* The Easy 'Life
Sat, 6 Nov 2004
With five years at the top, 12 number one singles and 34m sold records under their belts, Westlife have reinvented themselves as a fourpiece. Their latest material harks back to an age of toe-tapping, sharp suits and slick licks: the 'Life have summoned the spirit of the Rat Pack and recorded an album of old school classics. We caught up with them in London's finest jazz venue, Ronnie Scott's, and asked Shane, Nicky and Kian how Westlife's new life is working out. Mmm, jazz...
This whole Rat Pack thing looks like a lot of fun ¡V is that why you chose to do it?
Shane: Totally. We did a TV show in Ireland, the first one we did as a four piece and we were wearing suits and just doing the normal thing but afterwards Louis came up to us and said: ¡§That went really well, it was a great interview and you reminded me of a young Rat Pack.¡¨ It was a joke at the time but the more we thought about it, we reckoned: ¡§We can try a couple of songs and see what it¡¦s like¡¨. The idea snowballed from there and we spoke to Simon Cowell about it and that¡¦s his favourite kind of music so he said go for it. We recorded two songs, it went really well so we went the whole hog, recorded it with a full orchestra and here we are six months later promoting it! It was really good fun.
The songs show off some big vocal performances ¡V did you have to do any special preparation or extra practice?
Kian: Obviously the style is extremely different from anything we¡¦ve done before so we just listened to the songs and the way the original people did it and got a feel for them. After that it was just a case of getting into the studio and putting our own kinda thing to it. We wanted it to be natural. But there was not much more we could do apart from listen to them and the timings and phrasings¡K
Shane: The phrasing was the hardest¡K
Kian: ...trying to get the licks and phrasings but we think it¡¦s worked and we¡¦re really happy with it.
And you went to Las Vegas to shoot the videos and promo for it last September?
Nicky: We went there for the World Music Awards originally and we had the album 90% finished and thought: ¡§The Rat Pack is Las Vegas so let¡¦s shoot some videos while we¡¦re out there¡¨. We shot three - A Kick In The Head, Fly Me To The Moon, and Smile and also we got to live the lifestyle there: the hotels, the gambling, everything! The videos are like classic Vegas with a band behind us, an audience as if they¡¦re watching a show, bar girls with hardly anything on, show girls with nearly nothing on! And we were thinking: ¡§What must it have been like for the real Rat Pack?¡¨ It put us all in good shape for coming back to the UK and Ireland because you¡¦ve had that insight and were able to act it out better and throw the shapes with more confidence.
¡§We were trying to eat KFC at the same time as signing all these CDs ¡V a pen in one hand and a piece of chicken in the other! ¡¨
What are you¡¦re favourite songs on the album?
Nicky: Mine¡¦s Mack The Knife
Shane: Fly Me To The Moon or Summer Wind for me, I really like both of them.
Kian: Let There Be Love
You¡¦re having a dinner party and you can invite any musical legend dead or alive ¡V who would it be?
Shane: Well the Rat Pack, obviously¡K
Nicky: And you¡¦ve got to have Elvis there¡K
Shane: Yeah, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, JFK¡K
Nicky: The airport? Hahaha. Any legends or just musical ones? I¡¦d like Muhammad Ali. Maybe Mike Tyson too, he¡¦d certainly be interesting.
Kian: Jimi Hendrix would be a good one for me.
Shane: My granddad, because I never met him. All The Beatles.
Nicky: The Spice Girls, haha!
You¡¦re wearing some snappy outfits for this album, what¡¦s your favourite item of clothing?
Kian: I actually really like these suits, we had them specifically made for us and we went through the thing of going to the tailors and being measured up for them. The tailor was looking through the books to see how they were made back then and what type of material they used, the tie clips. It was really cool ¡¥cause you get into character when you put the suits on, straight away you¡¦re into it.
Nicky: It¡¦s amazing what an outfit can do. If you look good, you feel good and if you feel good, you perform well. This morning was a classic example ¡V we had to get up at half past four to perform on GMTV. No one wants to get up, but you do it, get in the car, get to the studio and get into make up all while still half asleep. But then you put the suit on and you¡¦re like a different man. It was the best performance that we¡¦d done.
¡§It¡¦s amazing what an outfit can do. If you look good, you feel good and if you feel good, you perform well. ¡¨
Is doing the Rat Pack theme a nice change from what would have been an album and tour similar to those you¡¦ve done in the past?
Shane: It¡¦s a new lease of life. It¡¦s an exciting time for the band now that we¡¦re a four piece. The fans are dying to hear it and the tour next year will be a Westlife show doing all the hits plus a Rat Pack section as well.
People are going to be thinking: ¡§Robbie did that and now Westlife are following.¡¨ How do you respond?
Shane: I think it¡¦s different with the four of us doing it as a band like the Rat Pack did, rather than just one singer.
Kian: People will say that but loads of people have always done it, Robbie wasn¡¦t the first artist to cover those songs and I think the comparisons come just because we¡¦re both mainstream pop acts. Plus there are only two songs that he did that we¡¦re doing so that¡¦s different too.
