Speaker 1: I am all in again.
Speaker 2: Oh it's just you.
Speaker 1: I Smell pop Culture with Eastern Allen and I heart
Speaker 1: radio podcast.
Speaker 3: Hey everybody, Easton Allen. I am in podcasts. What eleven productions?
Speaker 3: I heart radio, iHeart media, I heart podcasts. It's I
Speaker 3: Smell pop culture. I smell pop culture. I smell it
Speaker 3: and now you're going to with it as well. We're
Speaker 3: so excited this week. This is a huge one. We're
Speaker 3: talking to a music legend, and before I tell you
Speaker 3: who it is, I know you can see it in
Speaker 3: the title. I'm not I'm just gonna pretend like you
Speaker 3: can't though. I'm going to drag this out a little bit.
Speaker 3: This has been such a fun thing to do. I'm
Speaker 3: so grateful to Scott Patterson for letting me do this.
Speaker 3: This has just been such a blast. We've gotten to
Speaker 3: talk to so many great people, so many awesome icons
Speaker 3: from the world of pop culture referenced in the world
Speaker 3: of Gilmour Girls.
Speaker 1: And we're going to keep it going. Baby.
Speaker 3: I've gotten a lot of great and very kind messages
Speaker 3: from you guys, but here I'm going to ask you
Speaker 3: to do one small thing for me. This is going
Speaker 3: to go really far with my boss. Okay, so, can
Speaker 3: you do me a favor on the podcast reviews on
Speaker 3: Apple Podcasts. You can leave a review there. Could you
Speaker 3: give it five stars and then say that Easton's pop
Speaker 3: culture interviews are my favorite part of this show.
Speaker 1: Can you just do that for me? Can you do
Speaker 1: that for me?
Speaker 3: That'd be great, even if you don't believe it, that
Speaker 3: would be awesome. Okay, but let's get into today's episode.
Speaker 3: We are talking to Jeff Timmins from ninety eight degrees.
Speaker 3: That's right, ninety eight degrees. He's not just the lead vocals.
Speaker 3: This man started the whole group. It all started with him.
Speaker 3: There would be no ninety eight degrees if it wasn't
Speaker 3: for Jeff Timmons. We're so excited to get to know him.
Speaker 3: Ninety eight degrees was referenced twice in Gilmer Girls, two times,
Speaker 3: once in season, both in season one. By the way,
Speaker 3: Season one, episode nine, Rory's Dance. So at the beginning
Speaker 3: of the episode, Rory and Laura II are in the
Speaker 3: car and they're talking about why Rory isn't going to
Speaker 3: the dance.
Speaker 1: She's not going to go.
Speaker 3: Rory says she doesn't want to go because she can
Speaker 3: imagine how it will go. It'll be stuffy and boring,
Speaker 3: the musical suck, and since none of the kids like me,
Speaker 3: I'll be stuck in the back listening to ninety eight
Speaker 3: Degrees watching Tristan in Paris argue which of them gets
Speaker 3: to make me miserable first? So you know clear that
Speaker 3: Rory's not a ninety eight degrees fan, and that gets
Speaker 3: cemented later on. In season one, episode nineteen, Emily in Wonderland,
Speaker 3: Rory and Lane are hanging out in her bedroom. They're
Speaker 3: analyzing the voicemail that Henry left for Lane when Emily
Speaker 3: calls Rory with some questions about what she likes. This
Speaker 3: is for this bedroom she's setting up for her. Does
Speaker 3: she like Roses or Lily's? And for music? Does she
Speaker 3: like in Sync or ninety eight degrees? And then she
Speaker 3: later says or the Backside boys that made me left
Speaker 3: pretty hard, and Rory says in Sync. Rory does not
Speaker 3: like ninety eight degrees. She is not a fan. She
Speaker 3: is an InSync girl, at least given that choice. But
Speaker 3: we are ninety eight degrees fans. We're huge fans. I
Speaker 3: mean invisible man, I do. Thank god I found you
Speaker 3: true to your heart from mulan.
Speaker 2: God.
Speaker 1: I love that song. I love it so much.
Speaker 3: We're gonna talk to the guy that wrote it. He
Speaker 3: is in the waiting room here. It's Jeff Timmins from
Speaker 3: ninety eight degrees and this is I smell pop culture.
Speaker 3: Let's get into this. Jeff Timmins, the founder of ninety
Speaker 3: eight degrees with the legendary ninety degrees. We're such big fans.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for doing this. We're so excited.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, thanks for having me me. Congrats on
Speaker 4: all your success. I'm excited to do this with you.
Speaker 1: Oh, thank you, thank you so much.
Speaker 3: Okay, I want to go back to the beginning here
Speaker 3: at the start, and something that stood out to me
Speaker 3: about ninety eight degrees that always stood out to me
Speaker 3: is that the other kind of boy bands that you
Speaker 3: guys get grouped in with, like in sync backsheet boys,
Speaker 3: those were all started by like record labels and like
Speaker 3: producers you got you were started by you, like you
Speaker 3: started the vand Jeff Timmons.
Speaker 4: Well, I appreciate you knowing that a lot of people don't,
Speaker 4: despite us having done hundreds of interviews. You know, look,
Speaker 4: we you know it's flattering to be lumped in with
Speaker 4: such successful acts, and we have a ton of respect
Speaker 4: for Backstreet in and saying friends with those guys.
Speaker 2: But we were started in a different way. You know.
