98 Degrees joined #AudacyCheckIn to talk all about re-recording their biggest hits and new album, ‘Full Circle.’ 🎤
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00:00and it's definitely a nod to the show but it's certainly not a copy in any way shape or form of
00:04of what they've done but you know it's such a cool vibe yeah uh it's just acknowledging
00:08that that that vibe and uh and taking it one step further with the song
00:14we are here at the odyssey sound space at the hard rock hotel new york this is your check-in
00:18with 98 degrees congratulations on all the things guys thank you yeah good to be here so full circle
00:26i'm always curious about this you have some re-recordings on there um i know myself anytime
00:31i'm looking back on past work i want to just like rip it apart and completely revamp it and make it
00:36better in my mind uh did you guys have the urge to do that we thought you know that's probably
00:42yeah that's how we we normally do things too but for for us we wanted to kind of give back to the
00:48fans what they fell in love with in the beginning and that was how those songs sounded they sounded
00:53like that for a reason now obviously throughout the years our voices have changed and you know
00:57we've performed them so many times with new inflections on them and we try to change them
01:01up but i also remember being a fan and going and seeing concerts and i would hate when the the
01:06artists would do that so we tried to keep the integrity of the originals and it wasn't easy because
01:12you know times have changed our voices have changed production has changed but we feel like
01:16we accomplished it on these so i know there's a lot of like legal um caveats or whatever but um
01:23you now retain rights to these songs but when you're going back to um re-record them especially
01:29with the instrumentals like can you even reference the pro tools files or are you so you're recreating
01:35from scratch just because you don't have the plugins or anything 100 have to start them from scratch
01:41okay and that's the challenge right vocally it's a challenge because we don't sound as jeff said
01:45we don't sound like we did back in 1997 but recreating that track and trying to match that track and
01:51find those sounds and it's uh it's trickier than than we i think we thought it was going to be
01:55uh going into it it was definitely a challenge to make it happen but as jeff said we're really proud
01:59of how it came out and proud of how how close we got to those originals so any any professional in
02:05the industry like an engineer will be like that that snare that's not the same snare yeah there's
02:10different distortion on that guitar pedal than there was oh yeah i mean there's because nobody wrote down
02:15like what the guitar was actually you know set at back in the day yeah um i mean certain keyboard sounds
02:21aren't even made anymore so you got to try and find a plug-in that sounds like it um so it it was kind
02:26of a little bit of a honey expedition to try and find some of the sounds yeah uh and then it was also kind
02:31of working with the the mix engineer trying to make sure that all the same hits or emphasize the
02:36same way that they were in the originals and um it was it was definitely a labor of love but like
02:42listening back to how i sounded on invisible man which we recorded in 1997 or six six 1996 i mean i i
02:49listen to that now and to your point like why why do i sound like that why did i say why did i sing that
02:53way and so like you can't go back and necessarily sound exactly like that again yeah um so it's definitely
02:59an interpretation but it's it's a very close interpretation so there's new and old on this
03:04album um do you still feel like they mesh together well like is there a cohesiveness you found throughout
03:11this album yeah i think so i mean we certainly strive for that i mean we we always you know want
03:16to stay within what the 98 degrees sound is and i think we did that i think you know you also as an
03:23artist want to stretch yourself too so with a song like stranger things have happened uh you know it's
03:28a little bit different it's a it's a little more tempo but uh we really fell in love with the song
03:33as soon as we heard it and um you know we were excited to record it and uh yeah we're really proud
03:38of it so i'm glad you brought up stranger things i really love the song all right did you have to get
03:43any type of like approvals for that or are we getting sued or no i mean it's we're not going to get
03:48sued because it's not it's not a sample and it's not a sound that they created it's a it's a keyboard
03:55you know sound yeah even the synth that they used you know i i like to say john carpenter you know
04:00that that whole show is a throwback to the 80s you know horror film yeah yeah so they actually use
04:07some of the same synth it's like a rolling synth and a certain synth and a certain uh arpeggio that's
04:12just on a different setting so you can't really copyright settings that are in a keyboard right so
