Hot Press Meets Michael Buble

Typically well turned-out, Michael Bublé enters the Audi Club in the Dublin’s O2 Arena and quickly endears himself to the more cynical journos in the room. Maybe not the snappers. The crooner from Vancouver does as he’s told and poses awkwardly before politely pleading to an array of lenses, “Can I be done now?”

He soon makes a comic break for the podium and confesses gingerly to the assembled Irish media: “I hate getting my photo taken more than anything in the world.”
Strange words to hear from a mouth that’s sold more than 40 million records and from a man who, following a 10-night residency in the London O2, is playing five sell-out shows in its Dublin counterpart.
It’s immediately pointed out that he could have made things easier on himself. In 2010, Bublé christened the new Aviva Stadium over two nights. With his wife, Argentinian model Luisana Lopilato, back home expecting their first child, this seems like a needless marathon considering his pulling power.
“The truth is,” the singer begins, “if my wife and I hadn’t had the pregnancy, I probably would have wanted to play the O2 in London for 20 nights and here for 10. To be able to come and play a residency like this is wonderful. I guess it’s like playing Las Vegas – except that it’s not Las Vegas! I always say that you know your career is going wonderfully if your tour includes a stop in Las Vegas, but you know you’re screwed when it starts and ends there.”
He can rest easy, he’s unlikely to be joining the Bobby Darin tribute acts of this world just yet. While Bublé later states that the experience down Lansdowne Road way was “definitely top four” in terms of career highlights, he admits: “I don’t think my fans want to see me in the Aviva. To be honest with you, I think they’d pay more to see me in a theatre even. Of course you love to play stadiums, that’s awesome. I feel like Bon Jovi! But my fans don’t want to be sweaty, smashed together, a mile away from me.”
Bublé is also keen to stress that those fans aren’t all female. Jocular for much of the presser, he’s clearly trying to drive a point home when he talks about his frustration at how he is and his audience are portrayed.
“It’s funny, because of the music I sing, people like to make judgements about who I am. I don’t know what happened to the world,” he says, shaking his head. “And I’m being serious – why are people so cynical that, because a guy sings about romance, it’s soft and for women? For me, romance? There’s nothing soft about it. A tough guy is somebody who can admit that he’s a hopeless romantic. At the show last night? There was a lot of men.
“You can say ‘cheesy’. But ‘soft’ I’m not. You come and piss me off at a bar? You’ll find out that I’m a Canadian boy. I grew up playing hockey, I was a scrappy kid. I look back at Frank Sinatra who was such a romantic, he sang the most beautiful songs and he meant every word he said. Yet he was looked on as this macho guy. ’Cos he got arrested, cos he hung out with certain guys? I don’t know.“
With us well and truly warned, he perks up during family talk. Rather than worry constantly about an early arrival while he’s on the road, Bublé is being positive.
“Of course, listen, if needs be, that’s the priority. Her due date is August 20, so we have a while to go. Every single night I connect with her on Skype. We’re both excited. I’ve never changed a diaper, I don’t know what the hell I’m getting into. I know I’m lucky because I’ve got a beautiful family, and my wife does, who are going to support us. At this point, I feel more like Dean Martin than I ever have: I feel like I’m a guy who pretends to drink alcohol but doesn’t, and lives with 47 members of his wife’s family!”
It sounds a lot more wholesome than adopting Sinatra’s lifestyle. Talk turns to the recent tragic death of his fellow Canadian, Glee star Cory Monteith.
“And he’s not just a Canadian, he’s a Vancouver kid like me,” the singer points out. “Both of us were huge Vancouver Canuck fans. It’s easy to live a double life. It’s easy to get involved in those kind of things (Monteith died of a drug overdose and had struggled with addiction for some time). I don’t know Cory but I’ve talked to friends of his that said he battled everything. He talked about battling every day. Not only that but he was an incredibly nice kid. Really talented, a sweet guy.
“It’s probably not helpful that we all celebrate those deaths. It’s strange. If Amy Winehouse dies in a car accident... do you understand what I’m saying? If it’s an OD, you become part of a club. And it’s sort of sad that it’s looked at like that.”
Keeping things current, Hot Press asks him for his take on Thom Yorke’s recent decision to remove all his music from Spotify. The Radiohead star lashed out at the streaming service, saying: “new artists get paid fuck-all with this model.” Whilst Bublé admits he’d have to look into it more before giving “heavier answers”, he echoes Yorke’s sentiment when he says that the focus should be on supporting young musicians.
“Forget about me the singer. I’ve got enough money. There’s a lot of other people who are affected by giving away music for free. People say that the music business is dead, that it’s over, but it’s not. It’s just changing. We’re just a little behind. We’re going to have to find a way to make it fair because obviously there’s a lot of people involved.
“And by the way, the movie industry? It’s happening there too. I’ve talked to many, many of the world’s biggest producers. We’ve sat at dinner together and had these discussions. You know, it’s a problem, but it’s a first world problem. I’m sure it’s going to evolve and change. That’s the way it is.”
Looking for the positives, Bublé argues that, “Touring has become so important and bands are actually getting out there and playing live shows. People are getting to know them that way.”
The subject of his love for Ireland inevitably comes around, just as his love for Mexico inevitably comes around at Mexican press conferences. Still, he genuinely seems to feel that Canada and Ireland have a bond of sorts.
“We’re very similar,” he proffers. “For the most part we’re pretty cool people and take the piss out of ourselves. At the same time, there’s a toughness that comes with being a nation of observers. Canada’s a smaller country that sits beside this behemoth, America. We have the same thing here with London, the UK.
“But the simplest answer is that you guys liked me! No country in the world has accepted me like here. It’s been big other places – I’ve sold 40 million records – but nothing like this. And so when someone likes you, it’s pretty easy to fall in love with those people. That’s just the honest answer. I brag about it all the time: ‘I played the Aviva Stadium, over 100,000 in two nights’! Nor was it ever expected for a jazz singer to ever, ever get there.”
Not only that, at least when he’s asked what Irish musicians he’d like to work with, he actually knows some.
“There are countries where I go and it’s ‘which Italian singer?’ and I have no freaking clue!” As for his Irish pick? “I’d love to work with Van Morrison but I’m sure he’d tell me to go fuck myself!”
If Van The Man isn’t interested in hooking up, One Direction’s Niall Horan – “a great kid” – does answer his calls.
“Him and Liam (Payne) are the two I chat to, I got to hang with them a few times. It’s actually really refreshing to see young guys like that get success and for them not to be dicks. I guess it’s probably a testament to where he comes from and his family. When you’re famous, you don’t owe anyone anything. But hopefully you realise that you should have a sense of some responsibility. That there are a bunch of young kids looking up to you and thinking what you do is cool.
“If somebody wants to go and smoke a joint then good, go smoke a joint. But does it need to be Instagram’d? Does it need to be shown off to everybody that you’re such a bad motherfucker? I like that they’re just being kids. Cool is as cool does.”
Up close and personal, Mr. Bublé does cool very well indeed.