Nathan Sykes “The Happiest He’s Ever Been” With Ariana
The Wanted's Nathan Sykes may be the baby of the group, but the floppy-haired singer chooses his words with the maturity of a media-savvy expert. Unsurprising given that the topic of conversation is his blossoming romance with Ariana Grande.
“I’m the happiest I’ve ever been in my relationship,” confirms Sykes, who has been dating the LA-based Nickelodeon star since August. “If you’ve got a real determination to make something work you can make it work. It’s almost a myth about long-distance relationships,” he said, adding that, despite the constant travelling, “We’re very lucky with our schedules. We bump into each other all the time.”
They’ve already met each other’s parents – “My family adore her” – and both Nathan and Ariana have confessed they want to write songs about each other. Is he worried about what Ariana might reveal in song? “Not at all, not at all,” he says. “I feel like the best way of writing is to write about things you’ve experienced.”
It’s worked for him so far, given that Show Me Love, which he co-wrote, gave The Wanted their tenth UK Top 10 hit last month. The album, however, took much longer than expected and was only released this week after being pushed back multiple times. Why the delay?
“The album wasn’t right,” Nathan replies, recalling the moment when, sat in an LA studio with Scooter Braun (the manager they share with [uuid=4eb2cf7c-7260-4512-92fc-8ec6fc21f4d1]Justin Bieber[/uuid]), the band agreed “the album isn’t right at the moment. We don’t feel comfortable putting this out”.
Luckily both Scooter and the record label were understanding and gave the band time to develop their sound. More important, however, was the fans’ understanding. “The fans have been so patient over the last few years and have been very forgiving,” Nathan says.
The delays, ultimately, made for a stronger record. “I think it’s important these days to not be someone that just does one thing ‘cause it can get a bit repetitive,” said Nathan. “Everyone develops their sound even down to like, One Direction. People never would have thought the band that sang What Makes You Beautiful is the band that sang Little Things, and I adore that song.”
What does Nathan make of James Arthur’s recent Twitter rant against ‘boy bands’, which many took to mean One Direction? “I think it’s a shame that he feels like that,” said Nathan. “We spent some time with him over the summer doing some gigs [and] his mum is a really big fan so we actually spent a lot of time chatting to his mum. He was really cool with us.”
And has The Wanted’s own Twitter feud with the 1D boys blown over? “There’s a very fine line between having banter with people and just going out and insulting people’s talents,” Nathan explained. “As much as there’s been differences of opinions we still respect how successful they [1D] are and they’re also very talented.“
As for other artists, Sykes is equally complimentary. Lily Allen is “so cool” and he is “SO excited” for Robbie Williams’ new album. “You don’t understand, when I heard he was doing a swing album I was throwing myself round like a lunatic.” Nathan has always been into swing music and, before joining The Wanted, he explained, “I used to sing with a jazz orchestra”.
Could he see himself going off and recording a solo swing project? The answer is an emphatic ‘no’. “No one’s even had time to think about anything let alone anything like that so everyone’s very focused at the moment and very focused on making this album as big a success as possible.”
By Karen Yossman @mtvuknews
This article ©2013 MTV Networks Europe. All rights reserved. Any reporting on this interview (including quoting therefrom) must credit MTV News UK as the source.”
