Conor Maynard: You have to interact with fans or they will find another artist – I always say yes to marriage proposals

Singer Conor Maynard today said that musicians need to interact with fans if they want to be successful - even if it involves marriage requests.

The 22-year-old singer – who has 1.5 million followers on Twitter – makes time to communicate with his fans on a weekly basis.

“I think that’s the way it has to be now,” he told the Evening Standard. “I feel like if you don’t interact with your fans then they’re going to find someone who does interact.

“I enjoy answering their questions. I try every Monday to do this thing called #MaynardMonday and I answer questions for an hour. Most of the questions are ‘will you marry me?’ and it’s me saying ‘yes’ to all of them.”

He joked: “When I find my real wife I’m going to have so many divorces to go through.”

Maynard – who rose to fame after Ne-Yo spotted his cover of Beautiful Monster on YouTube – has since worked with a handful of the industry’s biggest names, including Craig David.

The Walking Away singer co-wrote Maynard’s latest single Talking About, something the Brighton-born singer described as "crazy".

Speaking about the experience, Maynard said: "Me and my mates have been such massive fans of Craig David and I did a cover of Fill Me In when I was on tour with Jason Derulo and a fan must have filmed it and put it on YouTube. That’s how he basically saw it and he tweeted me saying 'ah man thanks so much well done lets work together'. The fact that he reached out was crazy.

"I had to try and play it cool and be like 'ah you know got so much going on right now', but obviously in my head I was like 'oh my God can we do it right now?'."

Maynard's fans are currently awaiting a follow up album to his debut Contrast in 2012 – but he has warned to not expect a countdown campaign like that of Justin Bieber as it raises expectations and ramps up the pressure.

“That campaign is ridiculous,” he said. “It’s pretty huge, but it’s so much pressure. If his single is awful now it will be like ‘oh God mate you had a good count down and the song was rubbish’.”

Speaking about an ideal release, Maynard said: “I always prefer the weekend Drake approach where you literally don’t tell anyone and just drop it and the music speaks for itself. I like that secretive approach.”

Conor Maynard was speaking on behalf of ISLAND BEATS – a summer season of gigs every Friday and Saturday until August 30 at THORPE PARK Resort. For more information go to thorpepark.com.