LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The Backstreet Boys began as a group of wide-eyed teenagers but 16 years later, after battles with drug addiction and the loss of loved ones, believe their seventh album shows they have matured.
The Backstreet Boys, the first U.S. group launched by boy band mogul Lou Pearlman, started as a five-member band with a list of chart hits but is now a quartet.

The band took a break from 2002 but returned two years later, with a fifth album released in 2005, “Never Gone,” then a sixth, “Unbreakable,” in 2007 after singer Kevin Richardson left in 2006 which did not sell as well.
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Backstreet Boys return to ‘sound that people know’

The Backstreet Boys want it that way again.

After spending several years trying to rejuvenate their dance-pop sound with injections of rock, the reunited boy band — now down to the quartet of Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, A. J. McLean and Brian Littrell (who was recently diagnosed with swine flu; insert your own joke here) after the departure of Kevin Richardson in 2006 — are out to reconnect with their younger selves and their old fans on their eighth studio album, This is Us.

“We’ve gone back to the sound that people know — the good pop melodies, the R&B influences, the Euro-dance rhythms,” assures 36-year-old countertenor Dorough from his L.A. home.
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Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, Britan Littrell, and A.J. McLean – a.k.a. the Backstreet Boys – release their seventh album, “This Is Us,’’ today. Filled with dance floor and bubble pop confections courtesy of hitmakers like RedOne, T-Pain, and old Swedish friend Max Martin, it’s the boy band’s best effort since its boffo ’90s heyday. On the eve of the album release we chatted with Dorough by phone from New York. “Hopefully,’’ he says, “this record will finally put a stamp in people’s minds that we’re sticking around.’’

Q. “This Is Us’’ is very uptempo and contemporary. Was that the mission statement?
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This morning, I met with 75 percent of the Backstreet Boys (Nick Carter, AJ McLean, and Howie Dorough) while their swine flu-stricken groupmate Brian Littrell rested in his hotel room.

They were supposed to have performed on CBS’ The Early Show, but instead they were gulping tea in their hotel lobby and praying they don’t get sick as well. I asked them about their scrapped PR plans, their new light-hearted outlook on their careers, and why they agreed to be Auto-tuned on one track on their new record, This Is Us. Then I bathed in Purell.
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Howie Dorough’s calendar is booked up clear into 2011. Between now and then, the Backstreet Boy and his mates–Brian Littrell, Nick Carter and A.J. McLean–plan to travel the world in support of their latest album, “This is Us,” which hit stores yesterday (10/6).

“We just got back from Japan doing some promo,” Dorough said during an interview with LiveDaily. “The album got released there last week and we were over there and in Singapore doing the Formula One race.”
Some planned promo work was scrapped when group member Brian Littrell came down with the swine flu, but Dorough said the band will soon head to Los Angeles to finish rehearsals for a planned tour.
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