Really,
we should’ve known. Scheduling a cover shoot with pop’s naughtiest boy band the
day after they’ve been out on the lash following a big Wembley gig perhaps
wasn’t a genius move.
Max
George, 24, is suffering the most, having eventually called it a night at a
time when most people were starting work. If appearances were sound effects,
his would be a pained groan.
Jay
McGuiness, 22, decides that the only sensible solution is to drink more beer
and therefore orders a pint from the studio’s bar shortly after arriving. When
it’s his turn in front of the camera, his attention span lasts only for spurts
of approximately six seconds.
Looking
through the bleary eyed group shots later, he grimaces before joking: “Lads,
lads. I am so, so sorry. I think you should find someone else to be in the boy
band.”
It
might sound like a nightmare (and we expect it probably is most of the time for
the band’s beleaguered looking management team), but even through the haze of
hangovers and pallid complexions, The Wanted are great fun to be around.
The
boys are in typically boisterous, mischievous moods and are clearly delighted
to have the group’s youngest member, 20-year-old Nathan Sykes, back on board
after two months out for throat surgery.
“Shall
we all take bets on who’s going to take an absence of leave next?” asks Jay.
“A
thousand quid says it’s going to be him,” says 24-year-old Siva Kaneswaran,
pointing at Max.
Well,
let’s hope not, because the second half of 2013 looks set to be huge for The
Wanted. Their new single, Walks Like Rihanna, is released in the UK today
(accompanied by a very funny video), followed by the launch of their reality
show, The Wanted Life, on E! tomorrow night. American presenter and producer
Ryan Seacrest, the man behind Keeping Up With The Kardashians is both the
brains and the clout behind the fly-on-the-wall series, which premiered in the
States a few weeks ago.
And
with September comes the worldwide release of their third album, which they’re
hoping will finally establish their position as one of the UK’s biggest recent
exports Stateside. They’ve already had some notable Billboard chart success,
although haven’t yet – whisper it –experienced the dizzy heights reached by arch
rivals One Direction. Tom Parker, 24, unofficial group leader and always the
most vocal in interviews, reckons that might be about to change.
“We
released an EP, which got to No.7, so we were happy with that. But yeah, the
album release later this year is going to be a big test. It’s exciting.”
They
can be serious when it counts – Robbie Williams recently gave all five of them
some “great advice”.
“He
said: ‘Don’t f**k it up,’” says Nathan.
Jay
adds: “He said it repeatedly: ‘Don’t f**k it up, don’t f**k it up…’”
And so
far, they haven’t. Far from it.
After
the shoot, we sat down with the boys to find out the latest on the feud with
1D, the misbehaviour from the night before and why Jay will probably get
married to an avocado.
Max
So,
boys – you’re a five-piece again! How did it feel to make your comeback at
Capital FM’s Summer Ball at Wembley, Nathan?
Nathan
It felt great. It’s been quite a long period of time not being with the lads
and they went to some amazing places that I’m very jealous of, such as Japan.
What
have you been doing for the past few months?
Nathan
Watching The Jeremy Kyle Show, This Morning…
Jay
We’ve been going round the world and he’s been really England-ing it up.
Nathan
Loose Women, The Office, Family Guy…
Jay
It’s been weird to go to all these places and not have him with us.
Nathan
American Dad!
Jay But
it’s good to have him back and have his vocal cords as moist and as red as his
mum’s…
Max
[Interrupting] Sooo, anyway…
We’ve
seen the pictures of you partying at London nightclub Mahiki last night. How
was it?
Tom
I’ve seen a few of those pictures and you know what? I’ve seen us in a lot
worse states than that.
Nathan
We handled ourselves quite well last night.
Tom I
was out till 5am, which I think is OK.
Max Um,
8.30am for me. My mum was out with us last night, actually. She left about 1am.
She did well though.
Tom
She’s rock ‘n’ roll, his mum.
Max
She’s not an alcoholic but she does like a party.
Nathan
Who was
in the worst state? Or do we need to ask?
Tom
These two. Max and Jay.
Nathan
Seev made the dramatic exit early on.
Siva I
left at 2am!
So you
know where the line is?
Siva
No, it’s when I don’t know where the line is that I leave! I couldn’t even see
the line, so I knew I was done.
Jay
When he can’t see the line, he punches strangers.
Your
running feud with One Direction continues. The latest claim from Zayn Malik is
that he offered to fight Max [who Zayn also once dubbed “chlamydia boy”] but
heard nothing.
Max I have
no idea where on earth he’s got that from.
Jay I
think until we speak to them personally, we won’t really know what the real
situation is. It’s mostly just talk.
Nathan
It’s getting a bit boring now. It would be good to put it to one side and just
get on with things.
