Being gay and in a boyband is no big deal these days says Union J’s Jaymi Hensley and he is happy to be a role model for teenagers.

“Yes I get a lot of fans asking me about it and it’s a great honour for me. I always tell my fans ’don’t waste your time trying to fit in’ because then you will find people like you, like a group of misfits.

“I wish I had had someone in the public eye for me to look up to,“ he adds.

“Boy George, George Michael and Freddie Mercury are massive people to me because they all came out years ago and were accepted. But a lot of boyband members didn’t come out and I was always like ’why not?’“

The 24-year-old grew up in Luton, listening to everyone from Red Hot Chilli Peppers to Whitney Houston and dreaming of being a star and says coming out when he was 14 was fairly painless as his mum “didn’t want me to hide” and he quickly found a “second family” in the gay scene.

Members of his family and friends will be there next week when he heads back to his home turf to perform at Chilfest in Tring.

“I still live in the area and any possible free time I have I spend at home because while I love my job I like to keep it as a job so I stay grounded. I would hate to wrap myself up in this world and not have relationships at home. I have the same friends I’ve always had and go to the same pub and supermarket.“

When we speak he is being driven down the motorway to Newark Festival with his “crazy“ bandmates Josh Cuthbert “the funny one“, JJ Hamblett “like your weird aunt at a party“ and George Shelley “hyper like a toddler“ chattering away in the background.

Despite this, the dodgy signal and his ridiculously bad hayfever, Jaymi definitely has the happy-go-lucky boyband persona down to a tee.

“Performing was always what I wanted to do,“ he says. “I went to performing arts school. I have never been good at anything else and always poured all my energy into it and thank god it’s paid off.“

Finding fame didn’t come as readily as it would appear though as Jaymi tried out for X Factor five times before his band got through to the live shows for X Factor in 2012. They went on to come fourth, losing out to James Arthur, who ironically has just been dropped by his record label, releasing their debut album less than a year later and Jaymi says for a long time they felt like they “had to behave”.

“We came from a very structured background and maybe took it a bit too seriously.

“We are four guys in our 20s, travelling the world and we are so lucky to do that, so this year we said ’let’s just embrace that’.“

The former Sylvia Young Theatre School pupil wants to enjoy a “crazy year” before he ties the knot with long-term boyfriend Olly and the band have also taken a more active role in their second album, due for release later this year.

“First time round we were very new to the business, so we were taking a lot of guidance from people, but now we are excited because we have written a lot of the second album and put a lot of effort into the producing.

“For example we got Tonight (the first single) back and we said ’we are really not happy and we’re not feeling it’, so we went to the producers and got involved.“

Chilfest, Cow Lane, Tring, July 4-6. Details: chilfest.co.uk