O-Town Ready "02"

O-Town's O2 is due out in August, but the pop group is still assembling songs for the follow-up to its 1.5 million-selling debut. Lined up over the next two months are writing stints with Dallas Austin (TLC, Boyz II Men) and Linda Perry (Pink, Christina Aguilera), according to O-Town's Ashley Angel. "We're writing as much as possible," he says, "right up until the last minute."

The Florida five-piece, created on the ABC reality show Making the Band, have already recorded a song written and produced by Nelly. "It has some pop elements to it, but it's very urban sounding and a little dark, which we liked," Angel says of the track "Favorite Girl." "It was originally written for a solo performer, and Nelly let us work with him on building the harmonies and building the melodies."

Angel is the only O-Town member so far to have landed two of his songs on O2. He wrote "From the Damage" with producer Steve Kipner and "Suddenly" with LFO's Rich Cronin. Angel also plays guitar on both. "We've all been writing a lot," he says. "We've written almost 30 songs as a group, but right now the idea is to get an album full of songs that can all be potential singles. We're trying to make a record of different sounds, and it's a process that takes a while."

By comparison, O-Town's first album was made in just weeks. Making the Band had made Angel, Trevor Penick, Jacob Underwood, Erik Estrada and Dan Miller household names, but it wasn't until after the first season had been shot that the group was signed to record for Clive Davis' J Records.

"It's been tough," Angel says. "We came into some very stereotyped scenarios to begin with -- the whole setup of us, and everybody watching us, and comparing us to all the pop acts that are out there. It wasn't like we were able to come together and organically write music together. But that's what happened [this time]. We got to spend time together as a group. We've gotten to grow and mature as artists, and we've traveled together all over the world now -- and we're not the stereotype. We're not what people usually think we are. We're artists and a group who is very involved in every decision that gets made."

KAREN BLISS
(June 24, 2002)