Donnie Wahlberg’s been making love.

The 43-year-old singer and actor is returning to his pop star past with New Kids on the Block’s just-released record 10 and tells AOL Music that making the album was a labor of love unlike any other in the group’s three-decade span.

“When we were young we were all about dating girls and having fun,” he says. “It’s like we’ve stopped having sex and started making love. That’s where we’re at as a group now — this is what we do, we love what we do and we’re in love with what we do… so it makes making love all the more special!

“I enjoy every aspect more now than as a kid — performing, recording, touring. I feel more at ease and confident, which is saying a lot because it’s a young man’s game.”

While they’re no longer kids, Wahlberg says the band have finally embraced their “boy-bandness,” returning to their roots and having more fun recording 10 than 2008’s reunion record The Block.

Still, learning to appreciate what they have hasn’t been easy. Following the mind-blowing success which saw them dominate the late-’80s/ early-’90s pop scene — much like One Direction does today — the Boston quintet were left directionless in their early 20s and stumped about their futures, having already experienced a lifetime’s worth of ups and downs.

“It’s like you’re on a really fast train and assume it’ll keep going but one day it stops,” says Wahlberg. “If you’re not prepared, it’s difficult. The public has an opinion of who you are and may never accept you as anything else.

“It may not seem a big deal, but when you’re twentysomething and been through one of the most exhilarating rides of most people’s lifetimes, you think it’s forever. So being faced with, ‘What will I do for the next 70 years?’ is daunting because it’s not easy to be on the cover of every magazine, then take a job at McDonalds.

Read the full article on Music.AOL.com.