny that each of us has dreams of a solo career,” he said.

But besides just trying to get a bigger piece of the entertainment pie, it seems that the Backstreet Boys don’t live just for music anymore.

“We try not to do things at such a fast pace as we did before. We realise what we have, and what we need is a good healthy balance. We really need to enjoy it (making music),” Howie explained.

Which is fair enough, after all, they’ve been doing this for 13 years and there were points, Dorough mentioned, when they began to “suffer” and resent the work that they were doing.

Now, a little bit older, they have other things to consider such as their loved ones. Littrell and Richardson are married, with the former now a father as well. Just last week, the Backstreet Boys made an appearance in New York sans Dorough, who was instead in Florida on the annual cruise that his Dorough Lupus Foundation, set up in memory of his sister who died of lupus, organises.

So where do the Backstreet Boys go from here, with all these new priorities in tow? Backstreet Men?

Howie laughs: “No, we’ll always be the Backstreet Boys. It’s not an age thing, over here, we use the term ‘boy’ to call our buds, friends.”

“And besides, we feel that if the Beach Boys and Beastie Boys can get away with it, so can we.”

And as for the future of the group?

“If we feel like taking a break, we’ll take a break,” Dorough said. “We’ll just play it day by day.”

So, perhaps their album title doesn’t mean that they’ve never really gone away, but that they never will ... even they don’t know just yet.

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