Here is an interview worth noting. Reporter Dwayne Steward interviews Michael Johns, David Archuleta, Kristy Lee Cook and Chikezie and asks each one about their future plans. Some very interesting information came out of the interview about their upcoming albums. Read on!
After the JUMP!
The most interesting bit of information revealed is that Micheal Johns has no major label deal in the works as some have speculated. He tells Steward, “I’m going to make the album by myself.” He explains further:
Yeah, I’ve been burned by three labels, two major, one independent, and I just don’t think I have it in me to face that rejection again. So I’ve been writing and I’m going to make it myself. We’re really not supposed to be writing while we’re on contract, but I don’t care I’ve been doing it anyway.
Good luck with that, Michael! Hopefully he’s got some feelers on a distribution deal, otherwise it will be difficult to release it as fast as he’d like–I’ve read early 2009 in other interviews.
When asked if he’s working with any major collaborators, David Archuleta says, “Yeah, but I don’t know if I can talk about it yet. I don’t want them to be bothered with people asking about it yet.” About what his album will sound like he says, “It’s going be a pop album for sure. We’re going to try to put a little soul in some of the songs, a kind of R&B flavor, and more of an alternative feel to some of the others, but mostly kind of a pop sound.”
Kristy Lee Cook talks about the process of making her album, and it turns out not to be much of a process at all:
Every day that I had off I recorded. I think it was like four days total, yeah in four or five days total I got my album done. So, now we’re just picking what sounds we want, mastering, mixing, photo shoots, we just did a photo shoot on my day off in Portland.
Four days of recording time = super-generic country album. Her single “Fifteen Minutes of Shame” will be released to radio August 11th. Kristy says the album should drop in September. About the sound of her record:
Well, the country these days is kind of fun up-tempo, it’s more hipper country, so that’s kind of what it is. It’s going to have some slow songs and its going to have a patriotic song. But we’re still mixing and seeing what songs we want.
Chikezie is currently writing music and plans to shop an album around after the tour is over. About what he’d like to record:
An idea that keeps coming into my head is the word revolutionary. A lot of what’s going on the industry right now is same ol’ same ol’. It’s an ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ type of mentality; everyone’s just sticking to the same old tricks. Yeah, they work, yeah they’re enjoyable, they’re entertaining, but it just seems like everything’s on a standstill like we’re on a treadmill.
I predict Chikezie will be going the indie route, as well.
A final note: There have been new additions to the ASCAP (American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers) for both David Cook and David Archuleta. David Cook’s new entry is “Not Me” written by the guitar player, Neal Tiemann, from his old band Midwest Kings. Cook has said he’d be submitting songs meant for his unreleased second album, so this tune could fall into that category. Besides David Archuleta’s upcoming single “Crush” (due to be released to radio 8/11) he’s got two more songs listed, “My Hands” and “Ruined Me”
Yes, I know–ASCAP listings can be meaningless. Nevertheless, it’s still fun to speculate.
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An album recorded in 4 days. How very.
Constantine Week #1 = 8,918, BB200 Rank # 75
Ace Week #1 = 4,137, Rank #160
So far Constantine has sold bet. 25-26,000 copies since it was issued on 8/7/07.
Thank you for that info, Allison! Seems to me like Ace will need a great push to better his sales in the coming weeks. I wish him luck, he deserved better than these numbers.
Jolene, I think Ace did as well as could be expected in this climate. He had no push of publicity for this album that I know of, other than the AOL first listen. He has loyal fans who bought his album. I don’t know if Constantine has many fans left these days. It’s going to be hard for Ace since radio is so un-friendly to any Idol except Carrie and Daughtry these days.
Can’t imagine why KLC would admit to putting 4 days into her CD. Must have been a blonde moment. She needs to not say that again or her sales will be a lot lower than she wants. Not that it really matters to me personally, as I won’t be buying her stuff.
And about Ace, I was not a big fan of Ace, but I do hate to see him sell so low. He seems like such a nice guy.