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WHERE THE BOY WILL BE Carter will release a solo album

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It had to happen sooner or later. Even in the most harmonious of boy bands, someone will chafe at having to submit to the will and creative demands of the group, and he'll strike out on his own. The first of the Backstreet Boys to do so will be Nick Carter, who says he's preparing a solo release for this fall on BSB's Jive label.

''Right now I've been in the studio, and I've got, like, over 30 songs recorded,'' he tells Launch.com. ''And they are thinking about a single in a couple of months, and the album later on this year --maybe late September.'' He says the sound won't be too different from his pop work with BSB, lest he alienate his fans. ''Of course, I can't stray too far away from what I've done, so I'm stuck with that.'' However, he says, some tunes will have more of a rock feel. ''It's going to be interesting to see how the public accepts it.''

The singer has been spending a lot of time on non-Backstreet projects lately, like racing power boats professionally with his father, playing concert dates with brother Aaron Carter. But he insists that his solo work doesn't mean there's trouble in boyland. ''We're not breaking up. I mean, everybody's all, like, worried: 'Nick's doing this and the Backstreet Boys are over,' and all this stuff,'' he says. Rather, it was just time for a change. ''I've been in the group for 10 years, since I was 12, so I mean, I'm 22 now and I really want to try something new. That's basically what I'm doing. Sometimes you can't make everybody happy -- that's the one thing I've learned in life -- but the guys are supporting me, so that's good.''