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Due to lack of activity I have chosen to close this forum thank-you for the ride it was a blast when it was here. DreamHrt

 

 Latest 'Idol' runner-up not just happy to be here

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DreamHrt
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PostSubject: Latest 'Idol' runner-up not just happy to be here   Latest 'Idol' runner-up not just happy to be here Icon_minitimeMon Dec 10, 2007 11:13 pm

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. -- Blake Lewis checked an e-mail on his iPhone and gasped.

“Rough cut of the video!” he announced, and quickly a half-dozen 19 Entertainment employees gathered around a computer screen at the “American Idol” production company’s slick offices above Sunset Boulevard.

Lewis watched himself singing in front of a wavy purplish background in the clip for “Break Anotha,” the uptempo first single from his first album. “It’s good!” somebody volunteered after the video played a second time.

“For a rough draft,” Lewis muttered. “The effects could be more stylized at the beginning.”

No, the 26-year-old beatboxer from Seattle is not another just-happy-to-be-here “American Idol” finalist. Given a long-awaited shot at a major label album release with his second-place finish (Jordin Sparks was the winner), he’s trying to exercise as much artistic control as possible in the Simon Fuller-created machine.

He co-wrote all but one song on “Audio Day Dream,” which Arista Records released last week, and is already plotting a remix album to add hip-hop and electronica flavors that he favors but wasn’t able to include.

“I just call myself a communicator. And all’s I wanna do is communicate my art,” he told The Associated Press. “And now with this album, I get to communicate myself wholeheartedly without any hiccups or speed bumps, like ‘American Idol’ has, you know?” Here, he dryly affects a TV announcer voice: “Theme weeks!”

Lewis got an early start on the love-hate relationship that “Idol” alumnus like Kelly Clarkson have had with the show and their post-”Idol” handlers.

The hate part, in fact, began before he considered auditioning. He found the singing contest flipping through channels several years ago and could only watch a few seconds of painfully off-tune crooning.

“I saw this, people that cannot perform, they’re just standing there singing. The camera’s zooming in and out and stuff. I’m like, ‘Cool, the cameras are doing their job,”’ Lewis told The Associated Press. “What’s the artist doing? What’s this dude who’s been singing karaoke his whole life doing on this television show? So I turned it off immediately. I was disgusted. And I never watched it since.”

Lewis beatboxed and sang for a living for more than four years after graduating from high school. When no record deal materialized, he began working construction to support his music habit. An only child, he converted his father’s barn into a $30,000 studio, caulking windows and doing metal fabrication to pay off the loan. Under the name Bshorty, he looped his beatboxing and sang at regular weekday gigs at local venues.

Which brings us to the love part of his relationship with the show. In September 2006, a day after playing a show at the Triple Door club in downtown Seattle, he tried out for “Idol” at the urging of a friend. Lewis realized he could sell himself to 20 million to 30 million people every week. That potential audience was too tempting to pass up.

“The machine of ‘American Idol’ was great for me, because it was just too much fun for me,” he said.

Like other musically experienced contestants (think Chris Daughtry), he made the show work for him — not the other way around.

“Idol” music director Rickey Minor said Lewis was more involved in creating his own take on the music than any other contestant Minor had worked with.

“He may not have been the most talented, but he was definitely the most progressive,” Minor said. “His approach and his vision for what he wanted to project was clear from the start.”

On “Audio Day Dream,” what Lewis does in 16 tracks is, in his words, is “electro-break funky soul pop music.” To get there, he enlisted the aid of hitmaker JR Rotem (on “What’cha Got 2 Lose?”), Fiona Apple collaborator Mike Elizondo (on “1,000 Miles”) and Timbaland protege Ryan Tedder, frontman in the rock band OneRepublic. The album was recorded largely while Lewis was on the road this summer with the “Idol” tour, which he called “tedious and long.”

“Gots To Get Her” is Lewis’ most ready-for-radio next single, borrowing and reforming Irving Berlin’s “Puttin on the Ritz” melody to craft embarrassingly effective fluff.

