Oscar, welcome to the show! It’s actually your second time on the show, you were here with the rest of the Weekend boys for the second ever episode. Crazy to believe we’ve only ever met once considering how long we’ve both been around the music industry.

Hello, Cara. How are things? It's truly been quite some time, yeah! That's the thing in this job, from the outside it looks like you're constantly living it up and brushing shoulders with the A-to-Z of who's who but you know yourself a lot of the time it's just work, travel, work, travel. It's great to be here again. I love how comfy your setup is here.

What do you think of that longevity, did you think you’d still be doing this all these years later?

I...I guess not many enter this industry not wanting to last. Nobody has a crystal ball and you can absolute never estimate or plan a specific path and route in this business. It's curveball after curveball. I think that I'm a very determined person, however. All us boys are. We just forge ahead and make do, you know? We love what we do and want to continue doing it. I think that when you look back, however, it's a miracle we're still here. We suffered a lot of ridicule and some seriously warped shit at a very young age.

It’s fair to say you’ve managed to keep a pretty low-key sort of profile throughout the years. Obviously there’s always been the occasional story, mostly in those early days. What’s the key to keeping your name out of the headlines?

I can sort of pin that down to two things, really. First and foremost; becoming a parent. Not only did I want to set a better example, but it's far more important and also more time consuming than anything else you could be getting up to. I also believe that making a conscious decision to wind down on social media usage helped a lot. People put too much emphasise on it and it holds a lot of weight in society these days. Who you follow, who you don't follow, what you like, what you reply to, what you say, what you don't say, something stupid you said as a dumb kid back in 2011. All of that feeds into stories and can form narratives about a person that are simply untrue. I'd rather stay above the fray and focus on real life.

What was it like in those early years of the group becoming huge, I know you met Eilidh pretty early on but was there a period of time before you both met when you embraced that sort of idol worship that you received?

It feels like a fever dream now! It was...intense. It was scary. It was a lot to handle not only for someone so young but just so fresh to it all. I did love a lot of that time, though. I can't lie. I was 17, in the hottest new boyband in the world and receiving attention from girls everywhere I went. Come on! It stroked the ego enormously. When you're that age and your head is full of carry on, the world is truly your oyster and I felt utterly unstoppable. I'll always remember when they had to close my local Waitrose while I was in shopping because a mass of screaming girls inundated the place. I was the cockiest bastard you could ever imagine at the time, haha! Of course, as time went on I realised it wasn't all fun and games but in those very, very early days I basked in all that. I had great fun.

Obviously there’s a lot of crazy stories out there about you guys, some true and some fictional. Bare in mind the Statute of limitations has likely passed now on some of the crazy shit you would have gotten up to when the fame first hit. What’s the craziest story you’ve got from that period of time?

Oh, there are some tales of absolute debauchery from back then. There are probably many I've also forgotten due to the state of mind I was in at the time! Ummmm...I'm not sure what I'm allowed to say on here?! A lot of the goings on involved certain substances and certain acts. Is there anything I'm not allowed to say down this microphone?

Come on now, this is my show. Do you really think I’d agree to do this if there was any sort of restrictions. The more crazier the better and I’m betting if it’s from those early ‘Weekend’ days it’ll be pretty fuckin’ out there?

Oh, it's "out there", for sure. OK, so...gosh, I'm trying to think how to spit this out after like 11 years of silence, haha! Basically there was an interaction of an intimate nature on the Weekend tour bus with myself, a lovely lady and a... Mr. Riley Hamilton. God, I can practically hear Twitter exploding as we speak! All that fan fiction that used to be written? Chances are there's truth in a lot of it!

That is pretty fuckin’ wild. I’m intrigued now. I have questions. How did that situation play out? Was the girl in question only willing to participate if both of you were involved?

Well, Riley and I had gone out after a performance in Manchester and we got chatting to this girl. It was very flirtatious but all really playful, didn't think it was going anywhere. Fast forward to a few more drinks and turns out, it was going somewhere! We got back to the bus and being rather young and foolish, we were dabbling in a few things. This girl, she put an acid tab on my tongue but insisted she wanted Ri and I to share it. We were inebriated and he's a lovely, handsome fellow, so...yeah, I obliged. After that little smooch, she got involved and it all happened! It was a very vivid experience and I'm glad we all had a good trip otherwise it could've gone down a very dark route! That's just one of my stories. If our tour buses could talk.

