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SCMP Reporter

With the number of young, male, rhythm-and-blues crooners around, it is no wonder they continually feel the need to outdo each other.

 There are the R Kelly types, churning out sexually explicit lyrics that sound like love songs. Others will sing nauseating lyrics about eternal love yet privately be consummate Casanovas.

 All-4-One are neither.

 Yes, their songs are soppy, and they portray themselves as cleancut young men: but they are as 'good' as they say (and sing) they are. Do we see them on the receiving end of paternity suits? No. So far as this quartet is concerned, the image is real life.

 'Everybody has a bad day, but we don't do drugs, we don't drink and we don't smoke. We try to live the way our parents raised us,' says Tony Borowiak.

 Really? 'We just try to be ourselves,' adds Jamie Jones. But doesn't image set you apart from the crowd?  'It shows parents that their kids can go to our concerts, but it doesn't give us an edge,' insists Borowiak.

 Good boys or not, All-4-One are raking it in. Since their debut single, So Much in Love, a remake of the Mighty Avengers' 1963 doo-wop hit, reached the top five in the US in 1994, these young men have continued to inundate the charts with their love song recipe, combining R&B, pop and doo-wop. Their follow-up single, I Swear, was number one in the US for 11 weeks and garnered them a Grammy. Their self-titled debut, which earned an American Music Award, was followed by the highly successful And the Music Speaks.

 In October the group - with new producers, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis - will release their third album, My Brother's Keeper, which they promise has an all-new sound.

 'We've all grown a lot since last year,' says the twentysomething Jamie Jones. 'We had a lot more to do with this album, a lot more of our hands in the cookie jar.' The group produced half the tracks.

 The crooners were also thrilled to work with Jam and Lewis, two of the biggest names in rhythm and blues today. 'When you see this big name, you tend to get scared about how it's going to work out. But when we got there it was very relaxed,' says Delious. The quartet recognise they are one of the few male rhythm-and-blues groups to have lasted long enough to release three albums - in as many years. They attribute their success to diversity of musical style.

 Delious says: 'It's all about the music. We choose songs that are going to be around for a while. With a lot of R&B groups, they do songs of the moment, where people love the grooves but, when the groove goes, so does the group.'  The four have also been dabbling with other musical genres. They recently completed projects with Kenny Rogers and Paul Anka. 'Those projects say our music is reaching wider audiences,' says Delious. Their success has brought the foursome comparison with the mammoth success story of the Philadelphia group Boyz II Men. 'It's a compliment to be compared with them. They are great singers and great friends. We don't mind being compared with great people because that must mean we're great,' says Jones.

 Not surprisingly, they attribute their 'greatness' to family and upbringing. All four started off singing in gospel choirs. Two of the young stars, Borowiak and Alfred Nevarez, went to high school together, and they met Jones in college. Delious popped into their lives at a karaoke competition. Within a month they had hit the big-time with I Swear and were called into the studio to do an album.

 'The four of us, we're one big family. It's not like a business deal where a record company put us together, we put ourselves together. And it's because of our friendships that we've stayed together,' says Borowiak.

 'The church was how we all learned to sing,' adds Jones, 'it's where we got the basic fundamentals, and a lot of our values which play into our singing.'  Despite popular acclaim, the soulful quartet have been criticised for their overwhelmingly young fan base.

 'It's not as if we wanted older women fans so we could talk to them after the show,' says Jones. 'It was just whoever liked our music, that's who we wanted to sing to.' They are also quick to deny young women are the only ones buying their albums. Delious says: 'With So Much in Love, since it was an old song, a lot of older people listened to it.'  They admit their fans do not include many men. 'We don't get as many men at the concerts as we do women, but a lot of men do like the music because it's something they can listen to when they're with their girl. It's romantic music, that's where they come to appreciate it,' Jones says.

 And, despite three years and two highly successful albums, this foursome still seem in awe of their fame.

 'Our awards sit on the mantel and you see it every morning and it's, like, 'Wow', it's hard to believe. We're with some great company,' says Borowiak.

 One does have to wonder, though, how genuine are all those lyrics about eternal love. They are, after all, boys living in a world of money and groupies. So does real love inspire these hit-makers? in the limelight?  'Love is always around, even if it's not you. It could be a couple walking down the street holding hands,' says Borowiak.

 With an impromptu song about their love of food, this young quartet also have the ability to laugh at their image. 'We love food, we sing about food all the time,' says Delious.

 Such an attitude is likely to ensure their popularity, even when their fans get past their teenage years.



All for a clean-cut image