Kris Allen and Adam Lambert Team Up with Hitmakers For Post-Idol Debuts
From Billboard.com
Adam Lambert and Kris Allen, currently hard at work on their post-Idol debuts reveal a few of the songwriters/producers they’re working with to Billboard magazine.
There were sightings of Kris Allen in Virginia Beach last weekend attending a Fray concert with his wife Katy. Turns out he was in town for a songwriting session with Joe King of the Fray. He’s also working with David Hodges, Salaam Remi, and Claude Kelly.
“I’ve been writing a lot with a lot of different people, and it’s going well,” Allen says. In fact, sources tell Billboard.com that he’s been working with some of the top songwriters and producers, including David Hodges (Kelly Clarkson, Daughtry), Salaam Remi (Nas, Amy Winehouse) and Claude Kelly (Akon, Leona Lewis). Allen also hit Timbaland’s studio in Virginia Beach to work with Joe King of the Fray, whose take on Kanye West’s “Heartless” inspired Allen’s own performance of the song during the competition. Allen attended the group’s show that evening after the writing session.
While Allen has been experimenting with some urban-influenced styles, he’s honing the material for the album in a John Mayer/Jason Mraz direction. “Each writing session has been a learning experience,” he says. “I think that we are trying to figure it out and that it’s going the right way and I’m really excited about it. I can’t wait.”
It’s already been reported that Adam Lambert is working with Lady Gaga producer, RedOne. He’s also writing with Dave Hodges. (I’m hearing Adam’s also been writing with Idol judge Kara DioGuardi and she couldn’t be happier about it.)
RedOne plans to record about 6 tracks with Adam:
“You can go almost whatever direction with him. People know him from being on ‘American Idol,’ singing other people’s songs, but you can take him in a new direction, and this will be the first time you hear Adam Lambert with his signature. My goal is to get his signature out from him to the world.”
Kris, going for that Mraz/Mayer feel, is just what I expected. With Adam, I’m still trying to figure out what his “signature” is exactly. I’m guessing it’ll be pop with a rock/dance/electronic twist–perfectly suitable for both CHR and the dance charts.
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65 Responses to “Kris Allen and Adam Lambert Team Up with Hitmakers For Post-Idol Debuts”
Sure I do. When it comes to Elliott, I do feel a little like oceana worrying that Kris will sound too much like contemporary R&B. I had hopes during season 5 that he would bring back some of the more classic R&B stylings since his signature song was Leon Russell’s “A Song For You” (which, btw, Kris sang during his audition but it wasn’t shown till after the finale, on AI Extra). However, I found I only really liked a few tracks on his first album. His second album is much better, imo, but he’s one of those artists that unfortunately does dabble in vocal gymnastics. He certainly has the ability to do so but that doesn’t mean he should. I seriously doubt we have to worry about vocal gymnastics from Kris.
I feel Kris defined his sound much better on Idol than Elliott ever did. That’s why I’m confident we won’t see some drastic departure from the singing style we’ve seen so far. In fact, as cookcricket pointed out, Kris himself has stated his new album will likely have even more of a rock vibe than his performances on Idol did.
That qoute from the chat made me afraid that Jive would try to push Kris into a David Cook type of sound, which he may be able to pull off, but it’s just not his style. I have no doubt that the base for the album will be rock, but that the songs and the way that Kris sings them will have elements of other types of music including soul/urban/r&b.
He’s been saying pop/rock forever (with shades of alternative) now, and I don’t expect anything different from that. However, he said there might be some twists, turns, and surprises and I think that’s where the urban experimentation comes in. Some people might be surprised and I think it’ll be the people who compare him to Jason Mraz, and they’ll go “WTF?”
But he claims that once people hear it’ll make perfect sense and that they’ll like it. So I guess we’ll have to see. I would have never guessed that given the chance to sing any song he wanted, he would have picked Kayne West, but he did and it was great, imo.
