Human Nature

It took them 11 years but they finally got that coveted guest appearance on Neighbours. Most people thought Human Nature were simply a bunch of aussie actors masquerading as popstars - eyebrows were still raised when the first single over here featured Flick from the show itself - and now they have a 2nd offering with "When We Were Young". Its not as if they care about a couple of poxy critics though. Now on the 3rd album over in the home country they can command the songwriting talent of (Ed: Don't Laugh) Gary Barlow, support everyone from Michael Jackson to S Club 7 and all this by four guys old enough to be Billie Pipers husband.

Q: How's this S Club 7 tour going. Isn't it your first UK tour?
Mike: No, actually years ago we toured with Michael Jackson around Europe and the UK - it was kind of major!!! And we toured with Celine Dion for a few dates in London. That was about 3 or 4 years ago now. This has been great though. Packed houses every night and its been alot of fun.

Andrew: We had a choice between the Ronan tour and the S Club tour. Basically the record company thought which one would be best with it being a new single and breaking us as a new act. We just wanted to get out over here and do some live performances.
 

Q: Most people over here will know you as "that Neighbours band"?
Phil: It was a pretty amazing start for us actually. We all thought it will be a fairly good introduction to the UK but its so far exceeded our expectations and everyone saw it. We actually had some people say "Hang on, you're a real band. We just thought you were just made up for Neighbours". Kind of weird - it was like 11 years to get on Neighbours!!!!

Toby: Its still around in Australia but its definitely a bigger thing over here. Somebody told us it was about 9 million people a day who watch it and its on twice a day.

Q: The first single "He Don't Love You" featured Flick from Neighbours. Any goss?
Mike: We weren't actually there. We wanted to be there when she filmed her shower scene. I think we were out of the country but they wouldn't let us on set anyway. She was great cos' when we did the Neighbours appearance with her we got on really well and the whole cast. We just asked her if she wanted to appear on the video and she was really keen so it was great.
 

Q: 11 years. 3 albums - you're a bit older than your average boy band?
Phil: Were not an average boy band. Were a lot better than average. We used to really argue against it saying "No, were not a boy band" but in the end people still call us that. If they wanna call us a boy band then can but its not going to change us - we'll just keep doing what we do.

Mike: We've gone through a lot of changes. When we first started we just did doo-wop acappella songs and barber shop. We went through a whole lot of styles and I guess we've always done pop music. The musicality and harmonies have always shone though - we just love music!!!!
 

Q: So what was it like working with Gary Barlow? Over here he's kind of a Harold Bishop type character.
Andrew: We'd always loved "Back For Good" as a song. He wrote that. It was just interesting talking to him and he's just a really nice guy who's done really well for himself and is a great musician.

He's got a really good sense of humour and its a bit dryer. Australians are very sarcastic and Gary was really funny but you'll have to ask him about what he said about Britney Spears. I think he's doing what he loves now. He loves songwriting and isn't really into that very public lifestyle.

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"When We Were Young" is out June 18th
Human Nature Official Site
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