Multiple Grammy-winners and the most successful male vocal group
of all time Boyz II Men are back with the follow-up to their
successful album, Motown: A Journey Through Hitsville USA. Simply
titled LOVE, Boyz II Men interpret some of the most popular
ballads of the last several decades with their own flawless
harmonies. Reuniting with producer Randy Jackson, Love is a
timeless record featuring romantic hits including I Can t Make
You Love Me, ( Bonnie Raitt), If You Leave Me Now, (Chicago),
Cupid, (Sam Cooke) Open Arms, (Journey) and In My Life, (The
Beatles) plus many more.
From the Artist
---------------
Love: The new album by Boyz II Men, set for release on
November 17, 2009 on Decca.
Love: A collection of timeless songs from the heart, one that
spans multiple genres and generations.
Working once again with Motown producer Randy Jackson, Boyz II
Men (Wanya Morris, Nate Morris, Shawn Stockman) bring their
distinctive individual voices and peerless harmonies to bear on
songs made famous by Bonnie Raitt, The Manhattans, Journey, The
Spinners, Sam Cooke, the Beatles, and Cyndi Lauper. Boyz II Men
weave these diverse selections together into an album-length
symphony, one that flows seamlessly from an impassioned "I Can't
Make You Love Me" through the shimmering a cappella sound of
"Time After Time" to "When I Fall In Love," a beautiful reworking
of a great American standard featuring Boyz II Men's special
guest Michael Bublé.
Love is the successor to Boyz II Men's Decca label debut, Motown:
A Journey Through Hitsville USA (Decca/Universal), released
November 13, 2007. This collection of Detroit soul classics took
the interna¬tional music scene by storm to a degree that
surprised even the group members. Motown rose to No. 27 on the
Billboard Top 200 and to No. 6 on the trade's R&B Albums chart;
proportionately, sales in Europe and other territories were even
stronger than in the U.S. The album earned two Grammy Award
nomina¬tions, for "Best R&B Album" and "Best R&B Performance By A
Duo Or Group With Vocals" (for the Stevie Wonder cover "Ribbons
In The Sky") and sparked the release of Boyz II Men's first
full-length live concert DVD, Motown: A Journey Through Hitsville
USA - Live (Decca/Universal, released 12/9/07).
"The success of Motown definitely upped our visibility insofar as
being able to tour more, in bigger venues, in more cities and
more countries," says Shawn Stockman. "We were already an
international touring company" - in a typical 12-month period,
Boyz II Men performs 150-200 concerts around the world - "but
Motown helped extend our reach even further."
"The beautiful thing was that we already had shows booked in
Europe and Japan, as we've done almost every year for many
years," Wanya Morris explains. "But performing the Motown songs
was the best album promotion we could have done. And we felt the
same effect back in the States as we did overseas, even in places
like Billings, Montana and Salt Lake City, Utah.
"The excitement that built up as we went along through 2008 was
reminiscent of the old days. The audience doesn't forget,
necessarily, but the audience sometimes needs to be reminded."
Nate Morris says simply: "Our fan base came back. A lot of them
didn't know what we'd been up to for the past eight or ten years.
Motown put the awareness out that there that Boyz II Men were
still around, still making quality music - it launched us into a
new future."
Even before the group's months of touring came to an end, Boyz II
Men and their creative team were brainstorming the next album.
Nate Morris was the first to advocate for the theme of Love:
"There were a couple of different ideas raised beforehand - a
doo-wop album, an Eighties album, a Motown II album - but I never
felt really comfortable until we hit on the Love concept. That is
the feeling that Boyz II Men have been giving our listeners since
the beginning."
"People would have expected us to do a whole bunch of R&B love
songs: Teddy Pendergrass, Marvin Gaye, the Isley Brothers," says
Wanya. "Now that repertoire certainly would not have made for a
bad album, but it would've made for a more limited album. In
going for classic love songs period - not just R&B, not just pop,
but music - we made an album that challenged us."
"We didn't know how it would work at first," adds Shawn, "because
the repertoire is so wide-ranging. Fortunately, it all came
together - and better than I expected, personally. I really
didn't think it was gonna fly! But as we started picking the
songs and got into , as we heard how the arrangements
came together, then I was like, `okay, now I understand this.'
Working mainly in two Los Angeles studios (Henson and Westlake),
Randy Jackson a core band to play on all twelve tracks of Love.
(Track 13 is the a cappella version of Cyndi Lauper's "Time After
Time.") Most of the musicians - including drummer Michael Bland,
bassist Lloyd "Sonny" Thompson, and guitarist Mike Scott - are
current or former accompanists with that most demanding of
musical taskmas¬ters, Prince.
"That's another element that made it a great process,"
Stockman recalls, "because these guys were already a real band.
They knew exactly what to do, they each knew how the others
played -- and we got to hear a couple of good Prince stories!"
The vocal arrangements for a Boyz II Men album "are not something
that can be done by just one person or even two of us," says
Nate. "It's the totality of the group. One of us may hear one
approach to the song and another guy may hear a different
approach, but by the time we get to the end of the process,
every¬one's had their input."
The trio's heavy touring commitments meant that time was of the
essence in the creation of Love. "Here again, I think we showed
that Boyz II Men is a group to be reckoned with," Wanya declares
proudly. "We had a full touring schedule and a limited a of
time for the studio - and the results made some people say, `wow,
they made this album in two months? An album of this caliber,
from the basic band tracks to final mastering - how was this
group able to do that?'"
As Nate, Wanya, and Shawn look ahead to their 20th anniversary,
they reflect on the things that have kept Boyz II Men not just
together over two decades but on track in pursuit of new career
highs and horizons.
Shawn Stockman: "I think it's respect: respect for each other's
abilities, for what we each bring to the table, respect for each
other as men. We try to give each other space, room to breathe,
room to grow - because we're not just Boyz II Men, we're also
husbands and hers, sons and brothers, members of our
communities. At this point, there are no egos: We know we all
built this thing together and we're all in it together."
Wanya Morris: "I believe what's kept us standing is our love for
the music, our respect for one another, and our love for
God...The connection that we have is like a marriage - and a
marriage is supposed to be forever. Music brought us together and
music keeps us together. To be able to finish each other's
phrases and each other's ad-libs - that's a bond `no man can tear
asunder,' so to speak. Anyone who listens to a Boyz II Men album
like Love or who comes to see a Boyz II Men show, they'll feel
that passion, that connection between us."
Nate Morris: "It's all about the songs. We got together as a
group because we loved the way we sounded together. We turned
people into Boyz II Men fans not because of the bowties, not
because of the dance steps, but because of the songs. A group can
last as long for as its songs, and the songs on Love are as
strong as any we've ever sung."
About the Artist
----------------
Boyz II Men have been hailed by the RIAA as the most
commercially successful R&B group of all time. The group has sold
an estimated 60 million s in a spectacular career about
to celebrate its twenty year anniversary in 2010. The trio
continues to perform to sold-out audiences all over the world, in
addition to being sought after for high-profile TV engagements in
the U.S. and beyond. Over the last eighteen months, Boyz II Men
has made such memorable appearances as their duet with Justin
Timberlake and Al Green on the 2009 Grammy Awards, a Motown
medley for ABC's hit show "Dancing with the Stars," Good Morning
America's coveted Summer Concert Series, Fox's "Don't Forget the
Lyrics," where they won an incredible half a million dollars all
devoted to charity, A&E's Private Sessions, The Wendy Williams
Show, Live with Regis & Kelly, The View and most recently on
A&E's Biography, with a full hour chronicling their rise to
stardom.
