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Right. It's breakfast for dinner with an Irish twist. A proper Irish twist. I say potatoes. Are you sure? Uh, it's this your obsession with potatoes. Honestly. Welcome to Scrambled where today I'm joined by a singer songwriter and I hear he has a great golf swing. Please welcome Null. Hin. Good to see you. Long time. Likewise. First of all, congrats on the new album. Thank you very much. That is a great name. Dinner party. Yes.
Right. Suited. Uh, who came up with that idea? I did. I wrote a song called Dinner Party cuz I'd met my girlfriend at a dinner party, right? And, uh, I just thought it was a very different sounding album title. I just thought that's about right. And have I upset you already cuz you sort of hunched up the I'm just very Irish. I'm waiting for something to happen. Let's get that in there like that. Let's start off. What's the trick? We're over the shoulder. Make me look cool. Absolute pleasure having you here. Right. Thanks very much for having me.
English breakfast. Irish breakfast. Okay. There's a big difference, right? Not too many differences, but enough. Yeah. But we have like scon sort of potato scon. You have potato cakes. Yeah. But the sausages, there's a big iss there's a big issue with these sausages in this country that there's a lot of seasoning in the sausages. Gotcha. Ours are a bit more You're looking at them, you're saying, are they even sausages? What you said to me before this started.
No, no, that's the white pudding. And it's the seasoning I can't get my head around. Right. Since I moved to this country, it's something that I've I've always latched on to. Irish tea bags or clonicilty sausages from Cork Colon clinky clownilty clony thank you what's the special something like that they're just lovely and they're something I grew up on and we're very passionate about a few things in our lovely little country as you know let's get the potato cake done first okay so bring that up to temperature salt pepper and then add some flour in that I won't poison you no please don't um I love a good I'm always used to saying a full English breakfast. Um, the amount of time you spend in LA, it's very hard to get
proper sausage out there. Correct. How do you get past that? I don't. I just eat poached eggs and um and toast to be honest with you. But uh yeah know I travel the world a lot and I do long for a good breakfast when we come back. So I try take me back to the beginning growing up in terms of the kind of breakfast you grew up with. What was it like? This kind of thing. Literally like bacon, egg, sausage, potato cake if I was around my granny's house. But you wouldn't be going to this much effort on your own. And uh what have you got? You got the mushrooms. I've got my mushrooms in there. My tomato. They're on the vine as well, right?
Yes. So that's going to just sort of make them not just taste even better, but just the flavor on the vine is incredible. They're always the best. You want me to throw all of this in? Uh let's put half of it in. Mix it up. And then I'm going to get this thing cut. And tell me about cooking at home now cuz the kitchen's been done. Yeah, the kitchen's done. It's it's something that I kind of got into during lockdown. I was never really had the time or the want to cook when I was a bachelor. I did a lot of deliver.
Since I've been with my partner, I do a lot more cooking. I attempted your famous Wellington recipe on New Year's Eve. I heard. Um I saw the damage. What happened? It burst. It was all It's all in the as you made a big point in the video that if we don't seal it properly, it will come back to bite. And how do you resurrect that? How did you come back from that on New Year's Eve? Because I didn't. You didn't. And what about the dinner party guests? Are they still talking to you?
No, it was fine. It was actually all right. It just ended up being a nice fillet steak with a side of pastry. Uh so you served the Wellington with a pastry on the side. Yeah. No, it was good. But I did well with the what's the mushroom? Duel. Dell. I did well there. I did I got everything right until it worked. I thought I did anyway. God damn it. Yeah. Take me back to the beginning before joining that incredible band. Um, how did you learn music? Was it through YouTube? Did you start watching videos?
Yeah. Well, I came from like a not like I wouldn't say a musical family, but fans of music, right? Both my parents were big like we had a vinyl player in the kitchen or in the living room and there was a lot of old 70s rock and roll from America in there and I just kind of grew up on that stuff and went to my first Eagles concert when I was set like four or five. Amazing. And just was like that's exactly what I want to do. I want to be up there doing that. And what was the first instrument you learned to play properly?
I picked up the guitar. my uh my brother got a guitar for his birthday one time and then never played it. And I thought, well, that's that's a bit of me that I could give that a go. And then it was around the start of YouTube and things like that. So, I just started like putting on a tutorial video and pressing play and pause. So, no lessons, never had I still to this day, I've never had a guitar lesson. That's incredible. I kind of taught myself by listening to music, had an ear for it clearly and was able to figure out where what but notes were what and what chords were what and then how did that come about when you started those auditions? How that on that trail?
