I managed to pin Nigel down for a far too quick chat at the end of last week, and we chatted about the show and just how hard it is to carve a career in the dance industry. He also gives us a great insight into what SYTYCD can do for a dancer’s career…

Gerard: So You Think You Can Dance is quite a new series to us in the UK, but you’ve had 6 series’ of the show in America and sold the format on to various other countries around the world. Why did it take so long for SYTYCD to come to the UK?

Nigel: Well, I think the BBC were attempting their own shows, because they did Dance X and Strictly Dance Fever and they also were successful with Strictly Come Dancing, so I think they may have felt that “Well, we’ve got a dancing show, and we’ve failed with the more modern versions we’ve tried to do.” With ITV, they’ve got three shows where viewers call in, which is X Factor, Britain’s Got Talent and Dancing On Ice. So, I figure everyone thought “Well we don’t need it.”

Gerard: Was the BBC the only choice for you?

Nigel: No, I’d have been very happy to put So You Think You Can Dance on any television station here – there’s no guarantee of success with any programme that you do. But I would have thought that with the viewing figures we were getting in America and the success of it, like most countries around the world, they would have wanted it.

Certainly, when it went to Australia, it became the number one show there and won their version of the television awards. In Canada it was huge. It’s in France, it’s in the Ukraine, its in about 17 other countries around the world and successful in every one of them.

Gerard: And, judging by the early viewing figures, successful over here too?

Nigel: Well, I’m keeping my fingers crossed – I’m not jumping up and down yet. It came on the back of a very good promo campaign from the BBC, some good press and if anything, it was seven hours of American television pumped into 70 minutes of BBC television. It felt a bit like our series on fast forward.

Gerard: You know, that’s exactly how I felt when I watched it? I actually came away feeling tired…

Nigel: [laughs] You did? Me too!

Gerard: The contestants really put in a lot of work for those auditions – is that a reflection of how hard you have to work to dance professionally?

Nigel: It is, there’s no question about that. And people say we’re being tough or nasty – the truth is the dance world works so hard, you have to be a gymnast, you’re constantly pulling muscles, wrapping them up and carrying on dancing, twisting your ankles, breaking your toes. And you can’t be a crybaby, you’re supposed to be an athlete, you know?

The fact is with this, they’re not gonna win a multi-million dollar contract at the end of it, they’re not gonna get some recording deal. They’re going to get the title of Britain’s Favourite Dancer, £100,000 and on the Monday morning they could well go in front of Arlene, who was absolutely delighted with them on Saturday night, but go in front of her for another show and have her say “Sorry, you’re not right for this part.” And that is what a dancer’s life is. It’s rejection a lot of the time.

Gerard: What effect has the show had for the winners of the American version of the show?

Nigel: I must say Gerard, not just for the winners, but for people who’ve taken part in the show. Somebody who came second, Twitch, is now the star of Step Up 3, which is yet to be released. A young lady called Kherington was the star of the remake of Fame. The dancers are in Step Up 1 and 2, the choreographers too are being snapped up for Broadway and commercials and videos. 3 of our dancers are on the American version of Strictly, Dancing With The Stars. Others have gone on to form crews and won programmes like America’s Favourite Dance Crew – they’re all being successful in their own right.

But dancers, as well you know, don’t become stars anymore. There’s no Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly anymore.

Gerard: But as you said yourself, dance seems to have come back into the public consciousness again…

Nigel: It certainly has, and it’s gained much more of a following in America now. There’s much more integrity involved with it. They realise the athleticism that’s required now, and as you pointed out yourself, the hard work that goes into it. The hard work, the physical work involved, only to be told your toes weren’t pointed. You shrug your shoulders and go back and work on it for next week.

Gerard: What’s the difference between someone who comes to you from a classically trained background and someone who’s self taught?

Nigel:  Street dancing? The difference that I’ve found is when they’ve been formally trained, whether it’s jazz or whatever, there’s a fear there of doing anything with their body that they know their body can’t do. But with a street kid, they will attempt and sometimes carry off, things that are – we believe – physically totally impossible. And when a kid jumps from a standing position onto the back of their head, with their legs in the air and without any hands, you go why would you even attempt that, for God’s sake? But it looks fantastic! The judges, literally we scream on occassions, because that isn’t physically possible!

And when that world mixes with the trained world as it has done for the last six years in America, that is very exciting, because so many people watch the show. This is, without question, female skewed. It isn’t anywhere near as big a genre as Britain’s Got Talent or The X Factor – it’s always gonna be a much much smaller audience. A smaller audience like myself that’s passionate about it, but much smaller so that now that’s growing in America – we’ve got more men watching, dads, boyfriends who are just shocked at what these kids are doing.

Gerard: If I can make the observation, I don’t think that we saw any backstory for any of the contestants – there were no dead relatives or sob stories…it was just strictly about what they could do.

Nigel: To be frank with you, you’re always going to get a few stories, because it’s important that you feel as if you know these people. I don’t need to know that Dad’s just died of cancer, or Mum’s a crackhead alcoholic who’s in rehab. I’m not interested in that – it doesn’t show me who the person is really. It’s what the person did, and what the trials and tribulations they went through to be a dancer that’s important to me. I think that side of it – the style of dancing they do – that’s important to me. Because then when they do Bhangra or Bollywood, then I know they’ve never done this before or even dreamt of doing it in their lives.

So, anything that pertains to their growth as a dancer, their growth on this programme, is important to me. Anything that leads you to like them is important to me. At the end of the day it’s about personality. That’s why we don’t say Britain’s Best Dancer, we say Britain’s Favourite Dancer. It’s about personality far more than technical ability – we expect them to be able to dance, otherwise they wouldn’t be in our top 14.

After that, I expect, and I call it the Three P’s – the Power that they work with, their Personality and the Performance. And it really is that which will sell them to the British public.

Gerard: Unusually, this year the names of the final 14 contestants were released to the press before the programme had even launched. How did you feel about that?

Nigel: [laughs ominously] It’s a learning process over here, and I certainly would have classed that as a mistake. It’s a mistake that will obviously be rectified in the future, but it didn’t really matter, because in that 70 minute show, you didn’t really get to know the people anyway. And that’s my critique of the show – I don’t need it to be flashy and Hollywood, we don’t even do that in Hollywood! It’s much more about the grit, the determination, the sweat. It needs to be respected, the work that’s put in needs to be respected, and unlike other talent shows, we want these kids to come back in the future.

If you’re tone deaf, you’re gonna come back and sound crap each year. But if you’re a dancer and you train, a year’s training can improve a dancer beyond belief. And kids that have come to us in America for three years running and have improved, have gone on to win.

Gerard: But like you said on Saturday night yourself, you need to have raw talent or ability to begin with…

Nigel: Yes. There’s no question about that. I might want to speak seven languages, but if I don’t have a talent for languages, then I’m gonna struggle. And we’re asking them to speak many languages – just because you can speak French, wel tough! We now want you to speak Spanish and we want you to speak Latin.  That’s what this programme forces them to do – it’s not just the talent in their own genre that they’ve got to be good at, it’s adapting.

Gerard: For all those new viewers out there who’ve never seen So You Think You Can Dance before – what happens next, in the live shows?

Nigel: We put them together for two weeks – we want to make sure that one of the partners will protect the other one with whatever genre they pick out of a hat. They literally do pick out the dance from a hat – some have got swing, some have contemporary, some jazz. Britain’s going to vote – positively – this is our favourite couple. Rather than vote for the individuals and have 14 telephone lines, we start with 7 and people vote for their favourite couple.

The bottom two couples then become four individual dancers and they will dance in front of the judges. They dance solo for 30 seconds. The judges live on Saturday night will release one male and one female. The public aren’t voting somebody off, they’re voting for their favourite.

Whether that’s a couple or parts of the couple, that doesn’t matter to us. If it’s a couple then obviously the other couple will remain. If it’s not, then we’ll partner the remaining male and female the next week.

Gerard: In America you ran two series of So You Think You Can Dance back to back. Is there a chance the same thing will happen here?

Nigel: No, we’ve only done it for one year, and that was only because FOX wanted us to kick into a new programme they had called Glee. That’s only occurred for one year and that was seasons five and six back to back. It won’t be happening again.

