The Wanted need profile boost

The Wanted admits their songs are bigger than they are.

This year the British-Irish boyband have been working hard to crack America. Max George, Siva Kaneswaran, Jay McGuiness, Tom Parker and Nathan Sykes have enjoyed success with singles including Glad You Came, but are still struggling to be known as an act.

"This is a transition period, where we have to work even harder than we did to try and break the song, to break our name as an actual band," Nathan told the latest edition of UK magazine Glamour. "At the moment, the song is bigger than us in America and that's the reality of it."

The group find it frustrating that people are so quick to criticise boybands. Although many people are fans of their music, Nathan claims they won't admit to liking the group.

"It's harder to get the credit as a credible music artist because people instantly put you ten steps backwards. We get it all the time: 'We don't like you because you're a boy band, but we like your songs.' No one walks up to Kings of Leon and says, 'I don't really like you guys because you're a rock band, but I like your songs,'" he said.

The Wanted's hard work is starting to pay off, with Glad You Came reaching number three in the US Billboards chart. The boys realise they will need to sacrifice almost everything else but music if they want to become global stars.

"There are so many times when you're doing a 16-20 hour day for two weeks solid and you're like, 'F**k, I'm so tired.' But you have to try and put things into perspective," Tom said. "This is an amazing opportunity and it would be stupid to sit here and moan about it."