Shane Filan

Cheri Burns

As part of chart-toppers Westlife, Shane Filan had everything he ever wanted.

For 14 years, the Sligo man and his band mates – Nicky Byrne, Kian Egan and Mark Feehily – were adored by millions and tasted the kind of success that most wouldn’t even see in their wildest dreams, scoring 14 number one singles in the UK – the third highest in history – and selling in excess of 50 million records worldwide.

So, when they decided to go their separate ways and ended their Farewell Tour in front of a sell-out crowd at Dublin’s Croke Park stadium in June 2012, for Shane, the next step was simple – to begin a journey into the unknown as an artist in his own right.

With a legion of supporters in every corner of the globe and a career as impressive as his it’d be easy, right? Wrong. After well-documented financial problems that resulted in bankruptcy, his life was in limbo, but one thing remained; his passion for the industry he loves and determination to continue to make music.

Fast-forward 12 months and he’s doing just that. Backed by Capitol Records and under the wing of pop svengali Louis Walsh, the 34-year-old’s gearing up to release first single ‘Everything to Me’ in a matter of weeks, with a debut album to follow in November.

I caught up with him in Glasgow last month, during a packed promo trail, to find out more about his new sound, how he’s adjusting to solo status and what the future holds.

Arriving at the venue of our chat, I was met with a sea of excited and jubilant ‘Filaners’ – as fans are affectionately known – waiting eagerly to meet their idol. It’s clear to see a year away from constant spotlight has done nothing to dent their dedication, and from his honest and warm nature and obvious enthusiasm for what he does, it’s not difficult to see why…

This is the last day of your UK promo, how has it been going?

It’s been an amazing week actually, Cheri. It’s been a very busy week; I’ve been up and down England, and obviously Scotland. It’s been mental. The amount of stations every day has been crazy, but all the fans have been coming out at every station – which is nice to see – so a massive thank you to them. They definitely made me feel a bit more relaxed about it all. Next week, obviously, I go to Belfast and Dublin, and Wales after that, so there’s a bit more to be done yet on the radio tour but it’s about half way through and it’s going great.

And I see from Twitter you had a bit of trouble getting to Edinburgh last night…

I did, yeah, everyone’s talking about that. I broke down, I honestly broke down in the middle of the street, it was a bit of a funny one. The gear box… I think something happened to the gear box and we were driving through – it was just myself and my tour manager, Liam – and we ended up blocking up a road and I ended up having to push the car about 50 yards up on to a footpath. He took a picture then just to slag me but, yeah, I put it up on Twitter for the laughs, the fans loved it.

You’re here in Scotland. Obviously you’ve been here as part of Westlife over the years, but earlier today, what’s the reception been like and what are your Scottish fans like?

I’m actually quite shocked, you know? The crowds outside, I don’t think I’ve seen crowds like this outside a radio tour before, even when we came up here with Westlife. I’m very chuffed, obviously. They’re all out to show support for me and stuff like that, which is amazing. I’m only two weeks into my solo career so it’s nice to, just to get, you know, to see people here. I’m meeting them all individually as well and taking pictures with them because I know they’ve all taken a lot of time to rearrange stuff to get here, so thank you to them.

What’s it like being out on the road on your own when you’re used to having the support of the other group members?

It’s definitely quieter, it’s funny actually. It’s one of those things, I suppose, that I’ve never experienced before. Usually, we travel individually or whatever and we might meet up at a station or meet up at a thing, because we all live in different areas, but it’s weird all the time being on your own. It definitely takes a bit of getting used to but every day I kind of relax into it a bit more and stuff, so it’s nice.

Your first single, ‘Everything to Me,’ it’s a bit different maybe to what people might expect – it’s summery, it’s upbeat, is that a conscious change in direction? Tell me a bit about that…

It is to a certain degree, yeah, because I didn’t want to do just a solo Westlife thing. I wanted to try and create something that was a little bit more different, maybe surprise a few people too. But for me I’ve always loved country music, I’ve always loved folk music and pop music, so I think it’s a nice mixture of the three of them put together and it’s summery, it’s upbeat. I think the first single, ‘Everything to Me,’ is definitely a departure a little bit from Westlife but I think the Westlife fans will love it too, which is obviously very important to me as well. I don’t want them to not like my music, obviously but yeah, if you like ‘Everything to Me’ I think you’re going to love the album.

And the video premieres today, what was it like shooting the video?

That was very weird because I was obviously on my own and there were all these people there for me, and it was, it was weird, you know? But we were out in LA, out in Hollywood shooting it – it was a pretty nice location… but, yeah, it was one of those things… every day I do something new that’s on my own but it’s turned out good, the fans seem to love it. It’s just gone on to Bliss TV and a few other places so it’s getting a good reaction, which is amazing.

You mention the album – it’s in that vein – what can people expect?

The album is definitely in that vein. It’s very folk, country, pop – that’s the best way to describe it. It’s very up-tempo – most of the songs on there are up-tempo, nearly all of them bar, I think, three – there’s three ballads on there. Obviously next year if I go live I’ll want to be doing a lot more up-tempo stuff. It’s one of those things I think that, you know, the more up-tempo [tracks] you have on there the more energy people feel from an album, but there’s some great ballads on there as well, a couple of really, really good songs I’m really proud of. It’s a feel-good album. As I said, if you like ‘Everything to Me’ or ‘Everytime’ – you might have heard ‘Everytime’ as well – it’s very similar to that kind of style. Very live, very real, organic kind of feel to it. It’s getting a good reaction so we’ll have to wait and see what people think of the album.

You had quite a hand in writing the album, is that something you’d love to do more of? Where did that come from for you?

Oh, without a doubt. It didn’t really come from [anywhere], it was more that I was given the opportunity to, because I never got really the opportunity to write before and I didn’t know if I was really any good at it either. The record label gave me the opportunity and the first song that I wrote for the album was ‘Everything to Me.’ I don’t know, it just felt natural to do it. It felt very easy and relaxed to talk about stuff that was going on in my life, my wife, my kids and how lucky I was to have that. It’s all positive. I tried to write positive songs and I think you have to go through some stuff sometimes to get to the positive stuff so it felt very good. It felt amazing to write songs and I’m very proud of every song – every song on the album I’ve wrote, it’s a pretty cool thing to say.

Click here to read part two of the interview!

Shane’s debut EP, ‘Everything to Me,’ will be available to download from iTunes from August 25. To purchase your copy, visit: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/everything-to-me-ep/id676343554