[ July 07, 2000 ]
The BBMAK Base

BBMak Separate The Men From The Boy Bands

UK trio hope to conquer U.S. by writing their own songs and playing 
their own instruments. 

By Mark Woodlief for SONICNET.COM 

NEW YORK — Like *NSync, the Backstreet Boys and Hanson before them, 
boy band BBMak trekked to MTV's holiest of sites, the "Total Request 
Live" studios in Times Square, on their first visit to New York.

But unlike some of their U.S. counterparts, the British pop trio 
don't perform choreographed maneuvers.

They also write much of their own material and play their own 
instruments. Currently on tour with Britney Spears, BBMak hoped to 
gain the blessing of "TRL" host Carson Daly and maybe pick up a few 
more screaming fans in the process. 

The pilgrimage was a success. "Carson Daly was really cool," 
vocalist/guitarist Christian Burns, 26, said. "We're number seven 
on 'TRL,' and Carson really likes the fact that we don't 
dance."(Sonicnet.com's parent company, Viacom, also owns MTV.)

Though they don't dance, BBMak's debut album, Sooner or Later, 
otherwise shares the same sonic gloss and romantic lyrical focus of 
their more famous American counterparts.

A smooth blend of melodic pop and soul and radio-friendly harmonies 
frame songs such as their breakthrough single, "Back Here" (RealAudio 
excerpt). Co-written by the band — Burns, singer Mark Barry and lead 
guitarist Steven McNally — and former Pornography-era Cure bassist 
Phil Thornalley, the song has reached #18 on the Billboard Hot 100 
chart. "['Back Here'] came together really quickly," Burns said. "We 
were having coffee with Phil at his flat, and we were just messing 
around with chords; we wrote the whole song in about 45 minutes."

After only four U.S. dates, crowd reactions have been "wild," lead 
vocalist Barry said, adding that male fans have been especially 
enthusiastic, partly because the group's members are real musicians.

They Play Their Own Instruments

"We go onstage and play our own instruments, and I think guys like 
that," Barry said. When it comes to boy bands, however, not everyone 
thinks that musicianship or songwriting skill really matters.

Erik Bradley, music director at Chicago's B96 FM, argues that the 
tunes — and the band's looks — count more than the fact that BBMak 
actually perform the songs.

"I've seen them play, and I'm a fan," Bradley said. "But I don't know 
if people really care too much that they play their own instruments. 
The fans, especially the females, just want to hear good music and 
have something nice to look at."

Bradley said Sooner or Later has "four or five really good singles," 
and noted "Next Time" and "I Can Tell" as follow-up contenders 
to "Back Here."

BBMak's members met in Northern England's mid-'90s music scene — 
Barry is from Manchester, Burns from Wigan, and McNally from 
Liverpool. "We were all in different bands that were hobbies," Barry 
said, before the three musicians decided to work together seriously.

"We gelled together really quickly," Barry said. After writing songs 
together for more than a year and a half, BBMak began to solicit 
record labels, and even performed on the sidewalks outside London 
record company offices. "It was a long process, but we all share the 
same passion for music," he said.

Old-Fashioned Love Songs

BBMak's particular specialty is for romantic ballads, which make up 
the bulk of Sooner or Later. Tried and true, as well as lucrative, 
love remains the songwriter's most trusted subject matter, Burns said.

"Ninety-nine percent of songs are about love," he said. "On Sooner or 
Later, we've got all different kinds of love songs; we've got love 
lost, love found, love for your family, love for your friends."

Inspiration for a song can come anywhere, anytime. "We wrote [Sooner 
or Later's] 'Love on the Outside' on a plane," Barry said. "We popped 
a few ideas on a Dictaphone to get the basics of the song down and 
finished it later."

It will take more than an ability to pen their own songs to reach the 
dizzying heights of boy band superstardom. Hanson, for example, write 
and perform their own songs, but their recent record sales indicate 
that their luster has faded.

But BBMak are dedicated to the crusade of making it big in the United 
States as they crisscross the nation with Spears this summer and fall.

"We're fully committed to America, so you'll be seeing a lot of us," 
Barry said. 

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