Bedingfield Of Dreams

Natasha may have taken the limelight of late, but her brother Daniel Bedingfield’s not bitter. No sireee. Why would he be? He’s got three UK number one singles, two successful albums and worldwide critical acclaim. His last single, ‘Wrap My Words Around You’ was a joyous mix of ‘Your Song’ by Elton John and ‘Leave Right Now’ by Will Young, delivered with the passion of both put together. All this from a man who burst on the scene with the insanely repetitive ‘Gotta Get Thru This’.

Four years after that release, he’s proved himself a lasting figure - it’s Daniel’s second album, Second First Impression, which he’s here to plug. Mulling over his excitement of being in Ireland, he comments: “The Irish audience are far more appreciative. Far more willing to get into it. Maybe because they’re drunk when I start.” Said in a nice way of course. “They don’t have the inhibitions that a lot of other people have. And I love that!”
And if there’s one thing that Daniel exudes, it’s passion. Whatever you think of his music, the man lives and breathes it. This is especially the case after he nearly died for it – last January, his Jeep careered off the road as he was driving from a music festival in his native New Zealand. Daniel was lucky to be alive. But the experience has only fuelled his motivation.
“A lot of the emotion from the accident has amplified the passion in the album. Everything’s intensified.”
Possibly the most unfavourable result of the crash was that the scars on his forehead caused him to grow his hair long, thus making him look the spitting image of Brian McFadden, as proved by Daniel’s album cover.
Having gone through such traumas since his early days, does he feel ‘Gotta Get Thru This’ is a bad representation of what he’s about?
“I don’t regret it at all,” he says. “The songs I’ve released aren’t always an accurate description of what’s going on in my head. There’s a lot more music I make that people won’t get, or it’s not the right time. I'm saving that for the fourth album."