Last week, New Kids on the Block made their long-awaited return with Still Kids, their first full-length album in 11 years — and a project on which the long-running pop quintet sounds reinvigorated. During a sit-down with Billboard News, Jonathan Knight, Jordan Knight, Joey McIntyre, Donnie Wahlberg and Danny Wood discussed how NKOTB’s first album in over a decade came together slowly but surely.
“Donnie kind of kicked it off,” McIntyre, who co-wrote roughly half of the songs on Still Kids, told Billboard, “and we’ve had success with singles, one-offs. The last song we had was [2022 single] ‘Bring Back the Time,’ great reaction there. And that sort of kicked off, ‘Maybe let’s do some more music.’ Donnie started writing, and Jordan started recording vocals. … It did take a lot! There was a lot of passion, and I heard a lot of passion. But there was a lot of give-and-take, and space to feel what this was gonna become when we all got involved.”
Instead of flying to one location and working on the album together, New Kids tinkered with Still Kids remotely — and instead of allowing that recording process to result in a disjointed project, the guys said that they pushed themselves to deliver their best material to the rest of the group.
“There’s a sense of not wanting to let each other down,” Wahlberg explained. “There’s an urgency that I think you can sometimes hear in the voices, of wanting to deliver the best of a performance. I think that’s present in this record, even in the writing.”
Next month, New Kids on the Block will kick off the Magic Summer 2024 tour, also featuring Paula Abdul and DJ Jazzy Jeff. The latter was featured on the Still Kids highlight “Get Down.”
Ahead of the tour kick-off on June 14, watch the group discuss their relationship with boy bands who have come before and after them, playing their enduring smashes on the road, the changing landscape of the music industry and, of course, their beloved Boston Celtics.
