The north and south and east of Westlife

––––– Shane Filan –––––
• Full name : Shane Steven Filan
• Date of Birth : July 5, 1979
• Zodiac Sign : Cancer
• Height : 5’9"
• Color of eyes : Hazel-green
• Color of hair : Brown
• Hero : Michael Jackson
• Previous job : In a hardware store
• Favorite film : Titanic
• Favorite actor : Tom Cruise
• Favorite actress : Catherine Zeta-Jones
• Ideal woman : Cute, cuddly and one who loves me

––––– Nicky Byrne –––––
• Full name : Nicholas Bernard James Adam Byrne
• Date of Birth : Oct. 9, 1978
• Zodiac Sign : Libra
• Height : 5’10"
• Color of eyes : Blue
• Color of hair : Blonde
• Hero : Bruce Willis
• Previous job : Goal keeper at Leeds United
• Favorite film : Armageddon
• Favorite actor : Brad Pitt and Bruce Willis
• Favorite actress : Cameron Diaz
• Ideal woman : Elegant, smart and humorous with nice eyes

––––– Kian Egan –––––
• Full name : Kian John Francis Egan
• Date of Birth : April 29, 1980
• Zodiac Sign : Taurus
• Height : 5’8"
• Color of eyes : Blue
• Color of hair : Blonde (dyed; natural color is brown)
• Hero : Too many to mention
• Previous job : At a clothes shop
• Favorite film : Titanic
• Favorite actor : Brad Pitt
• Favorite actress : Cameron Diaz
• Ideal woman : Good-looking, good personality and good fun

––––– Mark Feehily –––––
• Full name : Mark Michael Patrick Feehily
• Date of Birth : May 28, 1980
• Zodiac Sign : Gemini
• Height : 5’11"
• Color of eyes : Blue
• Color of hair : Brown
• Hero : Mom and Dad; Michael Jackson
• Previous jobs : Pizza delivery boy and photo lab assistant
• Favorite film : Armageddon
• Favorite actor : Eddie Murphy
• Favorite actress : Phoebe (from Friends)
• Ideal woman : Thoughtful and funny

––– Bryan McFadden –––
• Full name : Bryan Nicholas McFadden
• Date of Birth : April 12, 1980
• Zodiac Sign : Aries
• Height : 6’2"
• Color of eyes : Blue
• Color of hair : Blonde
• Hero : Mom and Dad
• Previous jobs : Bingo caller and security guard at McDonald’s
• Favorite film : Titanic
• Favorite actor : Leonardo DiCaprio
• Favorite actress : Jennifer Love Hewitt
• Ideal woman : Jennifer Love Hewitt

Fans will be fans will be fans will be fans wherever they are. At the sight – and sound – of their idols, they shriek and scream themselves hoarse, they break into the wall of bodyguards for those precious autographs, they will kiss the ground their idols walk on, and they sway and swing to the beat of the music. Fans are all alike, whether in Spain or in South Africa, in the Philippines or in Panama, in UK or in the USA, anywhere!

Even in Singapore. A few weeks ago on that island state, we witnessed how the fans screamed their lungs out at the Zouk Disco where the Westlife did a showcase as part of the Asian promo for its new album, World Of Our Own, released locally by BMG Records (Pilipinas) Inc. For a while, our group thought an Intensity 8 quake was shaking the Zouk Disco as the SRO crowd (how could they have danced in that tight, sardine-like situation?) erupted into wild cheering even before the quintet could start a song.

The same hyper-reactive crowds of teenagers welcomed the five cute guys during their three visits to the Philippines, remember? There’s Kian Egan, businessman, former rocker and descendant of a musical clan. And Mark Feehily, once oh-so-quiet but with a voice like molten gold. And Nicky Byrne, footballer, charmer and raconteur. And Shane Filan who loves galloping horses and sportscars. And, of course, Bryan McFadden, former stage school kid who continues to melt a thousand female hearts even now that he’s married and a brand-new dad. All the guys are gifted with those disarming Irish eyes.

Westlife has released nine singles, eight of them, including their most recent, rocketed to UK No. 1. Seven of them hit the top spot consecutively, thus impacting the Guinness Book of Records for the greatest No. 1 singles in a row.

