Backstreet on the side
Date: November 18, 2001
Source: Calgary Sun - / Backstreet.net
By MIKE BELL -- Calgary Sun You'd think being a Backstreet Boy would be a very full-time gig.
Not to mention being the wife of a Backstreet Boy.
"It's always a crazy time in our life -- everyday," says Leighanne Littrell, actress and wife of B-Boy Brian. "It's never boring.
"If it's not business, it's something going on at the house."
Right now what's going on at the couple's abode is some kitchen and bedroom renovations, but that's not the reason I'm talking to the two.
This call is to discuss the Littrell's new business venture and recent addition to their crazy lives, BriLeigh Productions, a music label, and, hopefully in the future, production company.
BriLeigh's first release is the soundtrack to the independent film Olive Juice (featuring music by new artists as well as a Backstreet Boys' song and a track by Joe Pesci), which also, not coincidentally, stars Leighanne and features Brian and fellow Boy A.J. McLean in cameo roles.
Other projects will follow -- artist signings, other releases -- but at a pace that the pair can manage.
"The good thing about having your own company is that we don't have to do it," Leighanne says.
"It's not our bread-maker, obviously, and it is a joy for us ...
"We're just going to make sure we love the project and we love the artist and it's a truly talented artist and not fabricated."
That sentiment is echoed by Brian, who's eager to devote more of his time to BriLeigh, presumably because it's so far removed from the world in which the Backstreet Boys dwell.
In fact, you can guarantee that the one musical act you won't see on the label is a slick boy band.
More likely, it will be a singer- songwriter like James Taylor, whom Brian expresses a great fondness for.
Such a fondness that don't be surprised if Brian, himself, is the one who makes that album, either as a solo album or with Leighanne, whom he's recently been teaching how to write songs.
"It's real music," Brian says of Taylor. "It's what music used to be many years ago ... It's not a whole bunch of hoopla. It's just music, him playing a guitar and he's real.
"He's a real person."
That may seem an odd thing for someone who's become quite rich and famous being in a band which most people would consider the antithesis of genuine, honest grassroots music.
But Brian insists real music is something the Backstreet Boys are about, in some aspects, and could very well be again.
"I've been trying to get the guys to go that way for a long time ...," he says of the more simple approach.
"When we came out at first ... that was us. We come out now and it's still us, but the market -- we're accused of something that we're not doing because the market is oversaturated with people like us."
From the lessons he's learned from being part of a musical behemoth, he's hoping to change the way things are done in the industry, starting with the way in which the deal with artists BriLeigh signs.
"I honestly -- between you and I and all of the readers -- I don't think artists are treated as fairly as they should be nowadays," Brian says.
"I think that the record companies look at all the artists as just money-making entities and they're not treated as personable as they should be ...
"Sometimes, and this is kind of an analogy with what's going on with me right now as a Backstreet Boy, sometimes the record companies get too large for the artist ...
"It's frustrating for me as an artist. And my experience with that, I can turn that around and make it a positive."
Leighanne, who has vicariously experienced the negative aspects of the music industry, agrees.
"We learn every day," she says.
"We've got that big huge book of what not to do."
They both admit if the label ever does get too unmanageable in the way they envision it, or even if it threatens to come between them, they'll walk away from it without regrets.
"He's so much of my happiness," says Leighanne. "And we're half-and-half on this company and if it was becoming a thorn in our sides we would just say, 'You know what, this is not worth it.' "
For his part, Brian sees BriLeigh as his future, something he and his bride can throw themselves into when his current day job ends.
"When the guys want to settle down or whatnot, then that's the time for me to focus on other things that I enjoy," he says, not giving a hint as to when that time may in fact come.
"One day, I would love to be a dad, and have a family, and enjoy life at home, and relax, and hopefully have a successful record company that will be doing well ...
"Those are the things I look forward to in the future."