Edmonton Sun Article

Here is an article from the Edmonton Sun with a few quotes from Joey.

One more time around the Block

Nostalgia can be a funny thing. You know that neon green fanny pack won't ever come back in style but you can't part with it. Same goes for those cassette tapes of that famous boy band from Boston, New Kids on the Block.

If you were a teenaged girl back in the early '90s, chances are you had a collective crush on Donnie Wahlberg, Danny Wood, Joey McIntyre, Jordan Knight and Jonathan Knight. Maybe you even cried when the group officially disbanded in 1995, or perhaps by that point you were, like, totally over them.

Now the boys are back, complete with a new album and a new tour, hitting Rexall Place tomorrow night. And just in case you were wondering, boys will be boys.

"I was just making fun of Jon doing an interview and now Jordan is making fun of me," cackles McIntyre from a stop in Denver, "and now Jordan is making fun of me."

McIntyre, at age 35 still the baby of the group, understands that much of the group's current appeal lies in nostalgia, but says the group needed more than an easy buck to reform.

"We felt we had to start with music because we wanted to be excited ourselves. We wanted to be turned on by something new and fresh," explains McIntyre.

NEW ENERGY

"We started in the studio with no deadlines and no contracts. With the new album and the new sound, we're definitely making a splash. I think it adds a lot of new energy to it. It doesn't feel like a totally nostalgic ride. We're lucky to have 10 hits from back in the day that people go crazy for."

The Block, the group's first album since 1994's Face the Music, recently debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and spawned the radio hit Summertime.

The tour behind the album has been great so far for the guys, according to McIntyre, who are all a little bit older and a little bit wiser.

"Being in a band you hear of very successful groups that none of the members talk to each other but they're still doing business. With us I think we put a lot of energy towards trying to get along," says McIntyre.

"We played basketball for the first time in about 15 years yesterday and we're smarter now. Each team won one game and we didn't do the rubber match (deciding game). Twenty years ago we would have done the rubber match, and someone would have been injured and there would have been a fight. But we said, 'You know? We both won a game. Nobody's hurt, nobody's pissed off, let's leave it at that.' So I guess we're learning."

Outside of NKOTB, the guys all had steady careers, in and outside of the music industry. McIntyre found work on Broadway, a role on TV's Boston Public, danced in Dancing with the Stars and is even credited with coining the phrase "This is where the magic happens" on MTV's Cribs ("I have to say I've sort of chartered some frontier on MTV," he laughs).

While there's no denying that things are little different for the guys, their energy on stage has remarkably stayed the same. McIntyre says that the group does lot of meet-and-greets with fans before the shows and that it's common to hear people remark on how calm and chilled out they are. But once they hit the stage, the game is on.

"We have this entrance in the show where you lift up on the stage and you look down and see all this hysteria. Even if you weren't up for it 10 seconds earlier, it's instant ignition," says McIntyre. "The thing is coming down. You learn how to pace yourself. After the show you're so amped that some of us don't got to bed until 4 a.m.

"My (schedule) is a little different because I've got a one-year-old and wife out with me out there so we're going to the zoo when some of the other guys are sleeping in their bunks."