I speak of that nostalgic feeling often. To be honest, I thrive off of it, and in a time when nostalgia is needing to fill our lungs, Mark Calderon is continuing to be that fresh air we all crave.

Bringing that nostalgia across the country and back again, Mark is currently on tour with Color Me Badd and has never been happier with where he is. During their stop in Houston I was able to sit down before the show and discuss the tour, his crew, what life has been like back on the road.

Mark is at home on the road and that feeling is evident when you have the chance to see him and ask him about these moments. “It’s great”, when asked what it was like to be back on the road and on tour. “This is where I love to be. I like to move; it’s the way I’m wired. I like seeing new things and being in new places. This is just where I like to be and I’m good here.” He knows and understands how special these nostalgic moments are and does not take for granted that his music is a part of that throwback feeling. “Being out there and singing those hits that we wrote 30 years ago, people still knowing them, singing along, having fun with them, and just kind of taking them back down memory lane. You can’t beat that.”

For this adventure Mark is joined on stage by three incredibly talented men and knows to create something special you have to have the right company around you. “I’m good where I’m at as far as my team goes on stage with Chris, Eric, and DJ Wayne. Everyone always seems to be all on the same page. It’s good to have people that you can relate to, you can talk to, that you can laugh with and just have a good time.” Mark thrives off the people around him and knows to make good things happen you need the right people with you.

During the Texas leg of their tour, CMB chose The Rustic and “with a venue like The Rustic, you get to try new things, to see what people like, what catches people’s ear. We feel free to try new things and that’s what the whole thing is about. It’s a great venue and all the pieces just aligned to bring us here.” In venues like The Rustic, “the more intimate setting is a lot of fun. You get to actually see the crowd’s faces and not just the dark.” This type of venue allowed the guys the creative freedom to go out of the box and see, in real time, the crowds reaction to what they are brining to the stage. From what I saw… it worked… it worked well.

For Mark, “just being out there again, the nostalgia, something about seeing people have a good time, dancing to those songs, singing along, and just taking them back” is the driving force behind the tour and Mark’s passion for being back out on the road and with the fans. It’s what feeds the flame.

Following the interview, Mark and CMB filled The Rustic with all the nostalgia they wanted to give and the audience had been waiting for. From dance moves designed by Chris, to the nostalgic tunes of “I Adore Mi Amor”, “I Wanna Sex You Up” and “All 4 Love”, and Mark’s newest single, “It’s Like Good Sex”.

During the show I was taken back to so many 90’s childhood moments and was giddy watching others in the crowd feel the same way. As each girl clamored for a rose from one of the guys (and thank you Mark for mine), it was reminiscent of those moments when your favorite guy acknowledges your existence and your knees go weak. It was the phenomenon of what we call “fangirling” and oh how incredible it was to experience it once again.

When you get to share the stage with greatness, Mark is no stranger. During a few dates this tour CMB is joining forces with none other than Bel Biv DeVoe. “Those guys inspired us. We learned from them. We wanted to be them and we saw them several times with they came to Oklahoma City when we were growing up. We just loved what they were doing and we thought ‘hey we want to do that too.’ So when you’re sharing the stage with those guys it means a lot. And for them to know who you are? It’s pretty cool.” Mark continues, “They have been an inspiration and greatness to us.”

As for what’s next and who Mark wants to work with he knows he has to dream big. Artists like Bruno Mars and Stevie Wonder top his collaboration list and if you “just put it out into the universe and it will come back to you.” Mark and CMB are ready to continue putting it all out into the universe, touring, making music, and bringing that nostalgia to those that thrive off to it, just like I do.

To keep up with Mark Calderon, Color Me Badd, and all of the updates is follow Mark and Color Me Badd on Facebook, Instagram and at https://markcalderon.com/.

