Years & Years’ Olly Alexander "felt like such a loser" before becoming a musician.
The trio’s frontman has admitted he finally feels content now he is in the successful band because he never felt like he fitted in before embarking on a career in music.
Speaking in a video for Vevo LIFT, he confessed: "It’s so much easier being in a band, especially because, as a teenager I felt like such a misfit and I wouldn’t say I had a happy childhood really, I was quite a nervous kid and never enjoyed being at school and never got on with the kids that well. I just felt uncomfortable in my own skin and, I always wanted to be someone else, like be somewhere else, and I felt like such a loser but music gives you identity. And it made me feel like I could do something."
The ‘King’ songwriter continued to say performing to huge audiences along with bandmates Mikey Goldsworthy and Emre Turkmen has helped him to be more confident as he knows he’s part of a team, which makes him feel like a "high end version" of himself.
He added: "When you’re singing or playing music to an audience – that’s a special relationship that maybe you don’t get in another part of your life. You have a unit there and it’s less intimidating going out on stage, ’cause you know you’ve got other people to rely on and who can back you up. Yeah, I think that’s priceless, that kind of support.
"You get up on stage and become someone else, you know, you become a more kind of high end version of who you are, and the situation’s high end, and all the rules are different. You use extrovert behaviour to kind of counteract feeling shy and insecure."
Years & Years are the second LIFT act of 2015 following on from James Bay. 2014’s acts included Foxes, Sam Smith, Gorgon City, Ella Eyre and Rixton.
Years and Years’ Olly ‘felt like a lose’ before band