Westlife was named Best UK and Ireland Act by MTV in November 1999 and was voted Best Pop Act at The Brit Awards last year. The guys were the triumphant winners of ITV’s Record Of The Year in 1999 and 2000 with Flying Without Wings and My Love. In an industry awash with accolades, these are the biggest – the ones – everyone wants to win.

This remarkable critical success is mirrored by an unprecedented impact on the music-loving, record-buying public.

To date, Westlife has sold more than 12 million albums world-wide, including a whopping two million plus copies of Coast To Coast in the UK alone. That’s seven times platinum. This success has been repeated in 25 countries with an astonishing total of 52 platinum awards, from South Africa to Asia, from the Middle East to Australia. With a huge and rapidly expanding global fanbase, projected sales for the band’s third album, World Of Our Own, could reach an outrageous 10 million. Westlife is no longer a pop band, but a veritable cultural phenomenon.

World Of Our Own was recorded in Rokstone Studios in London, Cheiron Studios in Sweden and Windmill Lane in Dublin. It is a third collaboration between Westlife and the writing/production teams of Steve Mac/Wayne Hector and Cheiron, cementing already solid-gold partnerships.

Writing credits on World Of Our Own sit evenly between the writing/producing partnerships of Mac/Hector, who have written many of Westlife’s epic ballads, and surpassed themselves this time around with To Be Loved and Drive (For All Time); and long-time collaborators Cheiron (providing uptempo tune Why Do I Love You to rival Britney Spears and N’SYNC). This time, the Westlife guys themselves have taken a larger share of the writing duties. Five tracks (Bop Bop Baby, When You Come Around, Don’t Say It’s Too Late, Don’t Let Me Go and Love Crime) are Westlife co-writes; two (I Wanna Grow Old With You and Imaginary Diva) are 100 percent Westlife compositions.

The day after that memorable Zouk Disco event, Conversations sat down for a one-on-five with Westlife. Here are excerpts:

How is your new album different from the previous two (Coast to Coast and Against All Odds)?

Shane: I think this time around we want to take a step up, something we didn’t quite do in our first and second albums. But I don’t mean to say that those two albums were not successful because they were. We’re putting more into our new album, better music. We’re learning as we go along, we are getting more experienced vocally. We’ve even written some of the songs.

Nicky: Shane is right. It’s really one big step up.

Kian: To be honest, there wasn’t a lot of variety in Coast to Coast, but it was a good album. World Of Our Own has greater range and a more uptempo sound. The quality of the songs is definitely better.

Bryan: We’re happy that we’ve written seven songs. The album took us four months to record. We know, as Shane and Nicky said, that we’ve taken a big step to make the Westlife sound better.

Does it make you guys nervous or insecure being on top of the charts as far as competition is concerned?

Mark: Being on top of the charts is a great thing and we’re working hard and doing our best to stay there. But we know that it’s not always going to happen, so we try to enjoy every day for what it is. Hopefully, the fans out there will continue to enjoy Westlife music to keep us on top of the charts.

How do you keep your status in the industry as far as updating your repertoire is concerned?

Bryan: We try to improve our style everytime, we try to make it better. With the change in our music, our fashion style changes, too, as we get older and more mature. But we’re not doing it drastically, only gradually.

Which group would you consider a "competition" – N’SYNC, maybe?

Shane: N’SYNC is huge in America but not so much in Europe. The Backstreet Boys are bigger in Europe. But they’ve (BSB) gone down a bit, so hopefully we can go up. Westlife has been together for only three years. N’SYNC has been around for seven years and the Backstreet Boys for nine years. We haven’t reached our peak yet.

Kian: Did you know that we supported the Backstreet Boys on our first ever gig? They’re very nice guys. If there’s one band we look up to, I would say it’s the Backstreet Boys.

Would you change your style, perhaps shift from pop to rock, to make it big in America?

Shane: We don’t see any point in changing our style because Westlife has become successful using its own kind of music, its own formula. We’re not going to change anything for the sake of America, although it’s our dream – and any band’s for that matter – to make it in America because it’s the biggest market in the world.

Besides music, what keeps the group together?

Nicky: We like almost the same things, so there’s no problem with anything that we do outside of music. We even play tennis together.

Does any of you have any plan of going solo without necessarily breaking away from the group?

Kian: As Shane said, we haven’t even reached our peak yet. We still have a long way to go and a lot of things to do as a group.

