Good morning Nathan!
Hello Yahoo! How are you today? All good? Glad to hear it. How am I? Good. Busy. We’re in a heavy rehearsal week for ‘The X Factor’. We’re working on it all day, all week. It’s hardcore. It’s all top secret at the moment. But we’re going to make it look as good as possible. It’s a big production.
But you’re a boyband, isn’t all you need five stools and then you stand up for the key change?
(Laughs) No chance. No chance.
Are you excited about it?
Yeah. Can’t wait. I love ‘X Factor’. As soon as it comes on I’m on Twitter commenting and giving out opinions. I like to see myself as the fifth judge.
And you’ll be tweeting for us this week, right?
Yeah. We’ll be on the way back from a pretty big gig in Birmingham – but I’ll have the laptop out and streaming it. Should be perfect. I’m excited about it.
Will it be just you then?
Well, I reckon I’ll bagsy the computer but I will be canvassing opinion from the others, of course. It’s pretty much all we talk about on normal Sundays, what went on last night’s ‘X Factor’… and football, actually. But that’s it, so this should be great.
And do you all agree on the acts? Where do you stand on Wagner for example?
That’s an easy one. We’re all team Wagner! Totally. Good luck to the guy. If he wins ‘X Factor’ and Ann wins ‘Strictly’ it’d be genius. It would prove once and for all that the Great British public have an amazing sense of humour.
And what about One Direction? Are you involved in a deadly rivalry?
I think they’re great. They’re really great. I’ve got a lot of respect for them. We’ve met them a few times and they seem like top blokes. It’s funny, a few months ago, we were the new boys but now it seems like we’ve been around ages. We’re not the young ones anymore. I feel old. (Nathan is 17 - Ed)
So you get on with them then? Maybe there could be a boyband union? If you went on strike the country’s pop industry would grind to a halt.
YES! We totally should. I was saying that the other day – it’d be great if we got together with JLS, One Direction, Take That and Westlife to make a big man choir. Or boy choir, whatever you want to call it. It’d be a terrific noise.
(At this point there’s a shouting and a pause and laughter)
Sorry. Max just told me he really fancied me. That was a bit odd.
Speaking of Twitter and Max, he’s got the most followers, hasn’t he?
Yes! By miles. And it’s really annoying. I’d be up there but for some reason my Twitter feed messed up and I lost 6,000 followers overnight. I reckon it was sabotage. He hacked into my account and tweeted “I hate dogs and children” – and then 6,000 people unfollowed. He probably added “If you like puppies and babies, follow Max” before he deleted it.
What about the new song then - ‘Lose My Mind’?
I like it a lot. Excited by it. It’s a bit more upbeat and less ballady so that’s great.
What is the best bit about being in a boyband – is it the singing on stage, the recording and songwriting, the attention from girls or being on stuff like ‘X Factor’?
It’s all one big mess of great. Honestly. You get up on stage and hear thousands of girls screaming at you – hopefully for the right reasons – and it’s just unbelievable. Then you go into the studio and record songs and that’s brilliant too. I can’t tell you how amazing it is, really. And then you go on ‘The X Factor’…
You’ve worked with Brian Friedman before, haven’t you?
Yeah, it will be lovely to see him again. He flew over from the States ages ago to teach us how to dance. He was going to work with us for a week but after half an hour he told us: “You boys should never, ever be allowed to dance.” It was hilarious. He called Siva “Bambi” and Max was “Nine” because he’d count us in “six, seven, eight” and Max would come in on “nine”.
Who’s your favourite judge?
Looks-wise Cheryl. But otherwise it has to be Simon. I am priming myself to be his replacement. I feel I have the right honesty. But I don’t know what he was going on about stairs for last week? You know with Cher? Who cares about the stairs? But yeah, Simon is the best.
And you’re looking forward to touring?
Can’t wait. It’s going to be massive. If it goes wrong we’ll never be allowed out again. And if it works we probably won’t take any credit. We’re not going to be dancing and miming – there will be some surprises – all I can say is that we’re springing into action. I’ll leave everyone to mull that one over.
So you’ll be singing live on Sunday then?
Yeah of course! It seems wrong not to. You can’t have all those contestants singing and then not do it yourself.
Tell that to Cheryl…
Ah, she’s a judge, she can do what she wants. She’s on a different level.
Who do you think will win?
I think Rebecca or Matt will win. But I really want One Direction to win. They’re top lads. It’s that boyband union again. I think you’re right. We should set one up.
Thanks for that Nathan and good luck on Sunday.
Pleasure. I’ll be looking forward to tweeting.
