Boyz! II Men: pop music's greatest growth spurt

Interview, August, 1995 by Richard LaGravenese

WANYA: I've written a couple of treatments also. I have three that I'm writing now.

RL: What kinds of stories?

WANYA: One is about best friends. One is about a girl growing up in the projects trying to be anything but a gangster girl. Another one is about a gift whose family dies, and she sees them die and wants revenge on the people who killed her family. I mean, you know, basic stories.

RL: What about directing?

MICHAEL: I want to act in films and direct them, as well as write them, as well as do the music for them and be very much a part of everything.

SHAWN: He wants to do it all. [laughs]

RL: That's great. But I'm amazed that you guys would have the energy to do anything but sing. I mean, I can tell how tired you are now. How are you going to get up for the concert tonight?

NATE: Once the doors open and you look out into the audience, it's just a whole new realm. Some nights, it takes a little bit of time to gear up - it may take two or three songs, or five songs. Hopefully not nine. [laughter]

SHAWN: Plus, it depends on the crowd. We get our energy from the crowd.

NATE: And sometimes the crowd brings us down, too.

SHAWN: Yeah, if the crowd isn't really responsive to the performance, you definitely get that vibe when you're onstage. But if the crowd's hype, more than likely we're going to be, too.

NATE: It's a selfish way to think, but sometimes you can only give the crowd as much as they give you If it's a small, intimate situation, then it's easier to grab the crowd and bring them into it. But in a big venue you can only be into it as much as they are. And sometimes when we come out, we're not really into it ourselves for the first five or six songs. But once "On Bended Knee" or "Water Runs Dry" rolls around, everyone just starts to flow.

RL: Certain people seem to be totally transformed by the stage.

NATE: Well, when we're about to go on, one of us will usually say, "How does that step go again?" And we may get it wrong while we're practicing backstage, but once we get out there -

RL: It just comes. It's like another consciousness.

SHAWN: Yeah, "entertainer persona." I guess you're trained after a while, and it's like second nature to you. Actors go through it. I've heard interviews with actors where the interviewer will ask, "Remember that part when you did this?" And the actor's like, "I don't remember a damn thing I did in that whole movie." You forget everything when you're actually doing it.

RL: Sometimes when I've seen you guys perform - especially at the Grammys - it's like you're possessed or something.

WANYA: A lot of times, when I really think about performing, I shake a lot. So I try to close my eyes and not see anybody in the audience because it's scary. Especially in front of your peers. You do not want them to talk about you.

SHAWN: I've had to kind of swallow that fear, because if I'm nervous, I can't sing. At first, I got real nervous. But I just feel like, even at the award shows, where other entertainers are watching, they're people just like us. So I don't let that intimidate me anymore.