Just from the outside looking in, I feel like you meeting Eilidh at that time in your career was the best thing for you. I could be wrong but it looks to me like it gave you some serious structure in your life. Do you think you would have gone down a very different path if you both hadn’t met when you did?

Totally and completely. I think I would've ended up going down a much darker path. A far less stable one, definitely. I was a party animal. I was 17/18, single, famous, and met with an endless selection of girls, booze, drugs. Glorious at the time but not sustainable. I was fairly new to the industry but I was well aware of all the wolves and how to handle them. Meeting my Eilidh, it was clear that she was very naïve about the business and is one of the sweetest, politest souls you'll ever meet. She was surrounded by some horrid, horrid people at the time. A prime target to be taken advantage of in this seedy business and I wasn't going to let that happen. We really held on to each other, formed our own little bubble and have really grown with one another over the last decade. We saved one another. I have no idea where I'd be today if we hadn't have met.

Of course it’s not a relationship that has been easy to manage from a media attention point of view, you’ve both been through a lot together and have managed an incredible feat of being together for way over ten years now. What’s the secret?

I don't know if there's an actual secret. For me, it's just 100% pure love. We love one another, want to be together, want to make it work and so that's what we do! Still being together is all about love, trust and respect. No cheating, no deceiving, nobody goes out the way to hurt or hinder anyone. That's what it should be. Don't get me wrong, it's not all roses. Like any 10 year long relationship, we have our moments. I know I annoy her tremendously at times! At the end of the day, we still adore one another and want to be there for each other. The more I speak, the more I think the answer can be boiled down to the realisation that you can't be selfish in a relationship. It's bigger than yourself.

Obviously this is old dirt and I don’t know if you’re happy to talk about it, but the sex-tape. It doesn’t seem as scandalous these days as it did back then, but at the time I remember it was a very hot topic. Totally fine if you’re not willing to talk about it, but if you are. What sort of effect did it have on both yours and Eilidh’s life at that time?

Oh my goodness. That! Oh, have you seen it? I don't know whether or not to look you in the eye right now! Uh, it was a dumb decision indeed. At the time? It was the hottest idea imaginable. We were young, exploring our sexuality, high as kites I may add as well. When it got out there, it felt like the end of the world. A huge violation of privacy. Having the most intimate thing become publicised and sensationalised really made our skin crawl but it was that glamorisation that eventually helped take the sting out of it. Initially, we thought life was over. People were shocked, people were judging...then we would get comments of praise? I remember some people who used to work around us giving us kudos for it. A field day in the PR world. Publications were loving the engagement. Then it clicked that it's just another story. Was something for Culture Uncut to rub their hands with glee over for a few days then they'd move on to the next poor sod. That allowed us to disconnect. It felt less like real life and just some tabloid fodder.

It’s crazy how many people point fingers and put their blame on the people that are involved and nothing is really ever said about how it was leaked, I’d estimate from being in the entertainment industry that easily over 60% of celebrity couples have filmed themselves. We all do it, thankfully we’re not at a point in time where it would be as big a scandal today as it was back then. But it is a little scary to know that there are people out there that have the ability to access your most private things.

We all do it? Surely not, Cara! I had you down as so chaste and proper, haha! You're right, though. It was disgustingly invasive and to this day, we still don't know who was behind it. Thankfully, our teams have clamped down on it. Whenever a link is discovered, it's taken down as quickly as possible. Of course, the internet is forever. Once something like that is out there, you can never get it back but I feel comfortable in the knowledge that it's being handled to the best of one's ability. Having said that, I'm no prude. If for whatever reason I had to take my clothes off for something like an acting role, music video, a charity photo shoot, I probably would. It's just all about consent and having that say and authority over your own body. In this day and age, body and sex positivity is a big thing. We've got so many people in this industry launching their own OnlyFans accounts and showing their bodies off on social media through their own choice. Consent is key and we're having more conversations about these sort of things today. Back then, there was a lot of finger pointing. There was a lot of drooling from the mouths of gossip bloggers. Not many people sat up and said; "Hang on a minute, this isn't OK!".

I think you boys probably had the worst of the media attention when you first came through and pretty much all throughout your careers if I’m honest. But I sometimes think when I read stories about myself like where do they get their information from. I’d like to put to bed some of those rumours if you’re up for it. I’ve got like three or four that I think have been the most consistent stories about yourself.