Was obviously watching the show at the time. It was the biggest show on television really, wasn't it? Um huge. So I was always the musical kid. Yes. And um Yeah. And I had this French teacher that was started putting on talent shows in the school that basically it felt like they were kind of for me because everyone else was really sporty and playing Gaelic football and things like that. Do you remember that first audition? Yeah, I remember. I remember like it was yesterday. It was uh it was very strange like to be watching a show like that and then be on the stage in front of Cowell and Katy Perry and Louis Watch
and it was just a very surreal experience and I was so nervous. Um, you were So, how old are you? 16. So, you left school. Yeah, I uh left school, got through the rounds, ended up in the band with the lads. So, I don't have a qualification to my name, but um I did all right. You did. You did more than all right. I'm going to just make these baked beans a little bit more exciting. Um All right, that's nice and flat. Let that rest for a little bit. Put that in and we'll fry that off. Um it's a bit more of an oval than it is a
circle to be honest. We'll cut it into triangles as well. So, just down. Yep. Okay. Hold it back together again. Mhm. Back down there. And just keep that intact. And then one finger in front, two behind. Don't worry about the speed. Just literally use the knuckle. And all you're going to do is shred nice and thin. You left-handed or right-handed? Left-handed. Yeah. See? Like me. Two of us. Just the two of us. C-handed, as my mom would say. Yeah, exactly. Your mother's Scottish, is she?
She is. Yeah. Mom and dad. In fact, I was born in Glasgow as well. Oh, really? Yeah. Port Glasgow where mom and dad are from and I was born in a little place called Johnson. Do you remember the first time we met? I assume it's the time in Vegas. It was Vegas and I felt so sorry for you guys because you were the quietest, the most articulate. I got this incredible picture and this was a night before the night of the first gig. Look at you. Come on. I'll never forget 2012. Yeah. We were playing next door in the Planet Hollywood and you had the restaurant there in the That's right. Yeah. In the tower and I remember the seafood platteries you gave. I've never seen anything like it.
It was about four tiers. And then you were you in you were in the kitchen? Yeah. Oh yeah. I went especially for that night. I went in there to cook the bloody dinner steak. So we had uh the most amazing ribeye tomahawk. And then I gave you uh I still remember it now. This incredible skirt steak as well. Look. I'm going to get you to send me that. Isn't that incredible? That's unbelievable. First time. So you were I was probably 18 in that photo. First time in Vegas. Yeah. First time we play played a show out there and then you had sent a message through for us to come around to the restaurant. That's right.
And we were beside ourselves, of course, that you were going to cook for us. And then you went off and did that gig. What was it like stepping out of Planet Hollywood back then? I mean, it was our first real experience of America. At that point, we're still deer in the headlights. We were happy to be anywhere. Yeah. Here we are on the Vegas strip going to your restaurant. The whole thing was just very surreal at the time. And what did you uh what did you take away from that? What did you sort of understand? Did you get a sense of just how big it was going to
be over there? Yeah, that was we got had the first number one album out there around that time. It was all kind of kicking off. There was Yeah, it was just growing and growing considering like we started on the XFactor in a stu a TV studio in Wembley to be, you know, a year later be in the mix over in America and people talking about you in that way and things like that. So, it was very just very surreal and you just we were so young and just so we were happy. We were just happy to be anywhere and be excited. We were like little puppies going around the place. So, it was I could sense that.
The nerves were off the charts because you guys were so quiet. You were sort of a little bit subdued and sort of almost like walking into the unknown, but more importantly, excited to get some proper food. Exactly. Honestly, I had these huge tomahawks uh incredible ribe eyes all on the bone. I said just send it all. They're never going to eat all that. And lo and behold, those entire plates were devoured. Well, we spend a lot of time on tour, as you know, and the opportunity to go around to your place and have proper food cooked by yourself was uh an opportunity we definitely were never going to turn down.
Um, what would you like me to do here, by the way? Um, chili's into there, please, man. Much of it. Uh, yeah. Let's put them all in. We got to sort of get them a little bit more uh exciting. Okay, let's get back to the new album, right? So, it launches this summer. Yep. How many tracks on the album? 12 tracks on the album. almost started writing it in January last year. But yeah, just excited to get back in the studio and get cracking. Huh. Conquer the US. How nervous were you when you first got that call for presenting The Voice on NBC? What was going through your mind?
