worldpop catches up with the busy lads from Westlife. They might be newly-made millionaires, but there's no doubt about it ... Bryan, Mark and Nicky work hard for their money!
In the money ...
worldpop: What have you splashed out on with your Westlife earnings?
Bryan: We've bought these really nice wristwatches. They cost more than I earned in a year when I worked in McDonald's. I had a budget. I still have, but as you make more money, you budget increases without you noticing. I'd rather have money than not have it, but it's not the motivation for doing this.
Fame and fortune ...
worldpop: What's the most important lesson you've learnt from fame?
Bryan: Not to take what people say too seriously. At the end of the day, this is just a big illusion.
Nicky: The business isn't everything it's made out to be. It's not the kind of glamour and glitz you may have expected. It's very, very hard work and you must be committed to working your socks off, being away from home, dealing with pressures of going on TV, recording songs, every little detail. Some of us are more confident on stage and some of us handle going on live TV better than others. We've all adapted differently, but we've learned from each other.
Old pros ...
worldpop: So after over a year at the top, you're comfortable in the spotlight?
Mark: At the beginning of the band we weren't totally ourselves in interviews. We were like, 'Should I say this, should I say that?' Now we are just like ourselves. This is me.
worldpop: How come?
Mark: We understand the media now. At the start we were afraid that if we said, 'Yeah, we drink,' then everybody would start talking about Westlife's drinking habits! We don't go around and promote: 'Everyone drink, please - it's a cool thing.' It's not like that. But we are old enough to go for a drink if we want without having to worry about people finding out.
I heard a rumour ...
worldpop: With fame comes attention from the tabloid press. Mark, was the rumour true that you were dating Mandy Moore?
Mark: Me? No! It's not true that I am dating her. Me and Nicky went out to a nightclub with her but we weren't dating and we're still not dating. But we keep in contact, she is a very good friend now.
worldpop: How did you feel about the stories?
Mark: It's a bit crazy because Mandy Moore is famous in America and it's a weird feeling when people think you're dating someone famous. When you grow up you read the papers and all of a sudden it's you they're writing about. When I got my head shaved, it was all over the papers. It's weird that when you get a haircut you are in the papers, it's pretty stupid.
Being Stateside ...
worldpop: You've spent a lot of time recently in America. What do you think of it?
Nicky: Yeah, we've spent three to four months in the States. We've been everywhere from Los Angeles to Boston to New York.
Mark: The States is the States. I like it but I couldn't stay there for too long. It's just too different from the way I was brought up. I have to go home every now and then to get back to normality for a while. I'd probably end up a total psycho if I lived there all the time. There's too much bulls**t going on there.
The new album ...
worldpop: Tell us about the new album ...
Bryan: We're excited to sing the new songs. It's more of a big summer feel, but we still have the wintery ballads. There's a few up tempos as well, like the Celine Dion-type of up tempos. It's not like the stomp of Backstreet Boys.
Nicky: There's no point in us copying BSB. We'd love to have songs like The One, but that's BSB. There's no point in them releasing a song like Flying Without Wings or Swear It Again - that's Westlife. We're getting our own style. We're not copying 'NSync or BSB.
Interview: PETER GRANT/FAMOUS & MARIE DUCHAMPS/CELEBRITEXT