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Goss meets Bressie: 'I'm still loving the Voice – but when I don't enjoy it anymore, I'm out'

He’s never known for being shy on his opinions – that’s what we love about Bressie.

Be it telling his own acts on the Voice of Ireland why they need to raise their game, or taking on Louis Walsh, you’re never bored when he’s around.

Now the RTE star has told Goss.ie about how The Voice has been going, and why he’d happily walk away if he started hating it.

He also opens up on last year’s winner Brendan McCahey not setting the charts on fire, and why he would be up for a Blizzards reunion. And that’s not to mention his new show Teenage Kicks.

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Back on the Voice: Bressie and Kian have been there from the start | RTE

You’ve just finished filming the battle stages of the Voice of Ireland. How are Rachel and Una getting on?

They’re getting on great. To be fair I was a bit worried when there was two new people because even with one new person you have to really integrate it.

It happened very fast, it was very natural with me, I didn’t feel like I didn’t know them. It’s really hard when you’re trying to get to know someone. It takes a couple of weeks but we just didn’t have that so we had to go right lads, lets have a bit of craic. We might say stuff, we might have a go at each other but it’s nothing personal.

So they’ve settled in well?

They didn’t have a lot of time. My first year I was completely a rabbit in headlights. Me and Kian help as much as we can.

Were you an S Club 7 fan back in the day?

[In a sarcastic voice] I absolutely loved them. In fairness, they really did have a lot of hits. You kind of forget sometimes that they had so many hits. Were they right up my street? No.

bressie

Happy to walk away: Bressie will go if he hates the show | RTE

How much longer do you see yourself on The Voice?

I’m still enjoying it. If I don’t enjoy things I just stop. I don’t see the point. I wasn’t enjoying being an artist so I stopped, why would I do it if I don’t enjoy it.

So with the Voice, when I stop enjoying it I’ll stop doing it. Unless something happens on the lives that makes me hate it, I don’t think there’s going to be a problem.

It was recently reported that last year’s winner Brendan only sold 300 copies of his album. Why do you think the public didn’t get behind him?

I don’t know. One thing I’ve always said with shows like this, even with The X Factor, since One Direction – no one is really breaking. The one thing I would always say is these shows do not guarantee you anything at all.

With Brendan, Brendan wanted to write his own record and I admire him for that. He wasn’t keen on co-writing which is something I would have loved him to do.

It hasn’t done as well as it should do and I really wish I knew why. Maybe the public have turned on him saying, ‘Well, they were on the show so I’m not buying their records.’

Is there a stigma to being on reality competition shows now?

There could well be. I think people start seeing shows like this and think it’s more in the celebrity world than the music world and they don’t see them as musicians. I’ve never heard a guy sing behind a mic like him, it’s frightening.

You always need that song, one song that just absolutely blows apart on radio and that opens doors. If you don’t have that song, it doesn’t matter what show you’ve done or what show you’ve been on – you haven’t a chance.

brendan

Last year’s winner: Bressie knows Brendan hasn’t set charts on fire | RTE

Do you think it’s weird that 2FM haven’t been playing Brendan’s stuff very much – especially given the picked him for the show?

I haven’t looked into it. 2FM might have been the wildcards but they still have a job to do and they still have to play stuff that they believe their audience want to hear. I understand that they think this song doesn’t fit our audience, and that’s fine. If they didn’t support it, maybe he has to look into picking a single that they will support.

What are you looking for in this year’s winner?

They have to be eclectic and they have to be willing to get outside of their comfort zone. They have to be willing to try and change it up.

Like singers who come out and just sing the original, for me, at this level – that isn’t good enough. They need to bring a music approach to it and think I’m gonna take this song and put my own little twist on it.

Would you ever consider doing a Blizzards reunion?

I’ve always been open to it. The guys are off in college at the moment. I wouldn’t do it unless all five are back, not a hope. We’ve still kept communication up so if it happens it happens.

Guests arrive on the red carpet for The Meteor Music Awards, RDS, Dublin, Ireland

Up for a reunion: But Bressie wants all five members of the Blizzards back | VIPIRELAND.COM

Has anyone approached you?

I think if we ever do get back together we wont put ourselves under any pressure. We would be doing it for fun again. When I stopped enjoying it was when it got really intense. It felt like, ‘We have to write this song and we have to do this.’

If we do it again it will be under our terms and no one else’s. I think the reason people liked The Blizzards was because we didn’t take ourselves that seriously.

We worked hard, if we come back it it’ll be for fun. We wont be on our hands and knees going up to labels looking for deals and all that kind of stuff. It if happens it happens, if it doesn’t it doesn’t.

You’ve just started a new mental health site as well, My 1,000 Hours…

I had been wanting to start it for a while. I think there’s an amazing movement in Ireland around mental health and I think people are becoming a hell of a lot more open about it. People have blogs on fashion, people have blogs on food and all sorts of things but I wanted to have a blog on mental health.

Would you do a mental health documentary?

I’d absolutely love to do a documentary on mental health on teenagers but the problem is you can’t. Legally, if someone is under 18 you can’t speak about it because when they’re 28 they might not want to have that documentary out. I’ve dealt with it all my life.

Guests arrive at the relaunch of Dandelion Bar under new management

Girlfriend: Bressie is dating model Roz Purcell | VIPIRELAND.COM

Recently you also started mentoring a group of Limerick teens for a new RTE show. What made you want to do Teenage Kicks?

It’s advertised as a music show but really the music side of it is almost just a vehicle, I just feel like we’ve kind of disjointed ourselves from teenagers a little bit in Ireland. It was exploring what it is they go through. When I was a teenager things were entirely different but music was the vehicle we used by putting a band together.

So was music the secondary focus of the show?

It’s at the core of everything we do but the idea was to show teenagers that if they really focus on something that you can really get something out of it. They are madly passionate about music and it was the only way that I could manage to relate to them because I’m not a teenager anymore.

Did you like the kids?

We learned to trust each other quite quickly. We were both in it for the right reasons, we didn’t just wanna go down and make a show. In order for this to be a good show we had to trust each other.

And what I didn’t try to do was to go down and relate to them. You can’t do that, I think it’s a condescending thing to try and do. I was unbelievably frank with them about everything and I learned a lot about them.

Bressie and Urban Dreams in Limerick as part of Photoshoot for TV series "Teenage Kicks"/

New show: Bressie on Teenage Kicks | RTE

What do you think their potential for success will be when they’re on their own?

Success in music is completely subjective. Some people think success is selling loads of records and that’s the only way you can define success and I think that’s bulls**t. There’s other ways of defining success in music.

People don’t sell records anymore. There’s a couple of acts that sell records, no one else does. I told them it’s going to take a long time and you’re going to have to earn your trade. Just because you’re doing a documentary on TV doesn’t guarantee anything.

What were the biggest differences between being a mentor for them and being a mentor on The Voice?

Well it was completely unstructured. The band we ended up choosing is completely outside my comfort zone as well so they had to teach me an awful lot.

I was looking at them a lot going ‘you’re going to have to meet me halfway here lads because my knowledge of this particular music isn’t as profound as it should be.’

Would you ever do another Teenage Kicks?

I would. It doesn’t have to be music, that’s the thing. It’s more about reconnecting with teenagers so it’s about exploring what goes on in teenage life.

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