Shane Filan after Westlife
A year after the Irish boyband Westlife disbanded, life goes on for Shane Filan as he takes on a solo career.
The Irish singer-songwriter recently went to Manila to promote the EP “Shane Filan: Everything to Me.”
“Touring the world alone, it’s kind of scary, but I have to do it. I don’t know what the people’s reaction would be, but I have three children to take care, I have a wife. My job is to take care of them, and I can say it’s a pretty cool job to have,” Shane said in a press conference at SM Megamall on Friday, September 27.
“I was very scared about the idea. That’s why people ask me a lot why don’t you try going solo, I was like, I’m with Westlife why would I want to do a solo album?’ When we split as a band, it pushed me to that decision. It was a hard decision, I was still scared. It’s something I need to get used to, and to get used to something you just got to do it.”
Instead of dwelling on the pressure of going solo, Shane works hard on promoting his album, even if he knows it may take some time for people to patronize his music.
“I don’t have much expectations. But for the people to like my music, I know it will take time, there’s a lot of solo artists, but I got to focus on Shane Filan, I can’t focus on anybody else,” he said.
Shane did something new for his EP album—writing the songs, which he didn’t get to do when he was with Westlife.
“It is something very new to me. I didn’t write many songs before. So was quite nervous about it, the record label said, ‘We’d like you to write songs,’ I was like, ‘I’d love to but I don’t know if I can.’ So they said, ‘Give it a try’”.
Shane’s full album will be released in November, while his EP is already out in the market.
“I guess I was trying to go away from Westlife, the same sound. It could be easy to make a single Westlife album, but I don’t want the people to think, ‘It sounds like Westlife.’ So, I want to give people excitement, or even shock some people. I did not completely change my style, I’m not gonna change how I sing.”
Moving on
He admits going through financial problems, but he feels happy and blessed that he still has his supportive family.
Shane wants to influence people’s lives positively through his music.
“My songs are quite positive, the lyrics are quite positive and I hope people could relate to my songs in a happy way, a positive way because it is about life. It is about being happy, being healthy. You know, people worry about a lot of stuff all the time. Health is your wealth, and I know that a lot. I went through a lot of financial problems and it’s really bad for me. But at the end of it all, it’s the worst possible scenario when I lost all my money, I still have my wife, I still have my kids, I’m still alive and happy, I was healthy, and I have my voice.”
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