Nicky: The more I think about it, the more I think it¡¦s a huge positive that his album did so well. It says to me that the public like this music. When Westlife do it ¡V a band known for big songs, big ballads ¡V straight away people are going to be interested.
You recently won the people¡¦s choice award for best website at the digital music awards ¡V what are your favourite websites?
Nicky: Mine¡¦s an Irish car website ¡V carzone.ie ¡V most garages in Ireland are linked up to it and it¡¦s just got thousands of cars, new ones that are coming on sale, old ones, different information and news.
Kian: Mine¡¦s a surfing site called surfingireland.net and I always check that before I go home.
Shane: Mine is myhome.ie, I go on that looking at properties and land and stuff.
You were the first number one on the official download chart ¡V are there any records left that you¡¦d like to break?
Shane: Haha. We¡¦d like to have the most number ones ever. I think Elvis has 19 and The Beatles has 17, and they¡¦re such a legendary band so to beat that would be amazing. We have 12 now and if we got up near it that would be quality.
Nicky: Though it gets harder every year. We had five number ones in our first year and last year we only had Mandy, so it¡¦s getting harder and we might not even release a single off this album as we¡¦re releasing it first. That record at one stage - it looked like we were going to demolish it but now it could take us years, which was the same for The Beatles and other bands. Elvis is still getting number ones now and he doesn¡¦t do any promotion!
You were up at half four this morning for GMTV, then interviews, then you¡¦re going to Liverpool tonight ¡V what¡¦s the maddest day you¡¦ve had?
Shane: This is one of them!
Nicky: The maddest day was the Coast To Coast promotion¡K
Shane: Aw, that was wild, that was ridiculous! 36 hours straight going to all those cities around the country in two days. We had cameras in our faces the whole time like Big Brother. The best laugh was afterwards, I think we had about an hour and a half¡¦s sleep then went out celebrating and drinking the whole night! Absolutely mad.
Nicky: It¡¦s amazing how you look back on things because at the time that seemed torture, we were in Virgin Radio doing interviews and were trying to eat KFC at the same time as signing all these CDs ¡V a pen in one hand and a piece of chicken in the other! But when you look back it¡¦s the most memorable laugh. We had a video made of the day and when we got back the record company threw us this big party and they¡¦d got Spice Girls look-alikes because we¡¦d been up against them in the chart battle, it was a right laugh.
Source: mykindaplace
Credit: [westlifes_castle]
With five years at the top, 12 number one singles and 34m sold records under their belts, Westlife have reinvented themselves as a fourpiece. Their latest material harks back to an age of toe-tapping, sharp suits and slick licks: the 'Life have summoned the spirit of the Rat Pack and recorded an album of old school classics. We caught up with them in London's finest jazz venue, Ronnie Scott's, and asked Shane, Nicky and Kian how Westlife's new life is working out. Mmm, jazz...
This whole Rat Pack thing looks like a lot of fun ¡V is that why you chose to do it?
Shane: Totally. We did a TV show in Ireland, the first one we did as a four piece and we were wearing suits and just doing the normal thing but afterwards Louis came up to us and said: ¡§That went really well, it was a great interview and you reminded me of a young Rat Pack.¡¨ It was a joke at the time but the more we thought about it, we reckoned: ¡§We can try a couple of songs and see what it¡¦s like¡¨. The idea snowballed from there and we spoke to Simon Cowell about it and that¡¦s his favourite kind of music so he said go for it. We recorded two songs, it went really well so we went the whole hog, recorded it with a full orchestra and here we are six months later promoting it! It was really good fun.
The songs show off some big vocal performances ¡V did you have to do any special preparation or extra practice?
Kian: Obviously the style is extremely different from anything we¡¦ve done before so we just listened to the songs and the way the original people did it and got a feel for them. After that it was just a case of getting into the studio and putting our own kinda thing to it. We wanted it to be natural. But there was not much more we could do apart from listen to them and the timings and phrasings¡K
Shane: The phrasing was the hardest¡K
Kian: ...trying to get the licks and phrasings but we think it¡¦s worked and we¡¦re really happy with it.
And you went to Las Vegas to shoot the videos and promo for it last September?
Nicky: We went there for the World Music Awards originally and we had the album 90% finished and thought: ¡§The Rat Pack is Las Vegas so let¡¦s shoot some videos while we¡¦re out there¡¨. We shot three - A Kick In The Head, Fly Me To The Moon, and Smile and also we got to live the lifestyle there: the hotels, the gambling, everything! The videos are like classic Vegas with a band behind us, an audience as if they¡¦re watching a show, bar girls with hardly anything on, show girls with nearly nothing on! And we were thinking: ¡§What must it have been like for the real Rat Pack?¡¨ It put us all in good shape for coming back to the UK and Ireland because you¡¦ve had that insight and were able to act it out better and throw the shapes with more confidence.