Speaker 4: I was a fan of R and B music and
Speaker 4: really didn't intend on being a musician and heard Boys
Speaker 4: the Men on the radio and fell in love with
Speaker 4: Boys to Men and had always had a knack for
Speaker 4: singing and been in quartets in school, and you know,
Speaker 4: for some reason, I just gravitated towards R and B
Speaker 4: pop and started the group at a party with some
Speaker 4: other guys and you know, quit school and went to La.
Speaker 4: You know, like the old stories. I mean, you didn't
Speaker 4: have stuff like this. You didn't have zooms and social
Speaker 4: media and to break cuber or you know TV shows
Speaker 4: like American Idol, So you had to go where the
Speaker 4: action was. And a group of friends of mine and
Speaker 4: I went to LA. We drove to LA and just
Speaker 4: started now basically singing for our supper, dropping the hat
Speaker 4: and trying to get discovered. And those guys ended up
Speaker 4: quitting and then I, you know, auditioned a bunch of
Speaker 4: people and then aroundabout way got introduced to Nick via
Speaker 4: a tape, a cassette tape, which is you know, it's
Speaker 4: an arcade.
Speaker 2: It's it's an ancient form.
Speaker 4: Of a medium which you put into a tape player
Speaker 4: and press play and you know all that stuff. But
Speaker 4: Nick on a tape and didn't know what he looked
Speaker 4: like and convinced La and and joined my group that
Speaker 4: we were gonna, you know, hopefully be world famous one day.
Speaker 1: That's incredible.
Speaker 3: So you you were already before you left Ohio, you
Speaker 3: were kind of you wanted to start a group, like
Speaker 3: a vocal group.
Speaker 1: That was already on your mind.
Speaker 2: Well, it actually wasn't you know. I was. I was
Speaker 2: bouncing from school to school.
Speaker 4: I come from a small town in Ohio that's a
Speaker 4: football town. It's not arts well, not discouraged. It's not cool,
Speaker 4: you know, uh and it and I always had an
Speaker 4: act for that. But I went to small college to
Speaker 4: play football, and of course didn't have the size, the
Speaker 4: skills you know in the above to be a good
Speaker 4: football player. And after bounce around in failing and not
Speaker 4: doing well a small colleges, I was at Kent State
Speaker 4: University as a student and I was at a party
Speaker 4: and some girls were talking about these guys as they
Speaker 4: saw they weren't paying attention to us that they saw
Speaker 4: these guys that were singing.
Speaker 2: And I was like, well, I can do that.
Speaker 4: And I found three guys at the at the party
Speaker 4: with me that I ended up had gone to high
Speaker 4: school with before, and we parted out my girl and
Speaker 4: sang at a cappella and they paid attention to its
Speaker 4: literally as shallow as that sounds, That's how I started.
Speaker 2: This whole thing. I called my mom up. I only
Speaker 2: had a.
Speaker 4: Less than a semester left before I graduated school, and
Speaker 4: I called my mom on the phone and said, I'm
Speaker 4: going to start a singing group and I'm going to
Speaker 4: quit school.
Speaker 2: And she, obviously she didn't believe me.
Speaker 4: She thought I was drinking, which I had, But you know,
Speaker 4: there was something about the way it sounded that night
Speaker 4: that it just it kind of I had an epiphany
Speaker 4: and I wanted to do it.
Speaker 2: And that's that's how it started.
Speaker 4: I'd never aspired although that stuff came to me naturally
Speaker 4: and I had a knack for it, I didn't think
Speaker 4: i'd be doing it for a career at no point
Speaker 4: in my life.
Speaker 2: Zero percent chance.
Speaker 3: And I mean, and you guys like really influenced like
Speaker 3: an entire generation of music just from that moment.
Speaker 1: It's incredible.
Speaker 4: It is weird that one single, slight decision can can
Speaker 4: change the course of the universe, you know, your own universe.
Speaker 4: I mean I decided that, Oh man, I got to
Speaker 4: finish school. I mean, who knows what would be going on?
Speaker 4: You wouldn't I mean, Nick wouldn't have joined my group.
Speaker 4: I mean, who knows what his destiny would have been.
Speaker 4: But there's a lot of things that you're going Well,
Speaker 4: if I didn't go to this place, I meet this
Speaker 4: guy and then do this, you know, the whole course
Speaker 4: of a lot of things would be different.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Again, I'm wondering if you can clear something up
Speaker 3: for me. The name ninety degrees. I love it so much.
Speaker 3: It's so cool. I love that it's stylized with the
Speaker 3: little degree symbol. That makes me so happy. I read
Speaker 3: two different origins for the name, and I want to
Speaker 3: know if you can clear this up for me.
Speaker 4: So one's probably true, So okay, okay, which ones you're
Speaker 4: gonna tell me?
Speaker 3: I read that you uh seeing a temperature on a
Speaker 3: hot tub was one of the stories, and the other
Speaker 3: one is just the average human body temperature.
Speaker 2: Well, I hadn't heard either one of those whoa.
Speaker 4: But you know what we used to say in interviews
Speaker 4: was our music is our love. Songs created an atmosphere
Speaker 4: of heat and sexiness, and so that's why we came
Speaker 4: up with ninety eight degrees. No, that's not how we
Speaker 4: really came up with it. We we had a bunch
Speaker 4: of bad names. When I started the group, we were
Speaker 4: called just us. Actually the first group was a spoof
Speaker 4: name called four Tools, like four goofballs then it can
Speaker 4: jump us, which is totally boring and unmemorable. And then
Speaker 4: you know, right before we got signed, people were like, look,
Speaker 4: you guys got to come up with a cooler name,
Speaker 4: and so we we we all scratched down names on
Speaker 4: a piece of paper.
Speaker 2: There were some terrible ones.
