INTERVIEW - Thompson (Kingsland Rd.)

How’s life changed for you since appearing on the X Factor last year?

Everything’s changed really, we lived it a flat but we all slept on the floor and now we live in beds and have our own bedrooms, which is nice. So that’s probably the biggest change.

Would you do it again and do anything differently?

Yeah I’d definitely do it over again and I wouldn’t change a thing. It was such a good experience and such fun as well. Getting to speak to Gary Barlow like we were his best mates was just weird. Looking back on it now it was like it was just a dream and it didn’t happen.

What have you all been up to since leaving the show?

We’ve been gigging loads, we didn’t stop until Christmas, gigging everyday. I’ve seen every motorway now, which is nice. Then we’ve been in the studio this month writing songs, we’ve had people like Jason Perry who’s worked on a lot of McFlys’ hits and stuff like that. So just getting in the studio and basically writing an album.

What can fans expect from your time in the studio, what sort of sound have you been working on?

I don’t really know to be honest, just whatever we feel on the day. If we feel soppy we’ll write a ballad, if we feel we want to go out we’ll write an up-beat song, it kind of changes every day.

Does this mean there’s an album in progress?

Yeah we’re working on it and hopefully release this year. Can’t really tell the future but we’re writing as if we’re going to release it. Hopefully, be pretty pointless if it just ends up in our CD player.

Where do you get your inspiration from when writing new songs?

I think we all get inspiration from different places, Jay loves Beyonce, I love Bruno Mars, Matt loves like indie bands and stuff like that so the sound changes. The song will kind of start off pretty soppy and it’ll end up with Matt rocking it out at the end. Kind of takes a weird direction. It’s different.

You have a new cover coming out in a few weeks, any clues as to what?

It’s a song everyone knows. It’s by a girl. We really like it, we’ve put our own twist on it like we’ve always done even before the X Factor, give it a different edge and different angle. I’m not playing guitar in it, for the first time ever which is nice because I’m actually pretty shit.

Is there a video? Will there be some iconic dance moves?

Yeah, we’re filming it in Brighton in the next week or so. The dance moves? I actually don’t know, probably something that’s a bit weird, that’s normally what we do, like ‘that’ll be weird, lets do that”. I think we’re doing it in a warehouse and just going to tear it up. Just wing it, we kind of just wing the song as well. Like “we need to do a cover let’s just record it” so we went into the studio without rehearsing it and it kind of just works out well that way, pure inspiration without planning it.

(Thompson then has a little cough and tells us how he’s got a sore throat so sounds really sexy… we can confirm, he does)

What would be your dream song to cover?

A Bruno Mars song, but the lads would never let me do it so I only got my way in the arena audition by pleading. They won’t let me do it because I just talk about him all the time, probably the only music that I like it by Bruno Mars. I was meant to go watch him twice in a week but I couldn’t because it was the week of the first live show, which kind of got in the way. I tried to change the live show date but it didn’t work, they were having none of that.

You announced the Kingsland Rd. social the other day, can you explain what this is? Are you looking forward to it?

We’re doing it at Bloomsbury Lanes, the nearest station is Russell Square on the Piccadilly line, I think. It’s at a bowling alley, we’re doing karaoke and a few drinks, some coca cola. We’re doing a set as well, I think its £25 for about 4 hours of messing around with us being idiots. I can’t wait, we did them before the X Factor but haven’t had a chance to do it since, so this is the first one of 2014. Our first ever one was about that time last year, which was absolutely mad, that was the first time I thought ‘oh god, we’ve actually got fans’.

Do you think it’s important to connect with fans like this and over social networks?

Yeah definitely, definitely. The Wanted stole our idea and now they’re doing socials, they did one last year, so I think we’ll probably go to court with that (please note if there was a sarcasm font we’d be using it). I think 100% you need to get to know your fans, like we know quite a lot of our fans by first names, if we see them we’re like ‘Hi Katie, how’re you doing’. It’d good to, so they’re not like fans, we see them as our mates.

Quick Fire

Biggest flirt?

Connor

Best dancer?

Jay

Worst dancer?

Matt

Best dressed?

Josh

Worst dressed?

It used to be Matt but not any more. Jay.

Worst habits?

Me

Who’s hair takes the longest?

Matt, I think. You don’t expect it but he’s just stands in the mirror for ages and just plays with it.

We thought Josh…

Josh is alright, his just slowly does itself. In the morning he’s always the same, ‘ah my hair looks terrible today’. It just looks the same.

Who could cook us the best meal?

Me, all of us think we’re great chefs. Connor cooked us a roast dinner today, that was nice.

And, who’s got the biggest feet?

Me, straight up and Josh has got the smallest.

Fan Questions

If you could swap places with one of the other boys for a day, who would it be and why?

Jay, I just want to know what goes on in his brain, I’m not sure what’s in there, if there’s anything in there at all.

What’s been yours (or your band mates) most embarrassing moment whilst being in Kingsland Rd.?

(Shouts to ask Matt) Connor gets dumped a lot, but he deserves it. Oh and I walk around naked a lot and I got caught by our next door neighbour, that was awkward because she’s an old lady, I think she might have had a shock. I haven’t seen her around lately actually, hopefully Deirdre makes it, she’s seen my big feet.

  

And finally, what’s the best thing about being part of Kingsland Rd.?

The best thing is being with these guys, we do everything together and it’s class and I wouldn’t swap it for anything in the world. Except for Deirdres’ life, hashtag save Deirdre.

Keep your eyes peeled for that Kingsland Rd. cover on @CRYSTALVISIONTV in the next few weeks.