Exactly. That was my point. It’s not that we haven’t heard this before — it’s because you have a darned hard time selling this. That’s a big reason why they didn’t sign Elliott back in his season. They judged it would be way too difficult to sell and promote him, even though they saw his talent.
Kris, don’t try to be white-boy R&B. No point to it. You can throw a little R&Bish vibe into some things if you want to, but if you stick to rock/singer-songwriter (with faintly southern or R&B flair here and there …), you’ll do much better commercially. I’m sure that they and he know this.
As someone wrote above, of singer/songwriters: “Here are three whom I adore, whose vibe I can see Kris replicating:
Tyrone Wells
Amos Lee
Ben Harper”
And, yeah. Sounds write to me. Ben Harper especially. The test is going to be whether Idol, idol fans, the media, and the public consider singer/songwriter levels of commercial success to be enough for an Idol, or whether he could get those levels of success and be dismissed as a failure the way all of these guys owuld be. Ben Harper, by far the most commercially successful of these three guys, so far as I know, has three gold albums, but gold isn’t enough for an Idol. Elliott has a gold album here and one in Japan, but he’s not widely considered a success by the Idol crowd, even though he only came in third.
They’ve certainly switched some of their focus to more niche players, in both Kris and Adam, potentially, and I hope the definition of “success” follows along with that. If you’re not lowest-common-denominator multi-plat is hard to come by.
I think the main thing is that he will be going pop/rock but because he has a very soulful voice (remember what Jamie Foxx said about all the top 5?) that will help him in trying to bring a little different than the average singer/songwriter type. He is not going to be singing only r&b only because he has never said he wanted to do that, unlike Elliott who said that was his style. (By the way, I love Elliott, hate straight R&B, so I’m a little mixed on his album haha)
To me, hearing all this news on who he’s working with is a good thing for me because I thought that they were going to stick him with some bland writers but so far, the mix all seems really cool. Though Claude Kelly seems more pop/hip-hop or whatever, on his myspace page he has talked about wanting to do some more rock since styles should not be limited because of one’s skin color. The Fray thing sounds really good too since Kris has talked about that being one of his influences.
@efm, please, please, please Nooooo! I was a tween/teen in the ’80s and thought Hall and Oates were cheesier than fondue back then. Kris will create an authentic sound all his own.
I love the comment upthread from someone who cited all the R&B-influenced songs Kris did throughout the season. You’re totally right!! He’s constantly compared to Mraz and Mayer (and REALLY does sound like The Fray in some recordings) but he performed Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Donna Summer, Kanye, Marvin Gaye, etc. etc. and did a fabulous job of making these epic recordings his own. Kris rocks.
Hee! I know, their videos don’t hold up well now. And I don’t think Kris should mimic them completely but more update that idea of blending rock and soul to fit his style. No worries–I don’t want him singing “Maneater” ever!
I agree that Kris will do a singer/ songwriter, pop/rock, R&B/ soul infused record that will probably have some catchy tunes you may, or may not, be able to dance to…
Seriously, he really did define himself pretty well on the show. Listen to both the live and recorded versions of his songs – including Come Together – and I think you can see where he’ll go. So far all the songwriters they’ve listed fit into what we already know.
Oh, and Hall & Oates rule. Try Abandoned Luncheonette or Private Eyes – one great one for each era. That is all.
Help, I’m confused!
The one thing that strikes me about both the Kris and Adam statements is that no matter what direction they say they want to try, or experiment with, it always seems to come down to: it will mainly be rock. With something or other thrown into the mix. But apparently TPTB aren’t going to let them deviate all that far from something that will appeal to the broadest audience.
Did Kris sing that during his audition? That’s a great song. (I hear that as a rock song as Leon sang it, not r&b). LR was a rock artist, never r&b. I loved his singing. Kris has some good taste in music … Jamie C. for instance.
Elliott was always about r&b, that’s always the kind of music he wanted to make, so his cds were not a surprise to me.