04:18it's not exactly like the theme song but we do have an insider at netflix so we did we did
04:23uh don't blame me yeah yeah yeah that's right we did get some assurances that we were we were in
04:30the clear on on that and it's definitely a nod to the show but it's certainly not a copy in any way
04:34shape or form of of what they've done but you know it's such a cool vibe yeah uh it's just acknowledging
04:39that that that vibe and uh and taking it one step further with the song cool you guys have been famous
04:44for so long now um how has your relationship with fame changed over the years what does it mean to you
04:51now versus then uh how do you react to it now i i think for at least me personally the the
04:57relationship isn't with fame necessarily it's it's with the fans um you know fame i'm i'm not a i'm
05:03not a big fan of fame but i am uh very appreciative of the fans that have given us all these wonderful
05:09moments and all these wonderful experiences that we've been able to accomplish um you know so i think
05:14it's it's kind of a a love hate relationship with you know at least for me personally with uh fame and
05:20and notoriety and things like that but um i think we understand that there are there's pros and cons to
05:26every situation um and you just try and maximize the pros and minimize the cons it's such a not normal
05:33thing like have you have you found your normal within it you feel like though i think that we were
05:39blessed to come up in a time when when it there wasn't nearly as much access to to acts as there
05:45is now i don't envy the the justin beavers of the world and the one directions of the world and guys
05:50who came up in this social media landscape because when we came up we didn't have any of that i think
05:54it would have changed uh our experience dramatically so i think we're all grateful for the fact that we
05:59came up in a different time yeah uh it certainly it's changed the way that everyone approaches this
06:04business um i think in the end whatever fame we've we've we've gained through the years as long as
06:10it's based on what we do and what we love which is the music then that's something that we uh you
06:13know we're very proud of um but for us it is all about the music and it's about those fans that you
06:18referenced and that's that's the reason we're still able to do this you know 20 some years later
06:22is because those fans you know remain with us and supportive and um and it's a cliche but it's an
06:27absolutely true cliche that we can't do any of this without the fans and their support and their and
06:32their love for what we do so it's really all about them when you guys were first getting started and
06:37um you know everything was basically taking a backseat to your career can you remember is there
06:42one like milestone a personal milestone that still haunts you to this day something you missed like
06:48family-wise because of your career i think we definitely all had to make sacrifices and miss things
06:54we would you know moments we would have liked to have been there for because we were so dedicated i mean
06:59you know you owed it to your bandmates to you know be all in and just because they are all in and so
07:06it's sort of like you know you have to just make sacrifices and miss things that you wish you could
07:10have gone to we've all missed weddings we've all missed uh birthdays and things like that but uh you
07:15know at the same time it's a trade-off we we get to live our dream and i don't think there was one
07:19moment you know per se as to maybe we could have had more fun you know we we were so dead set on you know
07:26we're all type a guys hard working blue collar guys we were just grinding and i think you know
07:31we didn't take it for granted but i think we could have stepped back and like taken ourselves a little
07:35less seriously and enjoyed the moment a little bit more kind of like we're doing now thank god we have
07:40another chance to do this and it keeps going but i think back then we were just really uh you know
07:45anxious and excited to experience success and then stay there at the same time that maybe we could have
07:50relaxed a little bit more and taken in the moment and enjoyed it a little bit more you know sure when you
07:54guys were first coming out you aligned yourself so much with the um the r&b side of the industry
07:59obviously you signed with motown you toured with janet you worked with yeah stevie wonder uh i mean
08:06mariah everyone uh initially were you worried though that you would be embraced by the genre more more
08:14internally in the industry not so much the the fans you know well i mean when we first signed to motown
08:20and andre was there and we put our record together they sent out our our first single visible man but
08:25didn't include a picture with it um so it was it was them trying to basically pull one over on r&b
08:31radio be like oh listen to this great song listen how great this song is surprise they're white um
