The Wanted reflect on their 2011 success
What a year we've had with The Wanted. We followed them to Brazil, we checked them out on tour and even saw them performing at a fan's house. Phew!We caught up with Nathan, Jay, Max, Tom and Siva for our last interview of the year to chat about the last twelve months, their big plans for cracking the States and their "creepy and aggressive" single Warzone. Here's what happened.
This year you've had three Top 5 singles, another Top 5 album and a sell-out tour. You must be pretty pleased with how everything's gone?
T: Awful! Worst year of my life this year.
J: I think we've been really lucky. Obviously we work very hard but I think someone's been looking down on us, making sure we all do very well.
You're rounding off the year with Warzone, which Max and Nathan have written. Is it more nerve-wracking to release a song you've written yourself?
N: I think so, 'cos if it flops, then it's your fault and you take full blame for it if people don't really connect with it or like it. Thankfully, we've had a really good reaction to both the video, which we all had something to do with, and the song itself, which is really good.
J: Do you like it?
I think it's the best thing you've ever done.
T: Ahh... come on!
N: That's brilliant. Nice one, thank you.
It's got a more mature sound than we've heard from you previously. Was that a conscious decision?
T: I think the dubstep element of it, like, we really wanted to experiment with. We like to do [something] a little bit unexpected. I think we [surprised people] with Glad You Came a bit.
J: It makes it less of a ballad. It's about how much pain you're in. It makes it a bit more creepy and aggressive, I think. [It's] more dramatic. It sounds wicked.
The video's really striking as well. How did you come up with the concept?
J: Before every video now, we say exactly what we're after and Director X is just brilliant at making that happen and obviously adds some amazing stuff on top of that. I thought it was great... we were involved every step of the way. In the video, on the dubstep bit, the camera flickers to match it and that was our idea too. So from concept to the last final edits, we're still involved.
N: What was really cool was, even the day when we wrote it, we were coming up with ideas for the video then. Kind of going, 'oh, imagine what the video would look like'. And [those ideas] still ended up being in the video, which is cool.
Other than Warzone, which songs on the album are you most proud of?
J: I really like I'll Be Your Strength, which has gone through a million demos, but I think the original concept of the song is still there. It's really strong. It's one that me and Nath did. It's just about when someone's going through a rough patch and you don't really know what to say to them, but just being there sometimes is enough. So, I love that one.
You're doing your first arena tour next year. What can we expect from that?
N: We're actually having a meeting about it tonight.
T: We had our first creative through and it does sound really, really good.
S: We've had a lot of ideas. This meeting tonight is going to ground all those ideas up.
N: I have a horrible feeling it's going to turn into about 25 different arguments.
J: We're going to get the skeleton of it tonight, which is pretty exciting. That's where we have to make sure we're happy with it, because from that point on, it's very much a case of people's creative licence and how much money we have to make the real stuff happen.
N: The one thing we are set on, we do want to pick up our instruments a lot more than we [did] on the first tour, which will show that we're more than just a run of the mill boyband.
Will Jay be playing the tambourine again?
[All laugh]
J: I might play two tambourines!
T: [To Jay] Do you still play the drums?
J: I've still got them. I've not had a lesson. But if I know which songs are going... I just need to know the setlist as soon as.
You've got two albums' worth of material to choose from now. Are you going to take fan suggestions as to which ones you should do?
J: It's hard not to now with Twitter, isn't it? If we are stuck for something, we'll think, 'What would the fans like?', which is easy to find out - go and ask them.
T: It's really difficult, because we did, was it 16 songs last time? We're doing a medley as well... which I really can't wait to do. I can't say what it is yet, but we're all gonna play on it and it's gonna be amazing. So, obviously that's like 10 minutes of the show... the hits from the first album, the hits from the second album and then there's a lot left over.
N: Stupidly, we promised the head of our record label - he said: 'If this song goes on the deluxe album, you've got to promise me you do it on tour.' And we kinda went: 'Yeah, that'll be fine'. I've just remembered it this second and gone 'Argh!' We're going to have to mess around with that song.
I hear that there might be a tour edition of the album coming out. What's going to go on that?
T: I'm not too sure if that's even going to happen. It was suggested that we were gonna do that, 'cause we've still got a few leftover songs. We were going to release another one in February or March, but I think, obviously 'cause we're going to America, we've got the tour and then back to America. We're potentially doing a documentary with Channel 4, so hopefully that might be enough to keep our fans interested.
N: What we don't want to do is, like, release another version of the album that's not really worth getting. We don't wanna release anything that's s**t and we don't want to fill, like, an extended version of the album with songs that didn't make the first cut of the album. We want it to be new material if it is going to be that.
J: There's been discussions about that and it was just a case of left over songs and we thought... well, we refused that, because it's just ripping people off. The record label are coming up with other ideas.
T: We're back in the studio, aren't we?
J: We'll never say never. But at the minute, we just think it might be a bit of a piss take if we do.
Is it true that Example's written you a song?
T: I think it may be the first single off the next album, in possibly April, May. I think it might be Glad You Came Part 2. Who knows.
You performed on The X Factor again this year. Do you think that Little Mix were worthy winners?
S: Yeah definitely.
T: I wanted Amelia to win. She was great, but I think Little Mix were deserving winners.
N: Everyone says that, like, it was a shame that the best voice in the competition didn't win, but I think that the best voice in the competition did win. I think, is it Perrie? She's got an absolutely amazing voice.
J: All the other three can sing really well as well. I think they're great.
Finally, we've got to talk about Brazil, as 4Music followed you there. What was the highlight of your trip?
T: Chilling by the pool!
J: I think that moment when we walked out on the stage and when we first started singing and there were Brazilian people singing our track. I just thought: 'This is too much now!' It's crazy.
S: Singing Lightning during the lightning.
T: There was one guy, stood right in the middle, singing every word... album songs as well. He's a fan! In Brazil, no way.
N: I'll tell you what my highlight was. In a strange way - in the moment, it wasn't a highlight at all. We got woken up at eight o'clock in the morning after a night out. So we all had hangovers. We got woken up by screaming Brazilian girls singing all our songs, outside the hotel. They were doing one of our songs, then one of Justin Bieber's, then one of ours, then one of Bieber's songs.
J: It sounded hilarious in a Brazilian accent. [Sings a bit of Lightning in a Brazilian accent]
The Wanted's UK arena tour kicks off in Nottingham on 15 February, 2012. Their latest single Warzone is out now.
Have a look through our Wanted gallery
Watch the video for Warzone
