Irish pop sensations Westlife joined Magic Radio presenter Tom Price to chat about their latest album ‘Wild Dreams’ which is released on the 26th November.
Whilst chatting to Tom the guys touched upon their relationship with superstar Ed Sheeran, who has previously written songs for the band as well as penning their brand-new single ‘My Hero’.
“The story with Ed is that years ago, when he was a young lad, I think he used to go to Ireland a lot for summer … and we were kind of reasonably successful at the time. He was starting to learn the guitar and so he started to learn playing Westlife songs and stuff. So, we we’re in the foundations of his introduction into music. He told us that he sort of feels like he is back in his 11-year-old self going I could write a Westlife album and so he actually wrote half of our last album.”
Alongside a new album Nicky, Mark, Shane, and Kian will also be out touring again, although Nicky did reveal that there have been a few changes with an auto-cue being introduced for their TV performances.
“We’ve started to have to use, this is a secret now, don’t share this. We’ve had to start using auto-cue for the lyrics on TV, so that’s like what the Rolling Stones do, isn’t it? So, we’re now at that stage. To be clear though, for the new songs, not the old songs and mostly each of us have got own readers.” said Nicky.
The band’s interview with Tom Price can be heard on Magic Radio this Sunday at 5pm www.magic.co.uk
Shane on his favourite Westlife song
“You Raise Me Up, this is my favourite song, you know. It is actually my favourite Westlife song to sing because it never gets old, it feels like just every time I sing it, I’m like what a tune”
Nicky on why he struggled with the lyrics of Flying Without Wings
“I think I struggled with the lyrics with this at the beginning of the band and I think it’s because your fear sometimes needs something to grab onto. Then the fear kind of consumes you, and so, at the start I used to always be afraid, even though I knew the lyrics inside out. I’d be afraid that I would mess them up, and then that fear would then take over and I actually would forget the lyrics even though I know them.”
Shane on getting emotional whilst performing
“I had a very weird moment back about two months ago, we were doing a gig in Belfast, it was the first gig we’d done back, and it was very emotional. It was the first time I had performed ever in my life without my parents and it just hit me that night that they’re not here and they are not going to be here ever again. I found the whole gig difficult, but I found ‘You Raise Me Up’ particularly difficult. I broke down in the middle of it, completely, luckily it was the instrumental because I just turned around and I just bawled my eyes out.”
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