Meet Ireland’s next boyband – Next in Line.
The five-piece band is made up of Conor O’Farrell, Neung Kelly, Harry O’Connell, Conor Davis and Joshua Regala. The boys were put together by Louis Walsh which means they are in good hands!
Of course the music mogul knew he needed the boys to make a splash on the scene. Their debut song, Love Like Us, will be entered into Eurosong with the hope that they represent Ireland in Eurovision.
Ahead of Friday night, VIP Magazine caught up with Conor O’Farrell and Harry O’Connell, as they share their excitement for Eurosong and tease what’s next for the band…
Hey lads, how are you? Let’s get straight into it – are you more excited or nervous for Eurosong on Friday? Not only are you bringing out your debut single, but you’re hoping to represent Ireland in Eurovision.
Conor: We’re more excited than nervous. We’ve been a band now for so long, well for us it’s been so long! It’s been two years since the auditions. We’ve been rehearsing and recording loads of new songs over in London. So we think it’s the perfect first time to release our new single.
Harry: I think the pressure is on. We wrote this song last January, so we’ve been sitting on it for an awfully long time now. We’ve been onto Louis trying to get him to release it and we kept telling us to be patient and that we had to wait. Then he brought forward the idea of the Eurovision and he told us that this is what he’d been waiting on. It all clicked and made sense immediately. I think for us, it’s the perfect platform. Especially for Eurosong because so many people will be tuning in this year. It’s great just to get our names out there. We’re ready for it.
Tell us about the timing, why now?
Harry: I think it came at the perfect time for us. We couldn’t enter last year’s Eurovision because we missed the cut off point. It just feels right. Sweden is the home of pop music and we think Ireland needs to get to the final again. We’ve had a conversation about that as well.
Conor: It’s a really great song and we really believe in it. For us, we feel like we can do something different and bring something different to it from the other acts. We’re all just five best mates who can, somehow, sing well together.
So this song was just written in a normal session, it’s not made specifically for Eurovision?
Conor: It was just written at a normal songwriting session. We wrote this on the first day of the session and we felt like there was something there. We played it for Louis and he really liked it, so once we heard that we knew we were ready to go now. We had to wait a bit longer but hopefully it’s worth the wait!
You’re obviously big Eurovision fans. Tell us your favourite entry!
Harry: We all are fans! My family is quite big into it and so is Connor’s. Our favourite song has to be Mickey Joe Harte’s entry!
Conor: Yes, myself and Conor D always play that before going on a night out. The other lads don’t have a choice in the matter. Ever since we became a band we’ve been listening to that song. So it’s really cool that we’ll hopefully be able to represent Ireland in the Eurovision!
Next in Line’s origin story is a bit unusual, tell us about the audition process behind becoming a Louis Walsh boyband.
Harry: My uncle had sent me a link for Louis Walsh’s new boyband. And I was not going for it! The last day you were able to enter it, I sent in a video because what did I have to lose? So a few days later I got an email that said I had an in-person audition and then it was down to 200 and then I got past that, I don’t know how! Then it was down to 25 and then it ended up down to us five!
Conor: We got through all the rounds and we all, by chance, ended up chatting together when it was down to the final 20. It was a nice kind of thing because we had bonded together. Then we moved to London together and now we’re the best of friends.
Ireland has some pretty iconic boybands, is there a pressure there to measure up?
Conor: You have the likes of Westlife and Boyzone. So the pressure is definitely on. But there’s no better man to help us navigate through that than Louis. He’s been through it all before. He puts us at ease but he keeps us on our toes as well. If we’re not doing something that he likes, he makes sure that we know! We’re all working hard and we believe in the song, so we just need everyone to get behind it as well.
Tell us who your musical inspirations are.
Conor: For the band, it’s like a modern Jonas Brothers and One Direction. We’re all big fans of them. Myself and Harry love Harry Styles, we all went to see him in the Aviva and then myself and Harry went to see him in Slane.
There are some negative attitudes towards boybands and a lot of eyerolling. Have you got that kind of reaction or are people supportive?
Harry: We’ve gotten a bit of that. Especially lately online, we’ve gotten people saying: “Not another boyband. We don’t need another boyband!” And all that kind of stuff. But the people who are close to us are unbelievable! As soon as we told all our families they were so supportive and that’s the only thing we take on board.
Conor: At the end of the day, it’s been a dream to make music. And we never thought we’d be lucky enough to be exposed to. For us, writing songs and playing instruments is such an important for us. We won’t be doing it for Eurosong but we do play instruments!
Lads, before we let you go, tell us what’s next for Next in Line!
Conor: We’ve been so focused on the Eurosong so we haven’t been looking at what’s next for us. But we have a lot of songs recorded, we have nearly enough for an album. So we need to look at a release plan.
Harry: Louis has all of that under wraps! It’s a dream to represent Ireland at Eurovision so we need the public to get behind us! After that we’ll take it in our stride and release more music!