Well, it was something that I never expected myself to do like t like TV stuff. I was more excited because I'd been on a show like that. That was the reason I wanted to do it. I felt like I could actually help these young kids that were doing exactly what I was doing 16 years ago. It was amazing. It was really fun because it's it gave me a lot of confidence actually be being on television, being on camera all the time. It's something that I wasn't particularly used to. You know, when you're doing live shows and you're in the studio all the time, it's not something that you're used to. And how exactly is that when you hear that first tone, those first 30 seconds?
How quick can you spot that talent? Straight away. It's it's ridiculous the level of We see about 120 singers over the week of the auditions. Wow. And you can tell pretty much straight away like when you're just using your ears and you're just looking for a voice. Love that. You can hear it. And luckily enough, I had a few wins. So, basically three for three now. Three for three. Job done. And you got some pretty big mentors you're going up against.
Yeah. This year we had Michael Boué, Reba McIntyre. Amazing. And Snoop Dog. Amazing. Which was uh that was a lot of fun. We had a great laugh. Breaking away and standing out independently on your own ground now and conquering the US as well. That must have been one of the biggest ambitions, right? Yeah. I mean, obviously when the band um stopped, you're thinking, do can I do this? You know, will people want to hear from me? That kind of thing. And then I just had trusted in the fact that I could I felt like I could write a song.
And I thought if I wrote enough of them, hopefully at some point one of them would come good. And where's that um where's that moment where you want to shut down, disappear, and start writing? Where's that little area in your life that you disappear to? Um, no distractions. I what I tend to do a lot of is I work with this two producers, same producers that actually did One Direction stuff and they're good friends of mine and we do this thing where we kind of every six weeks or eight weeks we like rent a house somewhere. So we were in Nashville, rented a house in Nashville. We were out Great. We were out in Surrey for a bit. We were out there for a week. So we'd like lock ourselves away for a week, work stupid hours, write a thousand songs,
have a bit of a laugh, have a few drinks, and try and take that kind of work feel out of it. Gotcha. Cuz the more you think, I need to write a hit song, I need to write a hit song, you probably won't be writing a hit song. But how nervous were you in 2017 when you first launched that album because on the back of the success with the band, goes solo, big leap of faith. You must have known when Slow Hands was in that recording studio that you wanted something good. Yeah, of course. Like it was definitely nervous. Like there's no doubt. Um cuz you don't know what people are going to think. You think you've got a good song, but the public make the decision on whether it's good or not, you know. So,
let's get this hexclad pan hot. You ready for this? This beautiful potato cake. In. So, a little bit of salt on there. I love how much oil you use. Yeah. Just gets that nice crispiness on there as well. There you go. Bit of pepper on there as well, please. Thank you. On you go. It's a dinner party. Uh dream guest list. Come on. If you're willing to cook, you're more than welcome to come around. Busman's holiday. I want to sit at the table.
I only live about 10 minutes from you. You can come around whenever you want. Love that. Um who would have? Um I'm a big fan of Bruce Springsteen. Yes. You ever met him? I've never met him. No, I went to watch his Broadway show years ago where he told his life story and Yeah. And it was just absolutely ridiculous. Um wow, that was impressive. That was I was going to flip it there and toss it. That was me. Now this kitchen will be on fire. spent a little bit of time around Joe Peshy.
Oh, yeah. Which is uh Yeah, I've realized he's just he's he's played himself in every movie that he's ever been. Yeah, there's not much else there. He's very funny, though, isn't he? Um, who else would I have around? Roy Keane. Jesus Christ. That'd be an interesting table, wouldn't it? Yeah, I'll say. Bruce Springsteen. Yeah. Oh, Jesus Christ. Roy Keane. I remember walking out Old Trafford with him and uh he said, "Hamstrings going to be fine. Um, I'm feeling good." Literally three minutes in, hamstring gone, and he's
hobbling off. And I swear he was so pissed off. Oh my god. Oh my. He just goes full throttle. Right. There's no stopping him. Prep going into a concert. What's What's the go-to? Because you don't eat heavy, you eat light, right? What's the uh basic like chicken, rice, veg? Try and bore myself to death for the six weeks that I'm on the road or whatever. How quick does that 90 minutes go when you're literally out? You got a warm up. Who's doing the woman? Who's on there first? Robbie.
Robbie. If he wants, we sell a few tickets. Come on. But yeah. No, we I have dinner early, warm up the voice, get out there, and by the time 90 minutes passes in feels like 20. It's uh it's it's mad, but I'm I'm a big uh value for money person. So, I'm trying my best out there every night to give the best show as we can. I love that. And how do you deal with the nerves? I think when you're on tour and you're doing show after show every night, you know those people are there for you, you know, they put their hands in their pockets to come and watch you and when you have that comfort of your own Yeah. You can relax a little bit more.
