LOS ANGELES (Top40 Charts) - Backstreet Boy Brian Littrell checked on Wednesday (Aug. 22) to elaborate further on his latest venture, BriLeigh Productions, a music, film, and TV company he has launched with his wife, Leighanne.
"We're just going back to basics on the music end," says Littrell. "Everything in the music world is so overproduced nowadays. They make somebody that is all an image somebody that's a very successful artist. That's not want we want to do. We want to take a true artist and let their artistry show through."
Littrell promises a cross-genre imprint focusing on everything from pop and R&B to country and old-school gospel, beginning with BriLeigh's first release, the soundtrack to Olive Juice. The film, starring Leighanne and featuring cameo appearances by Littrell and fellow Backstreet Boy A.J. McLean, features a soundtrack including BSB songs as well as a Littrell duet with Atlanta musician J. Michael Davis. The release hits stores on Oct. 23.
Littrell points out that BriLeigh will not follow the music industry's tendency to jump on a bandwagon (Backstreet Boys) and flood the market with similar acts ('NSync, 98 Degrees, O-Town, C-Note, etc.).
"Nine years ago when we started, it was a little different," he explains. "There wasn't really a place in the music world for a group like us. Then it actually happened for us and when something is successful, it's overdone. You've got so many groups that are exactly like us nowadays and record companies nowadays look for the quick dollar. That's all they're really looking for -- to capitalize on a fad, or a moment, or a specific market."
Littrell intends to focus on BriLeigh in his downtime as the company will have offices in Atlanta, near where the singer lives, and Los Angeles, where the singer keeps a condo.
"I don't get a lot of downtime but I enjoy being at home �- I'm a homebody," he says. "If can be on the phone and handle business and still be a family man and a husband, that's something I look forward to in the future."
Meanwhile, the Backstreet Boys are ready and anxious to make their return to the concert fold after group member A.J. McLean's bout with anxiety, alcoholism, and depression sidelined the band's ongoing Black & Blue world tour in July (allstar, July 9).
"Everything is good and we are looking forward to it," Brian Littrell tells allstar of the group's return to the stage in Milwaukee on Friday (Aug. 24). "The morale is up and we are all excited to get back on stage."
Littrell reports that as of press time, no special surprises were planned for the return of McLean, who spent six weeks at a rehabilitation center to deal with his problems, but never say never. "We're going to be in rehearsals the end of this week before the show so something might come up," he says. "It's not pre-meditated or anything right now as of anything different so we'll see."