Tom
Come on! It’ll never go away. ‘N Sync and the Backstreet Boys had it, Take That
and East 17 had it. That’s what happens.
Max
[Getting riled] The fact is, we asked to meet them at Madison Square Garden
[after the Jingle Ball concert in NYC last winter] and they did a runner.
That’s the 100 per cent God’s honest truth. They got the car pulled up to the
back of the stage and got straight in it.
Why did
you want to meet them?
Max
Because Zayn was being a dick. I sent him a message on Twitter asking to meet
and he sent one back saying: “All right, big man.” We wanted to know what the
problem was and sort it out.
Tom To
draw a line under it.
Jay
Face to face, the conflict would have been diffused.
Tom
Are
there any of them you’d happily have a pint with?
Nathan
Yeah, Niall.
Max And
Harry.
Nathan
From what I’ve heard, Niall’s a lovely guy.
Siva We
only know them from Twitter.
Max
Harry seems cool. He’s one of those, a cool guy.
Tom He
reminds me a bit of Jay.
Jay
What? Like a continuous idiot?
Onstage
at the Summer Ball; Jay (left) and Max out the night before our shoot
What
did you make of the JLS split?
Jay Oh,
they are one of the nicest groups of guys
you
could meet.
Max
Especially Marvin.
Jay I
love that JB’s got his own farm. Give me five years and I f**king hope I can
have a farm, too.
Max
You’re vegetarian, Jay.
Jay
Well, I’d grow crops. [They all laugh.]
Max Jay
would just murder potatoes instead.
Tom and
Siva, you’re in relationships [with actress Kelsey Hardwick, 23, and shoe
designer Nareesha McCaffrey, 23, respectively]. Do the rest of you take
advantage of being single and in a boy band?
Max Of
course!
Nathan
At the end of the day, we’re lads in our 20s and any guys given this sort of
opportunity enjoy it. We’re maybe not as sex-crazed as people try and make out.
Max
Well, I definitely am.
Nathan
Maybe apart from Max.
Max I
think I’ve got an issue.
Do you
want to share it with the group?
Max No.
[Much laughter.]
Having
girlfriends must be tough with all the time apart.
Siva
Our job is extreme, it’s not 9 to 5. Every day is early mornings and late
nights and it’s hard not spending time with family and our girlfriends. It’s
just a matter of making sure the time you do spend together is precious.
Tom
FaceTime and Skype have saved everything.
Jay Or
“Sk-wipe”, as we call it. Why are you laughing?!
Filth.
Max, when we met in November last year, you were getting over a difficult
break-up with fiancée Michelle Keegan. Are you back in the game?
Max
Yeah, I’m really good. I’m having a lot of fun. I would like a girlfriend, I’d
like to settle down. But watching how difficult it is for Siva and Tom, I
dunno. I know how difficult it is from my past relationship. But I’m having a
great time.
Is it
hard seeing Michelle in such a public new relationship [with Mark Wright]?
Max
Nah. I couldn’t care less, to be honest. I couldn’t care less. I’ve totally
moved on and I’m having much more fun now.
Jay
Lindsay
Lohan – what really happened between you two?
Max
She’s a friend of all of ours, she came on the tour bus with us and we spent a
bit of time together for a couple of months. We kind of saw each other for, I
dunno, a few weeks and that was it.
Tom Do
you know what? She’s a sweetheart.
Jay
When you meet her you just want to hug her, cos she’s so top.
Tom
She’s misunderstood.
Max
Apparently she’s doing really well in rehab. She’s texted a couple of times to
see how the boys are, and she wants to come and see us when we next do a US
show, which will be cool.
The
video for Walks Like Rihanna is hilarious [the group parody classic ‘90s videos
by ‘N Sync, Take That and Backstreet Boys].
Max You
sounded like you actually meant that!
Jay I’m
so glad you liked it, because we all spoke about it in the beginning and everyone
agreed that it would be quite funny to revisit the big moments of boy-band
history, because we are honestly terrible at dancing.
Tom
It’s a progression from what boy bands were to what they are now. Us, One
Direction, Union J – none of us dance.
Nathan
We’re definitely not taking the p**s out of the bands though.
Jay
Actually Nathan is taking the p**s. You can quote him saying he is.
Nathan
Jay, no! We’re complimenting very admirable careers and people we genuinely
look up to.
Siva
We’re paying homage to them.
Tom
Backstreet Boys were the biggest boy band, like, ever. And if we can get to
that level, I’ll be more than happy. Just maybe not in the white suits.
Siva
with girlfriend Nareesha (and Nathan behind!); Tom with girlfriend Kelsey
Do you
have final say on things like your image, marketing and music?
Jay
When we first started, we were directed towards certain ideas, but we took
control of our music a while ago now. It’s a total ball ache for the label, but
that’s the real difference between us and other boy bands. Our record label
listens to us. It’s a collaborative effort between us and the label.
