Jordan Knight stepped into the spotlight at the age of 14, as the lead singer of original boy-band phenomenon, New Kids on the Block. Almost 26 years later, and Knight is preparing to spend his summer on a sold out tour with NKOTB and the Backstreet Boys, as well as getting ready to release his first solo record in almost five years titled, Unfinished.

And with his album’s first single, ‘Let’s Go Higher,’ already taking the airwaves by storm, it would seem that the five-year wait for Unfinished, was well worth it.

“‘Let’s Go Higher’ is the perfect first single because it’s happy, fun and really upbeat,” says Knight. “You want that first single to be something that covers the broad scope of the record,” he adds. “The rest of the album is basically just as upbeat, fun and happy as it is.’”

Fans who have enjoyed the slower ballads shouldn’t be worried though, as Knight promises, “Of course, there will be a couple ballads too.”

The first single, which Knight worked on with producer Colby O’Donis, has already garnered tens of thousands of YouTube hits –and the official video isn’t even out yet. Completing the final edit just last week, Knight says fans can expect the video to be a mix between cool, sexy and fun – though the process wasn’t easy.

“It was a lot of work,” says Knight, “because the song is happy and upbeat, but sometimes it’s harder to translate that into video. I’m not 14,” he adds, “I can’t jump around and do that kind of thing, but you still want it to be happy and fun.”

The last time Knight released a “fun” video, was in 1999 for his Billboard Hot 100 hit “Give it to You”— arguably his most commercially successful song to date. Though “Let’s Go Higher,” carries the same dance-pop, upbeat style, Knight said he’s not interested in trying to churn out hit singles.

“I don’t think about that hit factor as much when I’m creating music. In fact, ‘Give it to you’ was one of three songs I’d sent to a radio station in Florida and  I actually thought another song should have been the first single, but they said ‘No, this is it, this is the hit,’ and we went with it,” said the singer. “But that song, that was an experiment and it just so happened that it ended up being as popular as it was.”

Since then, Knight has released four solo albums, including Jordan Knight, The Fix and in 2006, Love Songs. Though fans have been holding their breath for a fifth solo record, Knight explained the reason for Unfinished’s five year delay.

“Three out of those five years were spent focusing on New Kids, reuniting and performing and working out the tour,” said Knight. “And in between that, it was just never the right timing to go ahead and start working on solo projects.”

Knight also says that his last solo record Love Songs, was in fact, a race against deadlines and not a labour of love.

“It wasn’t really an album I put my heart and soul into. There were only three songs I put my heart into and felt good about. Everything else, I went into the studio, sang and left. I didn’t want Unfinished to be like that.”

With the sold out NKOTBSB tour, Knight will no doubt be incredibly busy performing with the group this coming summer. But fans of the artist shouldn’t lose hope for a solo tour just yet.

“Hopefully, I can do one, once everything with the NKOTBSB tour is over,” says Knight, adding that smaller tours are almost more fun than touring with a group.

“At the larger tours, you kind of have to play the most popular hits because you want all of the fans to be included, whereas at smaller shows, you can focus on performing the stuff you know your personal fans will enjoy too.”

Though some breakout artists may stress to surpass the success of their original musical group, Knight doesn’t pressure himself to compete with the New Kids.

“New Kids is bigger than all of the individual members,” explains the artist, “but I do compete against myself. It’s all about the process and working to create something that I’m happy with.”

And even though the 40-year-old father of two admits balancing his role as lead singer, solo artist and family man are difficult, he’s never deviated from music – though he’s thought about it once or twice.

“I always thought it’d be nice to be a painter, that or maybe a counsellor,” he says. “When everything is not going as planned you sometimes question,‘Why am I still doing this?’ — but ultimately it’s the love of music that keeps bringing me back.”

If you’re looking for the perfect album to blast with the windows down this summer, keep an eye out for the release of Jordan Knight’s Unfinished this coming May, by checking out his official website, Twitter, or Facebook page.

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Don’t worry fans, they’re still not breaking up! Just because Kevin has gotten married and disappeared from the world, Nick has been working on his acting and producing songs, and Joe has been working on his solo album, it still doesn’t mean that the trio are separating! Of course not.

Where have these three brothers been, you may ask? Valid question. But it seems we have found one of them! Joe Jonas can be seen adorning this month’s issue of Details magazine. And might we say, he is looking mighty fine!

In the article, Jonas dishes about breaking out of the teen-idol shell and making a name for himself, sans Nick and Kevin.

“I’m growing up, the fans are growing up,” Joe told Details. “I’ve gone through a lot of stuff in my life so far. There are stories I haven’t really been able to tell. When you’re writing with three people, you wind up with a sound that might be—not average—but, you know, expected.”

