Keith Duffy on joy of re-recording Boyzone chart topper 20 years later

Keith Duffy has revealed how much he enjoyed putting his own stamp on a new version of the Boyzone song No Matter What, 20 years after it was released by the boyband.

Duffy has recorded the song, which was released by the band in 1998, with Westlife star Brian McFadden as the pop supergroup Boyzlife, and with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

He said: “It was a wonderful experience, especially with the orchestra, to go back in and record No Matter What, a song that had already been number one in the UK charts and one that I sang backing vocals to for over 20 years.

“To now go back in and rerecord them, singing the lead vocals and then getting the opportunity to sing with an orchestra was an amazing experience all round.

“I get to be a lot more involved in the production, I get to be a lot more involved in the whole tempo of the songs and what way we feel they should be edited, trying to make them our own and putting our own stamp on them, make them feel like our own songs.”

No Matter What follows up the duo’s last single You Needed Me and will appear on their forthcoming debut album.

McFadden said: “Keith and I are very excited for the fans to hear the album.

“We have been working on it for a nearly a year by the time we figured out what songs we were going to do, then record scratch vocals, then record with the orchestra to then record more vocals after – so we have been working very hard on it for a long time.

“For us, the most exciting part was to work with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

“To take these songs that we have been singing for over 20 years and to re-imagine them with such an incredible live orchestra, it’s been the most exciting album I have ever been involved in.

“When you bring out an album of original songs, you always have that feeling in your stomach where you’re wondering how the fans are going to receive the new songs, whereas this is really different for us as the fans already know these songs.

“They’ve heard them all before, known them for years so it’s almost more exciting for us to see what reaction we get from the fans because they’ve obviously been in love with these songs for a long time so here’s hoping they enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed recording it!”

Their debut album Strings Attached will feature orchestral versions of nine UK number one songs from the Boyzone, and Westlife catalogue, accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, which be released on July 17.

No Matter What is out now.