08:38you know so it's kind of like those those little things ultimately it all started to blend together and
08:44uh you know the boy band thing started you know ramping up and then i think motown was like hold
08:49on a second there's more money to be made over here so then they started putting our picture on
08:54everything yeah i mean pop music was so different you know back when we were first trying to get in
08:59the music business it was like gangster rap and and it was you know grunge music yeah yeah and other
09:05than mariah carey and boys to men i mean it was a pretty dark time in music and then suddenly when we
09:10came out or that's right when the beginning of pop music coming back right the summer of the spice
09:15girls and hansen and like all of a sudden pop music became the thing again but yeah i think i mean i
09:20think the initial vision that motown had for us was to be like the white jodeci which is not something
09:25we ever i think felt fully comfortable with i mean as you can tell we are sort of uh you know
09:32came straight out of the church but you know we had to tell but it all it all worked out the way it
09:37was meant to you know what i mean like it all kind of finds its way back to equilibrium and you find
09:41your sweet spot and and you run with that so uh yeah i mean i think all those experiences we went
09:46through uh the effort to be a super urban group you know i think all that those are valuable moments in
09:51our in our lives and careers that kind of helped to shape us into who we are and you know ultimately
09:55as a group jodeci was actually in our very first recording session like they were there in the
10:00studio and in the green room it was intimidating yeah they charged their whole meal to our our
10:05recoup account we're still recouping there we're still paying off their louis the 13th bottle they
10:10were drinking as we were recording oh my gosh you know what what i feel like i don't know if you
10:15guys thought about this but i i look at this as like a stamp of approval you know uh eminem never
10:22even took a shot at you guys so maybe i'm thinking about this too much but i feel like that he was like
10:28you know what these guys are students of r&b no they no he did he called us 98 disease on the record
10:34yeah okay no we feel like it's an honor with that you know you make fun of in sync you make
10:39fun of backstreet boys like when blink you know spoofed us in the video it was like those are
10:44to me those are all signs of like validating signs like okay we think enough of what you guys are
10:49doing in your career that we're going to spoof it in our you know in our video and so those moments
10:53are all you know those are those are highlight moments for us but no matter what industry string
10:58was pulled i can't imagine you know a baby face or whoever would gravitate towards you guys and work
11:03with you guys unless they fully believed in the talent you know yeah i think i think we were
11:08fortunate that we we did find uh people that believed in us and supported us uh and helped
11:13bring out the best in us and more some of our producers really kind of uh were able to identify
11:18kind of what our sound was and make kind of the things that made us us the harmonies and you know our
11:24love for acapella and things like that and was able to kind of implement those into a pop you know
11:30casing uh and and make it you know palatable for what radio was at the time and and you know we
11:36got some great songs along the way too so that doesn't hurt awesome and i feel like this new
11:40album you know before we wrap has something for everyone even if a child has never heard of 98 degrees
11:48you know uh some of the songs on there definitely cater to them and of course your if the child's never
11:53heard of 98 degrees shame on their parents i mean i say that all the time yeah that's child
12:00that's a disappointing situation but there is a bit of a handoff happening though we see it in
12:03concerts where where moms will come with their eight nine ten-year-old daughters and the daughters
12:07know every word every song and you can tell that there's a baton kind of being passed which is very
12:11cool like to be able to to be able to sing and perform for that next generation of fans is uh
12:16it's an awesome thing we get to see or initially the mom's dragging along the kid like come on you're
12:21coming and by the end they're like i love them it's been interesting to see that the fans the
12:25younger fans are excited about it and we're seeing it with more with like millennials and gen z's as
12:30well yeah i think that they're trying you know spotify and all the streamers are cool but people
12:34are trying to get more involved with music hence as we put out some physical cds and albums because
12:39younger generations are exploring their parents music and want to have that physical cd and album
12:44experience like we got to enjoy when we were younger so totally awesome thank you guys so much i'm so
12:49happy for you guys thanks for having us man great job