MA'ARIV LANOAR INTERVIEW
Ma'Ariv Lanoar, Israel, April 97
M.L.: The achievement list of Take That is huge. As a solo singer, do you have more things to wish for?
G.B.: I want to sell more records then we ever sold as a band, I wanna break the American market and break selling heights. A lot of artists say 'I don't care how much I'm going to sell', but you can know by that that people make temselves time in the day to go to a store and buy your album, and they probably listen to it. In our time we thought that we did everything, but no, I think that I can be much more successful then what Take That were.
M.L.: To reach out to different crowd is also one of your wishes?
G.B.: Not sure. I think that everyone that was a Take That fan will accept me as a solo artist, this album is not far from the things I taped with the band. In a lot of ways it reminds me of things that we taped, like Back for Good and Pray. Its still pop music and anyway my voice reminds immediately of the band, so I don't think that the fans feel a big change. It's continued exactly from the spot that we stopped.
M.L.: Do the other four think that too?
G.B.: Howard and Mark heard a few songs, and said that they love it. I think that they hope I'll succeed cause my success builds the way for their careers too.
M.L.: Do you keep in touch?
G.B.: Yes, and now there's no job that interferes with our friendship. I see Howard 2-3 times a week, Jason almost every month. Mark and I really haven't met for long time. I think he's really trying to stop being with us And of course (laughing) no one's seen Robbie.
M.L.: Are you still not talking?
G.B.: Me and Robbie went in totally different directions since the split. It's a weird situation, with Rob. He's on very weird planet right now. Here, it's been two years, and he's only on his second single. On the other hand, he did a brilliant move changing to pure pop. In the end of things, that's why they loved us as a band.
M.L.: What do you have to say about Mark's music?
G.B.: George Michael left Wham and keep making pop, but Mark left a pop band and started to do indy music, and that's very brave. He went even further then me. It's a great achievement for him, to put out an album all alone, cause in all our 6 years of Take That the other boys were never involved in making music. They almost even didn't go in the studio.
M.L.: They usually compare you to George Michael. What do you think about that?
G.B.: I think it's coming from that he left Wham and started a solo career, but in the last decade they've compared at least 15 people to him. Anyway I don't see how my career is like George's career. My career will be more of me and the piano, and George's is about image, much more then I want for my career.
M.L.: What are the other two doing?
G.B.: I think that in the meantime Jason's just enjoying his freedom, and you'll be hearing from Howard real soon (his debut single Speak Without Words is out probably in the summer).
M.L.: Do you think that you will ever come back to working with a band? With Take That, maybe?
G.B.: I don't think that I'll ever join a band. To come back to Take That maybe, yes, I have this little funny dream that one day we'll rejoin to tape an album and to perform. It will be very amusing, I think.
M.L.: And in the near future?
G.B.: In Howard's album, there's a song that we wrote together before the split, and now we're working on it in the studio. For the rest, I don't think - some of them prefer to forget what has happened with the band.
M.L.: Why? Do they still blame you for the spliting?
G.B.: No, but the reporters are, probably cause I was the one who asked who wants a break from the band. But that was all our decision, and how smart it was. If we were continuing, how could we compete with the Spice Girls?
M.L.: Your new career has brought with her new change of image to you.
G.B.: It's something that I'm working on right now. When I was in the band I didn't care how I looked, what I ate, how much I got fat. It just didn't bother me. I never checked negatives of pictures. But now, when you see me alone on TV, I wanna look in my best, be proud. I think I look the best I've ever looked, and that gave me a lot of confidence.
M.L.: How did you become half the size you had been?
G.B.: I stopped going to restaurants and ordering the whole kitchen, ate 6 chocolate snacks a day and drank 20 cups of coffee with 2 sugar in it. I do 200 different exercises a day. I saw all the jokes that Robbie got in the last years because he's fat, and I don't want it.
M.L.: While in the band you were always single. Right after the split, you all brought girlfriends of your hats. Didn't the fans get mad for you lying to them?
G.B.: We didn't lie. Our girlfriends were around about four years, but no one knew! With my girlfriend, Dawn, we've been going out since the last tour.
M.L.: Sounds interesting.
G.B.: Yes, there is marriage and kids on the plate, but only in three years maybe. Anyway, things are going to happen with me much slower now, I'm not going to make new albums every year. The performances will go on - I'm not going to dance anymore, never. Even though, they're going to be much longer, and for a change, with a lot of music. In the future I hope to start to produce projects and write for the best artists in the world.
M.L.: Like?
G.B.: Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, Michael Jackson...people like that.
M.L.: They're all Americans. (Editor's note: Celine Dion is Canadian.)
G.B.: That's right. I can't think of British artists that I fancy.
