First I gotta than Kristen the promotions coordinator at MIX 98.5. for allowing me to hang out at the breakfast! The peeps at MIX were all really cool. Lander, the morning guy did not poke his head into the MIX lounge, (he’s like OZ says Kristen, ha ha) But, Fast Freddie, the guy who does gossip did come into the lounge for a bit. I promised him I’d send him any scoop I found it. Heh.
I just edited this paragraph to add info and fix typos! First things first: Here’s the information I managed to get from David and his Dad: There is a song that David wrote completely on his own for the album. It’s called “Falling” and it’s a bonus track on the iTunes deluxe version. He wrote the song when he was 14 years old. David wrote non-stop the two weeks before the album deadline, because he and Jeff felt there weren’t enough good tracks to choose from for the album. He wrote about 8 songs, four of them are on the album. He wrote the bonus track for the Wal-mart edition with Daniel Bedingfield. It’s an acoustic number, and the “heaviest” on the album. He also wrote “Don’t Let Go” with JC Chasez and “A Little Too Not Over You” with Matt Girard and Robbie Neville.
Check out my pictures and read my account of the morning after the JUMP…
When I arrived at the studio, there was no crowd waiting outside the building for David like at some of the other radio station events. Once inside, the fans invited to the event were milling about. They were mostly teens and their moms. Skipping school to see David Archuleta! Interesting, none of them are on the internet. Nobody I talked to knew that David’s album was available for pre-order on iTunes or that a full version of “Angels” was available for download. Most of these kids know “Crush” because it’s on the radio, but are pretty unaware of everything else going on with him. When I said, “his album is available for pre-order,” nobody appeared to be chomping at the bit to order it. They will probably buy his album when it’s available. Here’s a pic of some of the kids I met.
We waited around in the lobby for awhile before we were ushered into the MIX lounge. Breakfast from Panera was waiting for us. Yum. The original plan was for David to do his interview first, and then come back to meet the fans. But, he was stuck in traffic trying to get across town from the other radio station. He finally arrived:
And it turned out that David didn’t arrive in time to do a live interview, so he came out to have breakfast with the fans first. He sat up front, and it was so funny, because it was very quiet at first, so I asked the first question, about “Falling”–he mentioned that it was “only” a bonus track, then I thanked him for bringing peace to my blog–that his friendship with Cook helped bring all the fans together. Ha ha. I also mentioned that his pre-order had hit #6 on iTunes and he didn’t seem to be aware of that. He was all “Cool!”
He turned to talk to another fan and said, I think I have something in my teeth. After the fan left, he turned to me and said, “Do I have something in my teeth?” He squinted his eyes and grinned so I could inspect. Heh. David is so random, and so funny. No, he didn’t have anything in his teeth. David also sings to himself. All the time. When he’s signing autographs, when he’s answering questions…I mean all the time! Also, according to Kristen, when he walked into the building, he saw pictures of Jason Mraz and John Mayer from past MixFests on the wall and he got really excited.
David signed a picture for me, and he asked me my name, I said “MJ” and Jeff Archuleta was standing there, and said, “You’re MJ? I want to talk to you!” And I was all “Ruh Roh!” By this time, the kids got over their shyness and approached the table for autographs, it got crowded, so I retreated to the back to talk to Jeff and that’s when he told me about the cuts on the album and the songs David wrote right before deadline. Anyway, he said that he found me last November when I was posting spoilers from IDF, and that I introduced him to the wonderful world of AI online. Ha. He said he found the information useful, and didn’t mind at all that I spoiled David. He also was OK with the fact that I criticized David during the competition, and that he realizes that’s “part of the business.”
One other thing he made a point of telling me (probably because I criticized David’s penchant for ballads during the show) that David sang mostly ballads because he couldn’t hear himself during the faster numbers like “Shop Around”. They allowed the kids to wear in-ear monitors, but only for a couple of weeks.
So I pulled myself away from Jeff to snap some more pictures of David:
Jeff also said that album is “very mature” and has a variety of styles on it, and that people will be “blown away”. Towards the end of the breakfast, some of the staff came in to talk to David and take pictures, including Fast Freddie, and the music director and a few other people. Right before David left, he grabbed some breakfast for himself. He says there are no Paneras in Utah.
Here are some more random pictures:
Kristen, the promotions director was gushing. She said David was one of the nicest people she’s ever met.
Afterward, David left to record his interview. You’ll be able to hear it live tomorrow at the MIX 98.5 website
The sales for “Angels” should provide a very accurate account of Archie’s first week Itunes preorders. After all, who is going to buy a recording of him singing a cover of an old song (relatively speaking) unless they’re a dedicated fan of the guy himself? And if they’re dedicated fans, then they’re almost definitely pre-ordering the whole the album upfront.
On the other hand, LO’s sales last week would not correspond to Cook’s first week album downloads because LO is his current single, so some people who bought it would have just wanted the song itself.