View the original post SYTYCD: Interview with Nigel Lythgoe on Unreality TV

Hi guys, this is Gerard from Unreality TV. How’s it going?

It’s going great – we’ve just come off the X Factor like, I can’t believe we were part of X Factor.

It’s been about two weeks now since you were eliminated from X Factor – what’ve you been up to since you left the show?

It’s been kinda crazy, we’ve done so much stuff. We’ve been doing photoshoots and everything we’re doing is a highlight. We’ve done late night performances and appearances in clubs and going out and performing for the fans.

We never visualised it like we had 16 million people watching us on TV, now we can actually believe it because we’ve got so many people coming up to us on the street and everyone recognises us. And when we’re together, we’re even more recognizable.

Can people tell you apart?

No-one can really tell us apart when we’re together, but everyone who knows us, like friends and family can tell because they’re used to us. I have a scar on my lip and John has a scar on his nose. John got his when we were playing hurling, and he just got hit.

You guys had such a lot of negative press during your time on X Factor. How difficult was that for you to deal with?

It’s kinda weird, because we always said our prayers and stuff and we always knew we had our family there. Whatever was written, our friends and family knew it wasn’t true. No matter what was said, if it was bad, we didn’t let it get us down. If it was good we didn’t let it go to our heads. We always stayed removed and focused on the show and every week we’d just go out and do a performance that was memorable and made an impact.

Why do you think people were being so harsh about you?

I think people weren’t used to change. Think about it, 16 million people watch this show and there are going to be people that don’t like you. I think we accepted that when we went into the show, even in general people don’t like everyone.

We always had a really good fanbase out there and we always tried to perform for them and not worry about the negative. You get 100 good things written about you for every one negative, so we try to always focus on the positive.

I think the most common complaint I heard about you was that people didn’t see you as a legitimate act.

What’s ‘legitimate’?

I think people saw you as more of a comedy routine…

I feel that everyone just looks at these reality shows and people wanting to be the next Whitney Houston or the next such and such. We came onto the show and we were just ourselves, just John and Edward, totally different to anything that’s ever been on these shows. We used the stage to its full potential and we did things that had never been done on the show before.

We never went onto the show thinking we had to be a certain way – we always wanted to paint the big picture – it’s about showing the full performance, how you can dance, how you can entertain, not just standing there and singing. If you want to just stand and sing, you can go to a gospel choir – its called The X Factor.

I think that people are not used to change, they’re used to these shows like American Idol and everything with people just standing there and singing a song and we’re just completely different.

When you auditioned for the show, did you expect to get this far?

I think when we went in, we knew that we loved music and we thought that the X Factor would be a good way to go about it. And we just took every single step, every single week that we could. And we’re really grateful to the fans for voting for us.

We always zone away from the hype – we’re the same guys who entered the competition. A lot of people go into these shows and start thinking they’re celebrities or whatever. We never ever think we’re bigger than what we are, we’re always John and Edward. We’re really happy about it though, because we did things that had never been done on the show before.

We always stayed true to ourselves – we never thought we had to change. We just stayed ourselves because that’s what our fans fell in love with.

Were there other contestants on the show whose behavior changed during the competition?

I couldn’t really analyze that, because we haven’t known them that long. I think that certain people think they have to act a certain way, like I want to be the next Spice Girls or the next Justin Timberlake. You should never want to be the next anything. I think that’s why me and Edward got so far, because we were just ourselves.

How much did you guys think about your image before going on the X Factor?

We never really thought about it much. We never thought it was going to be a big deal – we like wearing shirts and ties and if it wasn’t that it’d have been t-shirts. We don’t like to overthink things – if we wanna pick our nose on stage, we will.

We always spiked up our hair, because if you’re playing sports or something and you get all sweaty it’s always in your face. We just liked to have our hair up because it was really slick and aerodynamic or something.

One of my favourite performances from you two was your Queen week song, Under Pressure. Do you have a particular favourite from the live shows?

I think one of our favourites was Oops I Did It Again (by Britney Spears). We never really knew the lyrics to any of the songs. Other acts did songs they knew, but every song we were given we just tried our best with. We really liked Queen week, they really respected us a bit more because we’d already done one of their songs.

Finally, what’s next for you guys – will you continue with the singing career or will you branch off into TV work?

For us, the sky’s the limit. We’re not going to turn down anything, we’ll try anything out - we’re really excited about it.

View the original post Finally…the Jedward Interview! on Unreality TV

Often, when you chat to an X Factor contestant they’re media prepped to the point that you get nothing interesting or relevant to report – not so with Mr Archer, who spoke openly about his frustrations with the X Factor format and his gratitude to the show for giving him such a big break.

Here’s the transcript of our chat (and thanks to Jamie for being a great interviewee!)

It’s not often we get to interview an X Factor contestant at the end of the week – tell us about what you’ve been up to.

It’s just been madness. I’ve been doing loads of press and sorting out the upcoming shows I’m doing. You do a tour after the show, when you come out. I did my first show yesterday in Rochdale and it was amazing! I felt really natural on stage because I wasn’t under the constraints of the show – I could really be myself. And I had a great time up there, the crowd were really receptive, it was brilliant.

There’s loads coming up – there’s the X Factor tour after that, it’s non-stop. The X Factor tour starts sometime in February I think.

What are the signs of a record deal at this stage?

Well at the moment, everything goes quiet until the end of the X Factor show. No-one knows what’s going on with that. None of the X Factor contestants do. We don’t find out until between one and three months after the show.

Can we go right back to the start for a moment – what brought you to apply for the X Factor in the first place?

Well, I’d been playing for a long time. I’d tried to get record companies and A&R people down to gigs. I’d tried everything to get people to take note and just give me a chance. But nothing was working. I knew that if I could get people to see my performances, then they may give me a chance, and I just wanted an opportunity to do that. So, I went on the show, knowing that I was coming from a rock background in a pop competition, but I thought it was worth a shot.

I thought “What’s a great way of getting people to see me in a short space of time?” And I thought X Factor. I came on thinking I’d probably go out in the first round or something because that’s not what people want in the show. But then it kept working.

It’s funny, because people keep having a go at the X Factor and Simon Cowell because it’s plastic pop. But I have to say, it was Simon Cowell who gave me my break after all these years of people not giving me a chance, so I’m really grateful to him for that.

So you’d agree with what Simon said on the show last week – talking about Sting’s comments about X Factor.

I completely echo that. As a lifelong Police fan, I can’t say anything bad about Sting, but the public deciding who they like is an age-old thing – since the days of Opportunity Knocks. Out of that have come some brilliant acts.

You’ve got Leona, who’s a superstar because of this show and JLS…

Let me stop you there! Come on, you can’t seriously think JLS would have been a success if they’d been picked up by Louis Walsh?

Ermm, no, I wouldn’t have thought so. But they got the exposure that the record company was able to go “we’ll do them, but we’ll do them in a different way”. I’m not saying that the show always does the right thing with people, but it gives them the exposure to go off and do something else.

The X Factor doesn’t really have a good track record for the Over 25 category. Steve Brookstein is still the only winner from the older contestants. Was that a concern for you when you applied?

No, not really, because I just saw it as “I’m going on The X Factor” Either it’s going to work or it’s not going to work. And ultimately it didn’t work because I’m totally different to the artists that usually go on the X Factor. I think we’re going to have another Over 25’s winner this year in the shape of Olly Murs.

The audition footage of you, Danyl and Olly had some of the best audience reaction. Is that a sign of how strong that category is this year?

It’s also a sign that sometimes the show works and sometimes it doesn’t work for certain people. If you look at Olly’s first audition and you look at him now, it’s basically the same audition. They’ve sorted out his hair, given him a nice suit but basically he’s doing Superstition again – you know, the dancing, the cheeky grin. It works for him.

What I did in my first audition was never really repeated again, because I wasn’t allowed to repeat it again.

You alluded to that earlier on when you said you weren’t able to be yourself within the constraints of the song. How was that for you?

It was frustrating to be honest. You’ve got two things going on – what you think is right for you and what the show thinks is right for you. When I came on the X Factor, I fully was aware of the fact that I probably wouldn’t be able to do what I wanted to do. But I thought maybe in time they’d let me do my own thing. But it became apparent that my vision and their vision weren’t really reconciling in any way shape or form. So, that’s what took me out of the show – I think people could tell I wasn’t able to do my own thing!

