Indy: Your previous album, Unbreakable, didn't do well for you guys. What went wrong?
McLean: Honestly the reason why it didn't do so well is because the songs weren't that good. That's why we decided to team up with big producers and writers [T-Pain, Claude Kelly, RedOne] on this album [This Is Us]. We want hot music. We want music that we can perform and be proud to perform.
Indy: You went through a much-publicized rehab in 2000. You seem healthy and happy these days, and recently got engaged to Rochelle Deanna Karidis. How are you doing?
McLean: It's always a daily sort of — not a daily struggle — but you've always got to keep it in the back of your mind. You've just got to make sure that you have a balance in your life and not let anything catch up to you. So I think that's what I'm doing. And playing has been a priority to me. I like to go out and have a good time with friends on special occasions, but to me my priorities have changed, and they're all about my physical appearance, the way I look, the way I feel inside and my brain, what I can do from a creative side of things.
Indy: What's the new live show like?
McLean: We feel that we've made music that's going to be really, really entertaining on stage, No. 1, [and] No. 2, we want to step up the production to where it turns into something that's just like visually astounding to people who come to it. So that starts with adding extra dancers on stage. We've got four extra dancers. And production-wise, we're doing like a bunch of different gags and stuff. It's going to be very theatrical, lots of dancing on our part. It's going to be really, really entertaining and cool.
At Broomfield's 1STBANK Center, June 22.
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