'Blue Interview'
(Thursday June 24, 2004)

Where do you stand on the latest rumours that you are all going solo?

Simon Webbe: There's always been speculation about Blue since our second single mate, that's nothing new. The plan for Blue is to release the Greatest Hits with seven new songs on it and to people that suggests the end. But, we've said it many times… we're not splitting.

What is everyone in the band up to at the moment then?

SW: We've got two months off coming up so we're all just using our time to get some qualifications or do some other work. Duncan's gonna' go on holiday and so is Anthony as well. I've been doing a lot of DJing, I'm touring with my groups VS and my brand new girl group L.A.D.E. who are on "Bubblin'". Those are my next girls that are gonna' come through, they're a harder Destiny's Child type group. Two are from America and one is from England.

When was the last time you have a decent holiday?

SW: Mate... Christmas. Even that's not long enough really, you only get two weeks off and then you tend to go abroad and you have to get over jet lag.

And you're all going on tour next year...

SW: Yeah, we're going on tour next March.

"Breathe Easy" was a different sound to what we associate with your early stuff - do you feel it was a success?

SW: Yeah I think it's done really well for us. Personally, I'd have thought that we should have gone down the uptempo route that we normally stick to 'cause I don't think that going down the route we did really reflects the album well enough.

With the choice of singles?

SW: We've gone a bit downtempo from "You Make Me Wanna" from the last album into "Guilty", "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" which is slower than the original to "Breathe Easy"... It's only now with "Bubblin'" which is only one of six or seven uptempo tracks we have on the album and this is our last single. It's nice for people to see that we're going back to basics but I think that was down to the record company deciding that maybe this was the route to go 'cause we'd sort of crossed over.

There are a lot less boyband pop acts around at the moment and pop generally seems to be suffering...

SW: It's fading because the new Pop is Urban isn't it. I think that we've got a lot of Urban stuff on our album. We've got Rock stuff and a bit of Pop stuff as well... it's just a normal Blue album, a versatile Blue album. Our vocals are better on this one and we've grown together.

Originally you were doing the majority of the writing and the other guys are writing more now, so presumably that had an influence on the varied sound.

SW: We've all written but I wrote most of the singles, "One Love", "Fly By", those hits that really got us recognised. This campaign I didn't get a single and that's just the way it's worked out. At the end of the day we're a team. The record company chose the singles and at the end of the day, instead of going the way we normally do, they've gone a different way.

The old school for a Pop album would have been to get two or three decent singles and then let's not worry too much about the rest...

SW: Exactly. I was like 'we've gotta come with uptempo trust me, trust me blah, blah.' I hope it's not too late that we're coming with "Bubblin'" that's all.

You remixed the track as well, have you done many remixes before?

SW: No I haven't, I did the "Breathe Easy" remix.

Was it an easy thing to get into?

SW: Yeah, I'm very good at feeding off other people's ideas or a hook. I can just write a whole new song around the concept 'breathe easy' and the remix is totally different.

Does your experience DJing help?

SW: I've just thrown myself in at the deep end, I haven't DJed since I was 15 and I used to mess around in my bedroom with Jungle. I suppose it does give me a little advantage in the sense that I know what people like in the club.

What sort of stuff are you playing out when you're DJing?

SW: Mostly Hip Hop, R&B... it depends what type of crowd it is, we take along proper hardcore Hip Hop, more commercial stuff and a bit of my own stuff, all my artists to see the reaction they get.

Do you get time to go record shopping then?

SW: I've got a DJ partner who does all that for me, he's been DJing since he was 15. I take him around with me and we go back to back.

It's quite a career high to work with an artist like Stevie Wonder, how did that come about?

SW: People said, 'where do you go next from Sir Elton John?' The only person on the same level is someone like Stevie Wonder. The record company picked up on that and wanted to help our dreams come true. And then we're actually singing with the man himself, which was an amazing, amazing experience, which not a lot of artists have had. Even more successful ones than us envy us 'cause we sang with the man y'know.

What was he like?

SW: Amazing, spiritually amazing y'know. You could feel him 'cause he holds onto your arm when your speaking to him and you feel his energy. Just an amazing man.

What made you want to move into the business side of things?

SW: I was looking at the market and I'm from Manchester, from Moss Side and there are a lot of kids there with talent that are more talented than I am. I used to see them and think 'if only you had the opportunity...' So I thought I was in a position to help. That's how it started and just seeing that my ideas were starting to work and now were getting a load of investors. I think I was just business minded you know. I just saw a gap in the market; got VS off to a good start - within six weeks of meeting they had a record deal.

Are you writing for any of the artists that you're looking after?

SW: No, 'cause the artists that I take on are good enough to write for themselves anyway. I'm not one who's greedy and be like, 'yeah, I'll write all your songs for you and I'll produce for you...' and basically make money off them. I'm not into that, I'm into them getting the publishing...

One prediction for Blue in 2005?

SW: I think we're gonna' be in the kitchen cooking the next album