December 10<\/a> are fundamentally different to what\u2019s come before in the lineage of boybands \u2013 a reflection perhaps of the shifting tectonics of the music industry.<\/p>\nThere are seven of them, for a start, more than you might expect. And while most of them were raised in the UK, they\u2019re proud of their composite heritage, with members from Irish, Brazilian, Indian, Nigerian and Jamaican backgrounds. They have the added bonus of not having to deal with the odd, tabloid-centric theatrics of the \u201890s and \u201800s.<\/p>\n
Aged just 17-19, Cruz, Nicholas, Josh, John, Hendrik, Danny and Dublin native S\u00e9an sit down to discuss their close-knit brotherhood, the importance of representation, and the \u2018lovely\u2019 Simon…<\/p>\n
Se\u00e1n:\u00a0Dia Duit!<\/p>\n
Riccardo: Love it! Are you teaching the guys Irish?<\/p>\n
Se\u00e1n:\u00a0It\u2019s taking a while, but we are getting there!<\/p>\n
You\u2019re coming to Ireland soon. Are you looking forward to bringing the lads to your hometown?<\/p>\n
Se\u00e1n:\u00a0I\u2019m so buzzing to bring everybody to Dublin, and I\u2019m buzzing to perform there. I\u2019ve done performances with school and with choirs, but nothing like this.<\/p>\n
You guys are from all over the place. Se\u00e1n, I don\u2019t know how you\u2019re surviving as the only Irishman\u2026<\/p>\n
Se\u00e1n:\u00a0Terrible!<\/p>\n
Danny:\u00a0We make sure we do the accent as best we can so he feels more at home!<\/p>\n
On a more serious note, what do you think coming from different backgrounds adds to the band?<\/p>\n
Cruz:\u00a0It adds a very unique vibe that I don\u2019t think the world has ever seen before. It makes me feel proud to be part of this band, because we\u2019re so unique and have so many cultures. We\u2019ve got Mr Portugal over here [points at Nicholas]. It makes me proud because I feel like the world doesn\u2019t know what\u2019s coming.<\/p>\n
John:\u00a0Representation is so important. It\u2019s great to be able to see that representation, for younger people.<\/p>\n
Your single \u2018Run My Way\u2019 got a million streams and all of these shows have sold out. This has been in the making for a few years. What\u2019s it like to see it all become real?<\/p>\n
Cruz:\u00a0It\u2019s madness and we love it. All our dreams are coming true. At first I was kind of ecstatic, and that feeling is still there. It\u2019s amazing to experience it with your best friends.<\/p>\n
What was going through your head before you met Simon Cowell? Were you intimidated?<\/p>\n
Danny:\u00a0I wouldn\u2019t say intimidated. I think it was nerve-wracking because of who he is, and to audition for someone who\u2019s such a big name.<\/p>\n
REALLY SUPPORTIVE<\/p>\n
What\u2019s he like?<\/p>\n
Se\u00e1n:\u00a0Simon\u2019s lovely. He\u2019s really supportive of all of us,\u00a0and he\u2019s really involved in everything we\u2019re doing. He\u2019s taught us loads on how to act in the industry with people. He\u2019s very genuine and has a lot of wisdom as well.<\/p>\n
Josh:\u00a0He always says he\u2019s only one call away, and that is true. If we need him, we can just call him. Love you, Simon!<\/p>\n
Is there one piece of advice he\u2019s given that stands out?<\/p>\n
John:\u00a0He always tells us that we should treat everyone in the room with the same respect no matter who they are. He also tells us to always interact with fans. You\u2019re nothing without fans, so it\u2019s important for us to respect that.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s it been like having all these fans? Do you feel a sense of responsibility?<\/p>\n
Danny:\u00a0It goes without saying. It\u2019s not a chore, it\u2019s how you\u2019re supposed to treat everyone, not just your fans. Your fans make you who you are.<\/p>\n
Se\u00e1n:\u00a0Any interactions we\u2019ve had so far have all been lovely, so it\u2019s really nice to see what people think of \u2018Run My Way\u2019 and the show.<\/p>\n
John:\u00a0We had a meet and greet the other day, and there were so many people there. Our fans are so lovely. They\u2019re all such positive people.<\/p>\n
How do you feel about comparisons to other bands? I\u2019ve seen other interviews where you\u2019ve been compared to One Direction.<\/p>\n
Se\u00e1n:\u00a0We find it quite the compliment to even get into the conversation with a band such as them, with all the success they\u2019ve had and records they\u2019ve broken. They\u2019re definitely a band we can look up to. It\u2019s quite an honour for us to get compared to them. We don\u2019t see it as anything negative.<\/p>\n
Do you have any other mentors in the industry apart from Simon? I know you were talking to Tom Grennan.<\/p>\n
Danny:\u00a0Yeah, we\u2019ve got Tom Grennan, and we\u2019re lucky to work with the producers that we do as well; they\u2019re all pretty significant within the industry.<\/p>\n
Hendrik:\u00a0We\u2019ve obviously got all our welfare team and stuff, so we\u2019ve got a great team supporting us.<\/p>\n
Cruz:\u00a0They help massively, they always support us!<\/p>\n
Se\u00e1n:\u00a0Tom was lovely. He had such good first-hand experience, and he could tell us to watch out and get ready for it.<\/p>\n
Josh:\u00a0He\u2019s so down to earth as well!<\/p>\n
SEVERAL INFLUENCES<\/p>\n
Tell me about the whole process of making the song. How involved are you in songwriting?<\/p>\n
Hendrik:\u00a0We do have a lot of input in the songs. We can suggest if we should change a lyric or melody, and we can put our own takes on the vocals.<\/p>\n
Se\u00e1n:\u00a0What\u2019s really special about our group is that there\u2019s seven of us. There\u2019s several influences from several different voices. So when we go to record, it\u2019s almost like we make seven different songs and then mash them together to make one great sound. We are really able to influence the music.<\/p>\n
Nicolas:\u00a0And also at the same time, we write our own songs, so we are looking forward to starting to incorporate that in our own discography. We can\u2019t wait!<\/p>\n
And how democratic would you say the process is?<\/p>\n
Se\u00e1n:\u00a0It\u2019s very democratic. If we have a picture we want to post online, we make sure everyone has given it a thumbs up. Communication is the important part, so it\u2019s definitely fair.<\/p>\n
Some of you are pretty accomplished musicians. How important do you think that is to the band?<\/p>\n
John:\u00a0I think it\u2019s sort of a core thing that we have in our band and we\u2019re really looking forward to showing off on the tour as well.