Speaker 4: Next issue, you know, new edition, you know, yeah, you
Speaker 4: know verse four fourte you know, all the names with
Speaker 4: four in it, and then we, you know, none of
Speaker 4: them stuck in. Our manager at the time had a
Speaker 4: really pretty girlfriend and she and her friends walked up
Speaker 4: to us and here we are, fresh off the boat
Speaker 4: from Ohio and see gorgeous New York girls telling us
Speaker 4: we should be called nine.
Speaker 2: NB eight degrees. And so we were like sure, and
Speaker 2: that's how we came up with the day.
Speaker 4: Believe it at very very deep thinkers we were back then.
Speaker 1: I mean it clearly stuck.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: Incredible. Anyway, thank you for clearing that up for me.
Speaker 3: Something I'm always really interested in with bands, groups that
Speaker 3: get to this level is like, what are some of
Speaker 3: the early shows you guys played? Do you remember something
Speaker 3: like did you ever play like a county fair or
Speaker 3: like that's.
Speaker 2: A great question. Nobody really ever asked us that.
Speaker 4: We started off playing cheerleading camps and driving ourselves around
Speaker 4: in a window bago that we had wrapped with our
Speaker 4: pictures on it. Yeah, and we went from cheer we
Speaker 4: sang It's Something acappella and met somebody that ran a
Speaker 4: big cheerleader organization, and so we thought we would gain
Speaker 4: a fan base by driving around to these cheer leading
Speaker 4: camps in the summertime. We played gymnasiums and sometimes we
Speaker 4: had a boom box was the sound system, and we
Speaker 4: literally were collecting a mailing list.
Speaker 2: There wasn't an email list.
Speaker 4: We would collect physical mailing addresses from these cheerleaders so
Speaker 4: we could spam them with our letters and mail with
Speaker 4: our new material and our new songs and stuff like that.
Speaker 4: But I mean we've played everything. Man, We've played a
Speaker 4: cornfield in the middle of nowhere, in the mud. I mean,
Speaker 4: you name it, we've done it. Malls, you know, car lots,
Speaker 4: I mean, and also the other side of things, stadiums
Speaker 4: and race tracks for one hundred and ten thousand people.
Speaker 2: But we've done it.
Speaker 4: When I tell you we've done it all, we've done.
Speaker 4: We've done it all. There's nothing left for us that
Speaker 4: we haven't done yet.
Speaker 3: And let that be a listen to everyone listening. You
Speaker 3: know that grind, that motivation, believing in what you're doing.
Speaker 3: It's so inspiring to hear that. That's kind of story.
Speaker 3: And when you guys were when you first hit the scene,
Speaker 3: your style, I think you're style is so markedly different
Speaker 3: from the other boy bands that again you get grouped
Speaker 3: in with, Like you're so distinctly different from in sync
Speaker 3: from Backstreet Boys. How did you develop that sound? Like,
Speaker 3: where did that inspiration come from? Well?
Speaker 4: I appreciate you knowing all this stuff. It's very nice
Speaker 4: because look, we were inspired by good music. And not
Speaker 4: to say that those groups don't have good music.
Speaker 2: We love pop, but.
Speaker 4: We're more r and B influenced, you know, we boys
Speaker 4: demand and vocal groups like Take six, which are these
Speaker 4: these guys with an amazing blunt but also do wop
Speaker 4: groups from the fifties and sixties and Temptations and the
Speaker 4: Four Tops, but also classic rock groups like Foreigner and
Speaker 4: Journey and Boston and all these groups that have these
Speaker 4: really lush you know, four five part, six part harmony
Speaker 4: with a lot of soul, and so was our That
Speaker 4: was the sort of the gestation and beginning of what
Speaker 4: we kind of craft that as our sound. And I'm
Speaker 4: very thankful you you recognize that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it really drew me in. I mean, so when
Speaker 3: I was growing up, the only boy band I listened
Speaker 3: to was the Beach Boys. I loved their harmonies. I
Speaker 3: love the Beach Boys. But then when I heard True
Speaker 3: to Your Heart on the Mulan soundtrack, I was like,
Speaker 3: who are these guys? Oh my god, this is awesome. How,
Speaker 3: I mean, how did you get hooked up with Disney
Speaker 3: with Stevie Wonder? Can you tell me how that came together?
Speaker 4: It was amazing. And you want you talk about Stevie Wonder.
Speaker 4: I mean, he's one of our idols. I mean, you're
Speaker 4: talking about those old motown groups like Stevie and Smokey Robinson,
Speaker 4: and you know, we were signed a modetown h and
Speaker 4: so we were on the road and we had gotten
Speaker 4: approached by Disney, you know, and and here, you know,
Speaker 4: Disney wanted us to do something for a soundtrack, and
Speaker 4: we all know what that means. That means, that's a
Speaker 4: huge opportunity. And so we of course said yes. And
Speaker 4: they said, well, how did you feel about Stevie wonder,
Speaker 4: you know, playing harmonica?
Speaker 2: We said, are you kidding you?
Speaker 4: Of course, And what we did is we went in
Speaker 4: the studio and recorded the record, all of it without
Speaker 4: Stevie on it, and just his harmonica part. And and
Speaker 4: Christina Aguilera was there, Yeah, reflections wow. And it was
Speaker 4: in the beginning stages of her career as well. And
Speaker 4: then you know, I guess Stevie decided it. He heard it
Speaker 4: and said, hey, you know, I'm going to take take
Speaker 4: a verse on this. And of course he took the
Speaker 4: song to a whole nother dimension and that that stuff
Speaker 4: was like a pinch me moment.
Speaker 2: You never you know, I'm a year.
