15 December 2011 (Music Interview)

Words: John Balfe

On Your Radar, the third album by The Saturdays, has continued the success that the band has enjoyed since releasing their debut Chasing Lights in 2008. The band will finish their current tour with a mammoth show in The O2 in Dublin on Monday 19th December. John Balfe spoke to Rochelle Wiseman about the band's plans for the gig, the new album and the impact that band-mate Una Healy's pregnancy will have on the group.

 

You are three albums in with The Saturdays. How do you feel the band has progressed during that time?

On this album we wrote over half of the songs ourselves and it really made what we do solid now. It seems that there aren't a lot of girl bands around at the minute, so were still the ones doing it for the girls. Everyone is saying that Girls Aloud are coming back next year, so we're quite excited. It seems like a good time for 'girl power'.

Having written so much of the new album yourselves, does make you feel a bit more of a sense of connection towards the music?

Completely. We're on tour at the moment and performing songs that we've written is so much more different to performing songs that someone else has written. We love all of our songs, but we have a different connection with [the ones we write ourselves].

Is this the Saturdays album which is most representative of all of your own personal musical tastes?

It's representative of us, you know? Not just our tastes, but us. It's about experiences that we've had, that our friends have had. That was really important for us and we've really been wanting to get to this stage for a long time.

There is a mix of ballads and dance songs on the album. Was it important to cover all bases when conceiving this album?

It was important for us to create an overall good pop album, not just go for one specific genre.

Who are your influences?

Well, I absolutely love Beyonce and have done so for as long as I can remember. I think she's a great performer and her work is amazing. Even if it's not really someone's 'thing', you can't deny that she's an amazing performer.

You were working on this album until very recently and you've also been preparing for the tour. Is it fair to say that these are some of the busiest months of your career?

Yeah, of course! We haven't stopped. You can't complain when you haven't stopped doing what you love. I mean, you do get tired - we're only human - but once you get out there it's what you love to do and it's amazing.

You're coming over here to Dublin to play in The O2 on the 19th of December...

Yes! Una is so happy! It's her dream. We've all grown up wanting to play at Wembley because we're all from London and obviously Una appreciated that but her real [ambition] was to be in Ireland performing. She's chuffed. We always make sure that we finish up the tour in Ireland because of that. You have great crowds over there, that's the reason that we wanted to finish up the tour there. We're chuffed to finish up in Ireland.

It's going to be carnage. I'm kind of dreading it already because I know how I'm going to be feeling the next morning!

Speaking of Una, presumably she'll be taking some time off next year. How has it been preparing for the tour given her pregnancy?

There time off that she will be taking will be no different to the time off that we were going to be taking off anyway. We will be taking time off from the public eye, but we'll be working on our next album so we'll be back in the studio in March recording anyway. So it's been a well planned out baby!

That was very considerate of her, wasn't it?!

Yeah, exactly! She was very thoughtful. It actually worked out really well, so it won't make any real impact on what our plans were for next year anyway.

Starting work on the new album so soon! I certainly hope that you have some time between Christmas and March for a holiday..

Yeah, you and me both! We're going to have some time off at Christmas so we'll all probably go away then.

I'm sure your lips are probably sealed about the details of the next album, but do you intend on having the same element of a hands-on approach that you had with this one?

Oh yeah, of course. We're in control of that department now and we don't plan on giving it back anytime soon. That's how it will be from now on!
 

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