Tom
They get to the point where they can’t be bothered to argue with us.
You’re
not puppets?
Tom
Exactly.
Do you
ever get a proper telling off?
All Oh,
yeah!
Max We
were getting b*****ked in Mahiki last night! Me and Jay get told off the most.
Nathan
I think with everything there’s a line.
Jay
[Joking] And Nathan loves a line.
Tom
[Looks incredulously at Jay] What’s wrong with you?!
Nathan
[Continuing regardless] But I think our line is probably in a different, more
luxurious place to other boy bands. But if we cross that line then we’re due a
b*****king.
Max Me
and Jay missed our flight from New York to Florida last week because we were
still in the pub at 10am.
Jay And
Nathan rang us, telling us all about this certain line he expects us to adhere
to. [The boys all laugh]. So we were like, fine, you’re the boss, let’s be
professional from now on and I think we have been. [More laughs.]
Max We
got on a later flight and went and did the gig and it was great. But we had to
apologise to the boys, who were a bit p****d off with us.
Tell us
about your new reality show…
Tom
Ryan Seacrest came to us and wanted to make a show that showed us how we really
are. Not like this scripted reality TV bulls**t that we see so much of.
Max
It’s literally what you see is what you get.
Jay We
are terrible at being scripted.
Tom Jay
is the worst actor ever.
Jay
[Robotically] I am not acting. I don’t know what you are talking about, Thomas.
I am just talking.
Siva
What do
you make of Justin Bieber’s recent troubles and fall from grace?
Tom
He’s 19 and any teenager makes mistakes.
Siva
He’s a young millionaire, I don’t think he cares!
Nathan
I’m sure his brilliant management team will make sure he comes out on the right
side.
Er,
don’t you share a management company?
Nathan
Yeah and they’re fantastic, and if you could put that in, that would be
amazing!
Apparently
Taylor Swift recently demanded the biggest dressing room at a gig, and that it
be decorated with white lilies. What’s on your rider?
Jay
Well, we do that too, actually.
Nathan
The only thing on our rider is an offensive cartoon of ourselves.
Jay
Yeah, we respectfully ask that someone draws a horrible picture of us. If they
don’t do it, we don’t cry, but it’s always nice to see their terrible
interpretation of us.
Siva We
sometimes ask that there’s someone there to give us a high five every time we
leave the room.
Jay
That’s more to see how humorous the venue is…
Tom
Sometimes we’ll forget and they come up to us wanting a high five and we’re
like: “What?!”
What’s
the most ridiculous thing you’ve blown your money on?
Jay A
lizard.
Max
Mine’s quite obvious, but we’re not going to go into that one. [Oh. The
engagement ring for Michelle, which he reportedly never got back.]
Who’s
the wisest with their money?
Siva
All of us are consistently broke.
Tom
Hang on, I’ve just bought a house! I’m doing all right.
Max I
still live with my mum, so my money is piling up.
Jay We
might reputedly be idiots, but we are trying to make sure that all this stuff
counts later on.
Finally,
you’ve got millions of Twitter followers between you and have sold records all
over the world. How come none of you have individual Wikipedia entries yet?
Siva
[Checking the internet on his phone] You’re right! The band has one but you
can’t click on our names.
Jay
Although would we really want one? Where people we don’t know can write a
review of what they think our life is? That would invite so much trouble. I’d
be married to an avocado and people believe that stuff. I’m obsessed with
avocado marriage.
Max I
can’t even spell “Wikipedia”, so I’m fine with that.
Cv
1988
Max is born in Manchester, Tom in Bolton and Siva in Dublin.
1990
Jay is born in Nottinghamshire.
1993
Nathan born in Gloucester.
2009
The band form.
2010
Debut single All Time Low goes to No.1.
2011
Glad You Came becomes their second UK No.1. It reaches No.3 on the US Billboard
chart.
2012
Tour the United States. Singles Chasing The Sun and I Found You go top 5 in the
UK.
2013
Start filming The Wanted Life and prepare to release their third studio album.
Max
wears: jacket, G-Star; top, Topman; jeans and boots, both Replay Nathan wears:
jacket, G-Star; top, Topman; jeans, Nudie Jeans; boots, Palladium Tom wears:
top, G-Star; jeans, Wrangler; boots, G-Star Jay wears: jacket and shirt, both
G-Star; top, Topman; jeans, Wrangler; boots, Palladium Siva wears: shirt,
G-Star; jeans, Topman; boots, Next
Grooming:
Nick Peters, Gemma Aldous at Alchemy Artists, Sara Bowden Styling: David
Hawkins at Frank Agency Additional photography: Rex Features, Xposure, Pacific
Coat News, PA
fabulousmag
Fabulous by Mark Hayman