The article, entitled “Joe Goes it Alone” (but remember, they’re NOT breaking up), goes on to express Joe’s feelings of going solo:

“We’re not breaking up, we’re just taking a break,” Joe says. “I really have a hope for the fans that got older and went, ‘You know what, I’m really not into the Jonas Brothers anymore,’ that I’m able to catch their ear again with my project and they’re able to go, like, ‘Hey, this is cool stuff, I’m happy listening to this, I’m not embarrassed listening to this.’”

According to Perez Hilton, Joe recently opened up about his upcoming album, and working with producer Danja:

“I think for me the biggest influences are Daft Punk. I love their music. There’s a guy, Frankmusik, out of London, a lot of electro DJs out in Europe are doing some cool stuff right now. I just listen to a bunch of stuff you dance to, kind of electro-based. A lot of stuff that’s so amazing [that] you can create on the computer. I think, for both of us, we are huge fans of the new ‘Tron‘ movie. To be able to go on a musical journey for a while and finally with finding Danja and working with him, we’ve been able to collaborate on something that really works for me. And to find me and not try to mold it into something it’s not, to try and be myself and my music and kind of tell stories and be honest and just have something … when people hear it, hopefully they’ll be able to dance to it and have a good time.”

Hmm…this sounds extremely different from the usual Jonas melodies, making me sceptical to believe it completely. But one thing’s for sure; I will be dancing when this album comes out!

“It’s Joe’s album, it’s not just something put together for him,” Danja told Details. “He’s collaborating with the writing. He’s very different from what you’d expect. All I can say is he’s an adult man. He has a rock-star edge about him.”

Will it be good, will it be bad; will it makes our ears bleed, or leave us singing our praises? So many questions, so little answers, especially keeping in mind that Hollywood Records promised this album in early 2011. Reality check, it’s already mid-March. So where is it?!

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With a high-energy reunion tour wrapped up, 90′s punk band Blink-182 is taking some time to rest. Still, according to their drummer Travis Barker, a new song is on the way.

Barker announced that Blink-182 will create a brand new song that will go on his solo album, reports MTVNews.com.

“There’s some stuff on my record that’s not going to have a bunch of guitars, that are just straight-up hip hop records,” he told MTV News. “We got a new Blink song on there, I think I’m going to do something with Chester Bennington from Linkin Park. Hopefully a guest appearance from Slash, I’m doing his big fundraiser that happens in a month. I think there’s going to be a collaboration with [Kanye West's touring DJ] A-Track, so it’s gonna be really in all directions.”

Barker does not have any details about the new Blink-182 tune, mostly due to the fact that the band hasn’t written it yet. But one thing is for sure: the song will be brand new. While the band wrote a new song recently, entitled “Up All Night,” it wasn’t played on their tour and so far does not have a home. Still, “Up All Night” will not be the track on Barker’s solo album.

“No, ‘Up All Night’ will have its own home, and it won’t be on my record,” he said. “That will continue to be part of a new Blink record or will be released through Blink182.com or something, it’s going to be a surprise. The new song that we record for my record is just going to be something from scratch, and just us doing our thing.”

Barker said the plan is to have music on his solo album completed in January or February. He also hopes to support the disc with a tour, but that’s a pretty loose idea since he and his bandmates are taking it easy after their time on the road.

“We’re kind of taking the rest of the year off, for everyone to finish up other stuff they have going on,” said Barker. “We want to re-group next year and start getting together once a week or once every two weeks to start doing the beginning work on our record.”

Barker has also worked hard at remixing. He premiered his version of the Drake/Eminem/Kanye West/Lil Wayne collaboration “Forever” on Wednesday on MTVNews.com.

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Perhaps taking a cue from his wife, songstress Chantal Kreviazuk, Our Lady Peace frontman Raine Maida has recorded his first solo album.

Maida’s concept for the record may surprise some OLP fans. “‘The Hunter’s Lullaby’ is a collection of poems put to music,” he described to ChartAttack. “It was written and recorded without the persuasive hand of a major record label.”

All ten tracks were recorded independently in his private studio. Maida says the beatnik-style acoustic songs were influenced by Patti Smith, Leonard Cohen, Allen Ginsberg and Saul Williams. The album will also address significant social issues, defined with the help of activists Amy Goodman, Howard Zinn, Jared Paul and David Suzuki.

Kreviazuk plays piano and sings on several tracks.

Maida’s first single is entitled, “Yellow Brick Road.” Look for “The Hunter’s Lullaby” in stores November 13.

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In between preparing for his upcoming solo release and touring all summer, Dave Matthews found time to accept a role in a movie.

The singer-songwriter will appear in “Because of Winn-Dixie,” playing a drifter in his first major-studio film, reports MTV.

The movie begins shooting next month, and Matthews ends the current tour September 20. His debut solo album, “Some Devil,” is scheduled to hit shelves September 23.

Want tickets to his September 3 Toronto show? Head on over to the click2music.ca ticket giveaway for your chance to win.

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