When Lauren met Stephen
Lucky Lauren Falk from Ealing Broadway won our competition to interview Stephen Gately for Capitalfm.com. She was really excited to meet Stephen, having been such a fan of Boyzone when she was growing up in Zimbabwe. Charming as ever, Stephen soon put Lauren at ease and our new hotshot reporter even found out the name of Stephen and boyfriend Eloy's new cat!
What was it like growing up in Sheriff Street, Dublin?
Quite difficult, there were very poor families, more so than ours, but my family was very poor as well. I enjoyed it, as we had to be very imaginative, and create games ourselves, we used to scale the bars across the walls and see who could do it in the quickest time. Saturday night would be a great night, sit down with your bar of chocolate, bag of crisps and bottle of coke and watch a movie or else you'd eat a pig's foot. The pig's foot would be boiled for hours and you'd suck on the toe, and you'd eat all the fat around it. Mmm, really delicious. So, that's what it was like growing up.
Was it always your biggest dream to become famous?
Yep, always. It was a great way of getting out of my area and I asked myself when I was really young, 'What is the quickest way of making money in the shortest period of time?', and it was being in the entertainment business. So, I went into studying acting and I loved singing and loved dancing, so it's been great. I guess I wanted to be Madonna, I loved Madonna. The album 'Like A Prayer' is one of my classic all-time albums, I just played that over and over again as a kid, I love it. That was good pop music and that was where I wanted to go.
When did you first hear one of your songs on the radio, and how did it feel?
I heard it with the rest of the guys, and we were in Dublin, it was our very first single, 'Working Our Way Back To You', and we were in the car and just sitting there, you know, we screamed our heads off. Then we all said 'Shut Up, let me hear this'. Hearing it on the radio was very strange.
Was that when you knew you were famous?
No, not really, when I first knew I was famous I was in this Irish Film Centre building and I was just sitting down and having a drink, because it's a really nice quiet place. Some girls came in and started asking for autographs and feeding me ice-cream, and that was the first time I knew what fame was like.
Has it been as fulfilling as you thought it would be?
Fulfilling in lots of ways, but you miss out on a lot of things. It's very hard work and you don't have proper surroundings so it is quite difficult. It's been fantastic though. I am so lucky to be in this position now; I've made some money so I can now take care of my future. It's not what everybody makes it out to be, there's lots of glamour and glitz and the fancy hotels and cars but at the end of the day, your happiness, health and family, friends and your feet on the ground are so important.
In the musical 'Fame' there's a saying, 'Fame costs and right here is where you start paying', do you feel you've paid for fame - other than the privacy factor?
Yes, definitely, I think I lost a lot of years as a teenager and I think they are very important years. But I did that stuff when I was young. I was in nightclubs when I was quite young. Not that I want to go to nightclubs again, but I feel I've missed out on going out and having a laugh with my friends over the years, that they've maybe gone out and got drunk lots of times. I think I should have been doing the same thing.
You were recently mobbed by fans in Taiwan, that nearly brought the whole airport to a complete standstill, do you sometimes feel like throwing aside the whole showbiz lifestyle?
Yes, I know I'm not going to do this forever, I'll do writing or go into acting or something else, but I don't know that I'm going to do singing forever. Just purely the fact that I do like to have my time and I think it's so important to have a life outside singing. I can't understand why people are constantly going around doing all this promotion and not taking a week off to just chill out at home. They have to go on holiday, they have to go to this party and I think that's really wrong, because you're running away from something. I like to just take my time and chill out and think about things, what I want to do and where I want to go in my life.
Where do you imagine you would be if you hadn't had your big break?
God knows. Lots of people around where I lived ended up on drugs; my best friend committed suicide. It's just crazy when I think where I could have been. I'd never do drugs though because I had very good guidance from my family. I think I might be acting because I was studying acting and was in a play when I was 16, and I thought I was quite good and lots of other people thought so too.
What part would you like to play in a movie?
I'd love something like a wizard in the Harry Potter movie or something like that, there's the new casting going on for the second part of the movie already, so I'm going to go for a piece in that, which would be fantastic. I'd like to play a villain as well, someone really evil as everybody always sees me as the cute, little, quiet one, not having much to say, but I'd like to show that I can be evil.
Who would you most like to play alongside?
Meg Ryan, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Lopez. Someone funny as well, I love the girl from Friends, what's her name again? Janice, I love Janice so I'd love to do something with her, she's hilarious. I was just recently in Absolutely Fabulous, I filmed a piece for them which was good fun to do, meeting Jennifer (Saunders), and Twiggy was there, that was a good laugh.
Even though I'm from deepest darkest Africa, Boyzone was a big household name and I remember when 'Love Me For A Reason' came out in 1994 and I used to jump around to it. It's the one song that's stuck in my mind when I remember my early teen days. Which of the songs from Boyzone has meant the most to you and why?
'No Matter What' meant the most to me, because I sung that song first before anybody. It was never going to be on a Boyzone album, never going to be a single, we had to fight for it to be a single. I became friends with Andrew Lloyd Webber through it and it was a great opportunity for me, it was great, fantastic.
Do you look at your time in Boyzone as a learning curve that got you to where you are now?
