SVD KULTUR Stockholm: Interview with Jordan Knight

NKOTB - pop boyband in great shape
They may be forty plus. It may be three decades since his career took off. But the New Kids on the Block is in brilliant form when the boy band now embarks on a European tour, promising frontman Jordan Knight.
A youth club in a Stockholm suburb in 1990. Four eleven year olds in stone washed jeans with stripes and NKOTB shirts press play on the boombox and a well-rehearsed dance starts. Hands takes air microphones. "Step by step, oh baby, gonna get to you gööööörl."
On countless recreational, school yards, in the girl's room, and a lot of boy's room for that matter, did the same. Walls wallpapered with posters showing Jordan, Jonathan, Joey, Donnie and Danny offered his funkiest poses. New Kids on the Block took the early 90s.
Now they set out to meet their loyal fans again.
This year has been 30 years since the Boston boy band formed by producer Maurice Starr.
- We are more mature today, we are not those crazy teenagers we were then, says Jordan Knight, who just that day suffering from jet lag after the long trip from Boston to Stockholm where the band will start their European tour at the Annexet.
The boys have become men. But it's not a bunch of tired old men who travel around the world, hastening the singer to stress.
- We do not look like something old boyband that washed up on shore.Sometimes people wonder if we will roll onto the stage in wheelchairs. So it really is not. We are well trained. Two of us ran the Boston Marathon this year. Not me though, he says with a laugh.
- There's nothing that says you have to stop dancing just because you reach a certain age. I think we are both better entertainer and a better singer today.
In the audience are the same people who were there when the group broke through. Eleven-year-olds from the recreation center.
- Many of our fans now have their own children they bring with them.Or leave the home. Our concerts may well be a chance for them to get away, says Jordan Knight.
TT: Yelling they still the same?
- The voice drops a little as they age. They scream as powerful, but not as shrill.
When New Kids on the Block reunited in 2008 imagined the members it might be a tour and an album. They were pleasantly surprised by the faithful fans and their massive support, a support that has made the band six years later still are busy with gigs, a planned television series and an upcoming Las Vegas show. Jordan Knight expresses repeatedly his gratitude.
- My advice to young artists, like Justin Bieber, is to nurture the fans.Appreciate them. Be aware of what you have.

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