Danny:\u00a0It\u2019s an additional perk.<\/p>\n
Are you learning more instruments?<\/p>\n
Josh:\u00a0I want Danny to teach me piano. Danny\u2019s learning guitar and I think we\u2019re all getting better at stuff. Cruz said he wants to learn the saxophone.<\/p>\n
Nicolas:\u00a0He\u2019s gonna look sick with this; I want John to teach me how to play that too.<\/p>\n
You guys are similar ages. How did you find your roles within the group?<\/p>\n
Cruz:\u00a0I would say that I probably am the most mature one in the group.<\/p>\n
Everyone else:\u00a0Ha!<\/p>\n
Cruz: It\u2019s kind of weird because I\u2019m the oldest but also kind of a baby.<\/p>\n
Nicolas:\u00a0I wouldn\u2019t say there is any difference in maturity with the 17-19 age gap in the band. We can all just talk to each other, whatever the case is. We\u2019re all great at giving advice. It just shows how close we\u2019ve gotten to each other.<\/p>\n
You call each other brothers all the time. How long did it take you to build that trust with each other?<\/p>\n
John:\u00a0I think it really built up during Miami (while filming The Next Act).<\/p>\n
Josh:\u00a0Yeah, it was really fast because, obviously, you\u2019re going through this process together almost for the show. It was all our first time being on camera all the time, and I think we were all going through it together. So it made us bond a lot faster than usual. We had no phones as well; we only had each other to speak to.<\/p>\n
Danny:\u00a0We started off as mates, then best mates, and now we\u2019re family.<\/p>\n
Hendrik:\u00a0We didn\u2019t have a phone and we lived together for ages and we spent so much time together.<\/p>\n
Josh:\u00a0I think what was important from the start when we first met was having to support each other through something. For example, if someone was feeling nervous about a performance, so was I. We had to help each other out with those feelings.<\/p>\n
Nicolas:\u00a0I feel like we\u2019ve all got such different personalities, but at the root of it all, we\u2019re so passionate about music. I had that to go off when we first met.<\/p>\n
John:\u00a0We had this one trip to Thorpe Park and I felt like we really bonded. We had so much fun on the rides.<\/p>\n
COMES WITH THE JOB<\/p>\n
Was anyone too scared to go on the rides?<\/p>\n
Josh:\u00a0I would have been too scared if we ended up going on Hyperia, but we didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Danny:\u00a0We were more scared at Winter Wonderland!<\/p>\n
Speaking of feeling scared, how do you guys deal with all of the attention?<\/p>\n
Danny:\u00a0It comes with the job, and the more attention that we\u2019re getting, the better we are doing our job.<\/p>\n
Josh:\u00a0It\u2019s great meeting the fans as well when they come up to you. I like the little kids who cry because they are so full of joy.<\/p>\n
Se\u00e1n:\u00a0It\u2019s really handy to have six other people who go through this with you. It\u2019s not just you by yourself, so you always have people to talk to and have fun with. And even with these interviews, it\u2019s not just one person, so it\u2019s definitely less intimidating.<\/p>\n
Has the attention affected your normal lives? What was it like going back into school?<\/p>\n
John:\u00a0It\u2019s a bit of a weird one, but we just try to stay focused when we can. Some days we wake up a bit earlier to study. This is our life now.<\/p>\n
Nicolas:\u00a0It\u2019s quite interesting because me and John are doing this and then we have to go back to school. School is just a completely different thing for me personally. It\u2019s nice to have a duality where I\u2019m doing what I love, but a week later, I\u2019m doing school and exams. It brings me back to a normal life.<\/p>\n
Do you think you\u2019re doing a good job of staying grounded?<\/p>\n
Nicolas:\u00a0I think so. We\u2019ve all got really supportive families who are always there to keep us grounded. We\u2019ve got each other. We\u2019re just taking it one day at a time.<\/p>\n
What does success look like for December 10?<\/p>\n
Se\u00e1n:\u00a0Having a really solid connection to our fanbase because, as we\u2019ve said, they\u2019re what makes you. So whether you have a hundred people, or a thousand, or ten thousand people, as long as we have fans, we get to keep doing what we love. There are so many factors, but that\u2019s definitely the most important thing about it. You\u2019ve gotta have fun as well.<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2018Run My Way\u2019 is out now. December Ten play multiple shows at the Academy, Dublin on February 22.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Early metrics suggest December 10 could be Gen Z\u2019s entry to the British and Irish lineage of chart-topping…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,278],"class_list":{"0":"post-311441","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}