#bbc r2

What Joe’s doing for CIN is incredible and you can donate here

[On The Fray's How To Save a Life] I was a massive fan of The Fray growing up and for whatever reason, this song in particular and then the album that came with How To Save A Life was just a pretty pointed album for me and it was actually the first song that I learned on the piano, because it got that kinda of lovely hypnotic piano in it. So I went straight to Youtube and kinda learned the tutorial, so kinda like the start of my real love for music and instruments. [So kinda like an awakening moment?] Yeah, absolutely, just got such a beautiful lyric, that song. When did you first feel “Oh someone is actually interested in me, I do this quite well. I maybe have a future here”? If I’m being honest, coz I didn’t had too much experience, just performing at school and stuff like that, so probably at the XFactor, to be honest. [Thats quite a big stage] Yeah! I really jump at the deep in it, I mean, the most Ive played to before, must have been about 100 people and even still, maybe about 5 times, so I didn’t really had any experience, so that was really the moment that I thought ‘Ok, somethings happening here’ Was that a massive moment for you? Looking back, was that, altogether, a good thing? Oh, absolutely! Absolutely! There’s definitely more time coming through Doncaster, to where I’m now, but when I was younger, there wasn’t many people that made it from Doncaster, and I think, thats the power of a show like that, is… It gives opportunities to people that wouldn’t normally have those opportunities. So, definitely. People criticize this shows, delivering unrealistic expectations… I mean, obviously, you’re ok, so not totally unrealistic. Yeah, I mean, I’m sure theres an argument for that and I can understand where’s coming from, and I think as time goes on, all these realities shows are getting better with dealing with those kind of things, I mean, yeah, luckily, it worked out alright for me! You’ve seen it form the other side, as a mentor for the show, it’s a big responsibility. Mhm! I’m not gonna lie, after me like, second day, coz the first, and the second day to be honest, I was really nervous, coz it was something new for me, being a judge, being you know, in that role of responsibility, really, but after the second day, I kinda realized I could just go on and be myself and kinda like… Once I’ve got me category, I felt really comfortable, coz I’m quite competitive anyway, so was just a great process. I feel like I learned so much over that time, I had a great category, and yeah, was really special time for me, actually. Next choice is gonna be The Undertones, with Teenage Kicks! Yeah, again, this is one of those songs that I heard a hell of a lot growing up. We also did a cover of this in One Direction, for Comic Relief, and that was amazing. So it’s just a special song for me, from when I was younger, and then ended up, obviously, in the band as well.

x, x, x

‘Anxiety’

Louis on Fast Car, by Tracy Chapman on BBCR2's Track of My Years with Ken Bruce

Two of Us remains on the BBC Radio 2 B List (04/05/19)

Louis remains on BBC R2 B playlist (26/04/19)