The Star Online: Entertainment: Music
The Star Online: Entertainment: Music |
| Lee DeWyze is ready to try again Posted: After his debut album flopped in 2010, the former American Idol champ is ready to give it another go. For Lee DeWyze, being attached to the American Idol brand hasn't yielded the best luck for a career. During the show's 2010 season, the Mount Prospect, Illinois native won America over as that earnest paint salesman with a gritty voice and guitar strapped to his back. But the songwriter's Idol triumph was underpinned by heavy criticism of the ageing competition – sagging ratings, uninteresting contestants, judge shake-ups – and it didn't get better after the confetti fell on his victory song. DeWyze's post-Idol debut, 2010's Live It Up, opened to weak reviews and the lowest first-week sales from any of the series' previous winners. He eventually parted ways with his label, RCA. But the 27-year-old DeWyze is looking to reverse some of that luck. After signing with indie label Vanguard Records last year, the singer is back with a new album, Frames. Steeped in folk rock (he played the guitar, piano, mandolin, banjo and drums on the album) and none of the pop-rock frills that filled his major-label debut, DeWyze has the record he's been longing to make. Currently touring to launch Frames, DeWyze called to talk about the record. How long did you work on Frames and what has the response been from fans? I've been working on this record for a-year-and-a-half now. I fully believe in the whole record. It feels really gratifying to see people react the way they are. Musically, I knew what kind of album I needed to make. But I didn't go in there and say, "I need to make this kind of record". I wasn't (trying) to make a folk-rock anthem record or a pop record. I just wanted to get in the studio and write and record. There's been a stigma attached to your season. Do you feel you have to reintroduce yourself to audiences? I think when my first album came out, it was "Oh, he's the singer-songwriter guy". But I think this album is really who I am. We didn't write 100 songs and pick our favourite 13. I wrote maybe 20 songs. I dedicated my time to each. It feels real, and it feels like this album was made not because I had to, but because I wanted to. And that's huge for me. I wanted people to know what it is that I'm really about. Live It Up didn't connect with audiences or critics. What didn't work? It was the time constraint. Working with a lot of different people in a small window of time – and everyone's got an opinion. Everyone kind of knows better. Sometimes, it's like when you're baking a cake, you don't keep opening the oven. Everyone was great, it's just such a small window. You do 40 songs in a couple of months. It becomes very ... disconnected. What has going from a major label to a smaller imprint allowed you to accomplish? When RCA and I parted ways it wasn't "What am I gonna do?" It was like I could breathe for a second. I just started writing. When I approached Vanguard they wanted to sign me based on the music, not because I was on Idol. They are a music label, they have music integrity. To be on a label like that was even more fuel to my fire. You've described this album as the one you "always wanted to make". What's different here, compared to your post-Idol debut? When I came off of American Idol, that was obviously a great experience. I got to make a record. Let's put it this way, I had to make a record when I got off of Idol. It's not that I'm not proud of that record or I don't appreciate it. I was able to write or co-write on all of those songs, and that's great. I stand behind anything I put my name on. But at the time, to be honest, there were just too many cooks in the kitchen. And for me, I needed the space to be creative. – Los Angeles Times/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
| Posted: Don't yawn at Kesha's concert ... unless of course you are OK with the pop singer kissing you on the mouth. KESHA isn't sure where she is. "Am I in Virginia?" she asks someone nearby. No, she's not drunk – though almost every hit the 26-year-old pop princess has put out over the past four years is drenched in beer and Jack Daniels. She's just on concert No.39 of a tour that has been all over North America, through a dozen stops in Europe. "I rarely know where I am when I wake up. But I figure it out before I go on stage," Ke$ha says during a phone interview. In addition to teasing her show, she also talked about a few recent adventures, including a mishap with a power tool, a random tattoo and the surprising wardrobe choice she makes when practicing yoga. What are you hoping your fans get out of your live show? I want my fans to be very entertained the entire time. I, in the past, have been known to jump off stage and kiss people on the mouth if they're yawning. So I want it to be ideally the best night of your life. I would love for my fans to get ready and get excited and hide whiskey in their backpacks – if, of course, you're of age – and come all dressed up and make friends, because I feel like it's an environment where everybody's there for the same goal, which is to completely go crazy, sans judgment. And hopefully in the end leave covered with glitter. I've read about inflatable pink hippos, stripper poles, using a grinder to shoot sparks off a metal belt ... where do you come up with this stuff? Any idea that makes me laugh out loud when somebody says it usually means it's a good idea, and the best ideas often come from them being a joke at first. People will say ideas in a joking manner, and then I'll be like, "No, wait, that's brilliant!" So then I will get a 12-foot stripper pole that I can use power tools on. ... Everybody's ideas are thrown at the wall and (we) see what sticks, but I will say the power tools on my lady parts – that one was my idea. Are you good with power tools? No. I actually got electrocuted on stage two nights ago. Seriously? Yeah, but I'm all right. It just kind of freaked me out, because all of a sudden my body started shaking violently and I was like, "What is going on? Either I'm having a seizure, or I'm being electrocuted, or the aliens have come down and I'm being zapped into a spaceship." I didn't really know what was happening. But it all worked out. What other crazy stuff has happened on tour? During my Warrior Tour in Europe, four of my fans – who I'm now good friends with – they followed me all over Europe. About the fifth show in, I came outside my tour bus, and I gave them all wine, and we were all drinking wine together, and they were like, "Let's all get a tattoo!" And I was like, "All right, cool." So fast-forward, the last night of tour (in Vienna), me, my tour manager, my brother, and these four fans all got matching cat tattoos. I call them cattoos. It's a tattoo of a cat, and it says "Animal" on my foot. Then we all proceeded to get a little drunk and have a dance party. I saw a story online about Canadians up in arms over your show in Windsor, Ontario. What would you say to parents who are considering letting younger kids attend your show? Listen, I am not a babysitter. I will talk about the birds and the bees a little bit. It's a show that is rooted in acceptance and in love, but I do kind of have a potty mouth. So if your child has never heard dirty words before, it might be a little bit of a shock. But I just have to do what I do. I have to just be myself – that's the whole message. Stage persona aside, what are some normal, everyday, uninteresting things about you? Well, I am one of those crazy cat people that thinks my cat's the cutest cat in the world, and I sit around and talk to my cat for hours. Let's see ... I really like scaring the (expletive) out of myself. I love watching really scary movies. Oh, and I love doing yoga in the woods. But I don't wear pants, so it's really not that boring. – The Charlotte Observer/McClatchy-Tribune Information Services >Kesha is set to perform in Stadium Negara, Kuala Lumpur on Oct 26. Tickets for Kesha's Warrior Tour are priced at RM108 (free seating), RM158 (numbered seats), RM208 (rock zone) and RM258 (VIP numbered seating) and available at www.redtix.airasia.com as well as Rock Corner outlets nationwide. Related story: |
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