When you were doing Queen week, I was hoping you’d do something heavier like Stone Cold Crazy.

Well I had my own ideas of songs I wanted to do on Queen week…

Like what?

[Laughs] Ah, I can’t talk about it unfortunately, because if I told you then it would go all over the place. I had my own ideas and they weren’t listened to. I love Radio Gaga, but I wanted to do something else.

The problem was, every week I wanted to do something chancy and edgy, something people wouldn’t expect me to do and the song was one not everybody knows very well, but they’d love it when they heard it.

Like on Rock Week, I wanted to do Mr Brightside coz it’s fresher, more modern and not something you’d expect me to do. But obviously being a Saturday night TV show, the people in charge wanted to go with something a bit more obvious, like normal rock which is not really what I wanted to do.

That’s a shame – because it’s the first time they’ve every tackled a rock theme and I was hoping that they’d give it a bit of an edge.

I knew in Rock Week that I was in trouble. I knew that this was the one week that I was supposed to come across with something. Rock Week was supposed to be the one week where people said Jamie did something special and he’s a real contender.

In the end I don’t think that I did. I don’t think it was brilliant or anywhere near world class, and I think people thought I’d peaked when I hadn’t.

On the weeks that you weren’t doing rock stuff, you were getting amazing comments about your soulful vocals.

But that’s who I am – I’d rather take chances, do something edgy. Hurt was Simon’s idea. When we were doing Christina Aguilera, I said Beautiful, he said Hurt. We tried that out and liked it. And Hurt is not a song everybody in the country knows and it went to #9 in the charts, and Sex On Fire went to #6 after I sang it for my audition. Again, that wasn’t a song that everybody knew – I was more into that, people saying they didn’t know that song, but they really liked it.

Do you write your own material, Jamie?

Yeah, I do. I write my own stuff, I play guitar and I’m a producer as well. I’ve got plenty of demos and stuff and I’m gonna continue to write and demo and hopefully by the time all the X Factor stuff is done, by the end of the tour, I wanna go straight into the studio and record. Because the X Factor is not my career, it’s the start of my career. It’s a launchpad, so that’s why I’m not sad in any way, because it’s given me a chance, this show. Simon Cowell took a chance on me when no-one else would, and I love him for that, I respect him for that and I thank him for that.

A lot of tabloid speculation around the contestants this year – is there any truth in the rumour about you and Coco from Kandy Rain?

That old chestnut! The truth of it is, it’s really nice to see her from time to time, but obviously she’s really busy, I’m really busy, but we catch up from time to time and enjoy a drink and what have you, but that’s it. We have a bit of fun from time to time.

Nothing formal…no rings exchanged then?

No rings exchanged!

You’re in a unique position, you’ve been in the bubble of possibly the biggest X Factor ever. There’s more speculation, more watercooler speculation this year than ever before. How much of the press you get is made up and how much is real?

I’d go 50/50. Some of it’s absolute rubbish. Usually, the basic point of the story might be true, but it gets blown out of all proportion. It’s like that thing with me and Simon having arguments. We just disagreed over song choices and we disagreed with passion. That was it, but it got turned into “We’d fallen out, we’re not speaking” It was ridiculous. Sometimes the nucleus of a story might be right, but it gets blown out of all proportion.

It’s like the Stacey and Olly thing – it’s not happening, it’s not true. They hang out because they’re from the same neck of the woods. They have the same sort of sensibilities, I guess, because they’re both from Essex. It’s natural in a house of strangers that you move toward people that are like yourself.

You make Essex sound like a foreign country…

[Laughs] Well, maybe in some way it is!

What’s the strangest thing you’ve read about yourself in the papers?

[Thinks for a minute] I don’t know, because you don’t really read the papers when you’re in the house. One of the things that X Factor said – and quite rightly – is that you shouldn’t read the papers or websites and forums, because it’ll drive you nuts. So, we don’t get internet in the house in case people read negative reviews.

I reckon over the next few months I’ll take a look at some old articles. I’ll tell you the one that made me laugh was that the house was out of control and that John and Edward were looking at porn. That story had absolutely zero substance to it whatsoever. We had three researchers in the house, security around the house and people from X Factor coming in and out.

You’ve got to understand that we work so hard during the week that literally there wouldn’t be the energy for everyone to go nuts in the house. That’s it really.

We talked a little bit earlier about Sting’s comments. This week, a lot of people have been talking about the impact of The X Factor on the pop charts at the moment.

I think that people look at this in the wrong way – I think it sets the bar for record companies and artists to rise to the challenge set down by X Factor. This is why I talk about the fact that it is OK to have X Factor around. Whether you like ‘em or loathe ‘em.

If there’s a lot of X Factor acts in the charts, that’s because the show’s huge and the public are making all the decisions. Other artists can stand around and complain or they can raise their game.

What do you think about the final 12 this year – is it safe to say that they’re the 12 best singers in the country, or are we looking for entertainers at this point?

We’re probably looking for a bit of both – and that’s what the final 12 were. If you look at the final six in our category, Olly, Danyl and me were the entertainers while the other three were probably the better singers. They do want more than just a great voice. You want to be entertained and to be engaged and people want to be part of their lives. People need the whole package and that’s why it’s called X Factor.

It seems this year is all about crazy themes and over the top productions. That’s what this year is all about, it’s the year of the entertainer I think, and maybe next year people will be like “Let’s get it back to being a singing competition again.”

You know who I blame for that? Brian Friedman.

Brian Friedman! What a crazy guy, I love him! He’s a complete mentalist! But that’s what his job is, to make it bigger and better and bolder. As a people in this country, we don’t generally big up ‘over the top’. We’re always playing things down. The X Factor gives us an excuse to say ‘over the top’ is great.

Brian’s productions are over the top, they’re ridiculous, they’re entertaining.

You know what I want to see? If it’s still George Michael this week, I want to see someone perform Outside on a giant oversized glitter toilet with dancing policemen, glitter balls and the whole works.

If Brian had his way and it wasn’t 8:00 in the evening on Saturday they probably would do that! But you see even you’re saying it – you want over the top, you want outrageous.

Well, if you’re going to be over the top, you have to be right over the top.

Yes, and that is why Jedward are so successful…

One last question – what are you doing tonight?

I’m playing two gigs – one in Southampton and one in Brighton. This is what I love to do – performing live.

View the original post Interview: We give Jamie Archer an X Factor grilling on Unreality TV

Kandy Rain, who were formed well in advance of this year’s X Factor, are in frighteningly good form. All four of the girls are bellowing down the line at me excitedly. These girls are a force of nature – laughing and talking over the top of each other. And they’ve got that weird synergy that when one girl stops talking, another will pick up from where they left off and continue. And spookily, all four frequently say exactly the same thing at the same time.

And that’s where we pick up our interview, with the Kandy Rain girls excitedly screaming hello down the phone lines…

Hello!!! We were sorry to hear that you girls got eliminated on Sunday night’s X Factor. We’d hoped that you’ve get a little father than this in the competition. Did you feel it was unfair that you got eliminated in the first week?

If we’re going based on our performance, then we don’t really feel it was fair. We went out there and gave everything on Saturday night and we felt we put in a really good performance, but due to the press and everything – we’ve had a lot of bad press – so in that respect, it wasn’t much of a shock.

We were talking about this last week, and it seems that the likelihood of a group getting eliminated in the first week is actually quite high.

I don’t think that’s fair to say. I know we were the first to leave, but the reason we went I feel was based on the press. In terms of the groups, I actually felt that on Saturday night, Louis Walsh had the strongest category.

Cheryl and Dannii both commented about your costumes. As Simon said, both of them have worn risque costumes on stage in the past, so how do you respond to that?

Well, we obviously didn’t agree, but we respect everything Cheryl and Dannii had to say. The thing with Kandy Rain, when we got out and perform, we want to enjoy ourselves and so we dress up and wear costumes. The outfits we wear onstage aren’t necessarily the kind of thing we’d wear walking down the street in the daytime. In terms of the outfits, we love our outfits!

