Archive for the ‘In Conversation’ Category

Kris Allen Talks ‘Thank You Camellia’, Songwriting And Adam Lambert: Idolator Interview

Becky Bain
May 22nd, 2012 // 7 Comments
Thank You Camellia Cover
Check out two adorable creatures on Kris' LP cover. Read More »
Kris Allen Covers Gaga
Watch the Idol cover tunes by Lady Gaga, Katy Perry & Rihanna. Read More »
Kris Allen's Favorites
Kris Allen Favorites
The singer shares his favorite things with us. Read More »
Kris Allen

As much as we love Kris Allen‘s acoustic covers (even when they’re interrupted by grumpy policemen), we’ve been awaiting his brand new tunes on his sophomore album Thank You Camellia, which comes out today (May 22). To celebrate Allen’s first release in three years, we had a lovely chat with American Idol‘s Season 8 champ, where he spoke quite freely with us on a number of matters: he tells us how he’s matured as a singer and songwriter since his debut, who (or what, we should say) Camellia is, and the coincidence of his Top 2 mate Adam Lambert releasing an album within a week of Kris dropping an album yet again.

Find out all about Kris Allen’s new music (and his super-cute French bulldog) in our Q&A below. More »

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Carrie Underwood Says ‘Blown Away’ Wanted To Be Darker: Exclusive Interview

Mike Wass
May 16th, 2012 // Leave a Comment
Good Girl On Tour
Carrie Underwood
Carrie's leaving the clutter behind to go on tour. Read More »
Carrie On Late Night
Ms. Underwood stops by Letterman. Read More »
Blowin' Idol Away
carrie underwood blown away american idol
Carrie returns to the stage that launched her career. Watch »
carrie underwood

This is a special week for Carrie Underwood. The Oklahoma-born beauty has the #1 album in the country — her third in a row — and 2012′s second-highest first week sales total.

Not bad for a small town girl who had pretty much given up on music before auditioning for American Idol in 2004. No doubt the success tastes even sweeter due to the risks America’s favorite “Good Girl” took on Blown Away. She cowrote eight of the album’s 14 tracks and explored some unexpectedly murky waters, particularly on the almost Hitchcockian revenge fantasy track “Two Black Cadillacs.”

Carrie kindly took some time to talk us about her freshly exposed dark side, upcoming world tour and glamorous new image. Jump below to read what she had to say. More »

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Kris Allen Loves Vinyl, ‘Parks & Rec’ And The Civil Wars: Favorites

Becky Bain
May 7th, 2012 // 12 Comments
Kris Allen Favorites
Find Out Kris Allen's Favorite Things
'Thank You Camellia'
Kris Allen preps the release of his sophomore album. Read More »

Favorites is our recurring video series on the personal preferences of the pop artists who inspire us. Because the artists we love love stuff too.

Kris Allen is one of the most humble, friendly and talented people we’ve ever encountered, making him one of our all-time favorite artists to spend some one-on-one time with. But what about his favorite things? In our latest installment of Favorites, we discovered that the Idol champ has a thing for vinyl, is a huge fan of Parks And Recreation, and absolutely savors the cuisine in both Austin and Portland. When we asked about some more Kris Allen-specific stuff, the “Vision Of Love” singer revealed that his most cherished track on his upcoming sophomore LP (or his “baby” as he calls it) is “Teach Me How Love Goes” — so keep an ear out for that one when Thank You Camellia drops on May 22.

 

kris allen: lookin' good!
10 Photos »
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Kimbra: The Idolator Interview

Mike Wass
April 24th, 2012 // Leave a Comment
Gotye On SNL
Gotye and Kimbra perform on Saturday Night Live. Read More »
Get To Know Kimbra
The New Zealand pop star is bubbling up the U.S. charts. Read More »
SXSW 2012: Kimbra
Kimbra debuts new music at FADER FORT for SXSW. 6 Photos »
Kimbra

When Gotye’s all-conquering “Somebody That I Used To Know” climbed to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 last week, his quirky duet-partner Kimbra became the first New Zealander since 1977 to achieve the feat. (The last Kiwi to top the chart was Chris Thompson, who voiced Manfred Mann’s Earth Band’s “Blinded By The Light”). The bitter breakup anthem has already catapulted to #1 in 10 countries, sold 4.5 million copies worldwide and established the Popping Up-featured diva as one of the hottest pop properties on the planet.

Need further proof that Kimbra is on a roll? In addition to making chart history with her Australian neighbor, the 21-year-old has joined forces with Mark Foster and A-Trak for the latest Converse commercial, beguiled viewers with a memorable Saturday Night Live appearance and enchanted festival-goers at SXSW. We caught up with the recent Troubadour performer to chat about that monster hit, her musical influences and her US debut album Vows, out May 22, which packs a one-two punch of producer talent with Greg Kurstin (Foster The People, The Flaming Lips) and Mike Elizondo (Dr. Dre, Fiona Apple). More »

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Avicii: The Idolator Interview

Becky Bain
April 20th, 2012 // 1 Comment
Coachella 2012
Check out all of Idolator's coverage from the festival! Read More »
Another DJ speaks
Martin Solveig dishes about Madonna in our interview. Read More »
Madonna Goes Wild
Glowsticks ready? Rave with Madonna and Avicii. Read More »

