New Kids on the Block will kick off their Magic Summer 2024 tour in June, but for the first time in years — 11, in fact — they’re hitting the road with a new album to promote: Still Kids, which is out now. Plenty of veteran acts tour each summer and just play the hits, but as New Kid Donnie Wahlberg notes, new music is important for them and for their fans.
“This specific album, we set out to do it because it just felt [like] time and the fans had asked for so long,” he tells ABC Audio. “And you can only say, ‘Yeah, yeah, it’s coming, it’s coming,’ for so long.”
“And we got inspired … and it evolved naturally, which is always the best way to do something, rather than in the old days, when we had to have a new album for every holiday and every quarter of the year to meet some demands of a giant corporate machine.”
“But I think how important it is, we realize that even more after the fact,” Donnie says. “Y’know, when the process is complete … we feel something between us. We’ve all worked on something collectively. … Then from that point on, it gets to the fans, and then we realize how much it means to them, and how much energy it brings to the fan base and to us.”
Donnie says he understands why some people are apathetic about a band that’s been around for 40 years, like they have, putting out a new album. But he notes, “For our fans and for us, it does mean a lot.”
“It’s a collective energy that we realize now, seeing social media and seeing how excited they all are and how much it’s meaning to so many people … that’s why it’s important.”
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