Unfortunately, you guys didn’t get a chance to see us and understand what Kandy Rain is all about – we’re just four girls, one dream and all we wanna do is just go out there and just dress up. I think we’re all about having fun and enjoying ourselves and that’s what we did on Saturday.

Who chose the song, by the way, and do you think it worked for you? Do you think it kind of played to your past jobs as strippers?

We chose it with our mentor, Louis. To be quite honest with you, I think the song had no relevance at all to our past. I thought the song was perfect for us, and the way we were dressed was quite relevant to the song. I don’t know if anyone remembers, but in Robert Palmer’s video for Addicted To Love, the backing singers were dressed quite similar to how we were dressed.

We just dress ourselves according to the song, whether it’s a ballad or it’s an uptempo, sexy, rocky song, we’ll dress ourselves accordingly.

How did you feel that the majority of comments were about your style rather than your performance?

Well, I just feel that we came on here to enter this competition as singers and the comments had nothing to do with our vocals – it was all focussed on our outfits. At the end of the day, it’s a talent competition, it isn’t Britain’s Next Top Model.

That said, the fact that they didn’t comment on our singing must’ve meant that we were so fantastic there was nothing negative to say! Dannii and Cheryl know this, outfits can be changed, but we would still wear those costumes again. We wouldn’t change our style for the world, because that is us. When we put on a show, we really put on a show – we want people to think “What are they going to do next week? What are they going to wear?”

It’s boring to play safe, don’t you agree Gerard? Like, why’d you wanna be safe, boy? You’ve gotta take risks!

Well, just so you know, I enjoyed the performances and the costumes…

[A roar of laughter erupts into the earpiece] I’ll bet you did!!!

At this point, all four members of Kandy Rain are laughing and hollering down the phone and it’s impossible to tell who is saying what. Worse still, the girls “creatively misinterpret” a comment I make, and mercilessly take the piss out of me. As they tease me about whether or not I’m blushing on the other side of the line, one of the girls asks me which Kandy Rain member was my favourite…

After a flurry of discussion, we decide it was Azi (the tall one) that I liked the best, but they think I’m referring to the blazer she was wearing.

“So you like blazers, huh?” she purrs. “Well, you can borrow it whenever you want, babe. We’ll send it in to you, you can get it fitted…”

I’m out of my depth here, and very much out of my league. I need to get these girls focussed on the interview here, so I say:

Hey, Kandy rein it in for a minute, will you?

[laughter] Good comeback Gerard!

We read that Louis has said to the press that Danyl Johnson was giving you guys a hard time during the rehearsals. Is this true?

We don’t really wanna talk about Danyl, you know? This is our time. We wish him luck though, he’s an amazing singer. Everyone’s got different personalities anyway, but we wish him luck.

There’s been a lot of hype about the other girl group in your category, Miss Frank…

They’re amazing, lovely girls. Louis was very good with everybody in his category, and all three of us were very different. We all had something to give.

Yeah, we were surprised by John and Edward at the weekend.

Really? We love them! You know what, they are very underrated those boys, and at the end of the day, John and Edward are little stars. Those boys have grown, and the people that are criticising them are in their late twenties/early thirties and they’re not young kids – and it’s young kids that love watching ‘em bounce about the stage.

There’s a place for John and Edward – I could see that on Nickelodeon, the Teen Awards. I mean, if you look at the likes of Britney and Justin Timberlake coming from the Mickey Mouse Club, that’s the same type of thing that John and Edward are like.

And can I just say a big thank you to those two boys, because they helped us pack last night. We were really upset and they cheered us up – they were really there for us, even though they’re young. They really did their parents proud.

You girls are no strangers to bad press these days – how do you respond to all that press attention that you got?

At the moment, we just don’t want to read the papers these days. We just don’t understand why people keep wanting to say the same things over and over. We’re bored of it. It’s not even the focus – we’re doing X Factor, it’s a talent competition, people should be focussing on our singing. I can understand running one story, but don’t keep going on and on about it.

You just have to admit it – after our performance on Saturday night, people just need to drop it now and actually just say Kandy Rain are good.

Let’s talk about Kandy Rain for a minute – how long were you guys together before you auditioned for X Factor?

Well, we were together for a year as a group, but Coco and Azi have known each other for three years and we met the other girls a year ago. We decided to form Kandy Rain and there was no going back, Kandy Rain forever!

What was the goal with Kandy Rain? What type of group did you want to be?

We wanted to be a modern day All Saints. You know what, the group you saw on stage on Saturday night – that’s what we had in mind. More than being like any other group, though, we just wanted to be ourselves. Luckily enough, all four of us have got great personalities that actually gel and fit quite well together.

What do you take from the Pussycat Dolls comparisons?

We love the Pussycat Dolls, but we’re absolutely nothing like them. I think we’re a lot rockier.

In the States, you’ve got the Pussycat Dolls, but over here in England there isn’t anybody like us, so the only thing they can compare us to is an act like Pussycat Dolls. But we’re not, we’re Kandy Rain.

What’s in the future for Kandy Rain?

What we’ve been doing from day one is working hard, and that’s what we’re going to keep doing. As we always say, you haven’t seen the last of Kandy Rain!

Who are you hoping will win the show now that you’ve gone?

STACEY!!!! She’s an amazing girl, she’s a beautiful girl, inside and out. We got to spend a lot of time with her because we shared a room and she’s such an amazing girl, she’s got such a good heart and she really deserves it. She deserves to win!

After the interview…

After interviewing Kandy Rain, I have a horrible feeling that the public have been mislead about these girls. The stripper stories in the papers may not have done the girls any favours in the competition – but they’re not the trashy types we might have been led to believe.

If anything, they’re a fantastically vibrant group of friends – who were still laughing hard at the end of a long day of interviews. Their war cry – “You haven’t seen the last of Kandy Rain” shows that the girls have a lot of self-belief about their future as a group. They’re not ashamed of their pasts – plenty of girls are stripping as a way of paying their way through college – the most famous of the group Coco Lloyd, was a law student before entering X Factor.

They’re not bitter about the endless tabloid reports about them, just bored of a story that’s been blown out of all proportion. However, it’s a shame that the public didn’t get a chance to know the real Kandy Rain, because I think they’d have rather liked them. We wish the girls the best of luck in the future and hopefully all the X Factor Xposure will lead to a real career in the music business for them!

View the original post X Factor Interview: Kandy Rain on Unreality TV

She’s been described as musical marmite, she missed a week of live shows due to laryngitis, and on Saturday, Diana Vickers left the X Factor after losing out in the public vote.

You’d think she’d be devastated: getting to the semi-final and being in her strongest form in weeks, but Diana is every bit as positive as we’ve been told repeatedly by her admirers throughout this competition.

Hi Diana! How are you feeling this morning?

Heeeyyyy! You know, I’m feeling fine, I’m quite content, and I’m just excited about starting my new life basically.

We’ve been watching every week, and everything seemed to be going so well for you until the week you got laryngitis. Then for a few weeks, things didn’t go so well for you.

Well, you know, it knocked my confidence a lot and it took me a while to build it back up. And I was never the most confident girl anyway – it took a lot of guts, because everybody had an opinion on it. But people did support me, and thanks so much to them, because they really had faith in me.

I mean, I stayed for so many weeks after that and it just showed that people were behind me and backing me. It was my fate – it happened, and I believe everything happens for a reason, and I believe I’ve dealt with it well. Obviously it knocked my confidence a bit, but that’s just the way it goes.

Were you aware that there was a tabloid controversy at the time?

Yeah, but I knew that was gonna happen. But it was obvious I wanted to go out there that Saturday night and I cried my heart out when I couldn’t. But the littlest thing goes in the tabloids, and I knew this was quite a big deal and it was going to be everywhere. The people that loved stuck by me, and the folk who didn’t like me criticised me.

For me, although you were one of the youngest contestants, you probably had the most unique singing style in the competition. Was that something you developed consciously?

You know, when I was younger, I was singing that way, and then listening to various artists who influenced me and everything. I was just being me, and I was afraid a lot of people would judge me, but a lot of people liked it and appreciated me.

What singers influenced that style of singing?

I’m into male singers – I love James Blunt, James Morrison and bands like Snow Patrol and Coldplay, things like that. I’ve only recently got into The Cranberries and Blondie. I love various types of artists, but mostly males.