Shane: Yeah, we’re not even halfway yet. We don’t want what happened to Boyzone to happen to us – you know, people not knowing if they’ve broken up or not. If ever, we want to do it the way Take That did – go when the going is good, when you’re at the top.

Mark: As it is, we’re already planning our next album. The band can be together for at least three to five more years. We hope to continue making good music and, as Shane said, if we have to end it, we hope to do it while we’re at the top, at our peak.

There’s no doubt that you’re famous – and rich. How do you look at money?

Nicky: Money is important. Yes, very important!

Mark: Having money has been very helpful, for obvious reasons. But it has helped us realize that there are other things that are more important. Money is not the most important thing. What’s important is love, being loved and being in love. Having peace of mind is very important, too.

Shane: Money is important because our lifestyle is very expensive. After reaching a stage where you have a nice house and you drive a nice car, it’s kinda hard to imagine not having it. But money is not the most important thing. I’d rather be poor and have a wife and kids than have lots of money and be unhappy.

Bryan: When you’ve led this kind of life, you can’t go back to a nine-to-five job. The only trouble is that people think you’re worth an awful lot more than what you actually are.

Do you ever disagree on anything? How do you usually iron it out?

Mark: Because we are five very individual people, each one different from the others, it’s impossible for us to go through life or working without disagreeing on something. But it doesn’t mean that one person is wrong and the other person is right. Each of us has his own opinion and each of us is very passionate about it, and that can lead to disagreement.

Kian: But we never argue in a negative way. We always arrive at a positive point. We listen to each other’s opinions and find out what’s best for the group, for everybody and not just for one.

Bryan: When we’re tired, just like anybody else, we get cranky and that’s when we usually argue. But once rested, everything’s okay again.

Shane: We get on very well as a band because we’re good friends. The friendship is real and true; we’re not just pretending to be friends.

How did you become known as Westlife? Didn’t you think of any other name before you settled for Westlife?

Shane: As a band, we started off in the West of Ireland. We started as three members – Mark, Kian and me. Nicky and Bryan joined later. We originally called our group the Westside and it’s also because we happen to be in Western Europe. But there’s a play called West Side Story so we changed the name to Westlife so that we wouldn’t confuse the people. I guess in America there was also a group called Westside.

Did you know one another before you became known as a group, as Westlife?

Bryan: Mark, Kian and Shane knew each other for a long time before they got into Westlife. They were together in school.

Nicky: Bryan and I came into the group later. But the five of us were friends even before we became bandmates.

Bryan is happily married, I understand. What about the rest of the guys? How do you deal with the girls?

Shane: I’ve talked to girls whom I thought were really nice and they turned out to be interested in the wrong things. But I think I’ve found the right girl and, hopefully, I can hold on to her.

Kian: Anybody in our kind of work faces that problem. I guess that’s the way it is. This dating game is a very risky business, I tell you.

Mark: Being with Westlife, I must admit that you suddenly get very attractive girls coming on to you. I definitely walked into that with open arms during the first two years. But I look at Nicky, Bryan, Kian and Shane and I realized that there’s so many good things about having someone close to you. Right now, I’m just too afraid of getting hurt and falling in love with somebody who’s there for the wrong reasons. But I do hope to find someone real nice in the near future.

Let’s talk about something lighter. Yeah, what’s your favorite song(s)?

Bryan: Something Stupid (by Frank Sinatra)

Shane: I Believe I Can Fly (by R. Kelly)

Kian: She’s Like the Wind (from the movie Dirty Dancing)

Mark: Man in the Mirror (by Michael Jackson) and Without You (by Mariah Carey)

Nicky: Against All Odds (by Phil Collins)

Describe yourself in three words.

Bryan: Fun, shy and Irish.

Shane: Level-headed, generous and romantic.

Kian: Romantic, fun and shy.

Mark: Shy, reserved and friendly.

Nicky: Thoughtful, reliable and trustworthy.

What about your rule (or motto) in life?

Bryan: Live life today and deal with tomorrow when it comes.

Shane: You only live once, so live a good life.

Kian: Treat everybody the same way you want to be treated.

Mark: Money isn’t anything, but happiness is.

Nicky: Never think that anyone is better than you, and never think that you’re better than anyone else.