Speaker 4: And a half, two years removed from sitting in my
Speaker 4: basement in Ohio listening to this guy on the stereo
Speaker 4: and then next thing I know, we're doing this soundtrack
Speaker 4: for Disney with him and then performing on the Tonight
Speaker 4: Show with him. So it was, it was it was
Speaker 4: quite an experience for us.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: So would you say that was the moment when things
Speaker 3: started really like going to the stratosphere for you or.
Speaker 4: It's hard to say because you know you went back
Speaker 4: then it was such a grind and you literally worked
Speaker 4: all the time. You didn't have social media to proliferate
Speaker 4: your brand and touch your fans every day of the week.
Speaker 4: You had to constantly be out into the public, sort
Speaker 4: of like on a campaign trail for your career, doing
Speaker 4: live shows, free shows in stores where you sign autographs
Speaker 4: in stores. A lot of people are like, one, are
Speaker 4: those you know doing all kinds of stuff where you know,
Speaker 4: we didn't really you know, we would see these different milestones,
Speaker 4: but we're such a bunch of blue collar guys.
Speaker 2: We were going, all.
Speaker 4: Right, what's next, what's next? And you'd go, Okay, this
Speaker 4: is cool. I think the Tonight Show with Stevie was
Speaker 4: one of them. I think hearing your song on the
Speaker 4: radio for the first time is another one.
Speaker 2: You're like, oh, man, kiss FM.
Speaker 4: I was in La working security and I was going, man,
Speaker 4: I want to be on Kiss FM someday, you know.
Speaker 4: So those are there are so many of those moments,
Speaker 4: but it takes it takes them innute to step back,
Speaker 4: which we didn't have and go wow, we're on the
Speaker 4: right trajectory. And then all of a sudden you're doing
Speaker 4: different things, performing at the White House on a ward
Speaker 4: shows and things of that nature, and you're going, wow,
Speaker 4: we're still we think we're still in the right direction,
Speaker 4: but the milestones you really couldn't take a break and
Speaker 4: take it in. We enjoyed it, but we probably could
Speaker 4: have enjoyed a lot more.
Speaker 1: I love hearing that.
Speaker 3: As we record this, I'm sitting two doors down from
Speaker 3: the KISSFM studios, so that's that's exciting to hear at
Speaker 3: that station.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 4: I mean, those guys were instrumental in helping break us,
Speaker 4: so big fan.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we love you over here. So I told you
Speaker 3: before we started recording this. This show is about Gilmore Girls,
Speaker 3: and we're exploring all the pop culture icons that grace.
Speaker 3: The words of Gilmore Girls and ninety degrees is brought
Speaker 3: up twice, and there's one part where Rory, the daughter character,
Speaker 3: she's asked by her grandmother what music do you like
Speaker 3: in sync or ninety eight degrees? And then she also
Speaker 3: references she calls them the Backside Boys, but the Backshe Boys,
Speaker 3: and Rory chooses in sync over you, guys, I'm sorry
Speaker 3: to say, hey, look again.
Speaker 4: To be first of all on such an iconic show,
Speaker 4: we used to like, well, we would hear that kind
Speaker 4: of stuff. We were like, wow, that's amazing, even if
Speaker 4: it was a jab at us. You know, if the
Speaker 4: La Times reviewing one of our records, it gives us
Speaker 4: the thumbs down, We'll like, hey, guys, La Times. They
Speaker 4: reviewed our record Gilmore Girls, Okay, in sync they sold
Speaker 4: you know, forty million albums. I don't mean by coming
Speaker 4: in second place to them on a hit TV show.
Speaker 2: That's yeah.
Speaker 3: I was gonna ask, like that must happen all the time,
Speaker 3: Like where you're like watching TV and like a character
Speaker 3: brings or like or you see like a ninety degrees
Speaker 3: poster in the background of a movie or something like
Speaker 3: how does that feel?
Speaker 1: Does that happen to you?
Speaker 2: It does feel? You know, Look, it's it always felt cool.
Speaker 4: It feels cool now when I mean, we're thirty years
Speaker 4: into this, right, so yeah, still, you know, mentioned on
Speaker 4: relevant TV show someone I can't remember the show that
Speaker 4: it was on, but somebody just referenced us on a
Speaker 4: show the other day, And of course immediately my phone
Speaker 4: starts blowing up, Well did you see this? Then the
Speaker 4: other And I'm like, I don't even know what show
Speaker 4: that is, but reference very recently and I can't. I
Speaker 4: wish I could have remembered the name of the show,
Speaker 4: but I can't.
Speaker 2: Right now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean again, you guys, and we're all talk
Speaker 3: about your new album here in a second. But still
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty five, still such a huge band. Now,
Speaker 3: in two thousand and three, you went on hiatus. You
Speaker 3: guys took a break for a bit, and but you
Speaker 3: reunited in twenty twelve. You kept your promise that you'd
Speaker 3: be back. But I'm curious if you're open to talking
Speaker 3: about this. During that break, was there ever a point
Speaker 3: where you were like, oh, we might get back together,
Speaker 3: this might be the end of ninety degrees?
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, the entire break, you know, the entire break
Speaker 2: until the very end.
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, for us, it was abrupt, so
Speaker 4: we ended up stopping you know, September twelfth of two
Speaker 4: thousand and one, we were in New York City on
Speaker 4: September eleventh.
Speaker 2: We were on the grind for pretty much five years straight.
Speaker 4: We did the Michael Jackson Special in New York City
Speaker 4: on September tenth. The next day was September eleventh, and
Speaker 4: we didn't know what was going to happen.
Speaker 2: But in the world we.
