New Kids On The Block's Joey McIntyre is feeling the love after releasing his first solo album in over a decade.

McIntyre sat down with iHeartRadio's Valentine in the Morning from 104.3MYfm at the Helpful Honda Music Lounge to discuss his new solo album Freedom, his first since 2011's Come Home for Christmas. During the chat, which featured the singer playing several songs off the album for the live audience of "Blockheads," he detailed the path he took to finding his "autonomy" as a solo artist while still holding space as a New Kid.

"I'm getting to share, in an open, honest, loving way, about my experience, and my experience for the last 40 years anyways as a member of a very successful band, with four other members who are very special to me, but it's complicated," he explained. "When I was writing it, it was like, 'How do I get my autonomy? How can Joe be Joe and also be a New Kid?' ... what a gift, the New Kids."

The New Year's Eve actor also shared how his fellow New Kids — Jonathan Knight, Jordan Knight, Donnie Wahlberg and Danny Wood — feel about his solo album.

"They've always been super supportive. We just did my first listening party at a Wahlburgers in Chicago," he said, referring to the burger chain owned by Wahlberg and his brothers Mark and Paul. "The worlds were colliding, you know what I mean. [Donny] was nice enough to host and it was a beautiful evening."

You can listen to McIntyre's new album Freedom at iHeart.com.

Chris Davis