thanks very much to Maartje Jullens for translating and typing up this interview!
Westlife Interview
Fancy Magazine [the Netherlands] May 1999
Fancy: You're not that famous in the Netherlands. Who are you?
Mark: We're five lads from Ireland, who like each other very much and
love to sing and dance.
Kian: Maybe it's a good idea that we introduce ourselves one by one. Right?
After a quick chat Nicky and Mark take over the lead.
Nicky: Mark is amazing. He has a great voice, he's one of our lead
singers. He is very helpfull, also when it comes to singing. He likes
to help others and he gives them advice.
Mark has two sides, he can be very serious and adult, but sometimes he
behaves like a seven year old. He's up for a laugh, but you can have a
deep conversation with him too.
Mark: Shane is a brilliant singer. He has this gospel kind of voice.
Shane is a very quiet and sensitive person. He is an easy-going person.
When we're sleeping in a hotel, we all share our rooms in pairs.
Only Shane gets a room of his own, because he's very tidy and well
organized. When we're having a discussion, Shane keeps quiet, listening
to the rest of us. In the end he comes up with one sentence, which says
it all in one. We can only say: "That's exactly what we mean."
And that's the end of the discussion.
They continue very smoothly.
Shane: Kian is a very well organized and responsible lad.
When the record company has got any news, they call him.
He tells it to the rest of us.
Kian: Bryan is a good friend. He becomes very funny, especially when
we're on tour. When you're away from home for such a long time, you can
get really depressed sometimes, missing your home and family.
Bryan is the person to bring back a smile on your face.
He isn't a clown, he's just a very sensitive person.
Bryan is very popular, most of our fans like him. The girls just love
him. Because he's so sensitive, his heart's been broken many times.
Bryan is very good looking.
Bryan becomes very shy, hiding under the table
Mark: Shall I introduce Nicky then?
Nicky is the most down-to-earth person of the band.
He knows what he wants and he'll make it happen too. He's a nice person
to talk to. When you're in trouble his door is always open. He's a true
friend. He's very posh- Nicky is so called Mr.Gucci, he would like to
wear that kind of clothes all day. He loves shopping.
Fancy: Aren't you afraid to become Ronan's second band?
Mark: Ronan has no intentions to make us Ronan Keating's band.
He is our manager, he helps us and he gives us some advice.
He only does that because he likes us and thinks we're good.
he does hope we will reach the top.
Kian: Ronan's not singing on stage, we are!
In my dreams I imagine Westlife becoming even bigger than Boyzone.
Mark: If we succeed half as much as Boyzone or the BSB, we'll be
satisfied.
Shane: It's a honour being compared to Boyzone.
Mark: Ronan's best advice ever is "treat everyone the way you want to be
treated yourself."
Fancy: Kian, What's a kissogram?
Bryan: Yeah, Kian tell us what's a kissogram!!!
A kissogram is someone who...... Come on tell us!!
Kian: When I was sixteen I had a job as a Kissogram. Everyone could hire
me in, I would read out a poem about people. When you give me some
information about a certain person, I'll make a poem.
I would read that poem out at the top of my voice in the middle of a
pub. You try to make a fool out of someone.
Shane: Kian forgot to tell you, when you're a kissogram you have to wear
weird suits. Kian used to wear a Superman-suit quite often.
Kian: (puts himself in defence)I only wanted the job for the money.
Bryan:We all have had some jobs. I've delivered Pizzas.
Nicky: I was playing football on a very high level, before I joined the
band. I was a goalkeeper. What I do now is much more exciting for me.
Football is just running after a ball with 22 men.
Now I'm in Westlife,I have at least the feeling I have real contact with
the audience.
Fancy: Are you superstitious?
Nicky: When I have a appearence or when we're coming on television,
I always wear my lucky socks.During the Boyzone tour I had one pair of
socks I wore the whole tour.
Bryan: They smelled horrible!!!
Nicky: I didn't wear them the whole week. I just put them on, when I was
due to go on stage. Afterwards I took them off immediately.
Nowadays I have 3 pairs of lucky socks all with a image of a British
beer brand. They lads can't complain about the smell anymore.
Kian: I'm superstitious, but not like that. I don't believe in lucky
socks or things like that.
Bryan: But you wouldn't walk underneath a ladder!
Shane: I believe black cats will bring you luck.
Nicky: I touch wood and repeat some things three times.
The lads start to talk all at once about superstition, spooky moments
and lucky things.
Fancy: next subject! You're all part of large families. Kian has 4
siblings and Shane is one out of a family with eight children.
Shane: It's great to have a large family. There are always people to
talk to or have a laugh with, a lot of people who give you advice and
lots of brothers who beat you up....
Kian: It seems very lonely to me to not have any siblings.
Shane: Christmas is great, especially when you're from a large family.
You get lots of presents!!
Nicky: I've one sister and one brother. He's a sharp child, he's 8 and
buys all the magazines with me in it. He told me he's going to be an actor
when he's grown up.
He hopes I'll get very famous,so I can introduce him to the right
people.
Bryan: I've got one sister. She is very pretty.
Kian: (laughing)She looks better then you do.
Mark: She looks better then all of us do.
Fancy: Which girls...
Mark: Jennifer Aniston and Nicole Kidman
Fancy: I'm sorry?
Mark: I thought you would ask which girls we like.
Fancy: I would like to know what kind of girls you like?
Mark: I like girls with sweet babyfaces. They should't put on too much
make-up.They have to be down-to-earth and they should have a great sense
of humor.
Shane: I love big eyes.
Bryan: I thought you were going to say something different. How did you
make this up?
Shane continues: I want a happy girl. We'll have to be able to a laugh
together.
Bryan: She has to be beautiful by nature, but she should not think that
she is. I just hate arrogance.
Kian: I'll have to get along with her. I'm easy on the way someone has
to look.
Nicky: I already have a girlfriend for 4 years now.
Mark: She is the daughter of our president, let's say the big boss of
the republic of Ireland.
Nicky: I don't care what her dad is doing for living, he could have been
a milkman instead. I date her, not him. When I met her, her father wasn't
our president.
Fancy: What do you want to achieve?
Mark: it's not about becoming famous, we just want to have succes.
We want to be remembered as a great band.
Nicky: We're having this job, because it's great fun.
I would never want to earn money with something
I don't like at all.
Bryan: Every human being has a goal in life, even the milkman.
He wants to become head of the local milk industry.
That is his challenge, ours is Westlife.