Speaker 4: Were due for a break for our last couple of
Speaker 4: shows because obviously, you know, we didn't know if there
Speaker 4: was going to be a war or we were away
Speaker 4: from our families.
Speaker 2: We all went to our families.
Speaker 4: I had two little kids at the time, and I
Speaker 4: just just you know, I went in that direction. Nick
Speaker 4: ended up doing a TV show, you know, Justin ended
Speaker 4: up running for may or. Drew ended up started and
Speaker 4: performing art school. So we all went in different directions.
Speaker 4: We didn't officially break up. We just kind of went
Speaker 4: in weird trajectories for about a decade.
Speaker 2: And so I never thought, you know that we you know, we.
Speaker 4: All had so many different things we were doing and
Speaker 4: it's and they were all so different that we're like,
Speaker 4: how are we going to make this a line? And
Speaker 4: then you know, look in twenty eleven, we said, well
Speaker 4: maybe we should get back together.
Speaker 2: I mean, it was so weird.
Speaker 4: I called Justin and like, don't you think it's time
Speaker 4: to get back together? And he said yeah. I mean,
Speaker 4: it wasn't like some weird fight that we all sat
Speaker 4: down at the table and hashed out our differences. Were
Speaker 4: all like, okay, should we get back together now? And
Speaker 4: then everybody said yeah, let's get let's get back together,
Speaker 4: and that's what we did. We came back and we
Speaker 4: decided to come back, couldn't find the right timing. We
Speaker 4: end up doing this big show in Pennsylvania that was
Speaker 4: popular called Mixtape, and we were like, look, here's what
Speaker 4: we'll do. We'll put together a little show for this
Speaker 4: and if the fans like it, maybe we'll consider, you know,
Speaker 4: doing it more and coming back. And if they don't, well,
Speaker 4: look we'll go back and do our own things. Fortunately
Speaker 4: for us, they liked it, and so we've been around
Speaker 4: ever since then, and it's been the second time we've
Speaker 4: been together and at it twice as long as we
Speaker 4: were the first run, and so owned by we have.
Speaker 2: So much more fun.
Speaker 4: We're so blessed to do it, and we never thought
Speaker 4: I thought we would be doing it this long and
Speaker 4: have such a loyal fan base, so you know, we're
Speaker 4: thrilled and excited about you know, what we've been able
Speaker 4: to do and that they're still coming out for us
Speaker 4: and supporting us.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 3: Jeff Timmins from ninety degrees is with us. We're going
Speaker 3: to take a quick break here on the IMLON podcast.
Speaker 3: We'll be back in one second. Hey, it's the imlone podcast.
Speaker 3: I smell pop culture. We're hanging out with Jeff Timmins
Speaker 3: from ninety eight degrees, the legendary ninety eight degrees. So
Speaker 3: something I read that we're gonna talk about your again.
Speaker 3: You new I'm here in a second. But Nikolache said
Speaker 3: that when you guys were recording I do cherish you,
Speaker 3: he had a cold and he was eating lazed potato
Speaker 3: chips till help code his throat or something like that.
Speaker 3: I thought that was such a wild I had never
Speaker 3: heard that before for a vocalist, and I was worrying,
Speaker 3: if you have any weird vocal tricks that you do
Speaker 3: that you can share with us, Well.
Speaker 2: That's interesting.
Speaker 4: So we you know, I'm sure you know vocalists, and
Speaker 4: you interview vocalists when you're in the studio, you're a
Speaker 4: head case. Vocalists they're superstitious. They always think they're not
Speaker 4: warmed up. They always there. They're hypochondriacs. They think they
Speaker 4: have a cold when they don't have it. We somehow
Speaker 4: psych ourselves out. And you know, for me, this is
Speaker 4: probably not going to be the best advice because I
Speaker 4: like to have a couple of beers before I go
Speaker 4: in this, right, loosen up and relax a little bit
Speaker 4: before I go in there.
Speaker 2: I'll have a couple of drinks.
Speaker 4: Now, vocal coaches purists will tell you that that's bad
Speaker 4: for your voice, it dries out your vocal cords, which
Speaker 4: could be true. But for me, that little inner critic,
Speaker 4: if I have a couple of beers or a couple drinks,
Speaker 4: the inner critic shuts off.
Speaker 2: You're a little bit more relaxed. Even if it's a placebos.
Speaker 2: Probably someone could give me non alcoholic beer and put
Speaker 2: it in al and I would go, oh, I feel loose.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: It's that kind of a thing to where you're not
Speaker 4: afraid to try things. You have a little bit more confidence.
Speaker 4: And so that's I mean not to encourage people to
Speaker 4: drink alcohol, but that's when I'm in the studio, I
Speaker 4: like to have a couple of drinks. Now, Nick did
Speaker 4: do that with the laze potato chips, specifically lays Keith Thomas,
Speaker 4: the producer, gave him because they had more salt and
Speaker 4: more oil in it, and supposedly that made him, you know,
Speaker 4: sing such beautifully on that song. It's like a legendary
Speaker 4: song that he crushes. But I don't know that those
Speaker 4: potato chips. Actually, I think Nick psyched himself out, and
Speaker 4: he sounds amazing, even if he has a cold, he
Speaker 4: always sounds amazing.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, a voice of an angel, that guy.
Speaker 3: Do you have any like formal vocal training, because you're
Speaker 3: telling me like it seems like everything starts so organically
Speaker 3: for you.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: You know, Look, I grew up in the musical, theater
Speaker 4: and choir. My parents had us in everything. We played
Speaker 4: a lot of sports. We were in speech and debate.