 

If you grew up in the early 90’s, then you, like me, probably swooned over a certain boy group, Color Me Badd, and a certain member of that group, Mark Calderon. And if you, like me again, have been waiting for Mark to take that solo career leap, well the wait is over. Today, with much anticipation for those loving and longing for the nostalgia of hearing that voice over your iPhone, Mark has released his first solo single “It’s Like Good Sex”. He has created his own genre of music for this single that I have dubbed, dance R&B. It gives the audience the George Michael vibe of “I Want Your Sex”, the soulful notes of Marvin Gaye, and the unmistakable influence of Bruno Mars through the lyrics and the beat.

 

I was able to sit down and speak to Mark before his release and this endeavor has truly been a leap of faith for him. “I wanted to grab people’s attention and write what I was feeling in that moment,” Mark says. “I wanted to give it a chance and see what comes back.” The new single was co-written by himself and the writing styles of Todd William Nystrom and Isaiah Pittman. Mark has always loved writing music, evident in the fact that he helped co-write all the music for Color Me Badd, and as “time went on and I tried to put new music together, but it just didn’t work. I finally got to the point of finally doing it and getting it out there. I wanted to come out with a great song and put time into it, you know? Put that effort into one song and make it great.” While Mark is not looking at an EP at the moment he does hope and plan on going with the flow of releasing a new single every 2-3 months with a possible dip into other genres of music.

Mark is all about feel good/happy music and this song will definitely make you roll the windows down and feel good. Mark knows that the industry has changed since CMB first broke onto the scene, and knows he has to go along with the times. “Technology, the internet, YouTube, and with one click can reach millions. Every generation has its own thing. The 80’s and 90’s was an amazing era of music. The beauty of music though, no matter the generation it’s reaching, is that it can take you anywhere you want to go.” The idea/concept for “It’s Like Good Sex” hit him while he was in Boca Raton with CMB. “I was walking through the hotel lobby and heard music coming from the restaurant/bar area. You never know when inspiration will hit you,” Mark said. “A certain chord hit and I took out my phone and began recording the idea that was coming to me. I went back to my room and started to play with the melody and lyrics. In the end we had ‘It’s Like Good Sex’.”

While Mark loves performing and being with the rest of CMB, he loves the creative freedom that this solo venture is bringing. “It’s my time to explore on my own time and terms. It’s the freedom as an artist, a songwriter, an entertainer, and now it’s my time. I’m so excited about this new journey.” When asked about the obstacles that he has come across he said that, “doubt creeps in at times and that’s just a part of being human, but when you have real and true friends that can push you and tell you that you can do it, that changes everything. Everyone needs that encouragement and I’m fortunate to have those people in my life lifting me up.”

 

Mark’s new single “It’s Like Good Sex” is out on tomorrow on all music platforms including Amazon Music, iTunes, Apple Music, and Sound Cloud. If you are in need of soulful nostalgia with a hot dance beat behind it Mark Calderon is ready to give it to you like good sex.

 

 

If you grew up in the late 90’s/early 2000’s there is a very good chance that the Backstreet Boys were imprinted into your DNA, a deep rooted part of what it was to be a teen at that time. You battled your friends over BSB vs. *NSync and you stood proud with the boy band of your choice.

With much needed nostalgia and the crave for it growing everyday we look for music that takes us back, but that also helps us look forward. The Backstreet Boys new album DNA has record upon record that does just that. In it’s entirety, from the moment I heard this album I felt Nick Carter, A.J. McLean, Kevin Richardson, Brian Littrell, and Howie Dorough had taken up residence in my head for the past 2 years and decided to make an album about what they saw and/or heard. The sound of this album has the classicness of who they always have been and the sound needed to grasp a new generation.

The first single off the album, “Don’t Go Breakin My Heart, was released on May 17th, 2018 and achieved worldwide praise and a quick rise to #1 on iTunes within hours of its release. The quick success is not something that the guys take lightly. In an interview with Elle Magazine Kevin Richardson speaks to the groups first Grammy nomination in close to 17 years, “You have moments in a long career where stuff that you’re making breaks through and resonates on a massive scale, and sometimes you don’t. To have that happen right now, with “Don’t Go Breakin My Heart” being nominated for a Grammy Award, feels really good.”

