INTERVIEW: WESTLIFE
For boy band read man band - having released their first album back in 1999, Westlife are all set to release their 11th album “Gravity” later this month. The group have spent the best part of this year on their “Where We Are” tour, as well as working on their latest album with legendary producer John Shanks (Take That, Kelly Clarkson).
To date the band have achieved 14 number one singles in the UK, and are just about to release their first single from their upcoming album “Safe”. The single is out on 14th November, followed by the release of “Gravity” on 22nd November.
We caught up with Mark, Kian, Nicky and Shane to find out about their latest release and what the future holds for Westlife…
WE7: You’ve just spent the summer touring, how did it all go?
Mark: It went fantastic, our two favourite things are recording and touring, then there’s promotion and loads of other things in between, but making the album and then performing it are the two main backbones of our life.
Kian: I think it’s always difficult because we came off the back of a big tour the last time and it was really successful and got great reviews, so you sit down and think where do we even start - you always want to beat the last one. We were delighted with the show and we did think it beat the last one and hopefully with our next tour we’ll do the same. It’s weird because you almost forget what it’s like to have that buzz of seeing so many people in front of you.
WE7: What was the show like how did it differ from previous tours?
Shane: The whole concept for the show was destruction and the end of the world - we wanted to come up with something instead of it being just a show of Westlife songs. The set was fantastic and it was a very visual show, there were a lot more screens and a lot more visuals going on behind us. For us we felt it was our best show so far and the reviews have been fantastic.
WE7: Who was your support on the tour?
Mark: We had a band from America called WOW, but our main support was a band called Wonderland who are a new girl band. Kian is actually co-managing them with our manager Louis, so it was very close knit vibe which was really nice; Jodie, Kian’s wife, is in the band so we already knew her very well, she’s like family. They’re just about to launch, they’re genuinely really good singers and they’re all beautiful; I’ll be very confused if they don’t become huge.
Shane: Jedward and JLS supported us when we played Croke Park and it was a great support to have. Jedward are loved in Ireland - they’re icons at this stage, even in the year or two that they’ve had, they went down a storm and they’re really good guys.
WE7: Are you surprised at how well you sell out tours considering how far down the line in your career you are?
Mark: You might get used to certain things but we’re just about to release a new album, we’ve spent months making it, and we have no idea how well it’s going to do. We never assume that it’s going to be massive or it’s going to flop. So, right now we’re nervous, we’re excited, and there’s no kind of monotony to it. This is our eleventh album, we’ve been together twelve years and we’re still just as excited as ever.
WE7: You’re obviously good at keeping that fanbase, how do you maintain that over the years?
Shane: I think we don’t change too much what we are as a band. We are what we are, some people love us some people hate us, that’s like every other band but for us we have a fan base that likes the type of music we do and we enjoy the type of music we do so we don’t try to change it too much.
WE7: You like to interact with fans; I noticed some of you are on Twitter…
Mark: Myself, Nicky and Kian are on Twitter - Nicky’s actually got the most followers out of us all…
Nicky: Twitter’s good because it’s instant, and I think we’ve learned that recently it’s quicker than releasing a statement to the press or quicker than doing a print interview. You say something on Twitter and you forget that all the media outlets are following you, and that sarcasm doesn’t really transpire that well. Recently I said “Great to see my Auntie do so well, come on Mary”, about Mary Byrne on X-Factor purely because she has the same surname as me and all of a sudden everyone was saying “Mary’s Nicky’s Auntie”!
Mark: Back in the day we used to do Smash Hits magazine and pop magazines, and we’d say something and somehow they’d slightly change what you’d say or how say it. So the good thing about Twitter is it’s nice to be able to sit down and letter for letter, space for space, slang word for slang word, say exactly what you want to say.
WE7: What were you up to on your year out?
Mark: It probably meant slightly different things to everyone. On a group level it meant stepping away from things - after releasing nine albums in a row we have had time off here and there, but it’s a very intense lifestyle that we have as we’re always on stage, or on a photo shoot or travelling. By the end of it we’d remembered why we wanted to do it in the first place, so we came back more eager than ever.
WE7: You’ve got the album coming out next month, what kind of direction does it take?
Shane: “Gravity” comes out on 22nd November and it’s a progression from our last album. It’s the first time we’ve worked with one producer on a full album. We worked with John Shanks who is an amazing producer and somebody we wanted to work with for a long time. He’s a genius in the studio and he’s someone who’s very passionate about music. We wanted to bring our voices to someone like that, he’s found a sound for Westlife and I think that’s something we needed to find. It’s still very Westlife, we’re not going to change too much who we are musically but it’s just more interesting. It’s a great start for where we want to go for the next few years, and we’re very proud of the album.
Nicky: John was really great to work with, because he gave us encouragement with all aspects of the album - some of us wanted to song write and nurture that talent a bit more. When you’re in a pop band or boy band you’re not really encouraged to do that, so it makes a big difference when you have a world class producer who wants to encourage you to write, it really felt like we were creating something.
Mark: He’s enjoyed massive success and money, but he’s not driven by that, he’s driven by doing something he believes in, and we’ve got a side like that too so working with John really brought that out of us. He’s a great person to be around, he’s motivated by the right things in life.
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Posted by
ANNIKA WALSH