Speaker 4: We were in theater, we were in musicals, we were
Speaker 4: in the band. You know, they had us doing everything. Now,
Speaker 4: you don't have time as a kid, you can do
Speaker 4: one thing. Yeah, but we did everything, and so I
Speaker 4: had some training. But you know, like I said, we
Speaker 4: came from it wasn't cool, so I.
Speaker 2: Never really took it seriously.
Speaker 4: I mean i'd go and excel in that area or
Speaker 4: get lead parts of things, but I never practiced. I
Speaker 4: never did any vocal exercises. I mean, to this day,
Speaker 4: we'd kind of warm up about three minutes before we
Speaker 4: go on stage. I don't walk around with the thing
Speaker 4: on my neck and turn the temperature down in the room.
Speaker 2: I don't do any of that stuff.
Speaker 4: So once in a while for your horse, maybe some
Speaker 4: hot teat a little bit of honey and lemon, and
Speaker 4: sometimes that'll get it going.
Speaker 2: But you know, look, I wish we did.
Speaker 4: At one point, Motown put us with a vocal coach,
Speaker 4: and we were paying for this guy to go see
Speaker 4: him once a week, twice a week. But we get
Speaker 4: there and before like the month was over, we realized
Speaker 4: we never did any vocal training.
Speaker 2: All we did was tell us stories about his career.
Speaker 4: So we cut that off after it cost us I
Speaker 4: don't know twenty thousand dollars or something, but yeah, I mean,
Speaker 4: it's a little off the beaten path that we don't
Speaker 4: have those kinds of things. And I wouldn't encourage people
Speaker 4: not to take care of their voice and you know,
Speaker 4: it's your instrument, you know all that stuff. But we
Speaker 4: you know, we probably could be better at that.
Speaker 1: I mean just personally.
Speaker 3: I think it really comes through in the music though,
Speaker 3: because like, like you guys just are your friends. You're
Speaker 3: such good friends. I can hear that relationship in the performances,
Speaker 3: and like, I just think it's the purest form of
Speaker 3: like of music. It's this guys getting together singing. It's great.
Speaker 2: I'm glad you see that.
Speaker 4: And it's hard to find guys to BLENDND with the
Speaker 4: blend is everything right, the feel and the blend, and
Speaker 4: and that's why a lot of people are good groups.
Speaker 4: And you might have a couple of two three lead
Speaker 4: singers in a group, but when they can't sing acappella, well,
Speaker 4: we didn't have any tracks or ability to create tracks
Speaker 4: or any instruments.
Speaker 2: We just had our voices.
Speaker 4: So we had to really kind of figure it out
Speaker 4: a whip way to make them blend really quickly. And fortunately,
Speaker 4: you know Nick and Dree brothers, so they have a
Speaker 4: similar tambur to their voice, and you know, Justin had
Speaker 4: been working with Nick in another band, so they all
Speaker 4: were familiar with themselves, and you know, it just had
Speaker 4: to be be getting in there and kind of fitting
Speaker 4: in when I could. We've been fortunate enough that that's
Speaker 4: where we're That's probably our strongest suit is singing our
Speaker 4: a cappella, but you can't put out complete albums anymore
Speaker 4: acapella and actually new tracks and R and B tracks
Speaker 4: don't even like you to stack stack too many harmonies anymore,
Speaker 4: make it too complicated. So you know, uh, you know,
Speaker 4: we that's why we like Christmas music so much, because
Speaker 4: you can you can showcase everybody's voice and the dynamics
Speaker 4: of a quartet or even more harmony.
Speaker 3: Sometimes when you were doing those early shows, you were
Speaker 3: playing those like cheerleader camps and stuff. What were you
Speaker 3: singing original songs that you'd written or were you singing covers?
Speaker 1: Where were you guys?
Speaker 2: Well, we were doing a combination of both.
Speaker 4: So we had we had our own couple originals of
Speaker 4: our own and you know, we're probably not very good
Speaker 4: that we did covers. You know, we did some Boys
Speaker 4: to Men covers and you know, I had a song
Speaker 4: we would do that sometimes and some other ones. But
Speaker 4: we actually did a demo with Montel Jordan. Montel Jordan,
Speaker 4: who wrote, you know, produced and was famous, most famous,
Speaker 4: had a lot of hits.
Speaker 2: But this is how we do it.
Speaker 1: How we do it.
Speaker 2: Yeah song And when.
Speaker 4: We had gotten discovered at Avoye the Men concert, it
Speaker 4: was by his road manager and wow, you know kind
Speaker 4: of took us under his wing and Montel did our demo.
Speaker 4: So Montel crafted like three or four songs for us
Speaker 4: that never weren't out yet. So we were just basically
Speaker 4: singing these new songs to girls in the crowd that
Speaker 4: didn't even had never heard those before. But a couple
Speaker 4: of them ended up making our first album.
Speaker 1: Oh amazing.
Speaker 3: And so you you just released a re recorded edition
Speaker 3: of I Do Cherish You, ninety eighth version. I love that,
Speaker 3: you know, taking ownership of the masters.
Speaker 4: You know, Taylor Swift is the one that made that popular, right,
Speaker 4: She had dispute with Scooter Braun and he took her masters,
Speaker 4: so she re recorded her master's. But what artists don't
Speaker 4: know is if you're not under recording an agreement, you
Speaker 4: always have the ability to do that. And we've had
Speaker 4: that opportunity to do that for years. But you know,
Speaker 4: people didn't understand why you would do it. Now you
Speaker 4: do it, you know, for us of course, we want
Speaker 4: to have ownership and make money from your stuff. But
Speaker 4: for us, it was we'd like to own our own
Speaker 4: material that.
