The Wanted have all the ingredients of a boy band — Good looks, good melodies and above all, music that would make you cuddle up or jump onto the dance floor. As is with boy bands, the one thing they speak about is love, love and more love.
The Wanted, for those who don’t know, are a British pop boy band based in London and comprises of Max George, Siva Kaneswaran, Jay McGuiness and Nathan Sykes. Tom Parker, who was also part of the band, passed away due to cancer in 2022.
The Wanted burst onto the pop scene in 2010, when the boy band era had almost vanished, with little or no competition, except for One Direction which came on their heels to steal the limelight, if not the girls.
The four lads are visiting Mumbai for a live show organised by KCT Entertainment on May 17, at Dublin Square, Phoenix Market city, Kurla as part of their India Tour.
The boys are excited to visit India, says band members Siva Kaneswaran and Max George who spoke to The Free Press Journal on behalf of the band on the loss of Tom Parker, their reunion, and plans ahead.
Excerpts from the interview:
You are visiting India for the first time. What are you looking forward to?
Max George (MG): Yes we are visiting India for the first time. As a band, we have always wanted to travel to meet our Indian fans. Seeing the online support was incredible, especially for Siva as his heritage is South Indian.
Siva Kaneswaran (SK): In the United Kingdom, we have a huge Indian community. We are so lucky to experience the cuisine and celebrate the culture, but we have heard that the continent of India is on a whole different level. The street food, the culture and the landscape are famous to the west.
What can the Indian audience expect from your show?
SK: We realised that we have a lot of years to catch up on. So we would like to perform our greatest hits and also an acoustic session too. Also, we want to meet the fans and get to know them.
What is the story behind the band name The Wanted?
SK: Universal Music had a room with many staff members searching hundreds of names to help us find our name. After weeks and weeks of failing to find names, Nathan got in the car one day and said a relative had suggested a name. What did we think of the name The Wanted? We all agreed instantly. We knew it was big. It felt big.
There hasn’t been anything new since 2021 you added a new song in your Greatest Hits album. When can fans expect something new from you?
MG: We can’t wait to release more music. We have started a few ideas and ideally next year would be a great time. But we really want to take things slowly and enjoy performing to our international fans. Tom Parker, one of the band members, passed away due to cancer in 2022. How did you guys come to terms with the loss?
SK: To be honest, we are still processing it. Even though it was two years ago, it still feels like yesterday. Each one of us grieves differently. In times of hardship, we ask ourselves “What would Tom do?” Tom loved “The Wanted” and every fan knows he would have wanted us to keep going. Tom loved Indian food too. We would have “a curry” once a week. He would have loved to have met you all.
Battleground was a little more aggressive than your debut. It had a song Warzone. What was the concept behind the song?
MG: We wouldn’t say it’s ‘more aggressive’. We sure have some songs that have more ‘adult themes’, and that’s because we were growing into adults. Warzone is about being in a toxic relationship, of a love gone wrong. We think that was so relatable to our fans at the time. Also, it partly inspired the name of the album.
What led to the split in the band?
SK: We were overworked. We had such good work ethics and never stopped. We worked for five years straight including a lot of our weekends and holidays. At the same time, we all wanted to express ourselves individually and do our own thing.
How was it to work together?
MG: Fortunately, it was quite easy coming back. Tom invited us to perform with him in the Royal Albert Hall for his Inside my Head concert to raise awareness to Cancer. Afterwards, we had a huge demand for an Arena tour. It felt like nothing had changed. Like old friends from school coming back together again.
Looking back on your career as a group, what are the biggest challenges you faced?
MG: The biggest challenge is not letting it all get to your head. Fame can do that to the best of us. We had the whole world looking at us through some of our most difficult times. It was bizarre to say the least. Staying humble and focusing on taking care of each other got us very far.
Know us better
An earliest musical memory of the band?
MG: Our first single All Time Low being played on the radio. We had worked a whole year to get to that point and it was surreal to realise that millions of people were listening to what we made. We were kids whose dreams were coming true. All Time Low ended up being our first No. 1 in the UK.
What was your weirdest celebrity encounter?
MG: Not weirdest, but my favourite would be David Beckham. We played for his son Romeo’s birthday and spent the day go-karting with David and the kids, he beat all of us.
What was your weirdest or craziest fan moment?
SK: That would be the time we found 2 fans hiding in our bedroom in Brazil. They had climbed up the balcony and broke in.
Do you have backstage rituals before going on stage?
MG: Siva likes to tie his right shoe lace before he goes on stage. It's a good luck ritual and he’s been doing it since day one. Must be the Irish side in him.
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