Shayne Ward And Mike Stock Talk Pop, PledgeMusic And The Making Of New Album ‘Closer’: Idolator Interview

Robbie Daw | April 10, 2015 5:32 am

Hello, gentlemen! How did the album playback go? SHAYNE WARD: It’s going good! It’s nice to have the album and play it back-to-back for the fans who showed up just to hear it.

Let’s discuss you two pairing up together in the first place. How did this collaboration begin? MIKE STOCK: We kind of got slung together through a girl who was a keen fan of Shayne’s and liked what I did. Her name is Laura [Walton, co-writer of “My Heart Would Take You Back”]. She made the connection. I had a meeting …and we kind of hatched a plan. It’s not just as simple as saying we’re gonna sit in a room and write an album, because you’ve got to look at the business side of it. And the industry went through so many changes in the last 10 years, as you know. It’s not like it used to be. What normally would happen with Shayne, he’d be in a record deal with a major label, they’d pay him an advance and he’d work the rest of his life paying it back. That was the normal way it worked. I’m not a fan of that way of doing things, so we had to do things differently here. And so we went through PledgeMusic. I was a fan of Shayne anyway, from X Factor. I was told by [Laura] that Shayne had fans — and, boy, does he have fans. I mean, they are fanatic. It was then that convinced me that this is the way music should be — you’re making songs and records for people. Not for anyone else, really, but people who want to buy it. Fans of music. As I knew there was a market for Shayne — real people, not virtual people, actually wanting to buy the record — that’s what started it for me.

So, Shayne, you meet up with this guy, Mike Stock, who happens to be one of the most successful British songwriters in pop history. What’s going through your head during that first introduction? SHAYNE WARD: I didn’t like Mike! [All laugh] No, it was pretty cool. It literally was like the way he said, through Laura. As soon as Mike’s name got mentioned, it was like a complete light over my head. I spoke to my management and said, “Listen, I have to go down and at least show my face and see where it goes from there.” Before we knew it, six, seven months down the line, we’d finished an album. It’s just crazy to be at this point right now. I’m just completely in awe, because I’m an ’84 child and the ’80s played a massive part in my childhood. So I knew everything that Mike did. Actually, I didn’t realize how much Mike did until I got a bit older.

Shayne Ward Mike Stock Closer studio

Shayne Ward in the studio recording Closer with Mike Stock, September 2014.

How did PledgeMusic come into play as a means for funding the album? MIKE STOCK: Well, it was my idea to go to Pledge. Why I proposed that we do this with Shayne and his management was because a man called Julian Wall was at the BPI, and BMG years before that — he took over chairmanship at [PledgeMusic]. Up until then, it was the right avenue for indie rock bands and people with a small fan base who only want to sell a couple thousand records. But when Julian came in, I realized it was probably the right moment for us to go in there and sort of raise the level of everything that they were doing. They responded brilliantly, and I just love people who mean what they say. So I said to Laura, “Go talk to Shayne,” and she did. I said to the Pledge boys, “We need to set a target and the fans need to respond.” The fans said, “We’ll respond” — and, boy, did they respond! We’re over 200% of the target. So it was the right decision, I think.

Mike, you’re kind of an old pro at going the indie route at this point. MIKE STOCK: It’s not just about being independent, for me. Back in the day when we did Kylie Minogue, the industry turned her down. Nobody wanted to release it. Even though she was on a soap opera and all the rest of it, there was no place for her. She wasn’t rock and roll enough. So we formed a label just to put her out, because we knew the public loved her. We knew she had an audience. I think too many record labels and radio stations, etc., are in their ivory tower. So that’s what I like doing: Breaking down the walls of the ivory tower. Sorry — too many metaphors in there!

Shayne, it’s been awhile since your last album was released. How did you feel when you saw you’d not only met your PledgeMusic target, but that the percentage subsequently kept going up? SHAYNE WARD: For me, I don’t like to look too far ahead, but it really just surprised me how much the fans got behind it. When it was going to like 50 percent, then it was 65, then 70, I thought, Wow, this is incredible, because I’ve not had any material out in the last four-and-a-half years. So to still have that dedicated fan base in the background who are, like Mike said, still willing to actually buy the record, was really uplifting for me. Before we knew it, we hit 100 percent. I remember a tweet Mike put out that was literally just saying, “Record labels take note.” It’s about the fans, and that’s exactly what it was. Then before we knew it we were at 125, then 175 and it just kept on going from there. I think if I had any expectations [at the onset], it’s past all that now.

What did the two of you discuss when you initially sorted out what the sound of this album, Closer, would be? SHAYNE WARD: I think, if the moment that we sat down I would have said, “Okay, Mike, I want to do a dance album,” he would have told me to eff off, basically! It’s just something I wouldn’t want to do. We had to be natural around each other. Mike had a great way of getting the best out of me, especially when it came to the songwriting. He has a great method, which I’m not gonna say. It’s his method. [Laughs] Everything just felt natural. Of course you’ve got the classic sound from Mike, but also, with me, I’m kind of known for using my falsetto for big notes and things. We didn’t move too far away from what I was known for. But, the first album was pop; the second album we wanted to make a more R&B, American Justin Timberlake/Usher type thing; and the third album, we wanted to turn it into more indie, more guitar-led and atmospheric. So with me and Mike, we just went back to basics and said, “Listen, I’m a pop singer and I kind of sing with soul.” We just stuck to that. It just flowed really easily.