Backstreet Boys maintain amiable relation with Kevin

The ever popular boy band, the Backstreet Boys are ready with their brand new single "Inconsolable" that hits radio this month. However it doesn’t give any insight into how the band members felt when their ace singer Kevin Richardson refused to be a part of the album, due October 30.

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Although the boys felt "kind of a shock," at first, says Nick Carter, "everyone understood. There were no hard feelings and that's just the way it needs to be. We've been through a lot in 14 years together, and there's no need to get angry or overly emotional."

In fact, the group – Carter, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell and AJ McClean – are still on talking terms with Richardson.

"I just saw Kevin a couple days ago," says Dorough. "He's got a glow that is unbelievable, and I'm happy for him. And he's happy for us as well – he's not bitter. He's totally like, 'I want you guys to do your thing and not have weirdness.' "

The untitled new album features the regular Backstreet Boys fare that fans expect, says Carter: "Dance tracks, poppy rock songs, really beautiful ballads and R&B vocals. We're being what we are and have been for years. There are no catches. We just want to cater to the fans."

The handsome hunks of the band apart from promoting their new album, the cutest band member Nick Carter is also expected to show a toned-up and slimmer body. "I lost more than 40 pounds," says the singer, who worked out one hour a day, five days a week for six months to burn calories.

Carter says he became overweight due to depression. "With my show The House of Carters, it was a shock to me to realize what my family had gone through. After so many years of dysfunction and my parents finally getting divorced and everybody being lost and me being the oldest, there was a lot of stress, a lot of pressure," he says.

"So I finally concentrated on my health, even went to some therapy. They say it starts on the inside. And it's nice when people look at you and think, 'Wow, he got his stuff together.' "

Apart from going on promotional trips for his family's Dorough Lupus Foundation (founded in honor of his late sister), Howie D, 33, has been in the studio working on his first solo album. "A kind of Latin/English thing," says Dorough, who just recorded nine demo songs with Jon Secada in Miami. "It's kind of Spanglish, kind of Latin with a little bit of a samba vibe."

However, don't expect his first solo effort – or the second Christian album that Brian Littrell, 32, is working on – to dump the band that made them famous.

Promises Dorough: "Backstreet Boys comes first." Adds Carter: "This album is definitely going to be a little different when there's only four of us, but the door's always open for Kevin whenever he wants to come back."