Anyway, from just looking at the Itunes album and singles charts the last two weeks, it’s very difficult to project how the Davids’ preorders are going. On one hand, Cook was at #2 on the albums chart by some time on Thursday whereas Archie is at #8. But, that just may mean it’s a stronger week for album sales on Itunes this week.
And on the other hand, while Angels and LO have both (so far) peaked at #19 on the singles chart (the weeks their album pre-orders started), that means Archie’s preorders alone are enough to get his “new” single that high on the singles charts (since as I explained, almost everyone getting the single is also getting the album) whereas Cook depended on both album preorders and singles-only purchasers to get LO that high. But, that could just mean that this week Itunes singles sales are weaker than they were last week.
My sense is that both albums are doing about the same on pre-orders so far. And that probably reflects a relatively equal size among both Davids’ committed fanbases.
So why did I write this long piece of analysis? Well, these observations got me thinking that maybe it’s the case that all popular Idols come off of the show with a roughly even amount of dedicated, pre-existing fans. After all, didn’t I hear that Taylor sold almost as many albums his first week as Daughtry? So, beyond the already-existent fanbase, what matters then is how well the Idols cross over to the public at-large, and that will determine how well they will eventually do in the end.
Which link is that? Sorry, so many fancy links to sort through, I’ll never find the right one on my own.
ETA: thanks, ozarka!
sma11ie, you can listen to the Pro 92 FM interview at Fans of David. Or you can download the MP3 here.
There is a rumor from Fanblast that says that David will be going on a solo tour beginning early next year…
“Female Daytime Show”… David will be on Ellen on 11/14 and the Bonnie Hunt show on 11/18. I guess we’ll find out during one of those shows if this is true or not. How exciting if indeed it is!
Part 1 & 2 of the Q100 interview is up now on their website….video.
http://allthehitsq100.com/video/TBS_David-Arch_102708/
Part 1 – You get to see the video of the setup on the surprise for the fangirls…and the reaction
of the third girl. LOL!
Part 2 – OMG! Thank you video guy! And fantastic interview.
David’s so funny without it being on purpose…and it’s adorable. 108 Seconds is a must see! It’s RFLOL hilarious!
Also the Kiss cleveland meet and greet videos are now up. Some really nice stuff. ESpecially the last part of part 2. He talks about how he would listen to stuff play it back and try to sing it. and gives advice for others. He certainly can talk…. lol
Part 1 & Part 2
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Here is a short vid of David at the Boo Bash last night.. lol He accidently almost hits someone on the head, and then pats them on the head after like Carly does lol
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I wouldnt put too much stock in what fanblast is saying, supposedly that came from an annoymous commenter at their site..
Will the new “Angels” be played on the radio? At mediabase quickcut, they only show the studio version from idol, and they don’t list this new “Angels” from Jive. Anyone know?
noctem:
I don’t think you can base Archie’s preorder numbers on Angels. From what I understand (I don’t live in the US), Angels is also available as single, so people can actually buy Angels without having to get the whole album. As for the album, there’s the deluxe and there’s the regular one, lol it’s very hard to estimate I’m not going to try.
Great report and awesome pictures, as usual, mj! That’s cool about your “talk” with Jeff.
Archie has to come to our shores. He certainly has lots of fans here (including me) and many of them are truly “hardcore” and would be thrilled if he visits.
I’ve been wondering that for months.
Thankfully, it’s finally started its descent.
Disturbia cant fall fast enough… its still at 14… Im waiting for it to fall past crush.. that song needs to die a quick death..
PRO-FM Video interview is now up on snarkie archies, in 3 parts. THey basically just let him talk. Good interview
For a while he idnt realize the we could see and hear him especially on the breaks lol. After realizing he was like ” oh, what do you know.. lol’
Part 1 – Part 2 - Part 3
In the first part of part one they have pu together a bunch of his songs, and hge sings along to a bunch of them lol its soo cute.
Somehow this is hard to believe for me, I wish this were true, but I don ´t think David can hold a World Tour on his own… they will have to be another really big artist with him, like Coldplay or Britney… not even Jordin had gotten a World Tour … and as much as I think David is very talented, I don ´t think he is that big yet…
Beside FANBLAST isn ´t a reliable source anymore…
Actually there is also a PART 4.
During Part 1 it was really fun to see his reaction to himself listening to clips of his performances. He sang along to himself in some instances, at times really belting it out. When they got to the clip of Simon saying, “You have so many things going for you. You’re young, you’re good-looking…,” he quickly interjected, “Oh no I’m not!” I thought that was funny.
cruzceleste , what makes you think “FanBlast” isn’t a reliable site anymore?
I love that beginning segment in Part 1….he usually won’t listen to himself at all when people play his old performances, but he did good listening to all of that, and singing along to himself, lol. I love his little falsetto he did singing along to the end of “With You”…at 2:26
Rickey.org has an Archey report plus 3 videos of the lunch meet and greet from the 92 PRO-FM visit. During the first video, in response to a question, we hear him saying…