Will Young is incredibly nice. After four years in the limelight the affable, well-spoken young man who was thrust on to the music scene as the winner of now almost forgotten reality talent show Pop Idol has changed little, aside from becoming increasingly confident as his career progresses. He's even nice when he's grumpy, which he is today given a bout of tonsillitis that has delayed the interview for a number of days (for which he apologises) and an unspecified phone call he's just finished.
He avoided work for the weekend and found himself doing something he doesn't normally do - watch TV.
"I don’t watch much because I don’t really like watching mindless TV," he says. "I find myself just switching off. But actually there was quite an interesting thing on Panorama last night about imports and exports, and how since Labour’s got in our exports just gone down and down and the gap between import and export has got bigger and bigger. But I didn’t really understand that much about it. My housemate works in the City and I kept going, 'I don’t know what GDT means.' I lost interest after a while and moved on to the industry of porn on Channel 4, which was far more exciting.”
We’re meeting in a local cafe bar, where Young is a regular. He orders nothing stronger than water, still. The venue is at the heart of his neighbourhood of Notting Hill, a neighbourhood in which owning a property is a sure sign of professional success if not celebrity status. Young can claim both, and these days it's hard to remember the singer's origins as a reality TV star. Since the record-breaking No 1 single that followed his win, he's garnered success with two albums - the 800,000-selling debut From Now On, and its follow-up, the 1.6 million-selling Friday's Child - and established himself as one the UK's top male pop stars, competing with only Daniel Bedingfield and Robbie Williams for pole position.
Young is not only a rare breed amongst his reality show alumni, he's a rare breed amongst pop stars generally these days in that there seems to be plenty of potential for longevity to his career. He delivered his latest album, Keep On, last November. It's a strong, confident set - his best yet - and Young himself says it's the album he's most proud of so far.
"I do feel 100% confident that the music is good," says Young. "It’s much better quality than the last one. I think Friday’s Child had two halves - one of some great songs, and then some songs that were just fine. This one I just feel it’s 12 really great, strong songs, and all quite different. I think the people I’ve worked with have been really interesting. Working with [acclaimed producer] Nitin Sawhney was amazing. I did the final track Home with him, and I love it, it’s beautiful. Although a friend did come in and go, 'Sounds a bit like spa music, what’s this?', and I went, 'This is my new album'. Fucker," he laughs. "But I do feel confident about this album. I feel like no matter what other people have said about it, good or bad, I feel I really believe in it, and I don’t often feel like that.”
There have, however, been murmurings that things are not going well for Young this time round. After the incredible success of Friday's Child, that album was always going to be a hard act to follow, and Keep On has been finding it hard. First week sales were down on those of Friday's Child, as were the sales of lead-off single Switch It On in comparison to Leave Right Now, Young's massive No 1 hit which launched Friday's Child. But Young and his team always knew they were taking a risk with Switch It On. The frenetic pop song, a tour-de-force of drums, guitars and Young's powerful vocal, was an unexpected move from the singer known for his more mid-tempo hit songs.
"It's important that Will doesn't start to be seen as predictable," explained Simon Fuller recently. Fuller is the pop management and music industry guru who created Pop Idol and has guided the careers of the likes of Annie Lennox, the Spice Girls, S Club 7 and now Will. "I think you always need to be conscious of growing a new audience because if you don't, you go stale. I always think of it as adding a little bit more to the mix each time. To that end, Will’s new album is the broadest we've done to date, but not to the point where we're going to lose his old fans."
On top of that Young's team always knew they had an ace up their sleeve. His new single All Time Love is the ballad that most would have expected the singer to launch the album with. It's a piano-led song, very reminiscent of John Lennon, with a gentle but provocative vocal from Young. It's got smash hit written all over it and will undoubtedly kick-start sales of Keep On. On top of that there are plans to use the song to push Young's career overseas. Up until now Young's success hasn't really translated in many of the other music markets around the world. He has managed to sell well in Italy, however, made in-roads in some Asian territories, and been given good airplay in Germany. But it's with All Time Love that his record label Sony BMG plan to improve on that, concentrating on Europe, then Japan and Australia.
Part of the reason it's not happened before is Young's own reluctance to engage with territories outside the UK. It's taken him a long time to come to terms with the massive level of fame that was thrust upon him so quickly and so he's held back from spreading that fame any further.
