Interview From German Magazine (April 2006)

 

© Translated by Cat

 

Interview: Nicole Ochsenbein

With seven number ones under their belt they're in the Guinnes Book of Records. Their albums have sold about 34 million copies. SIE+ER met Shane, Mark and Kian in Zurich.

SIE+ER: Where your fourth member, Nicky??
Shane: Oh, Nicky isn’t feeling too well today. He puked out his lunch and apologises for not being here. Food poisoning....

SIE+ER: What did you do last night?
Shane: Oh yea, we were at this club with a huge balcony. What was it called again?
Kian:I don’t know – Kaufleuten? Looked a bit like a pluche theatre. Anyway we had a great time.

SIE+ER: You were ambushed by a whole army of female groupies outside. Shane, now you are married and a new dad, have you become a good boy when it comes to the ladies?
Shane: (Laughs) Heeey, I was always a Good Boy!

SIE+ER: And what’s with you Kian? You’re in serious relationship now too.
Kian: No problem, we’re always dealing with the groupies really well. No, really, we can all make the difference between groupies and the real life. The yelling girls don’t love you for who you are but just for what you do.

SIE+ER: That sounds sensible, almost boring. There were wilder times right
Shane: Yea, for some of us for sure...
Kian: Yea, it’s ok, I admit it. But even I have become a bit more mature.

SIE+ER: Mark, you recently outed yourself as gay in an interview, you must have broken a lot of girls hearts...
Shane: (laughs) Yea, and made loadsa guys happy!

SIE+ER: Didn’t you get loads of letters from female fans, threatening to kill themselves?
Mark: No. Of course things have changed over the last 10 years. Nowadays hardly anyone cares if someone comes out as gay. We don’t define ourselves by our sex-image, but by our songs.

SIE+ER: And how did your parents respond??
Mark: All people that matter to me, were really positive about it.

SIE+ER: Nowadays same-sex couples are aloud to get married in the UK. Can you imagine getting married one day yourself?
Mark: If there is any theme in my life, then it’s why not.
Shane: Finally one of them is also thinking about getting married! (He is the only one in the band that is married, editorial note yea right, I hate it when they don’t get their facts right!)

SIE+ER: Shane, do you sing Westllife songs to your daughter Nicole to make her sleep?
Shane: No, to be honest she prefers Robbie Williams.

SIE+ER: How do you like your new father role?
Shane: Nicole is the best thing that happened to me. She made my life even more exciting. It’s crazy, today I am more motivated to be even more successful, to work even harder. Sometimes I imagine her one day, wearing a Westlife t-shirt and coming to on of our concert to scream “Hey that’s my dad!” Man, I would be so proud!.

SIE+ER: There’s so many boybands, and you’re not the youngest ones any more. How is it that you still have success?
Shane: I believe it’s because we continuously made good albums. We make strong pop songs, that’s the recipe.

SIE+ER: What do you wanna achieve now? Two dressing rooms per person, as you said in an interview once?
Kian: Hey, we only said that for fun! Nonetheless, it’s not an easy question. We dreamt about getting were we are now. It will be hard to continue to have the success we had over the last few years.

SIE+ER: On your new album «Face to Face» you sing a duet with Soul-Diva Diana Ross. How was it to work with her?
Mark: Fantastic. She Wunderbar. She wasn’t crazy at all, like people say about her.
Shane: Everyone warned us beforehand, saying she is a diva, not to say a «Bitch». But she wasn’t like that at all, just very respectful and friendly.

SIE+ER: Honestly, does your tearjerker tour ever get on your nerves? Did you ever think of being wild and bad?
Kian: No, this is what we do, what we can and what we love, popsongs filled with emotion.
Shane: Imagine, Eminem singing love ballads...

Credit/Source: Cat / Sonntagsblick