Post by ♣esmie14♣ on Mar 14, 2007 21:28:31 GMT 8
Access All Areas.net.au: It’s great to see you again in Australia, how has the Australian leg of the Love Album tour been going for you?
Westlife - Kian: It’s been going great. It’s only the fifth night of the tour and our last night in Australia and it’s been really good to be honest. I think the first time to ever tour Australia the response has been pretty strong every city feels like there’s a big audience there. We’re very happy with it to be honest with you, we couldn’t be happier
Access All Areas.net.au: Brisbane is your final show, how have Australian audiences taken to the shows?
Westlife - Kian: It’s very different for us. Generally back home we do concerts on a very different scale not necessarily audience wise but well I mean we have four or five thousand people a night here so far and that’s amazing for us and we’re very appreciative of that because it’s our first tour but the audience back at home we’re looking at eight or nine thousand a minimum a night and our production would be very very large, we’d have a completely over produced stage to a certain extent and we’re very used to that and to be breaking a tour down to the extent that we’ve broken it down tonight you kind of feel a wee bit naked on the stage but I think that kind of brings a better performance out in us and it makes us kind of give more to the audience because we don’t have the fancy tricks behind us its just down to the four of us and the songs.
Access All Areas.net.au: This is your sixth arena tour; does touring still excite you as much as it did the first and second time?
Westlife - Kian: It’s actually our eighth tour… and very much so I think you can never take a buzz away from standing in front of an audience and hearing the reaction of whatever amount of people it is cheering for you because they enjoy doing what you do and I think in that sense generally I think its just a nice feeling to be on tour and be shown appreciation from the fans for what you’ve done over the last year you know promoting a new album, making a new album, seeing that they’re still loving what you do so. I suppose the novelty of it to a certain extent has worn away from the like say of the first or second tour you know the whole idea of being on tour you know and our first tour we got smashed every night after the gig whereas we don’t do that anymore it has become part of our lifestyle now and its something that we’re used to now.
Access All Areas.net.au: In Ireland its single digit temperatures and here in Australia it’s been pretty hot weather. Were you prepared and have you adjusted ok to the hot weather?
Westlife - Kian: Yeah well I kind of did my research. You always know when it’s cold in Ireland its warm in Australia so we packed our shorts and t-shirts yeah.
Access All Areas.net.au: Apart from the interior of hotel rooms, have you been able to see much of Australia this time around or go out surfing?
Westlife - Kian: Yeah personally I’ll chase everything when it comes to things like surfing especially when you’re in a country that has so many surf breaks and stuff like that. When we were in Perth I travelled up and down the coastline a good bit for three or four days and last time we were in Melbourne I went down to great ocean road down to the 12 apostles and all that sort of stuff. When we were in Sydney we went to all of the sites, we went to Manly beach and Taronga zoo you know personally I buy a Lonely Planet book wherever I go and Ill read up on what I think is worthy of going to see and what I don’t and I generally hire a car and drive my Girlfriend with me and off we go.
Access All Areas.net.au: Sounds wicked…
Westlife - Kian: Yeah the boys don’t but…
Access All Areas.net.au: You do your own thing!
Access All Areas.net.au: How long does it take you guys to put together a tour of this kind?
Westlife - Kian: Generally about three weeks… three weeks as in the rehearsal stages but from the early early early stages you’re looking at like if we were to start touring for example this year in February we’d start the plans in November like the stage plans things like that because a lot of things have to be built….
Access All Areas.net.au: So you have a good say in the tour and the stage plans, etc?
Westlife - Kian: Well we design everything ourselves… I suppose when you make an album with the record company because it’s their product even though its got the Westlife name on it it’s SonyBMG’s product and they’re the ones selling it and they’re the ones making the money and then they pay us. They have absolutely no involvement in a concert tour, it’s a Westlife product from start to finish, so its up to the four of us to make the decisions. We may hire people in and take their ideas and put our ideas with their ideas and stuff like that because when you do it so many times it’s very difficult to continue to come up with fresh ideas so in that sense we do hire people in and we do kind of like get different ideas but it’s our baby you know.
Access All Areas.net.au: Your manager has hinted that he’s currently sourcing writers for your next album… where do you see the next album heading?
Westlife - Kian: There will be another album at the end of the year without a doubt and what kind of album it’s going to be exactly yet we’re not 100% sure. There’s a lot of talk about different things, there’s talk about doing a greatest hits part two the best of Westlife or something like that because it’s nine years this year or ten years this year so there’s talk about doing a ten year anniversary like ten years of Westlife or something along them lines and there’s talk about another love album and then there’s talk about another studio album as in original songs. A lot of it comes down to the songs a lot of it will come down to what songs are being suggested if theyre cover versions or what songs are being sent in to us from original song writers and its all going to be based on what’s going to be the best move you know whether we feel like we have a full album of hits or do we thing another teened album shall we call it is going to work so it’s going to be interesting to see.
Access All Areas.net.au: Any chance of coming back to Australia for another tour?
Westlife - Kian: As far as we’re concerned we’d have no issue with putting it on our yearly tour it only takes a week and a half to do it five nights you know so I mean without boring the readers with the politics of it its down to a promoter. It’s down to a promoter coming to Westlife and saying yeah we want you guys you know and if the offer is there and if it makes sense for us to do it then we’ll do it you know it’s the best way to explain it. We’re not going to come down here if we’re losing money and we’re not necessarily interested in coming down here and walking away with a hell of a lot of money or anything like that because we know it’s a new territory for us and it’s a territory we want to build on so that is kind of the way we look at it.
Westlife - Kian: We were coming down here to build on the fact that we’ve got our foot in the door or we’ve probably got more than a foot in the door now but we’re the type of the band that once we get a taste for a place we always like to try to keep it growing so we’re extremely interested in doing it on a yearly basis.
