When we watched the audition on TV, there was a clip of Simon saying, ‘These guys are potential winners.’ That’s when I realised that we were in with a good chance. Wow, I thought. We might just make it.
The first live show was very tense. I remember we were singing Boyz II Men’s ‘I’ll Make Love To You’ and Boyz II Men are a huge inspiration to me. I couldn’t help but think, ‘Oh my God, we’re going to get on the stage and we’re really going to have to deliver.’
When I saw JLS up in lights, the audience and all the cameras, I told myself to enjoy it—and I did. I was smiling all the way through the first show, while really trying to give it the best I could. I was determined that we were going to see it right through to the end.
My favourite performance was ‘The Way You Make Me Feel’, definitely. I just think the song really suited us. When we jumped on the set, it was like we were on a music video. Everybody had their little part to play in it.
Having the collective Number One with ‘Hero’ was amazing, but not because it was Number One. For me it was fantastic that we could give back something to the soldiers who are representing our country so bravely. Our soldiers get forgotten a lot and they are heroes, no doubt about it. They go out there and they’re fighting for world peace. Even though I don’t agree with the war, our soldiers should have total respect from us. But we don’t honour them or their families; we just get on with our daily lives.
There were lots of good times during The X Factor finals. Living in the house was crazy fun. I didn’t find it difficult sharing, because we get along and work as a team all the time. We had the time of our lives. We were on a rollercoaster.
It was hard work, a real learning curve. It made us a lot stronger as a group, as a team, as a unit. It gave us confidence to know that we could live with each other and get along in any given scenario, or situation. It’s really important, because sometimes if you live with people, it doesn’t work out; it can all break down.
We learned each other’s likes and dislikes, each other’s limits. For instance, don’t wake JB up in the morning, because he’ll be really grumpy! And Aston talks on his phone all night, but you get used to it in the end. Marvin is the most sensible one. You can’t really say anything about Marvin, except he’s funny when he goes to bed because he puts on one of those head scarves (a durag) and wears spectacles to read.
I’m very messy. I also spend ages in the bathroom; we all do, but the others won’t admit it. The boys in the house were worse than the girls for taking up bathroom time. Well, some people do their thinking in the shower!
I start to get impatient when I’m hungry. I don’t get grumpy, but I become really quiet. We all eat a huge amount. Some eat better food than others, but we all eat a lot. I don’t eat bad food, because I didn’t grow up eating bad food.
I like all the stuff that a lot of people don’t like, like mussels, squid rings and crabmeat. When I was younger, I lived in the Caribbean, in Tobago, and my brother and I used to catch crabs, tie them up and race them, then take off the shells and gut them, boil them and make a crabmeat soup!
After The X Factor finished, we didn’t know what was going to happen next, if anything—apart from The X Factor tour. Nobody was telling us anything; nobody said anything about a record deal; nobody said anything about any gigs. Alexandra had all the people around her and we had no one. It was a pretty lonely situation.
‘How am I going to make money after this?’ I wondered. ‘We’ve come second in the biggest talent competition in the country and nobody’s saying anything.’ So I started considering applying to be a postman. I had already thought about being a postman before the show, because you walk a lot, so you get exercise, and it’s early morning shifts. But our management said, ‘Don’t worry. Wait, wait.’
Soon we regrouped and called the management for a meeting. We were ready to have a go at them and say, ‘What’s happening with our careers? Tell us something! What’s going on? We need a deal.’
They came in very smoothly and very subtly dropped the news that we had a record deal. ‘We think we’ve found the right people for you—Epic Records.’ For us it couldn’t have been any better. It was amazing.
Being on the road with Lemar was fantastic, apart from having to eat at service stations all the time! I’ve put on about a stone, I think. I eat a lot of good food, but my metabolism is terrible and I put on weight very easily.
A few weeks after putting the band together, I was training diligently, every single day. That routine has been broken now, because our schedule has become so hectic. But while we’re putting the album together, I want to get straight back into training. It will make me feel good. I used to train with my friends and I miss them massively. They’re very supportive and they love the fact that I’m doing exactly what I said I would do. But I didn’t think about the consequences of doing it; I didn’t think that I wouldn’t have so much time to be with my friends. They understand, though. They’re very good friends.
Recording the single was brilliant. With music there are so many possibilities and so much that you can do, but when you only have a short space of time and you have to get something out quickly, you just have to get it done to the best of your ability.
In Nigeria I wrote a song, and a few months ago, I went back to it. Hold on a second, Oritsé, I thought to myself, you wrote this song for a boy band—and now you’re in a boy band! So I rewrote it to suit JLS.
Knowing that I had something quite powerful, I called up my label boss and my management company and said, ‘Please get me into the studio as soon as possible. I need to record and demo this. This could be great for us. It’s potentially a single, in my eyes, maybe a second single. Who knows?’ So I can’t wait to get in the studio.
I’m also going to team up with songwriters Wayne Hector, Ali Tennant and Steve Mac—on separate occasions. Hopefully we’ll be able to write some hits together, something classic, powerful, infectious and reflective of the band. So let’s see…You have to create your own destiny.
OVERLEAF: BACK IN MY NERDY DAYS SHOWING OFF IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD WITH A TRUMPET MY MUM GAVE ME.