“Chances” is a special song and video off of the DNA album. The song was co-written by Shawn Mendes and Ryan Tedder from OneRepublic and the video was directed by none other than A.J. McLean. This is the first time a Backstreet Boy has been behind the camera to film a music video for the group. In an interview with Billboard A.J. says “Chances” is “a realistic love song about chance.” It is truly a story of “what ifs” in the best way. A repeated lyric at the beginning and end of the song states, “What if I never run into you?/What if you never smiled at me?” It’s a song about how chance can sometimes be better than the plan and can bring out the pleasantly unexpected.

While songs regarding love like “Chances”, “Breathe”, “Nobody Else”, “Don’t Go Breakin My Heart” tend to takeover the album, the funky collective sounds of BSB are not missing from DNA. “Passionate” and “New Love” bring a unique sound to the album and break up the love songs just a bit with a more get down/sexy vibe. The Backstreet Boys have always played around with a sexier sound to their music. From their earlier albums songs like, “Get Down (You’re the One for Me)”, “If You Want to be Good Girl (Get Yourself a Bad Boy)”, “It’s Gotta Be You”, and “The Call” you can see they have always pushed the boundaries to find a balance of romance and sex appeal and have done so well.

With the release of DNA the group announced at world wide tour beginning May 11th in Portugal and concluding in October in Singapore (don’t worry the USA is all in between those dates). You can find the album anywhere music is sold as well as on stream from Amazon Music, iTunes, and Apple Music and purchase tickets to the DNA World Tour at https://www.backstreetboys.com/events.

When the idea crossed my mind to review the Bohemian Rhapsody soundtrack, my first thought was, “I am nuts” and to be honest… I still think I am. With the release of the award winning film documenting the lives of Queen and Feddie Mercury’s humble beginnings, the highs, and the lows, it is introducing a whole new generation to the legend that is Queen, and my thought is “who on earth am I to attempt to put this album in perspective to that generation?” I have been a fan of the legend for as long as I can remember and of the story so I guess that qualifies me… here we go.

If you have ever listened to anything by Queen, Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon’s lyrics can seem a bit unorthodox, but it is that type of lyric that drew and continues to draw people to them. For reasons unknown, certain songs, melodies, lyrics strike a chord and you end up sitting back, pondering life, the world, and your uncertain place in that world. Queen, as a collective, has always been keen on the idea of letting their audience interpret the meaning behind their songs. That tends to the beauty with them and their music, you decide how you feel, think, and live for each song.

 

The soundtrack houses many of their classics from their various albums and each song elicits some type of impactful emotion at certain scenes in the film. For instance, in one scene, Freddie, played by Academy Award winner Rami Malek, begins to see the news of AIDS spreading across the globe and discovers his own diagnosis as the song “Who Wants to Live Forever” begins to play. The choice of song was perfectly poignant in this moment. As Freddie sees the horrific images on the screen the lyrics, “There’s no time for us/There’s no place for us/What is this thing that builds our dreams/Yet slips away from us?” echoes the emotions it seems that Freddie is feeling. Then in a stroke of creative brilliance, as Freddie looks at himself in a mirror the song continues with, “Who wants to live forever?/ Who wants to live forever?” The careful timing, that I would assume was so purposeful in that moment, seems to reflect that moment in Freddie’s life perfectly.

Bohemian Rhapsody (the film) is what it is because of the music that is woven through it. The words of Queen. The melodies of Queen. The emotions of Queen. The passion of Queen. In the film when asked about who Queen is, what sets them apart, Freddie said it best, “We’re four misfits who don’t belong together, we’re playing for other misfits. They’re the outcasts right at the back of the room. We’re pretty sure they don’t belong either. We belong to them.” That is Queen, that is what their music represents, the misfits and the music that brings us together.

