Olly Murs interview: "Who would I kiss right now? Simon Cowell, obviously!"

We catch up with the singer about his latest single, new book and The X Factor.

Olly Murs is a busy man. But despite having a new book, new single, new album (sort of) and a new job co-hosting The X Factor, he tells us he's back at work today after taking a fortnight off when we called him up for a chat about all of the above...

Hello Olly! You seem like the busiest person on the planet right now. Are you ok?

I really am very good thanks! I'm back to work today after a couple of weeks off, but busy is how I like it to be. I’ve got the X Factor, my new book and the new album all happening at the same time, which is handy, because they all link up and I can promote them together over the next couple.

Firstly, you’ve got a book coming out. Is it one of those behind-the-scenes tour books with lots of nice pictures?

We got this ghost writer called Matt and he documented everything that happened backstage – the discussions, arguments and the pulling together of the whole show. It’s an insight into my life and what I get up to on tour. I think some people think I just walk out on stage and start performing and then go home, but there’s a lot of work behind the scenes that goes into it.

It must have been quite annoying to have a writer and photographer following you around backstage, when things are normally quite stressful anyway...

It was hard at first because really, I’m quite a private person. I don’t really want loads of people observing and hanging around me all the time. Sometimes just having press around you all the time and taking photos and asking you questions can be a bit much. It’s alright though, you just get on with it, plus this was for the tour, so it meant something to me and was something I really wanted to do.

Your new single Kiss Me is quite a big change in sound for you; can we expect more of this in the future?

I’m really excited about this new single! We’ve done a special edition of the album as well, for Christmas. The song is something fresh, something a bit different and new. Hopefully the fans will like it, and for me as artist, it’s exciting to switch things up a bit. It’s got a kind of ‘80s sexy vibe to it.

Apart from us, who do you want to kiss right at this very moment?

I’d like to give Simon Cowell a kiss right now because it’s his birthday. A big birthday kiss, obviously!

Kiss Me heads up a repack of your latest album Never Been Better, which has five new tracks and a DVD on it. Weren't you tempted to go for a full new album? You're already halfway there!

We were thinking about doing a new album but the DVD was something I really wanted to do – to have the fans be able to watch the show again. We did it a couple of years ago and people seemed to like it. I’m going to do another album next year, so this is just something for Christmas.

It was nice to do something different. I always try and do that anyway – Heart Skips A Beat was very different to Troublemaker, which was very different to Dear Darlin’. Kiss Me is particularly different for me though – hopefully the fans like it and hopefully it’ll bring new fans on board. The whole point of this is to convince more and more people to buy your music. Fingers crossed it will open more avenues for me.

Are the other new songs ones that didn't make the original cut of the album?

When you make an album you record loads of songs and it’s so hard to pick which make the final cut. For this album, I wrote 50 – 60 songs. That’s a lot of songs – obviously some of them are really crap – but these ones were written during the sessions for the album that I genuinely love and wanted to put out there. I’d never put out songs I think are throwaway!

Finally, we're not far off the live shows on The X Factor. Who's your money on winning this year?

Do you know what, I’ve really enjoyed watching everything back on TV, because it’s so different when you’re actually there seeing it all happen live. Me and Caroline do have a few favourites of course – there’s someone in every category. Obviously I support all the Essex acts, and I think Louisa is amazing and so is Jay. Anton is brilliant as well – he puts everything into every performance and I can’t help getting emotional. Obviously it’s up to the judges to decide who goes through to the lives, but I hope they make it.

Olly Murs' new single Kiss Me is out now. The album special edition of Never Been Better follows on November 20.