You also had Gary Barlow in the Take That week making hints about signing you…

Yeah, I think Gary was having a giggle, but you know it was fun and he’s a lovely guy. You never know, fingers crossed!

Buy you know Gary has A&R responsibilities now, he’s actually out signing new talent…

Oh, really? Wow! You can never take anything too seriously, though. I’m just excited and looking forward to what’s to come. It’s so exciting.

Some people are devastated at you being voted off, but I think in reality this could be a good opportunity for you.

Yeah, you know, the other day they told us there could only be one winner and we’d all have to come off. You’ve just got to see what happens – X Factor gets you out there and it’s made me realise what I love and what I want to do. It’s given me exposure, which is great and I’ve got people behind me now. And it’s great, I just want to see what happens.

What have been your favourite songs from the series that you’ve sung, and which didn’t you like?

I loved singing White Flag and I enjoyed singing Call Me. I loved the first live show when I sang With or Without You and when I did Man In The Mirror. The best songs are the ones that you get lost in, that you don’t even have to think about singing. I got lost in those ones.

I think the week I got back from having laryngitis and had to sing Yellow was a bad week.

Was Coldplay a bad song choice for you?

I wasn’t going to sing a song I wasn’t comfortable with, and we chose the Coldplay song the night before the live show. But it was something that I enjoyed and I liked that song, and I survived until the next week, and that’s all that matters really.

Yeah, I suppose that’s one thing to remember – even though you had a couple of bad weeks, people were still behind you and still voting for you.

Yeah, I mean, even now people are adding to my fan page and it’s over! Honestly, everyone supporting me has been incredible, and people coming up to me saying “I voted for you!” I say, thank you, because it’s a fact that I wouldn’t have got so far without people’s votes.

One of the first things we noticed about you were your barefoot performances. How did that come about?

I do that because I always run around with no shoes on. In the studio, people are always going “Diana, put your shoes on.” but I hate having shoes on. I’d rather be free! When I’m onstage wearing big stillettoes, it’s something to worry about, you feel awkward. I like just moving the way I do and being natural and being comfortable onstage.

I’d hate to feel wooden because I was worried about falling over when I’m walking.

Were you happy about how you were styled on the show?

Yeah, I loved it. I think they got me down to a “T”. Every outfit I loved. When you’re on that show, you need all the confidence you can get, and the stylist Faye really worked with me. And when you feel your best, you really perform your best. That’s how she made me feel.

OK, I can’t let this interview pass without telling you that a couple of the guys on our forum are head over heels in love with you…

Awwwww, really? Send them my love, would you?

Did it ever cross your mind that you’d have a male fanbase?

Never! Ever, ever, ever! Not at all! It’s very strange! You forget what audiences you appeal to and stuff. It’s just so strange, and there are people who come and see us and they’re lovely.

I know it’s early days for you, and you don’t know what’s around the corner. I’d imagine you’re hoping to get signed?

Yeah, definitely. It’s all down to me now, but hopefully with the help of the people around me, I can do really, really well.

And you’re off on the X Factor tour?

Yeah, I’m so excited. I’m coming to Ireland, and I’ve never been to Ireland and I’m so excited about being with the guys, honestly. I can’t wait.

You’ve been living in the house with everyone for about three months now – you must all be very close-knit.