While you can get the album through streaming services, such as Amazon Music, iTunes, and Apple Music, I would highly recommend splurging on the vinyl and sitting in the nostalgia of listening to the needle and the crackle of how it was meant to be heard.

When someone says R&B/Pop who comes to mind? Maxwell, Usher, Babyface, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, maybe a few others? I would go ahead and add Roger Ortega to your list. In 2016 Roger released his successful sophomore album The Lottery, a follow up to his 2012 release, RnBPoPWrytr. Both albums experienced success with “The Lottery” charting at number #8 and the first reaching #62 on the iTunes charts respectively. Roger remembers the moment he found out about the success of each album. “I was shocked,” he said, “Then came disbelief. Then came the validation.”

Roger’s influence from legends, such as Babyface, who Roger says, “touched on heartbreak and heartache like no one else could, and I could relate”, George Michael, Color Me Badd, Boyz II Men, and Jordan Knight, are obvious in his latest release from the melodies, to the tone of his voice, to his Jordan Knight influenced falsetto. RO (a name he is known by in the music community and by his fans) writes from his heart, from his experiences, from stories told, and that is no more evident than in each song he carefully wrote and selected for this album. When it comes to The Lottery Roger feels great pride in it. “I’m proud of this album,” he says. “I remember every part of its creation. Where I was when certain lyrics were written. How I felt.”

On the album songs like “Never Forget”, “Cry on Me”, and “Beautiful, Sad, and Sexy” have memorable stories behind them and Roger is more than ready for them to be experienced from his own words, and with the hope that the lyrics strike the chord in you that he was looking for. Each song evokes emotions of wanting to feel loved, wanting others to be seen as beautiful, wanting to feel protected, and not wanting to see love and time slip away. After each song you may even notice tears you did not know were there.
If we are being real and raw, for the most part, The Lottery is one sexy album. During songs like “The Lounge”, “Date Night”, “The Lottery”, and “Stay” all you have to do is close your eyes, listen to the lyrics, and you are instantly enveloped in a feeling of passion that Roger’s voice and words stir up inside. He is giving women everywhere something to desire and men a bar to reach.

Roger is not just the voice behind the lyrics, but the writer as well. That makes his albums, including The Lottery, strike a different chord when we hear the term artist, he is a genuine singer/songwriter.  The album began its creation in 2013, but the big writing push came in 2015 after his dad fell ill. Even with the album releasing in the summer of 2016 the writing and recording was still progressing in April of that year. Roger takes great pride in the fact that this is his music and that it is his story he is sharing. “The Lottery came from the feeling of being so lucky in my life. I felt like I had in fact won the lottery. It was inspired by my life, my career, my wife, my kids, my friends, how things just fell my way and I don’t know why I got so lucky.”

No matter how much success Roger has accumulated during these years his humbleness and thankfulness for each and every song, acclaim, and fan is what truly sets him apart from others. The man behind the album speaks for itself so I implore you to get to know my friend Roger Ortega through his life and The Lottery.

 

The Lottery is available through Amazon Music, iTunes, and Apple Music. You can also connect with him and get the latest updates through his Instagram and Twitter at @RnBPoPWrytr.

To feel nostalgia is to feel as though you are taken back to a place where everything just seemed right with the world. A childlike state of mind. Thanks to New Kids on the Block we are welcomed back to the childlike state of mind with open arms. Its been 30 years since New Kids on the Block released their sophomore album Hangin’ Tough. Songs like “Please Don’t Go Girl”, “I’ll Be Loving You (Forever)”, “Hangin’ Tough”, “You Got It (The Right Stuff)” became staples on record players and cassette players for every preteen and teenage girl across the globe (I was the exception at 5 years old. What can I say…). Thirty years later these songs still bring back a sense of longing and evokes the wishful thinking for a simpler time.