"I have to be careful talking about it as I don't want to be one of those moaning people who go, 'Oh being famous is so awful', you know?” he says. “It’s just the way it is. Obviously there’s times when I just can't be bothered but there’s also loads of fantastic things that my job provides.
"I could talk about it for days because I do find it a fascinating subject - what happens in our society, the role celebrity plays. I think people underestimate the role it plays in our society - it’s a form of control. You can tell people what to wear through celebrity, what music to listen to, what way to be, what way not to be. I think what happened with Kate Moss is a perfect example. In my opinion, it seemed like they were just manipulating a person to prove a point, or not prove a point, I don’t know. I wish it was that admirable, it probably isn’t.
“But I don't know how it’s going to change, so you just get on with it. You can’t get sucked into it. I mean the big, big people obviously lead the way on that but I just don't really see myself as being that famous. I’m not Kate Moss standard, I’m not exactly a star, I’m not exactly Posh and Becks. I’m kind of like periphery celebrity. That’s what I see myself as,” he laughs.
You are written about a lot, though.
“I am, I know. I don’t know why that is. But I don't read it so it’s fine. I hear about it from other people. It’s horrendous, and it’s probably all ridiculous. It is actually also quite funny. You have to have a sense of humour about it.”
So Young is becoming more relaxed about his fame as it grows (not only through his singing career but also a burgeoning acting career that began with last year's performance in the Stephen Frears film Mrs Henderson Presents), but not totally relaxed. With regards to America, the biggest market for record sales in the world and therefore the golden egg for record companies who have a popular artist on their hands, he is nonchalant.
"I don't really think about it," he says. "I think more about Broadway actually, which I probably shouldn’t say. I should probably say, 'Yes I want loads more success'. Oh well. But I’d love to do a Broadway show there, I think it would be amazing. But in, like, three years time."
So with this slight resistance to increasing his fame, how will Young be able to keep building on his success and nurture the longevity he has the potential to achieve? It's unclear, though it may happen despite Young's resistance. He remains popular both with critics and the public, and released an album in the period that new albums from virtual veterans like Kate Bush, Madonna and his closest rival Robbie Williams came out, without being overshadowed by them. He says what other acts are up to doesn't really concern him, but still, Williams in particular is often portrayed as a rival for the affections of the record-buying public.
"I like Robbie because he seems to work in the way I enjoy doing things," says Young. "His videos are always very different and he always pushes himself when he could so easily sit back and churn out the same kind of stuff, which is I’m sure what his record executives would prefer. I think from that side of things he’s done really well. I really respect him because he has taken risks. Plus he’s always been very nice when I’ve met him. But I don’t think there’s any rivalry. I think we’re different people and different artists really. I’m not Robbie Williams and he’s not me, so it’s not a worry."
Though he doesn't envy the fame of those singers that have been around for years, he does take mental notes from them.
"I do make notes, maybe not even consciously," says Young. "I remember when I started touring last year someone said to me that I should be more like Robbie and I turned around and said, 'Well I’m not Robbie, I need to find out myself how to project myself and what I am on stage'. I think it’s real problem, a mistake, to try and emulate other people. You just see it because it’s not believable. So I don’t try and copy people, but I think you can learn from them.
"The person I learnt most from was James Brown [who Young met at the Live 8 gig in Murrayfield], definitely, in terms of performance. You’ve got to watch the old performers. I saw this TV special with Louis Armstrong recently, who was a consummate performer. It was this film of him doing something at the BBC and the audience couldn't even clap in time they were so white. It was tragic. He must’ve thought it was horrendous, but you’d never have known.”
And so Young says he is in it for the long run. Not even the acting, he says, will distract him from his main focus, which will always be his singing career. The acting is just a bit of fun and he's seeing what happens with it. Will Young is a singer first and foremost and he's determined it will stay that way for some time to come.
"As long as people are still listening to the music I'll be here," he says. "I’m still loving it. There’s nothing I’d rather be doing. When I stop enjoying it I will go and do something else but at the moment I’m really proud of my music and I've got loads of ideas about how to present it. I really want my career to work because if it works that means I get more money to do more interesting things,” he laughs. “But yeah I'm definitely in it for the long run."
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