FAME comes at a PRICE
The teenage brothers from Wicklow got the boot from the X Factor on Saturday. What happens now?
LOUIS Walsh swivels like a Bond villain in his makeup chair and waves his phone emphatically in the air. He’s wearing a black plastic sheet around his neck and his make-up artist, Anna, is desperately trying to apply foundation as the X Factor judge is brandishing his handset with delight.
‘Oh my God, they really are number one,’ he declares. ‘That’s incredible, they weren’t lying about that. They might be the first people to do that. Well done, that’s a great sign.’
It’s Sunday night in London and backstage at the X Factor, tension is palpable in the air as the contestants face another double elimination.
Behind the scenes at the West London studio, Walsh’s dressing room is a far lighter envi- ronment as teen singing sensations the Price Brothers, Sean, 17, and Conor, 15, have returned for one last pow-wow with their unofficial mentor.
While Simon Cowell officially steered the Blessington schoolboys to the series quarter finals, it was the Westlife manager’s tips and advice that kept them on the straight and narrow.
In fact, Cowell’s parting endorsement was to compare them to his two beloved dogs, Whippy and Diddly, because of their unpredictable nature as artists.
It’s 24 hours since the pair were narrowly voted out of the show and despite losing out in the public vote, along with Sam Black, they are in good spirits.
The brothers performed the love song, Issues, by Julia Michaels where the boys and group categories competed to get through to the next round, but finished at the bottom of the public vote.
Despite their shock exit from the contest, they had plenty to keep the smiles on their urchin faces; in particular the announcement that they had landed the Number One in the Irish singles chart, a position their version of Issues still commands today.
‘We’re Number One in the Irish iTunes charts, which is lovely,’ Sean says. ‘That was a real surprise, but we’re back to school this Thursday, so that’ll be a shock to the system. We’re probably going to get mobbed in school, which is great. It lived up to all our expectations to be honest.
Even though they are still very young, the boys took everything in their stride. ‘Of course there were nerves, but I suppose we just dealt with them as we went on,’ Sean admits.
‘Before we took to the stage for our final performance Conor said to me that it was like performing at home. You get used to the lights and the audience and I suppose you just get into the performance.
‘The first week I was nervous because it was a new experience. The second, I was more calm and I got my bearings a bit, and by the last week it was like at home. It was like we were performing on Grafton Street again.’
The pair took their elimination very gracefully and told host Dermot O’Leary they had enjoyed the experience and never thought they would come so far.
And when we speak, even though they’ve had 24 hours for the news to sink in, both Sean and Conor admit they would have liked at least one more week on the celebrated stage.
‘Of course we were gutted to go and had this been previous years, we would have stayed longer because the show had a bigger run’, Conor says.
‘But there is so much talent in the show this year, that makes it easier to accept when you don’t make it through.
‘And we get on well with all of them — so much so that we are kind of like family. We’ll be back to see them in the final.’
As far as the future goes, so far school is the only thing that’s definitely on the horizon.
‘There’s the tour, but we haven’t been confirmed yet, so we’re waiting to hear about that,’ Conor says. We’re just taking it as it comes and hopefully something really good will come from this. It’s all up in the air. We’re taking it day by day. We both have exams this year — the Leaving and the Junior Cert. We’re definitely going back to school. And we hope to get the A in Music and hopefully the teachers will give us a bit of leeway to catch up.’
While school and the pressure of facing State exams is the most pressing concern for the duo, the possibility of getting signed by a major label is also a reality.
Simon Cowell’s label Syco automatically have first refusal on the brothers but, given their immediate chart support, it would be naive to think that other labels are not considering approaching the pair.
‘If we got offered a deal, we’d snap it up — of course we would,’ Sean says. ‘All we want to do is music and I suppose this experience has just proven to us that we’re on the right path. ‘We don’t want to complete our education and just sit in an office job that we hate. We’d much rather have our education as a back-up and if music comes, we will definitely go for it. ‘We’re going to continue doing our own music and putting our versions of covers out online.’
