By: Anna Elizabeth Isip

Breaking out of the boy band mould, Shane Filan released his debut solo album, You and Me, on November 4, 2013.

After performing his first showcase as a solo artiste here in Singapore at Zouk, the Irish pop star sat down at an exclusive media press conference to talk about his new album.

Ending off his 12-year career in internationally renowned boy band, Westlife, and coming out of his bankruptcy, Filan themed his album around positivity and “feel good”-ness.

With over 50 million albums sold worldwide, the band has been responsible for the songs that 90s kids have grown up jamming to. Familiar hits include, “Flying Without Wings”, “Seasons in the Sun” and “I Lay My Love On You”.

When the band performed their final concert together in early 2012 and putting an official close to their 14 yearlong run, Filan had to make an immediate career decision.

“Singing was all I ever wanted to do,” he said.

Now, Filan has his first album as a solo artiste and is travelling the world for his promotion.

“I want to go on stage and lift people’s hearts. I want to make people feel happy,” says FiIan.

Those positive vibes stay true throughout the 34-year-old’s solo album, You and Me. The songs feature Filan’s newly-found musical style of country and folk.

Now as Filan travels the world to promote his album, the father of 3 has to juggle family and career. His understanding wife, Gillian Rose Filan, supports him and understands his career choice.

“She holds the fort back in London. She brings the kids to school and all that kind of stuff,” he gushes.

He goes onto say that his wife tells him to “go and sing” and she’ll “look after the rest”.

It’s a great plan as the singer steps out from the bleak situation – the Irish singer fell victim to Ireland’s property crash, which forced him to file for bankruptcy.

He explains that going through unfortunate circumstances causes one to look at the positive things and for him, singing was just that silver lining.

“The album was actually a form of therapy, probably, to bring me to a happy time,” Filan reveals. “Song writing became an absolute bonus. I never knew I had it in me. I got to write really honest songs and really true stories,”

One of the topics he could really write about was his wife, who was also his childhood sweetheart.

“A lot of the songs [in the album] are love songs. Some of them are quite fast, but they are still love songs. They are like love letters with music,” says the pop star.

The 13-track album does feature quite a number of upbeat songs, like “Everything To Me”, “Knee Deep in My Heart” and “Everything Is Gonna Be Alright”.

“A lot of the songs are songs about my wife, or memories of our relationship, or about my kids. [Also,] just being happy [and] being healthy,” Filan says.

In regards to his next step in the venture of a solo career, Filan remarks, “I want to make this album last and I think it’s strong enough to do that.”

“Hopefully somewhere at the end of it, we’d be somewhere doing concerts and getting excited for a second album,” he adds.