On March 8, 2019, New Kids on the Block re-released Hangin’ Tough: 30th Anniversary to a long awaited anticipation, and from the world of Blockheads, it was well worth the wait. From the classics we know by heart, to previously unreleased in the U.S. versions of “Please Don’t Go Girl”, “You Got It (The Right Stuff)”, “I’ll Be Loving You (Forever)”, “Hangin’ Tough”, and “Cover Girl”, then to 3 new singles, we are left with the same adolescent feelings that take us happily back, but also loving this adulthood we find ourselves in so many years later.

The first two released singles off the re-release, “80’s Baby” and “Boys in the Band (Boy Band Anthem)”, Jordan, Joe, Jon, Donnie, and Danny pay the well known respect and homage they have towards their fans and to the core of where they came from. They know they did not get to the place they are on their own and know exactly where the credit lies. In an interview with Variety Donnie says regarding “Boys in the Band (Boy Band Anthem)”, “The million-dollar question with a song like ‘Boys in the Band’ is has the environment changed towards boy bands that would encourage me to write a song like this, or have my feelings about being in a boy band changed enough to make me write it?” he considers. “It’s probably both. I’m not sure where this song came from inside me, but the reaction to boy bands is certainly different than it was 30 years ago and I take pride in our journey. I think you have to have had a career that covers a certain amount of time to be able to look back and do a song like this. I don’t know if we could have made this song 30 years ago because I don’t know that we would’ve earned it. I think, now, we’ve earned it.” And they have definitely earned it.

The third new, yet unreleased single, “The Way”, showcases a current sex appeal that, to be honest, shocked some fans with lyrics such as “He don’t know you the way I do/He don’t touch you the way I would/He don’t f*** you the way I could/He don’t love you the way you should be loved, my love/The way you should be loved.” New Kids on the Block has been bringing a more adult flavor since 1994 with the release of Face the Music, and this continued into the 2008 release The Block, their first album together in 14 years. They know their audience has grown up with them and they understand their music and lyrics have to follow suit.

The world has been screaming for a throwback to a simpler time and this album delivered with it’s perfect combination of the old we love and the new still bleeding who NKOTB is at their core.

You can find the album via CD or vinyl anywhere records are sold and online at Amazon, Amazon Music, iTunes, Spotify, or Apple Music. You can also catch NKOTB on tour this summer in Mixtape Tour with Salt-N-Pepa, Tiffany, Debbie Gibson and Naughty By Nature. Tickets are available at http://www.nkotb.com.

Tailor, Leena. “NKOTB’s ‘Hangin’ Tough’ at 30: How Teen Hijinks in a Volatile City Spawned a Pop Classic.” Variety , 9 Mar. 2019, variety.com/2019/music/news/nkotb-hangin-tough-anniversary-interview-1203156014/.

“Music is the fabric of ones soul. The thread that holds our heart together. A moment that changes our life and the way we see it. That move our minds. Music is the fabric of ones soul.” – Me

Music has the ability, no the power, to ignite something in all of us. A feeling, a deep emotion, a spark, a movement, a chance, a risk, a thought. It has the ability to transform us or transplant us to another time, another place where maybe the world we were living in made just a little more sense and brought us a little more joy. One song can take us back to a moment, be it exuberant or tragic. One song, one album, and we remember everything. Every word spoken. Every touch felt. Every glance given and seen. You hear it once and it forever becomes part of the fabric of your soul.

I am here to tell you about that kind of music. The kind of music that either has made or is making an imprint in my life and I am hoping it will for you as well. I hope each album, song, show, or artist I tell you about impacts you in a way that you will not soon forget. 

I am beginning this journey with a leap of faith. With inspiration and encouragement from those around me that have a firm belief that I am destine to do great things with my laptop and my words. For those that helped inspire this… thank you. I will do my best not let you down.