Yeah, we’re just like a family, we know each other really well, and everyone knows each other’s bad habits. We just know each other inside-out. It’s amazing.

~~~

So, we wish Diana all the best for the future. I know you guys always ask what the person was like to talk to – well, Diana is every bit as kooky and excitable and friendly as she was on X Factor. It was lovely to chat with her, and I seriously expect her to be gracing our pop charts within the year!

View the original post X Factor: Interview with Diana Vickers on Unreality TV

Yesterday, I got the chance to speak to one of the sweetest X Factor contestants in this year’s show: Ruth Lorenzo.

Ruth was voted out on Saturday night, and we received a storm of comments complaining that Eoghan or Diana should have gone instead. Many of our commenters said they’d never watch the show again!

And so we catch up with Ruth to chat about how she came to audition for X Factor, what her real musical tastes are, and where her career is headed after this. In fact, we may have solved the conundrum that was bothering me on Saturday night (I couldn’t work out how she could be marketed as a singer) – we have decided that Ruth should front her own rock band!

Commiserations on being voted out on Saturday night. Was it a surprise that you were the one to go?

You know, it was a surprise, but it wasn’t a surprise, because everyone has to go from now on apart from the winner. So, I didn’t want to go, so I tried my best, I sang my best and I tried to do everything the best I could. Obviously someone had to go and it was me. But still, I’m so proud of myself, so happy and I’m enjoying every single minute of it.

On Unreality TV, the article about you getting voted off has got 70 comments in a matter of hours. Most of the commenters are vowing never to watch X Factor again, because you’re not on it. They’re saying it just won’t be the same without you.

Oh my God, that’s amazing! That just gave me goosebumps!

Actually, my taxi driver said the same thing this morning. He was like “Ruth, why did you have to go? You were my favourite! I’m not watching X Factor again.” I said “No, you have to watch it and you have to vote for Alexandra!”

The thing I’ve been hearing most over the weekend is that Eoghan and Diana were the weakest candidates and they should have gone instead of you…

But really, who votes? Eoghan and Diana are so close to the younger people, and they’re so young and so bright and full of life that it’s normal. The younger kids vote and they vote their eyes out. You know how much support they’re getting and they’re so proud of it. They deserve every single vote they get.

I’d like to know, what drove you to audition for The X Factor in the first place?

My best friend’s daughter – she gave me the application form for my birthday last year, so I just had to do it. I went to my first audition in Manchester and I walked through that queue thinking “How the hell am I going to do this?” There were 22,000 people there, and I was one of the last to get there, because I’m a Spaniard and we’re always late!

As I walked through the queue I was going “Listen guys, let’s just go home, I don’t want to do this.” And the little girl just held my hand and said “Listen Ruth, you have to do it. You’re getting through and you’re going to be in X Factor, I know you are.” I just did it for her, and just look at me now. It’s amazing.

We’re had a few contestants in reality shows in the UK from Europe. Chico comes to mind, although I think you’re not so much of a novelty act! How did you think your nationality would influence voters?

I really don’t know. For someone who’s not from the country, that obviously has a strong Spanish accent, it just shows how much this nation appreciates talent. It shows they liked me for who I am and not just because of where I’m from. I feel so much at home in this country – I’m not moving out of here!

I do want to sing in Spanish, because there’ve been people all around the world supporting me. From South America, from California, from the States, from Mexico, India, Australia. They’re saying “Ruth, it doesn’t matter what language you sing in.” So, I do want to sing in Spanish, hopefully one day if I make an album.

I didn’t want to sing in Spanish on the show, because I thought it was disrespectful to the British public. They know I can sing Spanish – they know that. I just wanted to be on the same level as the rest of the contestants and prove that I am a good singer. I didn’t need to shake my butt or wear a Spanish dress.

Yes, those thing would have stereotyped you, wouldn’t they?

Yeah. All this Ricky Martin style music, I like it but it doesn’t boil my blood. You could see if you watched the show – Purple Rain, Knocking On Heaven’s Door, all of those are the songs that I sang with the most passion. Those are the songs that I love.

I wanted to ask you about that – it was only after you’d been in the sing-off and had a chance to demonstrate your passion that people saw you as a good rock singer.

I think being in the bottom two twice has really helped me go far in this competition. Because I’ve been able to show the real me, and you know they call me now Rockarita Lorenzo or Spanish Rockarita [she sounds really sexy when she rolls her R’s at this point - Gerard], which I love!

You know, I used to have this problem in Spain too – I used to walk into a record label with my big hair and my curvy body and I’d say “Hi, I want to speak to the person in charge..” and they’d ask what kind of music I do. When I told them I do rock, they’d look at me, drop their jaws and say “That can’t be – you are made to dance, move your body and look sexy, whatever…” All the time I’d be so frustrated because no-one wanted to hear me sing, because they wanted to look at me and that is not what I want.

What I loved about Purple Rain was that I wasn’t wearing any of those beautiful dresses, I wasn’t showing my cleavage, I wasn’t doing anything apart from wearing a t-shirt, some jeans and singing. And people really appreciated it.

Can you tell us what types of music you like to listen to?

Oh, I’ve listened to all kinds of rock. I also love U2, Muse and Coldplay – that type of music, I love it. My big influences were Guns N Roses, Whitesnake, Deep Purple, Def Leppard, Led Zeppelin [At this point, I’m tempted to propose… -Gerard].

Simon obviously had a bit of a crush on you. Do you think that was genuine or was it just for the cameras?

Do you know what, Simon Cowell never lies, so I guess some part of it must be true that he fancied me, or at least I just want to believe it like that! At the end of the day, I’m a woman and I like to feel pretty.

But you know, he’s actually a really cool guy, and I really appreciated all the comments that he gave me when he said that yes, I was a good singer. Those were the comments that really got to me and really made me feel good.

I felt so good last Saturday with the comments that he gave me after I did Always for a second time. I could see that the judges were really emotional with me.

Yeah, Louis Walsh was crying at the end, wasn’t he?

He was crying, he was genuinely crying. We have a cool connection, Louis and I, and I love how passionate he is about JLS and how much he’s fighting for those boys – he really believes in them and I respect that so much.

I thought you were very practical on the Xtra Factor – you were already talking about lining up gigs for next week! Are you always that way?

I am. Why see bad things in life, because life is so short. We need to enjoy it while we can.

When something really really bad happens, I think the only bad thing that could happen in my life is losing one of my family members, and I don’t even want to think about it. I think you have to take life with positivity, always looking at the bright side. There’s not one bad thing I can take from this experience, except that I’ll miss everyone in the house.

I’ll miss the dirty house, the messy rooms. I’ll miss Alexandra, I’ll miss JLS. I’ll miss them all.

You and Alexandra seem to have struck up a really solid friendship. Where did that come from?

Yeah, we did, and it is truthful. Alexandra is just like you see on TV – she’s fun, she’s nice and our friendship is great. I never thought in my life that I’d come out of X Factor with such a good friend. She’s my best friend right now.

It was at bootcamp, and we had a friend in common and I said “Who’s she?” and I said I would love to meet her. She’s got this special spirit, she’s got these eyes that are a live. And then she went to him and said “Who’s that girl with the big hair you’ve been speaking to?” So, he introduced us and that was it. We were friends.

And we’re moving in together and hopefully she’ll win and I won’t have to pay rent! You know why? Because I think that the winner of X Factor gets given a flat, that’s why.

But won’t you guys be out travelling on the X Factor tour?

Yes, we’re going to be on tour. It’s going to be amazing, and I can’t wait to sing with everyone. I think this is going to be another part of the competition to be honest with you. I think whoever proves here that they can work onstage, that can work with musicians, can gig day after day without losing their voices. I think those people will have a big big chance of getting contracts.

There are many eyes on us right now and we’ve got to make sure that we do our best.

And what are your plans for after the tour?

My biggest dream would be Simon Cowell ringing me up and saying “Hey Ruth, do you want to record something?” And if it doesn’t happen, I’ll just have to go and knock on his door and say “Simon, Simon, come on, let’s do something!”

I do want to do my own CD and put some of my own songs on it. I want to sing. That’s all I ask for.

Do you write your own songs?

I do. I play the piano and the guitar and I write music. I translate music and do other things.

Would you put a band together?

I would love to have a band! I’m not a diva singer – I can’t be alone on stage. I’d love to work with other musicians. It’s the best best feeling. I want to have a band.

Do it! Put a band together! Actually I think that’d be a great way forward for you. Front your own band! We need some more rock chicks.

Ah, so you liked it then?

Absolutely! There aren’t enough rock voices on The X Factor, so it was nice to see someone up there singing those songs.

James Corden was in the studio and criticised Britney for miming during her performance. What was your take on her appearance?

Well, I think most artists have mimed at some stage in their lives. She went onstage, she looked gorgeous, she danced, she got the audience going. For me, I thought she was great.

We didn’t get to meet her, because she was so busy – she came in, did her thing and then left. She came straight from Paris. I’m sure if she’d had time, she’d have done a masterclass with us.

I noticed that you didn’t technically do a Britney song – it was a Joan Jett song that Britney covered, I Love Rock And Roll.

It’s a good one! Nigel, the music director, made it like the original. He didn’t make it pop!

How did you feel about the themed weeks in general?

I think that limits you. If we’d had rock singing, that would’ve been great. If it had been jazz, Laura would have shined.

Anyway, as my last question I usually ask who you hope will win the show, but I think I can guess what you’re going to say!

No, it’s Alexandra, and JLS on the final!

We wish Ruth all the best for her musical career. She was one of the nicest contestants to speak to, really bubbly and positive throughout.

View the original post X Factor: Interview with Ruth Lorenzo on Unreality TV

Well, after a run of good luck that even John Sergeant would be proud of, Daniel Evans has finally bowed out of The X Factor. He’s incited a support campaign from Chris Moyles, and even received a letter of support from Gordon Brown (that’s the Prime Minister, for those of you who are apathetic about politics).