Yes! Again, just like the whole privacy conversation, some of the scrutiny and lies we were subjected to back then would not go down well today! I'm sure you've got a boatload of things to ask me about. In fact, I can already think of a few colourful things that might crop up, haha!

Alright, so first up is one that’s been rumoured for years. Obviously you and Eilidh started dating pretty early into your career. But before Eilidh you have previously dated another fellow celebrity, I’ve seen a few names mentioned over the years, the most consistently mentioned is Mercedes Payne. Any truth in the rumours?

Mercedes is actually a really good friend of the band. Like myself and Billy, she's a Londoner and kind of entered the scene not too long after we launched. We go way back and she was one of the first people to actually be nice to us. We...we were close, yes. There was a spark there back in the day. Perhaps there was interest? I don't know, I can't say. That would all just be conjecture. Nothing like that ever took place. We were good friends. We still are. Again, it was all just publications latching on to something. I'm pretty sure there's been stories connecting Mercedes to Billy and Riley as well. Poor girl!

Another rumour I’ve read sort of blends into the previous one a little and knowing the industry like it is, I wouldn’t be shocked if this one was true. It’s been said that both yourself and Eilidh although you are married, could be considered to be an open relationship?

It's not open in the sense that we'd actively date a third, fourth person, nor do anything individually outside the confines of our union. It's more so the fact that...I'm trying to word this without sounding sleazy, haha! We're not...we're not opposed to another person joining in for the night, if you catch my drift? Ha! So I'm not sure if "open relationship" is the right term, per say, but it's still all very...modern. Let's call it "modern". You understand all this new-fangled modernity, right?

I understand it, I think if you’ve set boundaries to make sure you’re on board with it and feelings aren’t going to be hurt then it can be a good thing for a relationship. Much like most of us, you have been on a private plane many times throughout your career. You are in fact a member of the mile high club?

Yes, haha! Turbulence is far less scary when you're making it yourself. Private and commercial planes, I'm not opposed to it! Though when on a regular airline, I could never quite trust those toilet doors to lock properly. There was always that niggling feeling in the back of my mind that I was going to be revealed to the passengers like a prize on a 90's gameshow. "Congratulations, you've won a pair of Oscar's bum cheeks!". I must emphasise that this was back in the day. I treat British Airways with the utmost respect!

Not really sure why this one creeps up often but it does and seemingly does a lot at the moment, but where do you stand politically. Whenever I see your name in English media, it’s almost guaranteed that the comments will have something about you being right wing.

I don't have a loyal allegiance with a particular party. I think that the politics and politicians point blank in this country are the biggest bunch of swindlers we've ever had the misfortune of dealing with. It's difficult to put one's faith in a party when it's all seemingly corrupted to the core. I do wish to offer some clarification, however. Yes, my father is a registered Conservative. I'm not my father, however. We are not our parents. I'm not the biggest fan of the whole political thing in general, but I want our fans and supporters to know I do not sit on the right wing side of it. I'm a huge advocate and supporter of love and inclusivity. I'd never ever align myself with or support a party or any sort of movement that exists to demonise and oppress marginalised groups. You just have to look at the spectrum of what our band represents and our messages to realise where my love and loyalties lay.

The final one here, I feel like this is the one that all Weekend fans want to hear the answer to. You and Billy have never actually been friends with each other?

And there it is, haha!! Dustyn once said to me that Billy and I are two sides of the same coin. Both London boys, hard workers, passionate musicians, natural leaders and we're both kind of control freaks in a way. Dust, Ri and Scott are definitely more open to compromise and are naturally more placid people. Billy and I don't quit so if there's ever an issue, it's usually him and I at loggerheads over it! The fans are already aware that things can become rather intense between us. We both just try to do what we think is best and it is all love at the end of the day. We bicker a lot but it's like close siblings. We've been working together since late 2011. If it was like anything people make it out to be, there's no way we'd still be working together now in 2023. We can be like chalk and cheese most of the time but I know that come crunch time, he has my back. Having Billy Khan in your corner is a wonderful thing. I'm always there for him as well. It's brotherly. A very annoying, piss-boiling, stress-inducing brotherly bond, haha!! And I know fine well, he'll hear that comment and come back with a biting one of his own...and I look forward to it!