Well I'm here because of a lot of reasons, one of them definitely being Boyzone. I've kind of put myself in this position and I've wanted to see myself where I was going to go. I'm happy with where I'm at now, I have a lovely house and lovely partner, 2 dogs, a cat. I love cleaning and doing the cooking getting the weekly magazines. I do lots of things to chill out, I do meditation a lot and go out on my boat.
'Stay' was released this week, what does the song mean to you?
When I heard it first I thought, that's definitely the one, a big single, good sound and very easy to remember which is always a good sign, very catchy. It just basically means asking your loved ones, or your lover for a second chance, you know, stay and give it one more try. What can you do without love? You fall apart basically.
You say it has a strong American influence, with a BackStreet Boys or N'Sync feel to it, why did you decide to change your sound and image from previous songs?
You're always trying to find that one song that will break you, that's going to be your sound. 'New Beginning' was very Rock and Pop sound, 'I Believe' was a ballad. This is more pop with a lot more dancing in it, a lot more beats in it and I just wanted to mess around with a couple of things and this is the single I'm really proud to release - its fun, it's a summer song to play in the garden. I think people like that sound and it's been very successful for N'Sync, Backstreet Boys and Britney, so why not. There hasn't been a male solo artist doing that sound, I thought I'd give it a try.
Born in the 70's, growing up in the 80's and performing throughout the 90's, which group do you feel was your biggest influence over the music you are releasing now?
It was just pop, you know, I listened to Madonna, The Jacksons, Michael Jackson and then my mum played tons of 60's pop music which I love, like 'Dizzy' and 'Strawberry Fields' and I grew up listening to all that and 'Stars on 45' I loved those records. So I grew up listening to all sorts of music, but pop's definitely my favorite, everyone loves pop.
What frame of mind do you have to be in when you are writing music?
If I'm writing a ballad I'm maybe a little bit down in the dumps, being a little bit tired. If I'm full of energy and raring to go I'll probably do something up-tempo. So it doesn't really matter which emotions, you just go in and write a song. I prefer to write in the studio, nowhere else, because people say, 'Oh, I have to go away to this mountain for two months and write an album'. If I'm on a mountain I'm there to relax, chill out and get drunk. So I prefer to write in the studio where I can concentrate and get my inspiration from what I've seen.
Were you very nervous about breaking into the solo scene?
No, I wasn't nervous, I just thought I'd give it a shot, why not. Things go as they go and that's it, I'm hoping for the best, I've done all the work, so there's only so much you can do. If it all crashes down tomorrow, then at least I know I've been part of something hugely successful and I've had a successful solo album with three Top Ten hits on it.
How much attention do you pay to the reviews in the paper about yourself and your music?
My music I pay attention to, but myself I don't pay attention to because nobody knows me better than me. I know what type of person I am, and niceness doesn't cost anything. Politeness costs nothing, manners cost nothing. I can't believe how people can be so rude sometimes, so that kind of frustrates me. I ignore the bad press, I just don't let it get to me. I used to worry a lot, but I realised that there really is no point. Rise above it.
What is the one question you were dying to be asked but no one asked you? Is there one?
Not really, I think I've been asked everything possible. You know, loads of bizarre questions.
What is your cat's name?
Casper. He's white with blue eyes.
I saw you at Party In the Park last year and even though it was pouring with rain, the crowd went absolutely wild when you performed. Do you find that the response of the fans psyches you on in a huge way during a live performance?
Definitely, the more the fans give, the better the performance. I've always been like that, even with Boyzone, you get so much energy from an audience, a rush, just a burst of energy. It's hard to explain but it's fantastic, the more they scream, the more energy you get. I always give 100% when I'm out on stage, I drink a couple of cans of Red Bull before I go on and away I go.
I know you acted before in 'The Commitments', as you are considering an acting career in the future, would you move entirely away from music or like to incorporate them both?
It would be great to do a bit of acting and do the title song on the soundtrack. Or do a musical, which is both acting and singing at the same time.
A lot of people have so much respect for you for coming out. What advice do you have for other gay people in the industry who may feel uncertain about coming out?
Don't do it! No, it's everybody's choice, never be pushed into it, feel comfortable to do it yourself. Be yourself and be happy, be true to yourself, but do it when you want to and not worry about the reaction of people - your true family and friends will stick by you and so will your true fans.
Are you living in Amsterdam with Eloy permanently now?
No I go home to Ireland and back and forth, and I'll always have a base in Ireland, but the two countries will always be my homes.
The Liberal Democrats are said to want to use a cover version of your song 'New Beginning' as their official theme, how do you feel about that?
I'm fine, great, if it gets me royalties for the music, I don't mind. If people want to use any of my songs it's an honour, so I'm really pleased with that.
When can we expect to see you again in the UK?
Live? I would love to do a tour early next year, but that depends on how many people want to go and see me. I don't want to set up a tour and then have to go and cancel, I'd like to go out there and do a tour that would be a sell-out. I think I'll wait until January or February next year.
If you could perform with any other artist live, who would it be?
Probably Destiny's Child or Donna Summer. Destiny's Child are just fantastic and Donna Summer has such an amazing voice. I think she is underestimated as a singer, she's had so many hits, and she's incredible. I'd do something with either of those.
Well done to Lauren, and our thanks to Stephen Gately.