Nicky Access All Areas Interview – February 2007

 

Access All Areas.net.au: Congratulations on yet another successful album with the ‘Love Album’!
Westlife - Nicky: Yeah it’s going really well which is great! 2006 was a special year for Westlife in Australia and to now have the Love Album following it’s great!

Access All Areas.net.au: Your new album ‘The Love Album’ was released in Australia late last year, when you went in to record that album, what did you want to do differently from ‘Face To Face’
Westlife - Nicky: Face to Face was the studio album where we obviously worked with lot of different producers, there’s lots of Swedish guys on there and Steve Mac and a lot of original songs and when we were working on this album to be honest with ourselves with the Love Album we wanted to get more original material for the album and because we don’t get the luxury of writing songs, we’re at the helm of song writers and when you’re in that position you’re hoping and banking on producers and songwriters to come up with the goods and that didn’t happen this year so we sat down and asked ourselves “do we wait?” so we sat down with our manager Louis Walsh and Simon Cowell, our AnR Manager and both suggested doing a love album and we pick twelve of the greatest love songs or twelve of our favourite love songs and that was how the idea was born.

Access All Areas.net.au: On the album you’ve recorded a track with Delta Goodrem who Australian’s hold close to their hearts, what was it like working with her and how did that collaboration come about?
Westlife - Nicky: The way it came about was our Manager, Louis, suggest it. He managed us for nine years and he suggested about doing a duet with Delta and to be honest, we were talking about approaching Delta three years ago when she had broken the Australian scene and a mega superstar in Australia and we thought it would be good and that was the plan and it never materialised for what ever reason I’m not sure and then Brian left Westlife soon after and started dating Delta and at this point we’d met Delta and then we just wanted to make sure Brian didn’t feel uncomfortable with the idea so we called him ourselves and we called Delta’s manager and they were all up for it and then we got in to the studio for it and the four of us can’t speak highly enough of Delta. Professionally, she is an amazing singer and on a personal level she is a really lovely girl.

Access All Areas.net.au: Are there any plans to release ‘All Out Of Love’?
Westlife - Nicky: I mean it’s been spoken about lots of times and personally I would love to release it because it would be a huge hit, it’s been a huge hit for different people who’ve released it over the years but there’s lots of politics involved. It’s the music industry and it’s not the easiest thing in the world, and for us to even get it recorded was very positive. I’ll never say never but I would say it’s not likely.

Access All Areas.net.au: Your latest single ‘The Rose’ rocketed up to the top of the UK charts again… your 14th single to hit the top spot earning you yet another Guinness World Record for most singles to debut at number 1. What’s it like to break another record and what were your thoughts when you heard about it?
Westlife - Nicky: It was eight or nine years ago that we started and to this day we still get flabbergasted and excited by that. We’ve had fourteen number ones in the UK, twelve or thirteen Irish number ones and in Europe twelve or something amazing. When we were starting to take off we were successful from the start and then Brian left the band to take a break which meant we lost a member and at the time of our career then we were at an unsteady time. Four or five years in to a boy band they usually call it a day and that was always bouncing around the media and we were not sure where we were going and You Raise Me Up was like a lifeline for us. Our manager had said try this song and we did as a pop song. We turned a song that wasn’t meant to be pop in to a mainstream pop song and it went well around the world and it opned doors for us in Australia and New Zealand and then The Rose that became our fourteenth number one to be honest it’s getting bigger and bigger and bigger and at this stage after eight or nine years you still have to pinch yourself!

Access All Areas.net.au: You came to Australia twice last year for promotional commitments and were to tour in September but unfortunately had to postpone to later this month, are you excited about coming back to Australia to finally tour your material?
Westlife - Nicky: Absolutely! We are well known on this side of the world for our live shows and with our tours we put a lot of time and effort into them, and it’s different to just sitting down and singing songs, we like to make sections in our shows like there’s an energetic part and we have a big back catalogue I mean we’ve got Flying Without Wings, World Of Our Own, Swear It Again, If I Let You Go… songs that have all been hits, maybe not so much in Australia but different parts of the world and touring is a big part of us. We kick off on the 21st of February Perth and it’s nice and it’s amazing that this long in to it that Australia has opened up to us.

Access All Areas.net.au: Is there anything that you’re really excited about doing or seeing in Australia in any down time you have?
Westlife - Nicky: Obviously it’s summer down there so the small time of we do have we’ll try and get a sun tan and visit the beach. Kian is a big sufer so he might catch some waves if he can but we’ll chill. We don’t have a lot of time, it’s mainly gig then fly, gig then fly, gig then fly but again it’s nice to be down there and really promoting Westlife and showing off what we do.

Access All Areas.net.au: You’ve sold millions of albums around the world; raked up countless number one singles, won dozens of music awards, what do you think has been an attribute to the success of Westlife?
Westlife - Nicky: You can’t put your finger on one thing it’s lots of different things. We’re four of the luckiest guys in the world, I mean anyone would give anything to sample or experience what we do and we’re lucky in that respect, we don’t take things for granted and we’re high working and we don’t lay off. When touring we’ve got the foot on the gas and we don’t let up. We’ve also had a lot of great guys around us, our Manager has been a great inspiration to the band, SonyBMG have been exceptional especially in the international departments, we’re lucky enough to work with Simon Cowell from day one and when it boils down to it generally we get on as people. We have our arguments just like anyone else and we’ll sit down and talk it through.

Access All Areas.net.au: What lies for the year ahead for Westlife?
Westlife - Nicky: We’ve got the tour that kicks off in Perth and goes to all the cities: Adelaide, Melbourne, then Sydney and finishes in Brisbane and then on to South Africa and do a heap of cities there and then back to the UK until the middle of April and then back to our home country Ireland and finsh there on May 4. Personally for me, my wife is expecting a baby, we’re expecting twins actually and they’re due in the second week of June.

 

Credit/Source: www.accessallareas.net.au