Sean and Conor both feel they have learned a lot thanks to their weeks on the show.
‘Being in the X Factor has kind of opened our eyes to other musical styles and it has allowed us see that there are other paths for us to go down musically,’ Sean admits.
‘We’ve learned to be a bit more versatile and we’re going to keep that going and just put our heart and soul into everything and just hope that people like it.
‘Even today we were back writing songs and I feel like we have a few things that we could put out as a single. But it’s important not to rush into anything at the minute.’
THE lads are clearly in demand and within hours of returning to Ireland they’ve been approached to appear in a cameo role in the Olympia Panto.
But they’re not keen to rush into anything they might regret and as they insist appearing on the annual talent show has opened their eyes as to what it takes to be a successful recording artist.
‘There are a lot of things to take from the whole experience.
‘We’ve grown as people and our eyes have opened to music and what it actually takes to just putting on an accomplished performance.
‘You listen to a song in the charts and you think it’s a good song. But you don’t realise what it actually takes, production wise, to getting that track where it needs to be.
‘It opens your eyes to the hard work that you have to do to get into the music business,’ adds Sean.
‘We’re about to go on stage and we’re just thinking about our song and then there are a load of people coming up stage fixing our clothes and fixing our hair and putting extra make-up on .
‘It’s so perfect and everything is done by routine and they just have it nailed. ‘In that way everything is done for you to give you the best chance to succeed.
‘You just have to go out there and perform and, I suppose, enjoy the moment.’
I bring up the social media campaign surrounding Conor and his instant emergence as a teenage pin-up.
When they return to school they are going to be bombarded by young fans, making it a very different experience to what they are used to.
‘People do be texting me asking me if I can get my brother to follow them,’ Sean laughs. ‘I’m just the middle man in this relationship.’
But he reckons they will be okay as the school they are returning to is an all-boys affair.
‘Look we know there will be a lot of attention, but I feel we can both handle it,’ Sean says.
‘We’re both strong enough and we’re fairly grounded.
At the same time, the boys do know things won’t be exactly going back to normal.
‘There will be an adjustment period and we’re going from one extreme to another, sitting in class again,’ Sean says. ‘Like yesterday we got kicked off the show and today, just the next night we are walking around London and we don’t know what to do because we aren’t on the X Factor any more.
‘I’m just taking it day by day and hopefully push our own music and really just hope that something comes of it.
‘We’ve been in the X Factor bubble for the whole time, so we haven’t really had to deal with the instant fame. It’s going to be mad going back to the real world now and I suppose we’ll have to take it as it is.’ At the back of the dressing room, proudly watching the boys, are their parents John and Karen Price. They have made the ultimate sacrifice for their two kids and actually moved to London for the duration of the show. As Conor was just 15, he needed to have a chaperone and a tutor, and this prevented him from living with the other contestants in the X Factor house. ‘We were in an apartment because Conor was 15, so we couldn’t stay in the house with the other contestants,’ Sean says. ‘Our parents moved over and moved in with us for the duration of the live shows — Conor had a tutor as well.
‘I don’t think we missed out too much on the experience because we went to the house every day and hung around with everyone.
‘We had the best of both worlds, because we could stay there and have the craic but we could leave and get our own bit of space while they were stuck in the madness.’
While the pair made their name and honed their talent busking on the streets of Dublin, they concede they will be giving it a rest for the near future.
That is unless Bono calls them up and invites them to perform with him on his annual charity carol singing on Christmas Eve.
‘I feel like if we’re to go back busking, it won’t be any time soon and I don’t mean that in a bad way,’ Conor says.
‘We love busking and it’s where we came from, but we just feel it’s time to focus on something else right now.
‘Maybe down the line we will — I wouldn’t rule it out.
‘Maybe on Christmas Eve with Bono on Grafton Street — if he gives us a shout.’