The guys of the boy band O-Town, which was put together as part of the reality series 'Making the Band,' may have split up two years ago, but that's not keeping Ashley Parker Angel from pursuing his dream as a solo artist. In January, MTV will premiere his new reality show, 'There & Back,' which chronicles Angel's struggle to make a comeback. This time he hopes the outcome will be better.

When it comes to the breakup of O-Town, Angel explains, 'Mostly it was because the contracts we signed were so binding that everyone else around us was taking so much of the pie that by the time it got to the five guys in the group, there was nothing left. It was shocking to see how much money was being spent on things and how little we were getting. We're talking about having like a $2 million budget for our second album and each guy in the group was getting like $8,000. It was almost impossible to get ahead so we decided to just call it quits.'

Angel continues, 'Also, we were five guys taken from different parts of the country who were thrown together for this made-for-TV band. It wasn't like we all knew each other in high school and finally got a record deal. It was very contrived and manufactured,' he notes. 'We came in and tried to make it as organic as we could but everyone had an idea of what we were supposed to sound or look like, which wasn't necessarily what we wanted. I think there was this feeling that at a certain point it was going to end, we just didn't know when. I think it actually ended sooner than we all thought.'

So did the guys leave on good terms? 'We left on great terms,' he responds. 'You forge the most amazing relationships with people in times of great pressure. We were literally thrust in front of the world and expected to be as good as groups like N'SYNC and Backstreet Boys, who had been together for seven or eight years. We had been together for seven or eight weeks. We will always have that bond because what we went through is an amazing experience.'