He was called 'all names under the sun' for leaving The Blizzards, but going solo has been good for Bressie – and he's managed to keep his manners, he tells TONY CLAYTON-LEA
* Was there much of a wrench going from The Blizzards to a solo career?
“There’s a massive one... I miss the support and comfort you’d get from a band scenario. When you’re in a band you worry about four or five other different people, and take on four or five different opinions ... Sometimes that makes things easier, but other times it makes it worse. It’s a difficult question to answer in the context of live shows, because I haven’t played enough gigs at the moment.”
* Do you miss the camaraderie that can be such a part of band life?
“The Blizzards were the guys I grew up with, so there’s a bond there, always will be. The bond between band members can be brilliant, and if you have that kind of bond – whether you’re in a successful group or not – then you should count yourself lucky, because there are too many people in bands out there who can’t stand the sight of each other. They just stick together because of commercial reasons.”
* Lead singers leaving bands to go solo – some fans take it very seriously don’t they?
“You’d better believe it. Some people contacted me online and called me all the names under the sun for leaving The Blizzards. And they call themselves fans? Look, the reason we took that decision and walked away from it all was because we were very honest with each other, and we felt that to make a third album we needed to put into it everything that should be put into it ... Priorities change, I know, but we just didn’t have the option to make the album we wanted to make.”
* What was the creative challenge with the new solo album – to write different but similar tunes or to come out with a very different collection of songs?
“It’s still pop music. I love a good hook, a good pop song, and I write the music I like to listen to. There are elements of 80s’ synths in the music, but I’m hardly Paul Van Dyke. It’s a different direction, though, I didn’t see the point of writing a pop/rock record because that’s what I did with The Blizzards.”
* Do you feel you’re being bracketed in any way?
“I know I’m a pop artist, solo variety, but sometimes I have to ask people what the music is like. Creatively, I’m in a different place, and by this stage I know my way around a studio. I’ve learned a lot of things in the past two years, just sitting in a room with a lot of strong songwriters ... and realising for a long time that I’d been going down dead avenues.”
* You’re signed to Simon Fuller’s management company, which means you’re now writing songs for other pop stars. Good fun?
“I was thrown into the deep end – pretty much the first day I was in a room with a singer trying to write a pop song. It’s an environment that is not overly pushed in Ireland, which is wrong, as I think co-writing is an absolute necessity for successful acts nowadays. I knew after that first day, though, that it was definitely what I wanted to do. You’ve got two different people coming at the same thing from two different routes with different songwriting styles.
That first day? Awful! We didn’t write anything.”
* So where will it lead to, or where do you want it to lead to?
“For me, it’s artist development. I’ve no interest in trying to pitch songs to JLS – for one, you haven’t a chance because it’s so political, and for two, I don’t want to write songs for an act that has to have the words ‘dancefloor’, ‘club’, or ‘DJ’ in very song. I love being given an artist who has no direction, and being asked what creative direction do I think they should take. It’s more financially risky, but it’s a lot more enjoyable and interesting.”
* Writing pop songs for a living – it’s a long way from Mullingar, isn’t it?
“London moves at a fast, intense pace, but I’ve gotten used to it now. You have two options – you either keep your manners from the way you were brought up, or you put your head down and be a bastard. Me? I refuse to drop my standards, if I did my mother would kill me!”
* Colourblind Stereo is released through Sony/BMG on September 16. Bressie starts a nationwide tour on September 23
