1. Interview: The Wanted<br />We join The Wanted at Moti Mahal to talk pop stardom and football with the Saturdays! <br />Posted: Tuesday 27 Jul 2010<br />Above: The Wanted serenade us over lunch!/Ed Watts<br />Don’t call The Wanted just another boy band. Okay, there are five of them and they’re easy on the eye, but one listen to their just-released debut single All Time Low shows that these guys are a million miles away from the old-fashioned, clean-cut school of balladry and cheesy co-ordinated outfits.<br />More of a lad band then? And the new rivals to JLS? ‘We’d be very happy to have their success!’ jokes Max, the band’s heart-throb. ‘Our music’s really different, though. They’ve gone down a more R&B route, whereas we’re more indie and edgy.’ Indeed, there’s a rough-and-tumble energy to this quintet who aren’t just bandmates on the verge of mega chart success; they’re proper mates too who’ve been living together in a ramshackle pad in south London for the past year, stepping over empty pizza boxes and avoiding the washing-up! With a packed schedule of live gigs and promo appearances for the new single, these guys (Max, Tom and Siva, all 21, Jay, 19, and 17-year-old Nathan) are hard to pin down, but the promise of lunch at top Covent Garden Indian eatery Moti Mahal proved too much to resist, and we’re happy to report that we couldn’t get a word in edgeways…How are you guys different from the usual boy band?Nathan: You won’t find us sitting on stools in our suits and standing up for the key change!Jay: We were in rehearsal once and someone brought stools in, and we went: ‘Take them back!’Should we call you a lad band, rather than a boy band?Max: We’re not bothered what you call us. We’re just average lads, from working-class backgrounds. I’m from Salford, for example, and Tom’s from Bolton. We haven’t changed the way we live. As long as we don’t get called ‘man band’ just yet – that sounds a bit strange!<br />Do you see yourselves as rivals to JLS?Jay: Well, hopefully one day we’ll be in that arena, but at the minute we’re just trying to achieve what they’ve achieved.Siva: To be even mentioned in the same breath as JLS is a compliment. And I guess it didn’t take them long to get to the top.If we were to compare you to Take That – personalities only, not the music! – who would be who in the band?Jay: People say I’m like Howard, I guess I’m the dancer, and indie kid Siva is Jason, the model, with good looks. Max is Robbie, a bit of a lad. Nathan is Gary, with all the piano playing; he’s a songwriter. And Tom would have to be cheeky Mark!You’re with the same management as The Saturdays – have you met them?Max: Yes, we did a gig with them the other week. They’re lovely. We played football with them too. Vanessa’s really good, she’s wicked. Frankie’s awful; we’re still talking football! They’re top girls. If you’d like to hook us up properly, that would be cool!Jay: Vanessa is a fierce kicker. She boots it for miles. They are lovely girls.You’re all sharing a bachelor pad in London – who’s the messiest?Nathan: Max and Tom!Tom: We do get accused of that. But none of us do the washing-up! To be fair, we have a cleaner who comes in twice a week! She’s a machine, she ploughs through the whole house. She even does our washing and ironing.Tom: We got the essential furniture in pretty quick – a football table and a darts board! Then a fridge full of beers, and freezer full of pizzas. What more do you need?Siva: It’s great, it’s like being at college – except without the scamping for money, and making a tin of beans last all week.Max: It is a bit of a lads’ flat. No girls allowed! Everyone hangs around in my room because I’m the only one with Sky TV. Siva’s got a telly too, but you slip off the silk bed sheets. And he’s got candles too! He’s the zen one of the group!Do you have time for girlfriends?Max: Not really, we’re pretty busy. If we go for a drink when we finish a gig, there are nice ladies around, and we might socialise, but usually once we’ve finished a gig we’re in the back of a van travelling somewhere else.Siva: I’m the only one with a girlfriend! Her name’s Nareesha. We met a long time ago in Belfast. She’s a shoe designer and she’s from Jay’s home town of Nottingham. When I started out in The Wanted, it was quite difficult for us, but I think she realises that I have to put a lot of time into the band.How are you finding female reaction to your gigs?Tom: We did a gig at a school the other day and it was mental! When we first did schools, nobody knew us, we’d had no radio play or TV appearances, so it was a bit awkward. But the other day was brilliant, they stormed the stage! Max: I had my bum pinched about ten times – one of them had a right grab and clung onto it for ages!Siva: I’ve had a few bum grabs outside Capital FM and they took pictures of the bum grabs, and put them on Twitter!Max, we’ve seen you before in the boy band Avenue, on The X Factor…I look back and I have nothing but brilliant memories of The X Factor – apart from being disqualified [after it emerged they already had a management deal}, which was hard to take, because we’d got there and then had it taken away. Jay, you’re called the Billy Elliot of the band. Explain!I grew up in a football-crazy household, including my three brothers and even my mum, who captained the local team. I was the odd one out, the rubbish kid who didn’t like football! When my mum got injured she became a ref, but she went to dance classes to keep fit, and she took me along, and I got the dancing bug. I kept it up because it was the only thing I was ever good at. I got stick from some people, but I never cared – I just loved doing it.Nathan, you’re the baby of the band – do you hate being called that?No that’s cool – the girls love it. They also call me the quiet one of the band. I’m a bit of an old man really. I just sit in the corner with a nice cup of tea!Nathan, you’re still at college and doing your exams – how are you juggling that?Badly! No, I did my first year A-levels and did my exams, and I’ve worked hard, but I don’t think I’m going to continue the second year exams just yet – I want to go back and do them properly, when I’ve got more time.Max, you’re a Manchester City fan and a bit of a football nut. Did you ever think about being a footballer?Yes, I was going to go into football before I went into Avenue, because I’ve played football all my life. I played for England Schoolboys. I never wanted to do music originally. Then, when I was 16, I tried The X Factor and got through to the second day’s boot camp, and after that I realised I loved doing it.Siva, you’re from a big family of eight brothers and sisters – where do you fit in?I’m the youngest, with a twin brother, Kumar. We weren’t spoilt, though; we were like the Cinderellas of the family, always doing the work! We’re identical twins, and people do mix us up. We used to do modelling together but I wasn’t keen on it, I was looking to get into singing. Kumar’s still modelling, and he’s going to college too. He’s getting a proper education!You’ve been working with some top writing talent, like Robbie Williams’ writing partner Guy Chambers. What was it like working with Guy?Jay: A-ma-zing! And scary at first!Siva: He was the first person we worked with in the studio, ever, when we started on the album. He just sat us in a room and said: ‘Okay, sing!’ I think we can all agree, we were all bricking it. Nathan: I nearly pooed my pants!Tom: Guy’s a bit of a legend. We were all a bit like: ‘It’s the guy who wrote Angels!’ It took a couple of days for us to get to know him, but he’s so down to earth, I’ve never met a guy like him. He’s brilliant. He throws the best parties, too!Max: We’ve also been working with Brian Friedman, The X Factor’s choreographer. I’d met him on The X Factor but I’d never worked with him on a daily basis. He’s such a nice guy but he can be strict as well – if you got anything wrong, he made you do press-ups and squats!THE WANTED’S SINGLE ‘ALL TIME LOW’ IS OUT NOW on Geffen Records. VISIT WWW.THEWANTEDMUSIC.COM<br />http://www.ok.co.uk/posts/view/24505/Interview-The-Wanted?printer=1<br />