Boys Wanna Rock: Backstreet's Carter kicks out the jams

After spending a decade as a Backstreet Boy, Nick Carter is giving up his dancing shoes and heavily choreographed moves that propelled the boy band to international fame.

Instead, he’s picking up pen and paper, as well as a guitar and drum sticks so he can “rock out” on his solo effort, Now or Never.

Carter, 22, says he felt a need to branch out after years of being in Backstreet. “When I first started recording and writing songs, I had a lot of stuff inside me as a little kid that I couldn’t get out or express too much because you’re in a band and when you’re young you just don’t know how to do things or express yourself,” he says about his early days in the business at age 12.

“But now I started to find myself just by being by myself. I wasn’t in that situation where I had the four other guys around me . . . which I loved, they pretty much raised me, but you have to step out and find yourself in order to be somebody and that’s what I’ve done with the music.”

After Backstreet Boys’ 2001 Black and Blue tour, the youngest band member went into the studio while the boys were on hiatus “to see what happens, not to record an album,” he explains.

But after goofing around for a week with some producers he left with eight songs, including the ballad, Do I Have To Cry For You.

“The record company got really excited,” he recalls in an interview during a recent stop in Toronto to promote his CD.

“They were happy that I could actually write songs.”

Carter co-wrote most of the dozen songs on the rock-infused pop album. He’s replaced the Backstreet Boys’ harmony-laden pop melodies with some ’80s rompin’ rock flavour a la Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, Bryan Adams and Journey style.

The new image is in line with the current “It” musicians like Avril Lavigne, John Mayer and Michelle Branch, who have all helped make pop-rock vogue again.

That said, one might wonder if Carter’s switch was an orchestrated marketing move to distance himself from boy bands and bubble gum pop, which seem to have lost their cachet with youth.

Peers Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and *NSYNC’s Justin Timberlake are trying hard to recreate themselves and shed their teen popstar images.

But Carter is eager to persuade anyone who will listen that his evolution to solo artist isn’t a gimmick but a natural part of his evolution as an artist.

“It’s going to be difficult in some people’s eyes to see me do this,” the blue-eyed singer admits. “It might take a while for people to accept it just like it was before with the Backstreet Boys.”

True enough. The Backstreet Boys’ first single, We’ve Got It Going On, fell on deaf ears in North America where youth were busy banging their heads to the alt-rock sounds of Nirvana and Pearl Jam.

“I’m here to prove my point — that I love rock music and I can do it,” he says defensively when prodded further about his timing for the solo album.

“I can do it to the point where it’s not faking and being somebody else.”

The real test will come Oct. 29 when Now or Never is released.

Will the legions of young girls who swooned over the Backstreet Boy accept Carter’s new image?

But there’s a chance consumers won’t be able to look past Carter’s boy band persona.

“Nick Carter is what you’re going to see here,” he says acknowledging the risk. “Music is music, it doesn’t have to be so difficult. If the damn thing sounds good, that’s good.”

And Carter says he’s intent on continuing his pop career, something he’ll do with the Backstreet Boys. The band is scheduled to release new material next year.

“I’m going to be getting back with them to record for the next album. It’s part of me. I’m not here saying it’s going to end at all,” he says.

Thanks to Angela - Source: www.fyicalgary.com