Jesse McCartney: R&B Rules

Jesse McCartney is working on spicing up and re-releasing his third album, Departure, on April 7th (just two days before his birthday).

The 21-year-old musician took the time out to talk to Billboard.com on his new sound (including five new songs for the album), his tour and his film career. Check it:

On his re-release of Departure: “I kind of want to rejuvenate the album a little bit and make it fresh again for everyone and make sure if they haven’t checked it out yet that they will this time.”

On his next album: “I wanted something that was a step towards the next album but not too far from ‘Departure,’ some sort of middle ground. There’s definitely more R&B coming out of me, I feel, in the last couple months. I’m really thinking the next album will be swinging even further in that direction.”

On passing on The Last Airbender: “Unfortunately we just couldn’t do it. It was really biting into this tour we had planned for months. I’ve had so much momentum, I just didn’t want to stop it in its tracks. We really tried to make it work with Night [M. Night Shyamalan] and with everyone over at Paramount; they’ve been amazing throughout the whole thing.”

Jesse‘s Departure tour starts this Friday, February 13th.