Um it's more about just I've got a job to do. Let me go out and do it. But the live stuff, yeah, the live like TVs and performances like Fallon or whatever, I'd be particularly I've got Fallon coming up in a couple of weeks and I'd be particularly nervous for that just because you get one shot at it. It's seven minutes. It's serious. Just it's gone. The secret is hold on to the conversation. Don't pass it back to him. Just sit there and talk. Get everything out. Everything you want to say there and then don't hand him the conversation back. Trust me.
I've been doing the opposite. I just let him do the talking. It's his show. No, but No, but you're a guest, an important guest. I remember my first ever Jay Lebs crapping myself and then you're just sort of giddy. You're excited. You can't believe you're there. And all of a sudden, [__] seven minutes are gone. Just goodbye now. Yeah. Next guest. And so, um, do you have to perform on there? I'm performing on there, too, which would be I'll be f I'll be fine. I just, uh, I overthink it in my head. And then, Jimmy's fine. Jimmy's good. Great fun. And the show is fun. So, it'll be good.
Right. Ready to plate up now for the moment of truth. Let's do it. So, sausages. I'm desperate to see what you're going to go for. Caramelized bacon, the white sausage, the beautiful cake, vine tomatoes. I'm going to plate one, you're going to plate one, and then you help yourself to an egg. Okay. We good? Great. Excellent. There's yours. Thanks for making me breakfast. No, you're welcome. I rolled out a bit of potato and flour and then uh chopped up a chili. Anything for a free ticket with plate down on the board.
Yep. Okay. So, we try and get a little bit of sort of magic going on there. Right. Okay. Going to start off with 12:00. You want me to do that? Okay. Oh, you do whatever way you wish. I got my vit. I'm using my going to sit on there second hand for I love that. I've watched a few of your videos over there. These things are Oh, we go for sauce. Oh, you Well, you go for the big one. Well, just But I'm going to put a little one on there as well. I think you have to have one of these. They've actually shriveled up quite a bit.
Looks like a bison's penis for God's sake. It's not sausage. White pudding on there. Yeah. Where you going next? Bacon. Bacon on there. All right. And then from there. Oh, hold on. You've done it a bit sexier than me. Look, I'll lean that one against that one. Scoop of my beans on there. The chili beans. Just sort of ramp them up a little bit. They're obviously better cuz I chopped the chili.
There you go. You're welcome. And I get my egg out there and just sit that just over. And that, my son, is a beautiful half Irish, half Scottish delicious breakfast. Let's go, man. Come on. No egg. I'm going to have an egg. You want to go in like this? Absolutely. Go for it. Look at that. Put that one there. You got make. There we go. Lovely. I'm going to go for a nice juicy bit. Yeah, I might You're not taking uh You're not taking any uh occupants in a in your house by any chance. I could move in with you fairly easily. No problem at all.
I'm nervous. I got three daughters. You and that household would be a nightmare. You got the pub in the house? Yeah, got a pub in the house. Um is this ice good enough to get in your own pub? Absolutely. bring this downstairs on a hangover and have a good time with it. See, I remember going for dinner with Ed over the house and he has a pub in the garden as well. Is that what inspired you?
Exactly. I was asking him exactly where he got his bar from, where he gets his taps from. He was sending me eBay links and all sorts. The last time he just said, "Look, all I want to do is just show me how to make an amazing Wellington." And then um we went and had dinner together and then we went to the pub after. Well, I might have to take you up in that Wellington as well. There you go. I might get you to teach me how to do that next time. Thanks. But thanks for my lovely breakfast.
You're going to eat it? Well, I want to see Gordon Ramsey eat. So, we're going to do it. Thank God you're not playing soccer, man. I would have marked you. I tell you, I would if I seen you coming, I'd run a mile. So, beautiful. Right. Have you tried the Irish sausage? I'm just going to get in there now. Gordon Ramsey eating a clonic healthy sausage. I didn't realize it was on my bucket list until now. They are good. They are very good. Question is, how much pig is in there? Cut it. Nile, thank you so much for joining us today.
Thanks for my lovely breakfast. Don't forget to check out Dinner Party, wherever you get your music. And check out Nile on his dinner party tour later this year. Well done and congrats on Dinner Party, buddy. Cheers, man. Thank you. You're welcome, Good job. Amazing. Thank you so much for watching Scramble. Press that subscribe button to make sure you don't miss any more videos and leave a comment below on what you thought of today's episode.
