Westlife felt "unloved" by Cowell

Following Westlife's split from Simon Cowell's Syco label last month, singer Nicky Byrne has spoken about the group's relationship with the 'X Factor' boss.

Byrne told Ahlan! Live.com: "We signed to Simon back in 1998 and he was brilliant, but then came the development of 'X Factor' and 'American Idol'.

"Simon became famous himself and his interests went that way rather than on Westlife. We almost felt a little bit unloved with Simon Cowell, if I was to be honest."

Byrne continued: "We need someone in A&R [the Artists and Repertoire staff at a record label] telling you that's going to be a hit or not. We had it with Simon but he got so busy and would do it at the very last minute and we needed someone who was on it all the time.

"We have that now as we've just moved across from Syco records to RCA so it's a different team. It's their job to put us in with the right producers and co-writers so if it goes wrong then there's someone to blame but if it goes right then happy days. We're in that position now where we have someone working on it full time."

Byrne also said there was more to the group than just ballads.

"We have been tarnished with a very ballad brush, but I'm not the boring guy who likes dressing in a suit and sitting on a stool so I'm not sure why we developed into that," he said.

"It's not always about recording a ballad and only a ballad. If we are going to keep up with the big pop stars then we have to think outside of the box and that's what we're doing now with our new team."