Randomize ME

Iraheta … said she has already started working on her album, which 19 Recordings – the recording arm of 19 Entertainment, announced in June it has licensed to Jive Records. “Definitely, I already started working on it,” she said, and has even finisher the photo shoot for its cover. She said it’s about halfway done, and writing and recording continues on her days off from the tour: the producers simply find her studios along the tour path and she records – which she said she’ll do today.
“Each chance we get,” she says. “They find a place and then I go to and patch in some vocals and record it. mean, it’s kind of weird ‘cause it’s a totally different studio, but you definitely get used to it. And time goes by so fast that you don’t even have time to think about what’s wrong or what’s right, so you’re just pretty much going with the flow.” She said the plan is to “record several songs and just try knock them out. It’s better to have just a bunch, rather than to have less, so that we can have a bunch to pick out of. So I think that’s what we’re aiming to do right now, is just recording a bunch of stuff, and choose the best out of that bunch.”
Asked to describe the songs, she said, “They’re definitely rock, definitely rock. Songs are definitely aiming toward, lyrically, reality, as to what people are going through and what I went through in my life. So there are a couple of stuff I wrote myself. So I’m starting off with the rock vibe and the reality of life, pretty much.”

Backstage With American Idol Winner Kris Allen By Veronica Dudo

“We come out with an album in November. We’ve been working on it doing a lot of co-writing stuff so I think we have some good stuff so far. We’re trying to finish it out and we’re trying to get it out in November so I think it’s going really well.”
… Allen shares, “I can say that we’ve talked about having reunions and that kind of thing at everyone’s house like every year, having the 10 people come back and just have a good time. So, I would say we’re really close and we’ve had a great time spending it with each other and it will be a sad day for sure when the tour is over.”

Kris Allen: The ultimate interview, Part Four by Fred Bronson

And now you’re working on your first album for a major label. What is your vision for this debut release?
I think the vision that I have for the first album is so hard to put into words. I know that it’s going to be music that people like and something that is hopefully different than maybe people have heard in a while or maybe ever. I hope that it’s something that grabs people lyrically-wise, subject matter and even musically as well, but something that’s different from what people are doing right now.
Are you writing songs for the album?
I pushed for that. I wanted to be part of the writing process. I don’t know if I can. There’s so much going on right now with the tour and all that. But yeah, we’ve done a lot of co-writing sessions and it’s been an experience because you learn from people who have been writing songs for a long time.
Are you happy with how it’s going so far?
The first session I had went well, but the song didn’t end up as something I wanted to do on the album. I was intimidated, so I didn’t put my two cents in as much as I should have, and then the next one went really well and I got more comfortable. Same thing with the song though. Closer to what I wanted, but not completely there. And then I was with somebody yesterday and it was weird, but it went really well and I think it’s getting there. I really do. I’m excited.

‘American Idol’ champ Kris Allen on going country, reading tour reviews, and tackling Twitter! by Michael Slezak – see video on link

Kris Allen is a man of contradictions. The American Idol season 8 champ is scared of Twitter, and yet at the same time, loves the concise social-networking site. He’s reluctant to give scoop about his hotly anticipated debut disc, and yet he gives Idolatry exclusive info about his two newest songwriting collaborators. He reads tour reviews — even the too-cool-for-the-room negative ones — and yet ultimately, he doesn’t give a hoot about what he refers to as the “blahdee blah blah-blah.” (And this is why we love him.)

EW: So you’re on the brink of releasing your first album. What’s success for you?
JC: I don’t know what to say to that one, really. Commercial success would be a plus, but in this last year I’ve been reading so much about the music business, and right now it’s kind of being redefined, what it means to be successful. If I can play shows and people are coming to ‘em, I’m happy. And if I sell 1 million records, I’m happy too. That’s where I’m trusting the label and their people. I do the music. They do the marketing stuff. I do need to hear my song on the radio once. You hear artists talk about the first time they heard their songs on the radio. I want to have that feeling. If that happens, that’ll be my little token!