Speaker 2: Made us popular.
Speaker 4: So we took some time to go back and re
Speaker 4: record those songs, and we didn't want to record them
Speaker 4: differently than what people remembered them as because that's what
Speaker 4: made them successful. So it was challenging for us to
Speaker 4: go back and try to sound like we did back
Speaker 4: then and make the track sound like they did back then.
Speaker 2: But we feel like we've.
Speaker 4: Accomplished that and it just feels good to own your
Speaker 4: own stuff, you know, control your own stuff.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, I imagine you know, you sing that
Speaker 3: song at your shows like every every time, but like
Speaker 3: getting back in the studio to record it in that setting,
Speaker 3: was that weird at all? How did that feel?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 4: It was weird because one, you know, those modules and
Speaker 4: those synths and those sounds they were they came from
Speaker 4: you know, physical instruments, and to go to find those
Speaker 4: old things to recreate those sounds were hard to do.
Speaker 4: That was a tough challenge initially because we wanted them
Speaker 4: to sound identical because eventually we'd like them to replace
Speaker 4: the old ones, you know, so play our versions, So
Speaker 4: that was a challenge.
Speaker 2: But to go back and sing.
Speaker 4: You know, back then, we didn't use auto tune every
Speaker 4: time on our voices, right, you just sometimes sing.
Speaker 2: A little bit out of tune.
Speaker 4: So early we're going, well, I got to sing a
Speaker 4: little autitude here, and I gotta sing with less soulfulness here,
Speaker 4: and I gotta be choppy and have less feel here.
Speaker 2: And so after your years.
Speaker 4: Of habitually singing the songs and flipping them your own
Speaker 4: way on stage, you got to go back and go,
Speaker 4: oh wow, I really did it totally different than we
Speaker 4: So it was challenging, but it was really really fun too.
Speaker 3: I never thought about that because you know, I'm think
Speaker 3: abou all these artists, like we recording these songs and
Speaker 3: thinking like, oh, you know, you just do it again,
Speaker 3: but like there's little imperfections that you want to recreate
Speaker 3: to make them sound is soone.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's fascinating. Thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 2: It was fun. Well, look, we wanted people to We
Speaker 2: wanted them to.
Speaker 4: Be so close that people won't be able to tell
Speaker 4: the difference, and we feel like they're pretty they're pretty close.
Speaker 4: I mean the mixes are better now because you have
Speaker 4: better technology. To mix like at Most and all this other. Yeah, spatial,
Speaker 4: but but we feel like we were like, let's make
Speaker 4: them so undeniably close that, you know, people won't be
Speaker 4: able to tell the difference, because that's what they fell
Speaker 4: in love with.
Speaker 2: You know, so we wanted to be true to that.
Speaker 3: And I Do as part of your new album, Full
Speaker 3: Circle come in May ninth, can you give us a
Speaker 3: sneak peak of what else is on that album?
Speaker 4: Well, we've got the you know what, we think still
Speaker 4: are our five biggest hits, and then we recreated all
Speaker 4: those Una Noce and I DO and an Invisible Man
Speaker 4: and and you know, because of you Hardest thing. But
Speaker 4: we've got five new ones that are pretty cool. They
Speaker 4: kind of sound true to our sound.
Speaker 2: You know. We went had a little bit.
Speaker 4: Of a departure here and there because you start to go, oh,
Speaker 4: I need to be relevant and I need to sound current.
Speaker 2: And you know, do this and that.
Speaker 4: But we decided, well, let's go back and sing songs
Speaker 4: that sound like when people hear them, oh, it sounds
Speaker 4: like a ninety eight degree song. So we have five
Speaker 4: new ones, one of which Nick wrote with a bunch
Speaker 4: of group, a group of great talented writers called Got
Speaker 4: You that's also out right now and that as soon
Speaker 4: as that came out and everybody said, sounds like.
Speaker 2: A ninety eight degree song.
Speaker 4: Drew pet one that's really cool called Same Mistake, and
Speaker 4: it's really really it's sort of a it's sort of
Speaker 4: a sequel to the Hardest Thing, and that's you know,
Speaker 4: a couple of other ones tremble stranger things. In this
Speaker 4: one we did with a Filipino artist called Mona Lisa
Speaker 4: that our label, our label partner, Adam h Road with
Speaker 4: his wife, So you know, we have we're really proud
Speaker 4: of this one.
Speaker 3: You know, I can't wait. That's May ninth, Full Circles coming.
Speaker 3: Are you guys gonna you have a tour in the works.
Speaker 2: Or you can hit the road? Yeah?
Speaker 4: I mean usually we you know, our schedules are crazy.
Speaker 4: We all do sure different things, which we're very fortunate
Speaker 4: to do. So we haven't been able to do a
Speaker 4: big proper tour in a long time. So when we
Speaker 4: find we can do a pocket of fifteen dates or
Speaker 4: twenty dates, which we've been doing in September and October
Speaker 4: the last couple of years. But this year we're going
Speaker 4: to kind of, you know, go overseas for a little bit.
Speaker 4: We haven't been overseas to our fans there. You know,
Speaker 4: we actually Canada and in Southeast Asia broke US before
Speaker 4: the US, so we haven't been there in a proper
Speaker 4: way in a long time. So we're gonna kind of
Speaker 4: target those probably start in May, June July timeframe, and
Speaker 4: then maybe in the fall come back and do some
Speaker 4: US stuff, maybe a Christmas tour. You know, we're not
Speaker 4: sure yet. We're kind of just feeling it out.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: I can't wait.
