- I read that you have worked with Bruno Mars on the album so how did that collaboration come about?
We haven’t worked with him. Basically Lee has worked with him on some writing - they did some writing together and Lee had written a couple of songs with him that wants to put forward with the Blue album.
- And can you give us any hints as to what we can expect from the album?
I have got to say that it’s the best album that we have ever done! I have been listening to some of the songs now for the now couple of months and I think people are going to be extremely shocked, not only are all four of us singers but our harmonies and the sound that we make together is just amazing.
I don’t think that there is another boy band out there that can get the harmonies that we can, obviously people like Boyz to Men are amazing, it’s very rare to get four singers in a band, you normally only get one or two, but all four of us are strong singers and we are very good at our harmonies and our blends.
And we were always very proud to say that we were a vocal harmony band and that’s why we attracted the likes of Stevie Wonder and Elton John to work with us. So I think with this album people are going to be very shocked when they hear the stuff that we are doing. It’s Blue but ten years on it’s grown up pop and it’s going to blow people away.
- As you mentioned earlier you are all set to represent the UK at the Eurovision song Contest so how much are you looking forward to it?
For us coming back after six years it’s always hard getting back into this industry again because people move on quite quickly - of course we have been saturated by X-factor for the last six years so every year we are churning out two or three big acts. So people forget that we were around six years ago because everyone has moved onto the next thing.
The same thing happens in Europe where we were a very successful band but I think coming back after six years of being away it’s hard to go ‘hey we are back’ - take That have done it in a fantastic way but no other band has been able to do that and I don’t think anyone ever will.
So you have got to look at other ways to make a comeback and, for us, the Eurovision is a platform that reaches out to over 120 million people in Europe - we were a big band that sold lots of albums in Europe - so this a great platform for us to let people in Europe know that Blue are back.
- Since the band took time out back in 2004 the likes of JLS and The Wanted have come along so what do think of these acts and what music are you enjoying at the moment?
First of all JLS are a top band, we know Marvin really well because Marvin use to be in a band that Simon managed back in the day, so JLS are wicked.
I love The Wanted as well. And what is so refreshing about them, much like us, they didn’t come from The X-Factor or those kind of shows so to make it as a successful group you have got to be really great and pull out all of the stops - and The Wanted have done that.
And it was something that we had to do because when we were starting out we had Hearsay and all those bands starting out with Pop Stars.
We were a band that didn’t come from any of those TV shows either so we know how hard it is - with X-Factor you do have a massive platform to lunch yourselves - The Wanted didn’t have that and they have done a fantastic job doing it themselves.
- Finally what’s next for you?
Up next is the Eurovision Song Contest, which is the 14th May, so my promotion for that is pretty much full on - I’m doing stuff with Blue pretty much every day and we have been touring round Europe.
It’s been really interesting going in and out of these countries and seeing how seriously they take the Eurovision Song Contest - to them it’s a really big deal. So we have just been doing a lot of promotion in Europe which has been fab.
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FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in Duncan James