I'm behind the scenes at a shoot of a brand
new Pepsi commercial that features Boys'
and I've been given this special pass that
allows me into their dressing room so hopefully
I'll be able to have a bit of a chat with the boys.
Ronan, Stephen, Keith, Shane and
Mikey.
So how are you guys?
Very well thank you very much.
How you doing?
Fine.
Now you've
got the new album out,
Where We Belong,
it's just been released worldwide,
just you know
tell me a bit about the album.
We feel it's a step above the other two albums,
we've progressed,
we've got older and matured and the music has matured with us.
Hopefully we can cross
the bridge now to an older audience
without alienating the younger fans.
We're proud of
the album,
it's straight in at number one,
three number ones in a row,
couldn't ask for
anything better than that.
I've listened to it and you're right,
it does seem that you've
matured,
you've got a more mature sound,
was that deliberate?
No I think it's just something
that happened, just natural,
something that was quite natural,
a natural progression for
the music to mature in its own self,
the songs that we wrote,
we're getting older as we grow,
we're getting older as we make growth.
So have you based the songs on personal experience,
is it all about you?
Well in some cases they are,
other cases they're just feeling good songs,
but Ro wrote quite a few number of songs on the album
and I think they've quite a lot of deep
meaning to Ronan and his personal life.
So come on,
I know you guys love performing live,
getting up on stage,
what are your plans for touring?
Are you going to be touring this year?
We're touring in late September,
October in the UK and a bit of Ireland for Christmas.
Hopefully we'll carry on into a European tour for 99.
And what about taking the tour to Europe,
are you looking forward to that?
Yeah we actually love touring,
it's one of the best things about being in Boys' Own,
is being able to get up on that stage and performing and giving
back to the fans what they give to us by buying our records.
And what is it,
when you're actually on stage,
what is it you enjoy most about the live shows?
Just getting involved with the whole thing,
choosing the costumes and putting the
songs together and the stage production.
And we have a laugh on the road,
we all have a good time,
it's a big family,
we have the dancers,
the musicians,
everybody on the road.
There's usually parties and dusters around every night,
it's always a good time.
You've had three number one albums now,
is the next one going to be a greatest hits album?
Yes,
we've got plans for a greatest hits album which
will hopefully be out just before Christmas time.
I'll have all the hits on it,
which I think will be a good album,
a very good album.
All our songs and we'll have extra new tracks on it as well.
So I'm looking forward to that.
And what about the future,
what have you guys got planned?
Well basically for the immediate future we're
heading out to Asia for a couple of weeks.
This year we're in South America for a
while and North America doing promotion.
Concert tour September, October.
Greatest hits at Christmas and then
hopefully another album next year.
So that's all I know to date.
So let's talk a bit about this deal with Pepsi,
why were you so keen to get involved?
Basically,
well hopefully,
we like to think we're one of the more
popular young bands around at the moment.
And Pepsi,
because they're a choice of a new generation,
have concentrated on a younger market
and trying to sell Pepsi to a younger market,
which I think is great.
So they brought the Spice Girls in
and then the next move after that...
That didn't work.
Yeah,
so they felt they needed a better band,
you know,
something to promote it worldwide.
So they brought Boyz II Men,
and that was a joke,
but anyway,
I hope you find that one funny.
Let The Message Run Free is the exclusive
track that you've given to Pepsi,
so tell me about that song.
It's a song about communication and
connecting with people around the world.
And not just like talking on the phone,
but connecting with their mentality as well
and what goes on around the world basically.
And that's what that song's about.
Pepsi liked it and they wanted to use it in the commercial,
which is great.
So we're very happy about that.
In the past,
Pepsi have worked with some amazing bands,
some of the world's biggest stars,
the Spice Girls,
you know,
you're talking about them,
Michael Jackson,
Steven,
I know he's one of your biggest influences.
Ronan, what about you?
Who are yours?
My influences basically have from an
early age were Wham! into George Michael,
most of the pop stuff.
Now I basically listen to anything,
across the board.
Mikey?
I like a lot of rock music,
such as U2,
Bon Jovi,
Extreme, The Black Crowes, stuff like that.
You've never heard of them before.
Shane, what about you?
I like Bob Marley, that's all.
Mikey?
I like anything at this stage.
Okay,
so if you weren't in the band,
and I want you to come on,
be really honest here,
if you guys weren't in Boyzone,
would you go out and actually buy a Boyzone record?
I would, I think I would.
I would.
I'd fancy these for our lads.
Someone would say things like that now.
It's great.
You seem to have this mad,
hectic schedule,
and I know you guys are really busy,
but when
you do get a bit of time off,
what do you like to do?
When we get some spare time,
basically we go home and we try to finish off our houses
that we all bought recently.
There's a lot of work left to be done on most of them,
so
we're doing bits and bobs.
And finally,
what's your message to all the fans?
Let the message run free.
I have a message I'd like to say,
thank you very much for making our new album a number
one,
and for all our singles,
for making it such a high,
chart very high,
and thanks
for all the support you've given us in the past and present.
Hope you enjoyed the next
tour, and we'll speak to you very, very soon.
I'm going to say a big thank you to Pepsi.
Yes. Big thanks, we love Pepsi.
Thank you!