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98 Degrees is releasing their first album in 12 years, titled Full Circle
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The album from Jeff Timmons, Nick Lachey, Justin Jeffre and Drew Lachey feature new music along with re-recordings of their classic songs
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The band also tells PEOPLE about how the Mulan soundtrack saved their career
Things are coming full circle for 98 Degrees.
Speaking exclusively with PEOPLE, Jeff Timmons, Nick Lachey, Justin Jeffre and Drew Lachey talk about their first album in 12 years — Full Circle. The album features new music from the boy band, along with re-recordings of some of the original songs longtime fans know and love.
Over a Zoom call (the band called in from four separate locations), they talk about their new music, revisiting their early hits and how Mulan saved their career.
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Nick Lachey, Drew Lachey, Jeffrey Timmons and Justin Jeffre
Related: 98 Degrees Flex While Recreating Album Cover 25 Years Later
The lead single, “Got You,” was written by Nick, 51, and others “a few years back” for a solo project. “The minute I wrote it, it never felt like a solo song. It instantly reminded me of the band and of our sound, and so I pitched it to these guys when we were putting the album together, and they liked the song as well, so we cut it.”
Nick says they picked “Got You” because it sounded like “a throwback 98 Degrees record,” making it feel like “the right one to lead with.” “But I think we’re really proud of all five of the originals on the record. We could have easily led with any of them and been happy with it.”
Meanwhile, their song Mona Lisa leans into the mystery of the Leonardo da Vinci painting. “The mystery of Mona Lisa is kind of the appeal,” Drew, 48, says, noting that he saw the famous art on a recent vacation.
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Jeffrey Timmons, Nick Lachey, Justin Jeffre, and Drew Lachey in 1998
“It’s like what’s going through her mind? Is she happy? Is she not happy? I mean, what’s the vibe? And I think that’s the appeal of the song as well. It’s got that unknown element to it, which people are drawn to. I think that’s probably what drew us to it as well.”
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On their new album are also re-recorded versions of some of their first songs, including “The Hardest Thing,” “I Do,” and “Cheris You.” Jeffre, 52, says it was a challenge returning to their older songs.
“We’ve been singing these songs for so long, we thought it would just be a piece of cake, but to really go back, and we really have to study the old records.”
Trevor Paul
Drew Lachey, Justin Jeffre, Nick Lachey and Jeffrey Timmons
“Through the years, you kind of change things up a little bit along the way in live performances. But really trying to get the exact kind of feel and the vibe and the timing and everything. But it was a fun process too at the same time, although it was a little more challenging than I think we expected.”
Nick agrees with Jeffre. “It was a lot,” he says of trying to recreate their original sound, which was “dramatically different” than what they sounded like now. “It was a lot harder than I expected it to be [to] go back and try and recreate that sound again.”
Timmons, 52, adds that “what’s cool” and revisiting their classic songs is that all of them “immediately bring back nostalgia. “It takes you to the place. When we were recorded, who was there.”
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Jeff Timmons, Drew Lachey, Stevie Wonder, Nick Lachey and Justin Jeffre in 1998
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The band also tells PEOPLE about how their contribution to the Mulan soundtrack “saved our career.” 98 Degrees teamed up with Stevie Wonder to record a duet of “True To Your Heart” for the 1998 Disney animated movie.
The band was at a “crossroads” with their level after the president who signed them to Motown Records was let go, Nick recalls.
The new president then “steered them” into working with Disney and 25-time Grammy winner, Wonder. “It saved our career and kept us relevant, kept us out there, allowed us the opportunity to come back and do 98 Degrees And Rising, which is the album that really truly blew up and put us on the mainstream map.”
“Aside from working with our idols, Stevie Wonder, and doing it with a company like Disney and being a part of a legendary film, it was special for us with respect to the fact that it kept us out there.”
“I think it really, in a lot of ways, as I said, saved us at that time,” Nick adds.
Full Circle is available to stream.
Read the original article on People
