Kevin Antunes: All boys, no band

Kevin 'N Tunes: Without Bedford Keyboardist, 'N SYNC would be all boys, no band

From bostonherald.com:
Kevin 'N Tunes: Without New Bedford keyboardist, 'N Sync would be all boys, no band
by Sarah Rodman

Thursday, May 31, 2001

Despite regularly being in close proximity to Justin Timberlake, Kevin Antunes is used to being ignored.

"A lot of times the kids are so fixated on 'N Sync that they don't even notice that there's a band
there," Antunes says with a chuckle.

However, as musical director and keyboardist for 'N Sync, it is Antunes-along with five others - including cousin Troy Davis on bass - who actually puts the "band" in boy band. Which is more important than the kids might realize, because if there were no musicians, 'N Sync would be five guys trying to bring back doo-wop while executing dance moves that make no sense.

For Antunes, a New Bedford native, this isn't his first time around with fluffy harmonies and screaming girls. Antunes did a long tour of duty as musical director with New Kids on the Block from 1989 to 1992. And when 'N Sync is off, he lends a hand to a little lady named Britney Spears.

Although he comes from a musical family - his father Michael Antunes has played sax with John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band for 30 years - Antunes never realized the job he now holds was an option.

"I thought I would join a band that would get a record deal," Antunes says of the ambitions he held while playing keyboards in bands in high school with friends and family. "I never knew that people could do these things, that they could get hired to play in a band with a Michael or Janet Jackson or a Sting. I thought those were just those artists' friends."

Antunes, 31, got his first big break at 19 when his dad - who also played junkie saxman Wendell Newton in the cult classic music movie "Eddie and the Cruisers" - heard New Kids impresario Maurice Starr needed a backing band for the group. At that time all Starr needed was a drummer, so Kevin's brother, Derek, got the job. Later when a keyboardist was needed, Antunes was hired.

Although he did other professional gigs - including work with Marky Mark Wahlberg - Antunes returned home and finished his music industry degree at Northeastern University in 1996. He then spent two years as a senior royalty accountant at Atlantic Records in New York. He wisely kept in touch with the New Kids network. After an opportunity with the Backstreet Boys didn't work out, former New Kids and Backstreet Boys manager Jonny Wright urged Antunes to check out 'N Sync on MTV's "TRL."

"So on my lunch break I walked down to MTV studios to meet these guys. At that time I didn't want to go on the road or play with anybody, I was trying to stay in New York," he says, explaining he was weary from the New Kids' mammoth tours. But, he says, "I went and I met these guys and from spending 20 minutes with them I could see that they were serious. I saw something in them that told me these guys were going to be large, they were going to make a statement in this business."

Since then it has been a whirlwind of big tours, performances on everything from the Grammys to the Oscars and even co-writing a track on the group's 10-times-platinum 2000 album "No Strings Attached" with Timberlake.

He said he told the guys in the group on that first day, "as long as they hold their group together, as long as they're positive and focused then I'll always be there for them."

Three years later, after seeing how hard the group works, Antunes says with a laugh, "I might live long enough to eat my words."

Assuming 'N Sync does hang up their dancing shoes, someday Antunes would like to write and produce for other bands - he's building a home studio - and continue overseeing television appearances. (He recently helped coordinate Spears' memorable boxer-short-clad American Music Awards performance.)

As for the members of 'N Sync, Antunes has nothing but praise for their work ethic, individual senses of humor and humility, and all around nice-guyness.

"What's funny is I try to tell people what they're really like and they think I'm issuing some sort of a company line when I tell them that they're really nice guys," Antunes says. "You don't have to believe me, but that's the truth."

Kevin Antunes will lead 'N Sync's band tonight and tomorrow at Foxboro Stadium. A few tickets remain at $29.50-$65.50. Call 617-931-2000.

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