Despite getting a critical bashing week on week from the judges, Daniel remains on chipper form, and he’s full of chat on the phone as we talk about X Factor, older contestants and what he’s up to next.

He tells us he’s glad that the public kept him in the show for so long and seems to feel like he’s emerging from a bit of a bubble as he’s avoided newspapers and fansites during his stay in the X Factor house. I ask him if he was aware of Chris Moyles’s campaign to keep him in the show:

Daniel: Yeah, I heard about that. I mean, I’ve tried to keep away from too much press and stuff because I just want to concentrate on the songs, and as I wasn’t reading anything good, I thought “What’s the point in reading it?” Yeah, but Chris Moyles, I heard about that, and I heard it was a bit of a mickey-take, but I thought it was pretty funny.

Unreality TV: Do you think it worked in your favour?

Daniel: Well, I don’t know if it was that! I think that week was Mariah Carey week and it was probably one of my strongest performances. I’d like to think it was the performance that got me through.

Unreality TV: That’s the thing, you really have been improving week by week…

Daniel: I know! The first couple of weeks my performances were weak and the criticisms I was getting about them were probably justified. I am very self-critical, and I do want to get it right. When you get a chance like this, you take it because you don’t get ‘em very often. For the first couple of weeks I was also struggling with stage fright.

I think even my worst critics will see that I was getting better and better. I’m not silly, I didn’t think I could win the show, but I think I did really well getting this far, and it’s been a really great experience. It’s just a shame there were so many people saying so many nasty things about me.

So X Factor’s been a great experience to have?

Daniel: Yeah, and that’s what I try to tell the younger kids in the house, to try and go out with a smile, because when you look back on it and you’re sitting there with your grandkids, you don’t want to see this miserable mug on the TV. I don’t see the point in being sad. I’d have loved to stay longer, I’d love to have a record contract, but you can’t always have what you want. You’ve just got to make the most of what you’ve got, and that’s what I try to do.

We’ve been talking about older acts in X Factor and the only older act to make it through X Factor successfully was Steve Brookstein..

…and look at the amount of stick he got! It’s easy to look back and slate him, but at the time it was “Oh, he’s great, he won!” Now it, “Who’s he?” But he made different choices in his life and different choices in his music, and maybe they weren’t the right choices, but I still think he was great. And if people are going to compare me to him, I would take that as a compliment.

I feel sorry for him for getting that criticism.

But the expectation for the winner of X Factor is that they become a viable pop act. As an older contestant, that’s difficult, because they can’t market you in the same way they can the Under 25’s.

Yeah, well I know with Louis in particular, I’m not his stereotypical idea of a pop star, but I think the public keeping me in this long maybe shows that we’re missing a bit of that old-style sing-with-feeling kind of singer. We don’t have that anymore – we used to have the Michael Bolton’s and the Tom Joneses and other guys who used to do big ballads.

I think when Louis and Simon got down to one act, they started to worry that the public liked what I was doing, the fact that I was putting my emotion in the songs. I think Louis was getting a bit nervous to be honest.

But who know, maybe there is a hole in the market for that kind of stuff? How can I not be happy though, I’m on the X Factor tour. When I got into this, I just hoped that I could get work out of it. It’ll be a chance to show what I can do without the pressure, and there’s always been a theme – this will be a chance to do my own thing.

When I was talking to Austin Drage a couple of weeks ago, he mentioned the fact that the rehearsal schedule is really intense…

It’s non-stop. I used to watch the show years back and wonder what they were getting so emotional about. I mean, they sing for two minutes, then they go back to their big house. Now I know it’s non-stop: it’s filming, it’s choreography, it’s vocal coaching.

And what are you doing now, are you looking for a record deal?

I don’t know, as long as I get regular work, gigs and pay the mortgage and keep a roof over my head. I mean don’t get me wrong, I’d love to do it. Before I got into the karaoke, I used to write songs, and I’m a pretty good keyboard player. In the house, me and Austin would play together and write songs, we were jamming all the time.

We wrote a song while we were in the house, but never finished it, but that’s inspired me to do the songs, get back on the keyboards. There was a keyboard in the house and I don’t know how many hours I spent on that!

What’s it been like living in the X Factor house?

I’ve loved it, we’ve been a really close group. I mean, I’m sharing a room with JLS, so that has been an experience for me and I’ve found some really cool new music that they listen to but they also listen to some of the old stuff that I thought only I knew.

They’re very good, they’re really respectful, really tidy, they’re almost like my little brothers now. The week before, when I got through, they were cheering me on as much as the crowd. They’re great guys, they’re very musical and they’ve got great parents. I think those guys could win it.

I’d be happy for anyone to win it, but because I’ve been so close to them – I’ve seen the inside and outside of their lives, their families and I couldn’t pick a better bunch of guys.

View the original post X Factor: Our interview with Daniel Evans on Unreality TV

Saturday night, and Louis Walsh, the man responsible for booting most of the talented acts OUT of X Factor put an end to Laura White’s dream of winning the competition. Described by the evil Irishman as “The Voice Of The Competition”, Louis chose to save the inferior Ruth Lorenzo instead.

We catch up with Laura after she’s finished her early morning round of TV interviews, and surprisingly she’s very upbeat. In our chat with Laura, we find out how to get her original music online, and how she feels in the aftermath of Saturday night’s shock eviction.

Saturday night was your first time in the bottom two, despite you being one of the front-runners, what do you think led to a lack of phone votes for you this week?

I’m really not sure – it could have been the song choice, or it could have been that Simon gave me bad comments and the public listened to that. It could have been a lot of things. I know Cheryl thought that people thought I was going to get a lot of votes anyway so they didn’t vote for me.

You sang Somewhere Over The Rainbow as your final song. What led to you choosing that song, and would you have done it differently if you had the chance again?

I don’t think the song choice was the reason, I think Louis obviously didn’t want me to stay. I think he’d probably made his mind up before I’d sang the song. I don’t think it was the song, and I’m proud of it. I sang it for my granddad, and I maintain that I chose the right song.

For two weeks running now, Louis Walsh has voted out a strong singer at the expense of a weaker singer. Do you think this is tactical voting to make it easier for JLS in the later stages?

I know Cheryl thinks it’s a tactical thing. I’m not sure though, maybe Louis didn’t really get me that week. He’s made his decision though and I just have to live with that.

It’s difficult though, because I’ve been auditioning since April, and the judges always said I was one of the strongest, but for some reason they didn’t keep me in.

Most people are agreed that Rachel’s performance on Saturday night was her worst, yet none of the judges commented on that. Instead they commented on how nervous she was. What did you think about that?

I think Rachel had a bad week and she knows she did. You’ve just got to have sympathy for her because she’s kind of lost her way at the moment, she’s lost her confidence, and I think the judges are waiting to see that come back.

I think the songs haven’t suited her, and I think Dannii and her have worked hard to get songs, but they’ve not come across well yet. You never know, she might start getting it soon.

There was a scandal a couple of weeks ago about your relationship with Matthew Firsht – since that news broke, some people have said that you couldn’t possibly win or there’d be outcry about it being a fix. How do you respond to that?

It was destroying at the time – I must say it was completely fabricated, it wasn’t true at all, which is clear now, as I’m no longer in the competition! The reason I didn’t speak out about the relationship was because it was early days, I’d only just started seeing him, and I was on the programme to show my music and not the private side of my life.

It was difficult because the press actually made out that it was fixed, and I thought this could affect me. Ultimately, it might have done.

Cheryl looked absolutely furious on Saturday night. Is there any truth in the news that she had a blazing row with Louis afterwards?

I was distraught after the show and spent a long time talking to Dermot, so I didn’t see anything that was going on. I didn’t see the rest of the judges, I just saw Cheryl and I know that she was very angry and she definitely feels it was more of a tactical reason. I’ve no doubt that they had words about it though.

One of our forum members who met you at boot camp speaks very highly of you. He says you’re a very accomplished musician and you’ve got some amazing original songs, including one called She. As a songwriter, how did you feel having to cover other people’s songs on X Factor?

They were all on my MySpace page – at the moment they’re available to download and they’ve actually gone number one and number two in the Download Chart. If you go on to memusic.co.uk, you can download them (Laura’s page is here), and these are songs I’ve written myself. She isn’t up there yet, but it’ll be released shortly.

I didn’t mind covers, because I’ve been doing gigs for years doing cover versions. But I would ultimately love to get a deal and get my own music out there. I’d definitely want to have some input writing, because that’s what I am.

Finally – who are your favourites to win the competition?

I think that Diana or JLS will win. [After a bit of prompting…] I think JLS will probably take it.

Of all the contestants, you had quite an individual style at auditions. When I spoke to Austin Drage last week, he wasn’t happy about the way he was re-styled. How did you feel about how you were styled for the live shows?

View the original post The X Factor Interview: Laura White on Unreality TV

Every X Factor reject has a busy day on the Monday after getting voted out – but none more than Austin Drage, who is at Number 1 in the singles chart with the Help For Heroes charity song. So this Monday is a little busier than usual, and we eventually catch up with Austin in the afternoon.

He’s getting a little tired out from all the questions, but we get what is possibly the most frank and honest X Factor interviews we’ve ever done.

Unreality TV: Harking back to Saturday night, one of Louis Walsh’s comments was that you were failing to connect with your audience.

To be honest with you, I thought that was a bit of a silly thing to say, because obviously I’ve connected with the audience every week since starting the competition. I’ve connected with the audience as much as anybody else, but I haven’t had the great songs that everybody else had, I haven’t been that lucky.

At the end of the night, did you feel cheated that Cheryl and Louis voted for Rachel based on her potential rather than her final performance?

Yeah, because I don’t think her potential is as much as mine, and I think I’ve showed plenty of potential since the first week. If they’d let it go to deadlock, I think I’d have ended up staying in the competition.

