One on One with // Conor Maynard

You co-wrote your new single R U Crazy with Labrinth – are you proud of it?

Yeah! I think that when we first heard the finished track it just hit pretty hard straight away – we absolutely loved it, so we decided to go ahead and release it as the first single from the album.

You’ve also been working on your second album over the summer – is it similar in sound to your debut?

It’s definitely gonna be slightly different. I was nineteen when I released my first album, and I’ll be twenty-one by the time the second one comes out, so I think that it’ll definitely sound a bit more mature both musically and lyrically. It’ll dig a bit deeper. I’m excited for people to hear it.

What’s your favourite track on the album?

We’re still in the middle of recording it, so it’s a little bit hard to say what will and won’t be on the album right now. There’s a song on there called Runaway Love that means a lot to me personally, so that’s definitely one of my favourites.

You had a busy summer – what was your highlight?

Hmmm… I don’t know! I’ve had so many different highlights, what with travelling to so many different places to record and play live… Wireless Festival was probably a big highlight of the summer – that was a really fun festival to perform at, and I got to see Justin Timberlake live, which was just incredible.

Do you prefer playing your own headline shows or huge festival sets?

I dunno, they both have their perks. At your own shows you get all your fans singing the words back at you, which is crazy, and it does feel amazing, but festivals are cool. I’ve kind of come up with a motto for festivals – ‘get fans, dodge cans’. You know, you can try and convert people who have just kinda came along because someone else wanted to come, and then you have to try and dodge the stuff that people who don’t want to be fans throw at you.

Going right back to your roots – what made you want to start making music in the first place?

My parents weren’t musical, but they listened to a lot of it as I was growing up. I think that listening to guys like Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder just inspired me, and it made me think that I just really wanted to be like those guys.

You were spotted on the internet – have you got any advice for guys who are hoping to get noticed?

I never thought that posting videos on YouTube was how I was going to get spotted, to be honest. It was always just a hobby of mine, and I never really knew what it could lead to. It was luck, I suppose! I think you’ve just got to get at it – it took me two years for my first cover to really get somewhere, so you’ve got to keep going. I think you’ve got to try and do it differently – if you put an original twist onto everything you do I think that people will end up just being drawn to you as an artist. I always tried to change some lyrics or a bit of the melody when I did a cover, just so that I made it my own.

Okay, we’ve had a few questions that have been sent in from your fans on Twitter!

Which do you prefer – your second album or your first?

I’d say that the second album is shaping up to be stronger than the first so far, so I’d have to go with that one.

Have you got any phobias?

Yep, rejection… No, haha! I don’t know really, I’m pretty good with most things. I’m not good with my own company to be honest – I usually like to have friends around me.

Which country has the best fans?

I think all fans are all as dedicated as eachother, and the only think that makes it different is their accents. I don’t really know which are the best!

What’s your favourite song from your first album?

I’m not sure to be honest – it kind of depends what mood I’m in. For big upbeat stuff I really like Turn Around and Animal, and for the slow ones I really like Just In Case.

Can you describe yourself in three words?

That’s hard… Um… Really, really cool! Haha!