The urban flavor seen in his “Idol” back-and-forth with Doug E. Fresh is in short supply on the CD. There’s just one guest rapper, Lupe Fiasco, on the celebrity crush tune “Know My Name.”

“I was hoping for more hip-hop flair. It comes down to the time thing and the release date,” Lewis said. “I didn’t get as much beatboxing on there as I wanted to. You know, next record. Me and Doug E. were trying to get together and get maybe Black Thought, Talib or Mos Def. I wanted to do like a cipher track.”

Whether or not he gets to make that next record, Lewis feels he already has one leg up on fellow “Idol” alumnus, some of whom have disappeared from the pop scene after disappointing first-album sales.

“They didn’t get to do their own album,” he said. “They didn’t write any of their own music. And a lot of people didn’t really want mainstream success. Like Taylor Hicks, I don’t think he really wanted success at all even though he got first on ‘American Idol.’ Katharine McPhee didn’t get to make the album she wants.”

Of “Audio Day Dream,” he says: “I made the album I wanted to make. ... I put all this hard work and creativity into this one piece. It was the right album at its time.”
http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2007/12/10/freetime/doc4758c00d15383380181153.txt
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concertcris

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PostSubject: Re: Latest 'Idol' runner-up not just happy to be here   Latest 'Idol' runner-up not just happy to be here Icon_minitimeTue Dec 11, 2007 5:56 am

Latest 'Idol' runner-up not just happy to be here 833804 After reading this article I am not so sure that I like Blake that much as a person. I did buy the cd and do like it but his attitude borders on having a huge ego that may get worse I think depending on the success of this cd. I personally was glad he did not make a cd that was pure beat-boxing.

As for his remark regarding Taylor it seems almost like an insult although he may not have meant it that way. My personal take of Taylor was it was all about the music and whether or not he was a huge success in the sales department he was thrilled to be out on tour showing people what real music is all about. Not this cookie-cutter crap that is mostly on the charts right now. Sad but true that most of the listening public are geared to buy this junk.

However, I am happy that Taylor found his audience who love and appreciate him to the fullest and I am sure he will continue to be a success once Blake and others are a distance memory.

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wietzema
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PostSubject: Re: Latest 'Idol' runner-up not just happy to be here   Latest 'Idol' runner-up not just happy to be here Icon_minitimeTue Dec 11, 2007 10:36 am

I so agree with you CC, I liked Blake on the show because he was different than the rest and seems to enjoy what he was doing. I did not buy his Cd though. His remark about Taylor I am hoping is taken out of content like we all know some of Taylor's were, Taylor wanted his voice heard and Boy was it heard, I don't think Taylor entered this show with the thought of becoming "Rich and Famous" he got what he wanted out of the show and the show did work for him in that way..
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DreamHrt
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PostSubject: Re: Latest 'Idol' runner-up not just happy to be here   Latest 'Idol' runner-up not just happy to be here Icon_minitimeTue Dec 11, 2007 1:38 pm

Taylor has what he wanted to have. That is all that matters... I dont listen to what others say. There just jealious anyway..
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wietzema
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wietzema


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PostSubject: Re: Latest 'Idol' runner-up not just happy to be here   Latest 'Idol' runner-up not just happy to be here Icon_minitimeTue Dec 11, 2007 4:04 pm

DreamHrt wrote:
Taylor has what he wanted to have. That is all that matters... I dont listen to what others say. There just jealious anyway..


VERY TRUE JODI... Latest 'Idol' runner-up not just happy to be here 316708
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concertcris

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PostSubject: Re: Latest 'Idol' runner-up not just happy to be here   Latest 'Idol' runner-up not just happy to be here Icon_minitimeTue Dec 11, 2007 5:26 pm

Latest 'Idol' runner-up not just happy to be here 399539 Sandi and Jodi I completely agree with your take on this. Taylor is and always will be a very unique individual who has found happiness and I could not be happier for him. Just adore that guy!

wiggle :pepmint:
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PostSubject: Re: Latest 'Idol' runner-up not just happy to be here   Latest 'Idol' runner-up not just happy to be here Icon_minitime

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