I find that encouraging
And I disagree. I don’t expect that and will be disappointed if it happens. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
What is a soulful voice? I wonder if that means different things to different people. And does having a soulful voice equate to singing r&b type songs? I don’t think so. I think of a soulful voice as a full, rich voice, which a lot of rock singers have too and it has nothing to do with r&b in my mind.
Hopefully it won’t, but if he’s working with r&b songwriters, if he’s on Jive which traditionally has put out r&b cds, and if so many people who watch Idol apparently want him to sound like r&b, it seems like he’s under a lot of pressure to go in that direction. Top 40 today is heavily weighted towards r&b and there’s a lot of pressure to go there. I root for the rockers and the singer/songwriters (non r&b) and hate seeing singers pushed to be what they are not innately. Like on the show when the judges pushed Matt into the r&b corner when he really didn’t want to go there, and now that he’s off the show, he says he’s going to sing the kind of music that moves him, THANK GOODNESS. I think music should come from within, not be something forced on musicians because it’s what tptb have decided is the kind of music they want to promote.
It’s an issue with me because for years r&b (and hip hop and rap) have taken over pop music and for a long time they basically took over the grammys (when I think a lot of people quit watching) and they took over the radio stations, from my perspective rock has been pushed into a corner (and is coming back more now but not without a struggle).
Even on my cellphone, when I want to download ringtones, r&b (and hiphop and rap) are pushed as the ones to download, and I really have to go searching to find any kind of rock. It’s bothered me for a long time.
If Kris says he wants to sing rock, he should sing rock and not be pressured to “experiment” with r&b. They really do pressure these kids. I’m sick of the pushing of r&b. I don’t hear anyone saying that Lil or Megan or whoever really need to sing some rock.
Oh gosh, I was hoping someone else would post so it wouldn’t look like I was you-know-what. Well, I wanted to post this.
According to wiki:
So I thought that, in a nutshell, might shed a little light on what the various american music styles are in a brief explanation. Wiki has lots more beyond these initial paragraphs for each style.
why is that disappoiting? Think Tracy Chapman, Her music is mostly rock but her voice has a lot of soul in it. Same with Eric Clapton when he did his “upplugged” album.
The point is that Kris’ voice is not a rocker’s voice (David Cook, Chris Daughtry have rocker voices). but his voice is more soulful than DC or Daughtry.
His album has to rock but I think he is trying to figure out how it should sound like. I will be very happy with a male version of Tracy Chapman, with some modern touches to make it current.
Oceana, those definitions of types of music show that there is no set reference for what constitutes any one style, and as others have been saying, most of the styles bleed over into one another. There are so many different styles of pop, rock, r&b, and country. I think Jamie Foxx gave Kris incredible advice when he said there is no such thing as pop music, and that he should do what he likes and what comes naturally to him, and if people like it then it will be popular.
Nobody is saying that they want Kris to make r&b music, we are saying that his voice and style have elements of soul/r&b, and that that shouldn’t be covered up when his album comes out. In fact, looking at his Man in the Mirror performance, it’s clear to me that the soulful quality of his voice comes naturally, and there is pretty much no way that it can be masked. And since he is putting out a pop/rock record, it makes more sense to include his soul side. That is what will set him apart from other pop/rock performers.
Oceana, I think it’s kind of a testament to the power and emotional connection that the rock genre has – since it appears as though every other style of music sort of hijacks and wants to include it’s components. Pop/rock, r&b/rock, country/rock etc.
But I also see your point about wanting to preserve a pure rock style as opposed to it otherwise being diluted and perhaps becoming extinct.
It’s funny for me, though, as I read your comments. Because I’m a huge Adam fan, and my fear is that is album will be too rock for me! I am not a rocker, but I definitely like a rock tinged song. I love the Prince and Michael Jackson style pop rock. And that’s where I hope Adam goes and not the Led Zepelin or Kiss route which is too hard rock for me (and which Adam seemed to enjoy most). Although it’s really hard to know exactly where Adam is headed… so many possibilities.