¡§We were trying to eat KFC at the same time as signing all these CDs ¡V a pen in one hand and a piece of chicken in the other! ¡¨
What are you¡¦re favourite songs on the album?
Nicky: Mine¡¦s Mack The Knife
Shane: Fly Me To The Moon or Summer Wind for me, I really like both of them.
Kian: Let There Be Love
You¡¦re having a dinner party and you can invite any musical legend dead or alive ¡V who would it be?
Shane: Well the Rat Pack, obviously¡K
Nicky: And you¡¦ve got to have Elvis there¡K
Shane: Yeah, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, JFK¡K
Nicky: The airport? Hahaha. Any legends or just musical ones? I¡¦d like Muhammad Ali. Maybe Mike Tyson too, he¡¦d certainly be interesting.
Kian: Jimi Hendrix would be a good one for me.
Shane: My granddad, because I never met him. All The Beatles.
Nicky: The Spice Girls, haha!
You¡¦re wearing some snappy outfits for this album, what¡¦s your favourite item of clothing?
Kian: I actually really like these suits, we had them specifically made for us and we went through the thing of going to the tailors and being measured up for them. The tailor was looking through the books to see how they were made back then and what type of material they used, the tie clips. It was really cool ¡¥cause you get into character when you put the suits on, straight away you¡¦re into it.
Nicky: It¡¦s amazing what an outfit can do. If you look good, you feel good and if you feel good, you perform well. This morning was a classic example ¡V we had to get up at half past four to perform on GMTV. No one wants to get up, but you do it, get in the car, get to the studio and get into make up all while still half asleep. But then you put the suit on and you¡¦re like a different man. It was the best performance that we¡¦d done.
¡§It¡¦s amazing what an outfit can do. If you look good, you feel good and if you feel good, you perform well. ¡¨
Is doing the Rat Pack theme a nice change from what would have been an album and tour similar to those you¡¦ve done in the past?
Shane: It¡¦s a new lease of life. It¡¦s an exciting time for the band now that we¡¦re a four piece. The fans are dying to hear it and the tour next year will be a Westlife show doing all the hits plus a Rat Pack section as well.
People are going to be thinking: ¡§Robbie did that and now Westlife are following.¡¨ How do you respond?
Shane: I think it¡¦s different with the four of us doing it as a band like the Rat Pack did, rather than just one singer.
Kian: People will say that but loads of people have always done it, Robbie wasn¡¦t the first artist to cover those songs and I think the comparisons come just because we¡¦re both mainstream pop acts. Plus there are only two songs that he did that we¡¦re doing so that¡¦s different too.
Nicky: The more I think about it, the more I think it¡¦s a huge positive that his album did so well. It says to me that the public like this music. When Westlife do it ¡V a band known for big songs, big ballads ¡V straight away people are going to be interested.
You recently won the people¡¦s choice award for best website at the digital music awards ¡V what are your favourite websites?
Nicky: Mine¡¦s an Irish car website ¡V carzone.ie ¡V most garages in Ireland are linked up to it and it¡¦s just got thousands of cars, new ones that are coming on sale, old ones, different information and news.
Kian: Mine¡¦s a surfing site called surfingireland.net and I always check that before I go home.
Shane: Mine is myhome.ie, I go on that looking at properties and land and stuff.
You were the first number one on the official download chart ¡V are there any records left that you¡¦d like to break?
Shane: Haha. We¡¦d like to have the most number ones ever. I think Elvis has 19 and The Beatles has 17, and they¡¦re such a legendary band so to beat that would be amazing. We have 12 now and if we got up near it that would be quality.
Nicky: Though it gets harder every year. We had five number ones in our first year and last year we only had Mandy, so it¡¦s getting harder and we might not even release a single off this album as we¡¦re releasing it first. That record at one stage - it looked like we were going to demolish it but now it could take us years, which was the same for The Beatles and other bands. Elvis is still getting number ones now and he doesn¡¦t do any promotion!
You were up at half four this morning for GMTV, then interviews, then you¡¦re going to Liverpool tonight ¡V what¡¦s the maddest day you¡¦ve had?
Shane: This is one of them!
Nicky: The maddest day was the Coast To Coast promotion¡K
Shane: Aw, that was wild, that was ridiculous! 36 hours straight going to all those cities around the country in two days. We had cameras in our faces the whole time like Big Brother. The best laugh was afterwards, I think we had about an hour and a half¡¦s sleep then went out celebrating and drinking the whole night! Absolutely mad.
Nicky: It¡¦s amazing how you look back on things because at the time that seemed torture, we were in Virgin Radio doing interviews and were trying to eat KFC at the same time as signing all these CDs ¡V a pen in one hand and a piece of chicken in the other! But when you look back it¡¦s the most memorable laugh. We had a video made of the day and when we got back the record company threw us this big party and they¡¦d got Spice Girls look-alikes because we¡¦d been up against them in the chart battle, it was a right laugh.
Source: mykindaplace
Credit: [westlifes_castle]
posted by me at 11:45 PM
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