Following his long-awaited comeback with the lads of Westlife, we had a candid chat with Nicky on the new album, their exciting year ahead and, of course, his stance on the twins that are the talk of the nation...
Congratulations on your incredible laser laden performance last weekend… How was it for you?
It was great for us actually. We felt really, really confident going into the performance. Probably because we really feel and believe in the song. We’re proud of that song and the whole album. We’ve been on The X Factor a few times before but with this song we just felt it was right for us and it was the best song to come back with and people would like it… and we were confident to nail it vocally.
So, yeah, we loved the performance! It’s always great to get up there and sing on stage… and with that many viewers, you don’t get that every day. It was a win win situation.
It was your first performance after a year off. How is it to be back?
Yep, we’ve definitely had enough time off now! We’re back with our brand new album our brand new single and it feels good, it feels better than it has a for a long, long time. So we’ll see what happens!
Your new album is out in November. What can your fans expect?
Our fans have been great, you know, we’ve got such a bond with them and they’ve supported us through everything. I think with this album they’re going to love what we’re offering… I’ll have a shock if they don’t because there are no fillers. We set out to make the best pop album we could and we feel we have done.
If The X Factor had been about when you were trying to make it do you think you would have entered and how do you think you would have fared?
I definitely would have gone for it, because if you’re at that age and you want something that badly, as soon as you build up the courage to do it, you just got for it. How I would have fared? God knows! I’d like to think I would have done ok, but you never know. It depends what year you get… I could have been up against Leona Lewis!
As a successful international pop star, do you have any top tips for our Finalists?
Firstly, thank you for calling me an international pop star! I think just enjoy it. Embrace it. It doesn’t matter if it lasts 10 years or five minutes… I think you’ve got to enjoy it! During my year off, I look back and I was watching The X Factor thinking I’m usually involved in this kind of stuff. But because we were off we were out of the loop and it felt very strange.
So I would say to everybody, it doesn’t always last very long. Thankfully it has for us, but I know lots of bands that it didn’t last for… so just enjoy it and take everyday and love it and work hard. Don’t waste this opportunity… give it your all and if you win it or you come close to winning it you never know what’s around the corner for you.
You guys have been around for over ten years now… you’re now more of a man band than a boy band! What’s the secret to your success?
Truthfully I don’t know. There’s lots of ways you can look at it. We’ve had a great manager behind us. You can say we’ve got a great label behind us. Obviously with Simon he’s probably one of the most powerful men in music at the moment. So, all those factors are huge. But I think as well as that, you have to get on. You have to like each other as a band. You have to not want to be a solo star because that could be the beginning of the end.
I would hate to do this on my own. We were recently shooting a video in Iceland and we were in the middle of nowhere freezing our… legs off and I’m thinking to myself it’s great fun because I’m having a laugh with the lads. I’d hate to be doing it on my own! I’d like to think that vocally we sound good together as well and we’re hard workers. All those factors come together.
What’s on the cards for Westlife over the next year? Will you be touring?
We’ve got a meeting this week with our agent to see when the tour begins, and there should be one from Westlife next year. Maybe May, June or July. The reason it’s later in the year is because we feel that this album is the strongest we’ve ever had and we want to make sure that the singles get the light of day. We’ve never been spoiled for choice for singles before… and with this album we are!
So, we have to ask, do you have any favourites from our finalists?!
Obviously it’s a strong year but I do believe Lucie, from the very first audition I saw her in, has an amazing talent. Danyl’s obviously really good, everyone’s talking about him. Jedward? Well, they’ve got something that nobody else has got! They’re quirky, they’re young, they’re enjoying it and Louis seems to know what he’s doing because the whole country is talking about them! Yeah, so I think they’re really cool and I hope they go far.
Westlife released their new single What About Now on Monday 26th October and the album Where We Are is out on November 30th.