Charming, excitable and polite.
These are the three words that best describe boyband JLS on meeting them for the first time.
All four make a point of introducing themselves — Aston, JB, Oritse and Marvin — and are full of compliments.
Within minutes there is a huge burst of laughter and I am called upon to judge Aston’s impression of a seal… which he is performing with full gusto on the floor.
During the time it takes to set up for the interview, the boys — who came second in last year’s X Factor competition — begin a play fight.
It all starts to get a bit out of hand, but no one else in the room seems to mind.
Quiet now. I want some decorum.
JB: Sorry. Right we’re ready.
Good, right lets go back to the Mobos in October — bet it was great beating X Factor winner Alexandra Burke and scooping two awards?
JB: It wasn’t about beating Alex at all, she was sat on a table next to us and she was one of the first people to congratulate us on winning the award.
We had a great time and we’re so over the moon to have won both awards that we were nominated for.
What would you rather have done — won the X Factor or your two Mobos?
Aston: What we’re doing now.
Marvin: With hindsight now, we’re glad we didn’t win the X Factor because we wouldn’t be in this position. We’ve had an amazing start, Alex is a deserved winner, she’s a fantastic artist and we’ve now won two Mobos.
It’s not always about winning, it’s not always about beating someone, it’s about us establishing ourselves in the market place and having a career in music.
Are you feeling the pressure now you have won two awards so early in your career?
Oritse: Winning awards just makes us the more determined to go out and do even better.
The pressure that we have we feel amongst each other, and that’s in terms of goals and aims that we always want to try to achieve. We have our own delivered pressure.
I think that’s really important because it means that you care about your job and what you do. We love to do this and we want to be doing this for a very long time and it’s all about JLS and establishing ourselves.
Not all former X Factor contestants have stood the test of time. Steve Brookstein, Shayne Ward, Same Difference and Leon Jackson — where are they now? What is the secret to success?
Aston: There is no secret to success, it’s just what direction you go in. We’re a group, we’re a totally different act to what they were.
At that time there may have been another 10 solo artists out at the time, that’s just how this industry works, now we’re the only boy band. Right now, there’s a market gap and we’re tying to grab hold of it.
Do you think the X Factor format is getting rather boring as we have seen the sob stories all before?
Aston: I bet you sit there and you watch it and you think about it. You might say: ‘There’s another sob story’ but you will still sit there and watch it, because you’ll be thinking that that is actually someone’s life. That’s what they’re going through.
JB: I sat and watched it last weekend and I thought to myself: ‘You know what this is actually a really great show.’ I’m not talking from being on it, I’m talking from the way it’s filmed, the way it’s done. And you can’t deny that every week it has millions of viewers, you don’t get that by chance.
Oritse: You get very attached to people. I almost don’t believe in the term ‘sob story’, because for me, it’s one of the biggest reasons why the show is so relatable to the general public.
Nobody wants to see fully auditioned artists going onto that show being well groomed and well prepared.
What you want to see are real people, they could be your next door neighbour, it could be your mum, it could be your uncle, whoever has this big dream to play on a major stage, to get the opportunity they would never have had without the show.
Marvin: I must admit I got a little bit choked up. You can’t but help getting a little bit attached, it’s real life, they’re real people and they’re just trying to pursue what we were trying to pursue.
Alexandra Burke and Cheryl Cole both have singles out — which record will you be buying, and you HAVE to give an answer.
Aston: We’re half and half.
Marvin: We have nothing but love for both of the ladies.
JB: Two of us would buy Cheryl’s single and the other two would buy Alex’s.
What is all this we have been hearing about you wanting to make it big in the US?
Oritse: We’ve not actually discussed anything to do with the US yet. For us the most important thing is for us to do well on our home turf.
At the end of the day we were part of a show where everybody voted for us and I think our fans and supporters deserve for us to be here and give them some great music before we even branch off anywhere around the world. But obviously, it will be in our sights in the future. Right now it’s all about the UK.
One final question, what is on your rider list?
Marvin: Our rider list is very simple, all we request is fruit, water, towels, Haribo and Nandos.
Aston: To be fair we don’t even ask for Nandos, we go to Nandos and bring it back ourselves.
The band’s second single Everybody In Love is due out on 2 November 2009 and their debut album will follow on 9 November.
Source: BBC News
JLS were spotted celebrating their double Mobo win at the launch of a new club in London.
X Factor runners-up JLS won two Mobos at the awards on Wednesday night but Aston Merrygold had his sights set on Alexandra Burke at the after party. The boys won prizes for Best Song and Best Newcomers.
Alexandra Burke had a real Aston thriller at the afterparty.