Rachel’s done one song well. I’ve done all my songs well, bar the last one, and that was a bad song on a night when it should have been a really funky song.

If you could’ve chosen your own song, what would you have sung?

I would have chosen Average White Band Let’s Go Round Again. It’s a great song.

And do you believe that song choice was the reason for you going?

Yeah, I believe that song put me in the bottom two. And I believe the fact that I was in the bottom two gave them the opportunity to vote me out rather than let it go to deadlock, which is what they should have done.

I wanted to ask you about that, because I would have thought you would be a threat to JLS

Yeah, I would have thought so. I mean, JLS are a great group, but I would have thought I’d be a threat to them.

And Simon now doesn’t have to worry about splitting votes between you and Eoghan…

I think with me gone, it leaves the market open for other people in the competition. But I think people should also be concentrating on what they can do when they’re out of the competition. I mean, I have an opportunity to release something now that I’m really proud of.

There was a rumour last week that Scott Bruton was thinking of challenging his X Factor contract, specifically the restriction on releasing any records until three months after the competition is over. Do you think that’s a fair term of the contract?

Well, you know, that’s the way the cookie crumbles – that’s the contract you were in and you knew what you were signing when you signed it. But hopefully I can get out of it sooner, I’ll be phoning my lawyer and see if I can get out of it sooner. We’ll see what happens.

(Note: It must be frustrating when you get voted out of X Factor, and everybody including the judges is telling you to get out there and use the publicity for your own good. But the one thing you really want to do – if you were serious about a career in music in the first place – is release a record! Unfortunately a restriction in the contract for contestants prevents them from releasing any music until 3 months after the show airs. Basically they can only gig and make personal appearances.)

So what will you be concentrating on now?

I’m going to focus on writing, producing and getting my face out there for people to know who I am and know that I am a talent. I think I just need to remind everybody what I did at boot camp and what I did back at the start and not what they tried to mould me into.

Yeah, I’d heard that you weren’t happy with the styling…

The haircut just wasn’t right. I tried to make it work, but it just wasn’t me.

I was reading today that you’re involved with a band called The Cameron. Can you tell us a bit more about that?

Yeah, we’re going to hopefully release something when I get back on my feet and hopefully everything will be all gravy when we get back together. We haven’t got a website or anything yet, we’re just waiting for everything to be ready to kind of jump out. I don’t want to give too much away at the moment.

What would have happened with the band if you’d won X Factor?

I’d have come out with the band still, for me it’s not a negative thing. I’m out of the competition now and I can take all the positives out of it.

Before you joined the X Factor, you had a lot of TV experience. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Yeah, I’ve done Boys Will Be Girls, Snatch with Brad Pitt, I’ve done The Bill, Casualty and loads of other stuff. But to me it was important to get on something that really blew me up and got me in the public eye, and I think I’ve done that now. I want to get out there and push myself into the industry and get a single out, because I know I’m worthy of it.

On Saturday, Simon said to you “You probably have a girlfriend, I’ve probably got you in trouble”, which said to me that as a mentor, he doesn’t know much about you.

I don’t think he knew me as well as he thought he knew me. I mean, when he made the comment about me fancying one of the dancers, well of course, all of the dancers were gorgeous. I think that was just a flippant comment really.

Does he spend much time with you when he’s mentoring you?

No, not really. We’ve got a team that work with us on the actual show. Don’t get me wrong, he’s there, but we have to go through that team to get to him because he’s so busy. He’s not there all week, when you need to speak to him about a song.

But you’ve got your vocal coaches there as well, don’t you?

Yeah, but you don’t get much time with them, you don’t get much time with any of it. And it’s such a tight schedule to get everything right for Saturday night. There are weeks where I’d go on, they’d have a routine set out, then they’d take it away from me, and I’d have to learn something else, then end up going back to the original routine. It’s quite confusing when you’re worrying about sound, choreography and everything. It’s a lot tougher than people think.

Did you see yourself as competing against the other acts like Eoghan, Scott and JLS? Because you’re essentially appealing to the same group of voters.

No, I never thought of anyone as competition. I just thought “I’m in it to do my best and win it as best as I can.”

[Austin turns the tables on me at this point and asks me if I thought he should have gone out on Saturday. I explain that in our chart we said either Daniel or Rachel should have gone. Turns out we ranked him higher than Ruth Lorenzo too.]

You’ve been styled in a way you’re not happy with, and you’ve had to fit in with theme weeks that you’re not necessarily comfortable with. But what music inspires you and do you identify with?

I listen to a lot of BB King, Stevie Ray Vaughn. I listen to Guns N Roses, some soul like Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder. I listen to a diverse amount of music, do you know what I mean? I love blues, I love soul, I love rock. I think X Factor stripped me of my musicality, because they tried to mould me, and I’m already moulded in what I do.

[We lapse into a bit of random banter about the Michael Jackson night, and he tells me that they played him the David Cooke (American Idol contestant) version of Billie Jean. I am suitably outraged and tell him to go and check out the Chris Cornell version which Cooke ripped off.

If he'd had a choice, Austin tells me he'd have sung The Way You Make Me Feel]

Finally…who’s your tip to win the show this year and why?

Laura White – because she’s really talented and she’s a musician and that’s what I want to see more of – more musicians playing music and not puppets. I wish her all the best of luck.

View the original post X Factor: The Austin Drage Interview on Unreality TV

A devastated Scott Bruton shuffled off the X Factor stage on Saturday night, having lost his place in the competition to an outstanding last-minute performance from Daniel Evans.

Still choked up after Daniel’s performance, Louis Walsh sealed Scott’s fate and sent him home. And as Dermot O’Leary attempted to interview him, it was obvious that Scott was shell-shocked from the sudden defeat.

We caught up with Scott during his hectic Monday morning interview schedule and asked him how he felt in the wake of Saturday night.

Unreality TV: So Scott, Saturday night was a bit of a shock?

Scott: On Saturday, I was absolutely devastated at being put out, but then somebody had to go. Unfortunately it was me.

The standard on Saturday night was unbelievable though. When you compare it with last year…

Yeah, I suppose I picked the wrong year! Obviously it wasn’t my time last year, but out of 182,000 people, I got to the final ten, and that is an achievement in itself.

I bet you’ve got quite a fan club already though…

Yeah, I have got a few fans that I hope are behind me. I just hope that they don’t think because I’ve left the X factor that they’ve heard the last of me. I’m just gonna try and boost my solo career now…

How did you feel about your performance on Saturday night?

I haven’t had a chance to watch it back, but I honestly felt that I went out with two good performances. In that sense, I’ve got no regrets.

When you were involved in the sing-off with Daniel, did you think you would lose out to him?

I was really just focussed on getting my song right, but fair play to Danny, he pulled out an absolutely unstoppable performance, he got so much emotion into it.

Do you think the story was instrumental in saving Daniel this week?

No, not in the slightest. It was  a song that he sang to his wife, and Dermot asked him why he was singing it and he told him. I don’t think the story came into it really.

What was going through your head when you got the news that you were out of the competition?

I was just like, “Oh my god, I can’t believe I’m actually going home.” I mean, I’m the first act to have been voted off by the judges, not to have the decision made in deadlock. I was literally speechless.

You seemed to be more composed in the Xtra Factor studio later on. Did Simon have a word with you and give you any advice?

Yes, he told me “Now’s the time when you need to get your face, get your name out there. You’ve had so much exposure off the show, this is the time when you’ve got to prove what you can do.”

But I really need to thank the X Factor for giving me that chance. I mean, when we had the soldiers on the show, it really put things into perspective for me. I honestly felt selfish for being in that state of mind – I mean, there’s people that are out there fighting for us, losing limbs so we can be safe.

And did you hear anything from Louis after the show?

No, Cheryl came up to me and gave me a hug, but it would have been nice to hear something from Louis. I’m just guessing that he got himself into such a state that he just wanted to get out of the studio.

You’ve already mentioned the Help For Heroes single – I guess we’ll be seeing you on the X Factor tour next year?

I hope so, but only the top four acts are guaranteed a place on the tour. Then the rest of the acts are hand picked, but it would be a dream come true to be on the tour.

Well, tell us what’s next for you Scott? What are you planning to do post-X Factor?

I’ve got a couple of gigs lined up. I’m going to be working with Modest Management and going on my own little tour. It’ll be nice to get a bit of money together so that I can pay for studio time and get my music out there.

I just hope somebody out there has watched the X Factor and seen a bit of potential and would like to work with me.

We heard that you were planning to write your own songs – what sort of style are you looking into?

I’m very suited to ballad style music, but it’d be nice to put a twist on it and go a bit Indie. I used to write Indie tracks anyway.

[Unfortunately, Scott’s MySpace page won’t be continued, and he’ll be putting together a new professional MySpace page soon]

Earlier on in the competition, there were reports in the media that you and Austin Drage hated each other. What’s the real story behind that?

Me and Austin are really good friends. There’s been press and tabloid reports that me and Austin were constantly fighting. The truth is, we had a disagreement at boot camp. That was as far as it went. We had cross words for five minutes and that was it, over and done with. We’ve been OK with each other ever since.

What’s been the strangest story you’ve read about yourself?

That I was doing a runner from Gatwick Airport! When we were going to the judges houses – I’m not a very good flyer and I wasn’t feeling very well, knowing that I was going to get on a plane. Anyway, it was about 45 minutes to boarding and I went off to the toilet because I was feeling really ill. The next day it’s in all the papers that I was trying to do a runner.

Finally, who’s your tip to win this series of X Factor?

Oh, I want Alexandra [Burke] to win. She’s an absolutely amazing vocalist, and she’s got the best voice in the competition.

View the original post X Factor Interview: Scott Bruton on Unreality TV