Boyz II Men breaks out of R&B box, expands artistry with new album

When Shawn Stockman starts guitar-riffing on Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” his partners in Boyz II Men go ahead and say what much of the audience may be thinking.

“We black, dude,” Wanya Morris says in mock disbelief.

“This is an R&B show,” Nathan Morris agrees.

Stockman shifts gears, but only to a new riff: “American Woman.”

It’s all a setup for a new song, “Diamond Eyes,” from a new album, “Collide,” both of them just as surprising.

“Eyes” sounds like the kind of anthemic pop that could be served up by anyone from Sam Smith to Coldplay. Stockman adds his fledgling guitar skills while Nathan Morris plays the bass.

“You get to a point in your career where the singing part is easy,” Nathan said about an hour before the show, sitting on the stage steps at The Mirage after a sound check.

“Adding the instruments, we kind of feel comfortable to the point where we don’t really care if we mess up. We’re not supposed to be playing them in the first place,” he adds. “So we’re going to go out and learn it as we go and enjoy the process.

“Because that’s what music is about. It’s about enjoying the process and the journey to get there. You perfect it as you go along. And if you enjoy doing it, you do it.”

Before that can all sink in, Wanya Morris pipes in, “And if you mess up, there’s always ‘End of the Road.’ ”

Laughs all around.

But you can only ride “End of the Road” so long. And if “Collide” is the 40-something trio’s version of middle-age crazy, all three agree it was necessary.

“The idea was to shed the old and bring in the new,” Wanya Morris says of the group that hit its commercial peak in 1992. “At this time in our career, to do anything less than what we’re doing would be more stagnant than just the R&B. You can’t stay the same all the time, man.

“It’s not us becoming something different, it’s just growing into not being afraid to step out and be who we are.”

The last album, “Twenty,” celebrated the Philadelphia group’s longevity with its title. And the 2011 release tried to go back home musically, returning to producers such as Babyface who had created monster hits for the younger singers in the ’90s.

But “Twenty” ended up with little impact beyond those fans who had already remained loyal to the Boyz through their lean years. The trio needed new music to match its progress on the live front.

In March 2013, a longtime push for a Las Vegas residency paid off with the chance to share Terry Fator’s theater at The Mirage. Boyz proved their drawing power, and a Mirage extension through next year was announced the day before “Collide” was released last month.

“If they give us one more day a week, we might have to get a residence out here,” Nathan Morris says of the trio who still flies in from different cities for the three-night weekends.

Fans still rush the stage when the lads dole out roses during “I’ll Make Love to You.” But for the new album, the trio decided, “We can’t chase the past. We just have to run forward towards the future,” Wanya Morris says. “Let’s just do music. Something that feels good to us.”

“Collide” is a hodgepodge of producers, songwriters and musical styles, making the most out of the general drift away from albums with a cohesive flow to an a la carte marketplace.

“This business is all about the song now.,” Nathan says. “It’s not about the album.”

So the trio agreed to let the label, MSM Music Group, find them some songs, including a doo-wop-styled throwback “What Happens in Vegas,” based on the city’s most famous ad slogan.

One of the only ground rules was that each singer had to like the demo. Once agreed, they recorded and produced the vocals — in several cities, including Las Vegas — and sent them back for others to finish.

“We didn’t care where they came from, we didn’t care who wrote them,” Nathan says. “People asked, ‘Who produced this one?’ I don’t know. I really don’t care. Not in a bad way. It’s just, we know we sang songs we thought were great songs, and you can go find out who wrote ’em yourself.”

(Small wonder he didn’t bother, as some of the tunes carry as many as five writing credits.)

The album debuted at No. 37 on Billboard’s album chart, and early reaction seems mixed. Comments on iTunes range from “The guys have stepped outside the box and it works for them,” to “Why can’t they realize that we want soul … not this alternative soulless crap.”

“Even though people appreciate it now, I think more people will appreciate it later,” Stockman says.

While there are those who want only “On Bended Knee” ballads from the Boyz, music in general is “more integrated than it’s ever been,” Stockman notes. “All these mixtures and blends of people and cultures listening to this weird bugged-out music. It’s allowing kids and allowing music lovers to open up and be themselves and appreciate just music.”

It’s certainly true within the group.

“This is just us being us, to be honest,” Stockman says. “When people think we’re being different, we’re honestly more of ourselves on this album I think than any album we’ve created.”

“There are many artists out there like ourselves that would love to try something like this,” Nathan says. “This may be the new mold for artists to do different things.”

Time will tell. But whether “Collide” proves to be a new direction or a misdirected detour, the guitars will likely stay. At least the one in Stockman’s hand.

He hasn’t let go of it during the sound check or the interview, and as he enters the backstage green room he puts down the electric only to trade it for an acoustic.

“I’ve always wanted to play guitar. I always had aspirations but never had the courage,” says the 42-year-old, who says he learned most of it from YouTube. “Being in your 40s you tend to want to do things you wish you did when you were younger.”

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com or 707-383-0288.