"A proper night for the fans” is what The Wanted’s Nathan Sykes is promising as the band comes to Brighton ahead of a planned hiatus.

“This tour has turned into a celebration of what we have achieved over the last four years,” he says, adding that this will be the band’s last tour “for a while”.

“It's a nice time to have a bit of a break and experiment with different things.

“Everyone is enjoying the chance to breathe and take stock. In the last few years we have had ten top ten singles in the UK and sold millions of records in the US. We have been working so hard everyday it has taken us a while to realise what we have done and really enjoy those memories.”

The strain took its toll on Sykes’s voice in 2013. He was forced to rest for a month and undergo specialist throat surgery in Los Angeles last April.

“My vocal problems were down to me not being experienced enough to look after my voice,” says Sykes, adding he has learned a lot in the last year.

“From the age of 17 I first started having problems, and it was getting worse. I sometimes listen to my vocal on the albums and think ‘I was having trouble that day’.

“In the last three months looking after it properly and using it properly my voice has come on in leaps and bounds. I’m learning new things I could never do before. I used to have to really scream the words out. Just before the operation I started thinking it sounded so unhealthy.

“Now I have gained a lot of notes on my top end through singing in the right way.”

Added into his new techniques is a regime of drinking and eating healthily, warm-up and cool-down exercises and using his speaking voice in the right way.

“After a gig I don’t just get off stage and start screaming unnecessarily,” he laughs.

He’s happy to admit that when he was younger singing was about the only thing he was good at – having started singing at the age of six and attending Sylvia Young Theatre School between the ages of 11 and 16.

Prior to joining The Wanted he won a karaoke competition on CBBC’s The Saturday Show – which saw him kiss Britney Spears on live TV – and came third in the 2004 UK Junior Eurovision Song Contest.

“When the audition [for The Wanted] came around being in a boy band wasn’t normally my thing,” he admits today.

“When I spoke to the people involved they said they wanted to do something edgy and not go down the all-singing, all-dancing, jazz-hands route. They weren’t trying to create a 1990s boy band, they wanted everyone to be able to play an instrument and write.”

He still enjoys the process of writing, and the chance to express what experiences he is going through.

“When something bad or something great happens in my life I can put it into a song,” he says. “I’m one of these people who thinks everything bad comes with something good around the corner.

“If I’m having a break-up I will go and write about it – I did that with Show Me Love, which became a really great song.”

Show Me Love (America) was released in November, and became the band’s tenth top ten hit, as well as featuring on the soundtrack of the film 47 Ronin.

“When the boys are singing their lyrics we all know where the ideas have come from,” says Sykes who has writing credits on all three of the band’s top ten albums, from their self-titled 2010 debut to last year’s Word Of Mouth.

“We are with each other 24-seven, so everyone knows what’s happening in each other’s lives and where everybody is personally. We work with a lot of writers, but when one of the boys brings in a song it’s easier to relate to it than some random dance track from Norway.”

As the youngest of the group his relationship has changed with fellow founding members Max George, Siva Kaneswaran, Jay McGuiness and Tom Parker.

“When we first started three of the boys were older than I am now,” he says. “I was 16 so it was difficult the first couple of years. They would all be going out every night, getting in drunk at 3am, and I was sat at home doing school work and finishing my A Levels.

“There was quite a contrast in the relationship when I turned 18 and could be part of that group. We have become such good friends. No matter what happens we will always be there for each other and have got each other’s backs.”

It doesn’t stop him from acting like the little brother of the group though.

“When I was first in the band they felt like they had to look after me,” he says. “In a way they have seen me grow up more than my family in the last five years. Now I can look after myself – I’m a completely different person.

“They are all old now – as soon as they hit 25 I was like: ‘You’re nearly 30 – and when you’re 30 I’ll be 25’, and they were like ‘Hang on...’ “They must hate me! I could go and join another boy band and still be one of the youngest members...”

Support from Elyar Fox and The Vamps.