Speaker 3: So this is something I always ask our guests here,
Speaker 3: and this is a this is a dumb question, but
Speaker 3: I'm just fascinated by it. But like, is there one
Speaker 3: moment that, in all of ninety eight degrees since you've
Speaker 3: been doing this, is there a moment that, like, like
Speaker 3: when you're kind of just sitting back and thinking on
Speaker 3: your career, like, wow, that one like rises to the top.
Speaker 3: Is there a memory you think of It's a big question.
Speaker 2: I know, it's not a dumb question at all. We've
Speaker 2: been blessed, man, We've had so many.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but I gotta say some of the stuff in
Speaker 4: the beginning that was fun, right that I remember doing
Speaker 4: that and going, man, that was sort of like the
Speaker 4: innocent time before we came fame.
Speaker 2: Is that grind fun?
Speaker 4: But I think for me performing with Boys de Men,
Speaker 4: you know, after being on a hiatus for eleven years
Speaker 4: and coming back with Boys de Men and New Kids
Speaker 4: on the Block, touring with our idols and legends like
Speaker 4: new kids on the Block after not doing it for
Speaker 4: ten years, I mean, that was pretty amazing.
Speaker 2: It was a huge tour, you know, forty some.
Speaker 4: Cities, big arenas, sixteen to twenty thousand people a night.
Speaker 4: I think, you know, every night that I performed with
Speaker 4: Boys de Men, I was like, man, this is like
Speaker 4: a dream. I would have never if I could have
Speaker 4: written this out, which I did. I wrote all my
Speaker 4: goals down and fortunately all of them came true. But
Speaker 4: I didn't even pennant this well, you know, I didn't
Speaker 4: even think of it being this grand. So I think,
Speaker 4: you know, performing every night with those guys, I literally
Speaker 4: was going to my own tour with Boys.
Speaker 2: De Men like crazy.
Speaker 4: So that's probably you know, there are some you ask
Speaker 4: me a different day, it's probably something else, you know, so,
Speaker 4: but this that was one of the big ones.
Speaker 2: I love.
Speaker 3: So you actually had it yet a list of goals?
Speaker 3: When need you make this list? At what point in
Speaker 3: your life?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 4: Well, I like talking about this because I think it's
Speaker 4: interesting for people. It's I think people should do this
Speaker 4: because it kind of it kind of sparks your mind
Speaker 4: to create the opportunity for you. When my original group
Speaker 4: that I was with quit and I decided to stay
Speaker 4: in LA, they all went back to Ohio.
Speaker 2: I stayed in La.
Speaker 4: I you know, I was working, you know, twelve hour
Speaker 4: shifts in security.
Speaker 2: And my brother, you know, I was I was like, man,
Speaker 2: how am I going to start a new group? But
Speaker 2: I don't know anybody in LA And how do I
Speaker 2: do it?
Speaker 4: And my brother gave me to Tony Robbins books. One
Speaker 4: was called Unlimited Power and one was called Awaken the
Speaker 4: Giant Within. And I had plenty of time to write
Speaker 4: my goals in the security booth at my security job
Speaker 4: that I worked twelve hours, and it just said, hey,
Speaker 4: write out your goals and make them as lofty as
Speaker 4: possible and as detailed as possible. And and at first
Speaker 4: it seems foolish that it's impossible, but I wrote them
Speaker 4: all down in great detail. And then two years later,
Speaker 4: every single one of them had come true.
Speaker 2: Uh, and so it was. It was funny.
Speaker 4: But because we were doing a still in San Diego
Speaker 4: and here, you know, Tony Robbins, they knock on our
Speaker 4: dressing room door. Tony Robbins wants to meet us with
Speaker 4: his son, and I freaked out.
Speaker 2: I'm like, hey, man, you're the reason.
Speaker 4: You know what, Like, yeah, I know my stuff works,
Speaker 4: but geez really, but you know, there's something to be
Speaker 4: said about opening up your imagination, your subconscious mind, and
Speaker 4: you know, being open to these things and as you
Speaker 4: write them down, you start to visualize them and feel them.
Speaker 4: And I know it sounds like cosmic wu stuff, but hey,
Speaker 4: every single one of those weird goals came true. And
Speaker 4: I had no right to really believe it at that
Speaker 4: time because I had no money, I had no group,
Speaker 4: and I had no immediate you know, futures or opportunity,
Speaker 4: future opportunity right there in front of them.
Speaker 2: So that's what happened.
Speaker 3: Wow, I mean, everyone listening, take ray you wind that part,
Speaker 3: listen to that again. That is great advice I think
Speaker 3: for anyone who's looking to improve your life, just achieve
Speaker 3: a goal. It's it's great. And look, look at works
Speaker 3: for Jeff Timmons, it can work for you. Thank you
Speaker 3: so much for your time today. This has been so exciting.
Speaker 3: We're all such big fans of ninety degrees. We're so
Speaker 3: excited for the new album and we can't wait to
Speaker 3: hear ninety degrees reference in another TV show. So thank
Speaker 3: you again, Jeff tims You're just like so much.
Speaker 4: I'm flattered and honored that you had me on continued success.
Speaker 4: I've noticed you've been doing a lot of great things
Speaker 4: for a long time. Congrats on this pet podcast, and
Speaker 4: I'm excited to see what's next for you. Thanks for
Speaker 4: plugging the album and knowing a lot about our career.
Speaker 4: I mean, I sincerely appreciate.
Speaker 1: That you're the best. Have a great one, man, Thank you.
Speaker 2: Man, appreciate it.
Speaker 3: Hey, everybody, don't forget Follow us on Instagram at I
Speaker 3: Am All In podcast and email us at Gilmore at
Speaker 3: iHeartRadio dot com.