This year’s winner, Kris Allen, received more votes than both houses of the New York State Legislature combined. His attitude toward his electorate would transform government if our politicians felt the same. “Being the American Idol, I feel like there is a pressure to live up to a certain standard,” he said in a pre-concert chat. “I want to be someone people look up to.” He admits that this imposes a psychic burden he had not anticipated. “But that’s not a bad thing,” he said. “I think it’s a good thing.”

‘American Idol’ winner Kris Allen is mastering the fame game BY BRIAN McCOLLUM

“It’s not the easiest thing in the world,” concedes Allen, who married his longtime girlfriend in September, just months before life abruptly veered down the “Idol” track. “There’s not a whole lot of sleep, and you’re not on any kind of schedule. You arrive in some places at 5 or 6 in the morning, then some places at 1 or 2 — it’s always different. But every night is totally worth it. The shows are what we do this for.”
Allen is still soaking it all in, enjoying the rush of fame, and while he hasn’t tired of the media vortex just yet, a few of the question topics are starting to become overly familiar: His relationship with Lambert is wonderful, thanks for asking; his favorite judge was Paula Abdul; and yes, his wife is doing just great, so you can quit assuming she’s resentful about all this.
He figures that will change by Thanksgiving, when he and Lambert will have each released CDs, naturally steering the focus back to the songs and voices that made them matter in the first place. Writing and recording sessions are getting squeezed in between tour dates, like a studio stop in Boston earlier this week.

‘Idols’ live gets a different vote By TRACY ORMSBEE

Iraheta, only 16 and still sporting unnaturally red hair, was cool with her Janis Joplin voice, especially good singing Heart’s “Barracuda” and a duet with Lambert on “Slow Ride.”
And glam rocker and Idol judges’ darling Lambert brought the crowd to its feet with a level of energy and showmanship — and voice — unmatched by the other performers. It almost seemed like the crowd cooled down when Allen followed with his so-different style. Allen showed his newly acquired show-biz savvy by replacing the bum “No Boundaries” he sang at the finale with “All These Things That I’ve Done” by The Killers. The two top vote-getters seemed to rub off on each other, with Lambert more subdued and Allen a little bolder.

Kris Allen: The ultimate interview, Part Three by Fred Bronson

You earned a reputation on “American Idol” for taking well-known songs and making them your own. Is that something you’ve always done? Yes. When you play in bars and you have to play for three hours, you have to play songs people know. I never wanted to just play a song that people know. I wanted people to think, “That’s a cool way to sing that song” or “That’s a cool way to play that song,” and so it’s always been a part of what I do as a performer.
We briefly touched on “Ain’t No Sunshine,” but tell me more about performing that Bill Withers hit. I played the guitar and then the week after I didn’t and then [the week we sang Top Downloads], I wondered, “What if I played the piano?” I hadn’t been playing the piano that long and so I couldn’t decide. “Maybe I shouldn’t. Maybe I should.” I had a hard time picking a song that week and I started playing it and Adam walked in the room and said, “That sounds really cool with the chord structure,” so he encouraged me to do that song and a couple of my friends did, too. I wanted to make it different and I wanted to make people actually feel like what the song is about, because it’s so gripping. I wanted to make it more contemporary as well, so I had a vision in my head and I ran with it. That’s one of my favorites for sure.
Let’s talk about one of your best performances. For the “contestant’s choice” on the top three show, you sang “Heartless,” the Kanye West hit that has also been recorded by the Fray. We could choose anything that week and I asked myself, “What do I want to do?” I was listening to the record and I thought, “What if I did this song?” A couple of my friends said, “That would be really cool.”
Were you listening to Kanye’s album? I was listening to Kanye’s version. I like that whole CD. I think it’s great. I asked a couple of people, because Adam and I would always run ideas by each other, and I asked him, “What if I did ‘Heartless’ by Kanye?” and he said, “I think it would be genius.” That gave me the confidence to run with it. And seriously, once I got into it, it was one of the easiest things that I’ve done. I just played it my way and sang it my way.