Avicii is one of the newest acts to surface in today’s current renaissance of electronic dance music, and he’s already breaking records: The 22-year-old producer/DJ is the first EDM artist to headline an arena tour. His popularity has no doubt been pumped up by Flo Rida‘s hit song “Good Feeling“, which samples his song “Levels”. And if you were at Coachella last weekend like us, you know that “Levels” was inescapable, being played by pretty much every artist performing in the Sahara tent — including Avicii himself. More »

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Martin Solveig: The Idolator Interview

Becky Bain
April 19th, 2012 // Leave a Comment
Madonna & Martin
Madge adds Martin Solveig to her world tour lineup. Read More »
Coachella 2012
Check out all of Idolator's coverage from the festival! Read More »
MDNA World Tour Dates
See if Madonna is coming to your town! Read More »

Coachella was raging more than ever this year with the large array of electronic artists taking over the Polo Fields. Justice and Girl Talk comandeered the larger stages, while the dance tent overflowed with dance fiends ready to party rock to the likes of David Guetta Avicii, and Martin Solveig, who has been spinning tunes and releasing albums for a decade now, but came on the radar in the past year with the help of a hit with Dragonette called “Hello”. Most recently, he brought a range of sounds and rave-worthy styles as one of Madonna‘s main producers on MDNA.

Solveig, who hails from Paris, shook the Sahara tent on Saturday night, remixing songs like fun.’s “We Are Young” and Daft Punk’s “Harder Better Faster Stronger”, and caused an eruption with his own tunes “Hello” and “The Night Out”.  Even better than taking in his euphoric bangers? Getting to speak to him personally right after. Take the jump for our chit-chat with the French knob-twiddler. More »

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Andrew Dawson On Working With Kanye West, Fun. & Pet Shop Boys: Interview

Robbie Daw
April 5th, 2012 // 2 Comments
Pet Shop Boys B-Sides
The Boys release new B-sides collection 'Format'. Read More »

Andrew Dawson is a name that might not ring a bell at the moment, but that’s about to change. The classically trained pianist from Minnesota quietly won three Grammys through his work as a mix engineer on Kanye West’s albums The College Dropout, Graduation and, most recently, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Now he’s made the transition to full-fledged producer, and set up his SoundEQ studio in Hollywood. “It’s got a really cool vibe,” says Dawson. “I have a little writing room upstairs that actually used to be Orson Welles’ writing room! So, it gives me some inspiration to write some outer space stuff up there.”

Andrew is also branching out from enhancing beats and melodies for hip hop kings like Lil Wayne, Jay-Z and T.I. In 2011, he spent time working in his studio on current chart topping act fun.’s Some Nights LP and writing with New Zealand songstress Kimbra. Further expanding his resume, Dawson just wrapped up Pet Shop Boys’ next album and produced upcoming records by P.O.S., VersaEmerge and POP ETC (formerly known as The Morning Benders).

During a break from all this studio wizardry, the 31-year-old gave us the scoop on the eclectic array of acts he’s crossed paths with.
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Goldfrapp On Past Singles, New Music & Remixing Lady Gaga: Interview

Robbie Daw
March 13th, 2012 // 1 Comment

The last time we had a talk with Goldfrapp, the duo were just about to release their Grammy-nominated 2010 album Head First. Turns out it was a project that singer Alison Goldfrapp doesn’t have much fondness for. “I’m not very proud of that one,” she says of the previous LP as we talk about The Singles, a recently-released collection of her and Will Gregory’s most well-known songs with two new ones (“Melancholy Sky” and “Yellow Halo”) added on. She continues about Head First: “I think there are some good tunes on there. I feel like we should have given them to someone else instead of us releasing them as Goldfrapp.”

Twelve years on, Alison and Will are closing this first chapter of Goldfrapp’s story and looking ahead to the future. They’re taking this next year to work in the studio, and while Alison was a tad reluctant to talk about the pair’s upcoming material, we did manage to get some scraps of info from her. Read on!
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Adam Lambert Discusses ‘Trespassing’, Queen & More: The Idolator Interview

Becky Bain
February 20th, 2012 // 11 Comments

It’s no secret that we’re huge fans of Adam Lambert, one of the most exciting artists to blast onto the pop scene in the last few years. Adam’s 2009 album, For Your Entertainment, was one of the best debuts from an American Idol alum ever, but it’s his highly personal sophomore LP Trespassing that may finally prove to the masses that the man affectionately known as Glambert could be pop’s newest leading man.

It’s been some time since we had a nice long chat with Adam, and we had a lot to catch up on. During our exclusive interview with the singer, we touched on his creative process while crafting Trespassing, his favorite songs, and as for all those rumors about him touring with Queen… well, just see for yourself. Hop below for our one-on-one with the glorious glam guy.

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James Morrison: 8 Questions With The “Up” Singer

Robbie Daw
December 9th, 2011 // 1 Comment

Following the release of his third album The Awakening, and ahead of his spring tour here in the States, British singer-songwriter James Morrison is feeling quite feisty. Regarding his collaboration with Jessie J, the emotional, string-laden “Up”, Morrison tells us this: “I asked if she wanted to do it with me. But she said, ‘I’ll only record a song with you’.”

The past few years have seen professional and personal highs for the soulful 27-year-old artist, as well as some lows. Around the time he was writing material for his third LP, James’ father passed away. “It was very hard to get through most writing days without shedding a tear,” he says.

Still, he persevered, and the result was his second chart-topping album in the UK, The Awakening, which has sold over half-a-million copies worldwide since its release in September. Head below for our chat with the award-winning Brit!
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