Westlife have revealed they teamed up with Picture This and Kodaline on their new album as they plan a tour.
Nicky Byrne said what started off as Zoom chats with producers and other artists led to the creation of their newest offering, Wild Dreams.
Nicky said: “The process to make this album, where the world was, was very strange.
“We weren’t exactly saving lives or digging roads, but like everyone else it was different sitting at home.
“It was the same for bands, everything live was gone.”
With lockdown it felt obvious to work on an album: “When does the confidence come back, we either park this band thing, go out taxiing or do other stuff.
“The album was the way we could get busy and get stuck into the creativeness of it.
“What started off as an idea on Zoom then took legs.
“I even opened a little black book and called the lads from Picture This and I wrote some songs with the boys over WhatsApp.
“There’s one song on there called Alive, that I wrote with Picture this with Ryan and Jimmy, that the three of us are so proud of and buzzing about.
“That’s just one part of the whole album.”
Bandmate Shane Filan lost both his parents Peter and Mae during lockdown, and Nicky said the band penned a special song in their memory.
He said: “There’s a song on there called Always With Me, which represents where Shane has been in the last few years, losing his mam and dad.
“It’s a real slow tearjerking ballad.”
He commented on Shane appearing alone on the Late Late Show to talk about his parents, which inspired the song writing process.
He added: “His appearance on the late late show where he went on alone to talk about his mam and dad.
“Where talked about a little comment his dad made to him after his mam sadly passed away, that’s where that’s song came out of.”
Speaking on 2FM Breakfast with Doireann, Donncha, and Carl today, Nicky added that Zoom allowed Westlife to collaborate more freely.
He added: “Kodaline’s Steve Garrigan is involved in the album writing, Covid lumped all these people together through Zoom.
“We’ve really come up with this incredible album we’re so proud of.”
Kian Egan said the album writing process flew by.
He said: “Everybody had loads of time on their hands, we started putting together some songs.
“Fast forward, a year later here we are with a brand new album ready to rock, Wild Dreams comes out in November.
“The first single Starlight is available today.
“We are planning a tour for next year, we haven’t set anything in stone yet.”