CREDITS/RESOURCES: westlife.gr
Westlife - Kian: It’s been going great. It’s only the fifth night of the tour and our last night in Australia and it’s been really good to be honest. I think the first time to ever tour Australia the response has been pretty strong every city feels like there’s a big audience there. We’re very happy with it to be honest with you, we couldn’t be happier
Access All Areas.net.au: Brisbane is your final show, how have Australian audiences taken to the shows?
Westlife - Kian: It’s very different for us. Generally back home we do concerts on a very different scale not necessarily audience wise but well I mean we have four or five thousand people a night here so far and that’s amazing for us and we’re very appreciative of that because it’s our first tour but the audience back at home we’re looking at eight or nine thousand a minimum a night and our production would be very very large, we’d have a completely over produced stage to a certain extent and we’re very used to that and to be breaking a tour down to the extent that we’ve broken it down tonight you kind of feel a wee bit naked on the stage but I think that kind of brings a better performance out in us and it makes us kind of give more to the audience because we don’t have the fancy tricks behind us its just down to the four of us and the songs.
Access All Areas.net.au: This is your sixth arena tour; does touring still excite you as much as it did the first and second time?
Westlife - Kian: It’s actually our eighth tour… and very much so I think you can never take a buzz away from standing in front of an audience and hearing the reaction of whatever amount of people it is cheering for you because they enjoy doing what you do and I think in that sense generally I think its just a nice feeling to be on tour and be shown appreciation from the fans for what you’ve done over the last year you know promoting a new album, making a new album, seeing that they’re still loving what you do so. I suppose the novelty of it to a certain extent has worn away from the like say of the first or second tour you know the whole idea of being on tour you know and our first tour we got smashed every night after the gig whereas we don’t do that anymore it has become part of our lifestyle now and its something that we’re used to now.
Access All Areas.net.au: In Ireland its single digit temperatures and here in Australia it’s been pretty hot weather. Were you prepared and have you adjusted ok to the hot weather?
Westlife - Kian: Yeah well I kind of did my research. You always know when it’s cold in Ireland its warm in Australia so we packed our shorts and t-shirts yeah.
Access All Areas.net.au: Apart from the interior of hotel rooms, have you been able to see much of Australia this time around or go out surfing?
Westlife - Kian: Yeah personally I’ll chase everything when it comes to things like surfing especially when you’re in a country that has so many surf breaks and stuff like that. When we were in Perth I travelled up and down the coastline a good bit for three or four days and last time we were in Melbourne I went down to great ocean road down to the 12 apostles and all that sort of stuff. When we were in Sydney we went to all of the sites, we went to Manly beach and Taronga zoo you know personally I buy a Lonely Planet book wherever I go and Ill read up on what I think is worthy of going to see and what I don’t and I generally hire a car and drive my Girlfriend with me and off we go.
Access All Areas.net.au: Sounds wicked…
Westlife - Kian: Yeah the boys don’t but…
Access All Areas.net.au: You do your own thing!
Access All Areas.net.au: How long does it take you guys to put together a tour of this kind?
Westlife - Kian: Generally about three weeks… three weeks as in the rehearsal stages but from the early early early stages you’re looking at like if we were to start touring for example this year in February we’d start the plans in November like the stage plans things like that because a lot of things have to be built….
Access All Areas.net.au: So you have a good say in the tour and the stage plans, etc?
Westlife - Kian: Well we design everything ourselves… I suppose when you make an album with the record company because it’s their product even though its got the Westlife name on it it’s SonyBMG’s product and they’re the ones selling it and they’re the ones making the money and then they pay us. They have absolutely no involvement in a concert tour, it’s a Westlife product from start to finish, so its up to the four of us to make the decisions. We may hire people in and take their ideas and put our ideas with their ideas and stuff like that because when you do it so many times it’s very difficult to continue to come up with fresh ideas so in that sense we do hire people in and we do kind of like get different ideas but it’s our baby you know.
Access All Areas.net.au: Your manager has hinted that he’s currently sourcing writers for your next album… where do you see the next album heading?
Westlife - Kian: There will be another album at the end of the year without a doubt and what kind of album it’s going to be exactly yet we’re not 100% sure. There’s a lot of talk about different things, there’s talk about doing a greatest hits part two the best of Westlife or something like that because it’s nine years this year or ten years this year so there’s talk about doing a ten year anniversary like ten years of Westlife or something along them lines and there’s talk about another love album and then there’s talk about another studio album as in original songs. A lot of it comes down to the songs a lot of it will come down to what songs are being suggested if theyre cover versions or what songs are being sent in to us from original song writers and its all going to be based on what’s going to be the best move you know whether we feel like we have a full album of hits or do we thing another teened album shall we call it is going to work so it’s going to be interesting to see.
Access All Areas.net.au: Any chance of coming back to Australia for another tour?
Westlife - Kian: As far as we’re concerned we’d have no issue with putting it on our yearly tour it only takes a week and a half to do it five nights you know so I mean without boring the readers with the politics of it its down to a promoter. It’s down to a promoter coming to Westlife and saying yeah we want you guys you know and if the offer is there and if it makes sense for us to do it then we’ll do it you know it’s the best way to explain it. We’re not going to come down here if we’re losing money and we’re not necessarily interested in coming down here and walking away with a hell of a lot of money or anything like that because we know it’s a new territory for us and it’s a territory we want to build on so that is kind of the way we look at it.
Westlife - Kian: We were coming down here to build on the fact that we’ve got our foot in the door or we’ve probably got more than a foot in the door now but we’re the type of the band that once we get a taste for a place we always like to try to keep it growing so we’re extremely interested in doing it on a yearly basis.
CREDITS/RESOURCES: westlife.gr