On July 30, Backstreet Boys will return with their eighth studio album, "In a World Like This," which doubles as their first album as a quintet since 2005's "Never Gone" (welcome back, Kevin!). Before next week's album release, check out the new track "Breathe," which was inspired by a certain Ryan Gosling film and is premiering exclusively on Billboard.com:
BSB member Howie Dorough tells Billboard that "Breathe" was written in London along with producer/writer Martin Terefe, after the group started working on "In A World Like This" last summer.
"A.J. [McLean] was watching the movie 'Drive,' and the music kind of has that dark, mysterious feel to it," recalls Dorough. "He came to me, and I had just recently seen that movie, and I loved the idea. He started off with the melody for the chorus, and then I came to him and started putting feeling into the words… It's a great song. It's one of those songs that's just a love song about that one person that you meet and you can't breathe around them."
After Kevin Richardson amicably departed the group in 2006, BSB released two albums, "Unbreakable" and "This Is Us," in 2007 and 2009, respectively. But Richardson's official return to the group in 2012 -- just in time for the group's 20th anniversary, which occurred last April -- made the process of recording "In A World Like This" in London and Los Angeles extra special.
"When Kevin came back in, it was just like getting on a bike, all of us together. It was a great experience," Dorough says. As for the future of the group, the singer adds, "We talked about it with Kevin, and he said, 'I'm in this for the long haul. I'm not back to just do one record.' This is our 20th anniversary, which made it even more exciting for all of us for him to be back in the project. It's a monumental point in our career… we look forward to making music together for many, many more years."
Backstreet Boys will kick off a U.S. headlining on Aug. 2 in Chicago. Check out the music video for "In A World Like This'" first single.
http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop-shop/4435820/backstreet-boys-breathe-exclusive-song-premiere
