LIVE24SEVEN // Interviews
Your new album ’24 Hrs’ is your 4th consecutive #1 album, that must be a great feeling? Amazing. I’m very proud of that you know to have 4 consecutive number 1 albums is brilliant. I never expected in my wildest dreams that I would’ve got this far so, absolutely delighted that we’ve managed to get 4 consecutive, like you say, number 1 albums it’s really, really amazing so thank you. Amazing.
What do you reckon has been the appeal of your music - and yourself to make you the most successful male artist to ever come from the X Factor? I dunno, I’d like to think that I’ve done some great songs and, think people love what I do… I just don’t give anything, I mean this album’s probably the most heart-breaking, most honest album that I’ve done, but I think with previous albums you know I have a lot of fun, my album’s are happy and people enjoy listening to them and with this album in particular it’s still happy, still got lots of that vibe on it. It’s just luck you know that people like me and people have bought my albums, and I’m very lucky that they do because it doesn’t always happen like that so I’m very, very grateful.
You mention this is your most honest album to date, do you feel you are constantly progressing as an artist and songwriter through your albums? Yeah 50/50 I mean, I did run out of ideas, I wanted to do something different and I felt with this album - I just didn’t know where to go next. What I was gonna do? I felt like writing about what’s been actually, genuinely happening was the right thing to do. I’m just really happy that I did this album and the fact that it went to number 1 and people really like it. At the start of the year I was like ‘what am I gonna write about? What am I gonna do?’ and I’m really happy that I did this honest album, I’ve always been an artist I’m just writing about what I’ve wrote on every album that I’ve done, I wrote most of my hits so this album was just an opportunity to do something different and to keep my fans interested and show them a different side to me and I’m really happy and proud of how well it’s done. I can’t wait for people to hear the second track from the album next year with the other single that we’re gonna release it’s exciting.
Is there a particular track on this album that you’re most proud of you, that you really want people to hear? I think ’24 Hrs’ and ‘Flaws’ are the two songs on the album that I’m really proud of because for me ’24 Hrs’ the song was something else, a different song that I’ve never done before, production wise and the feel of the song, but also ‘Flaws’ was, I feel like one of the best songs that I’ve written with the guys that I wrote with. It was really sad but I think you have to listen to the songs really to kinda get the idea of what I mean, but I love writing really happy feel-good songs but at the same time I mean it’s nice to show people a different side to me and show some emotion and that’s what this album was about.
You’ve done a massive headline arena tour in March, and now in the summer you’ve got a huge run of outdoor shows that will see you come to Newbury Racecourse on the 19th August, how do they vary in terms of what you put into them
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and what you get out of it, from the indoors to the outdoor? I think it’s fun, it’s really fun being outside and you know the show that we’re doing at Newbury is a different gig for me, I’ve never done anything like this before, I’ve done racecourse gigs before in the past but not this sort of size and I’m really proud to do it and it gives me the chance to go to different places in the UK that I haven’t been before, do different kind of shows, do something slightly different. I can’t wait I mean, what’s better? Go to a racecourse, I can go there during the day I can, have a little flutter on a couple of the races and then do a gig in the evening. Perfect.
How do you go about choosing your set list? It’s gonna be difficult, you know five albums but you’ve just gotta play the hits and the songs that people know; that’s what I’ll do with the set make it as entertaining as possible. I’ll throw in a few covers there as well, have a bit of a laugh with the fans and it’ll be a really fun day out and I promise any fan that comes along, it’ll be a right laugh from the start of the day to the end of it and I promise to make sure everyone goes home happy having had a good time.
Have you got any kind of pre-stage ritual that you do before you go on? Me and the band have a little huddle up before the show and we sing one of our songs, well not a song, a song that we’ve got as a team and we’ve been doing it for the last six/seven years so it’s a bit of a ritual, but I’m sure we’ll be sinking a few shots be- fore the show as well just to get into the racecourse spirit.
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