Nathan Sykes of the Wanted Talks Writing ‘Controversial’ Original Song

Nathan Sykes might be one-fifth of the Wanted, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have his own ideas and visions as an artist. The 18-year-old recently spoke to PopCrush about a new songwriting venture he has embarked on and the difficulties that have arisen due to the song’s semi-controversial nature. 

Twitter was all abuzz when Sykes tweeted, “Just finished a bit of writing on a crazy new track I been putting together #expecttheunexpected,” on Feb. 27. While on the phone with Sykes before the Wanted’s performance in Birmingham on March 1, the singer elaborated more on what he meant by the mysterious tweet and hashtag.

“It’s a song that I got this idea for and I thought it would be an idea that nobody would ever expect,” Sykes said. “I had a conversation with somebody at our record label who said, ‘I’m not sure who you could give this song to.’ I said, ‘Why is that?’ and he said, ‘Because nobody’s got the guts to actually release it.’”

Of course, Sykes questioned the fact why he and the rest of his pals in the Wanted couldn’t do it, but since the song is still a work in progress, nothing is quite set in stone as of yet. However, the fact that people might be shocked by his song isn’t stopping him from recording, as he told the label execs, “I’m going back in the studio with the track anyway.”

“I’m doing a bit more writing on it and [I'm going to] kind of expand on the idea and I’m gonna see what everyone’s saying after that,” the ‘Glad You Came’ crooner continued. “It’s almost controversial. It’s very away from anything we’ve done before but it’s still got that… not vibe, but I’d say it’s got a lot of attitude to it. I think it’s quite brave.”

Whether the Wanted end up recording the song or Sykes ends up giving it to someone else, one thing is for sure: we can’t wait to hear what Nathan’s got in store for his fans with this songwriting experiment.