"Leithal Weapon" Herald Sun 30/11/06
Dec 1, 2006 9:36:26 GMT 10
Post by dededom on Dec 1, 2006 9:36:26 GMT 10
Leithal weapon 
Cameron Adams
November 30, 2006 12:00am
A year ago, Damien Leith was in his adopted home of Sydney with a wife, a baby on the way, a job as a chemist and his musical dreams were on hold.
Leith had got the bug for music as a teenager, when he sang in Oliver. A strange musical path followed, from a death metal band with friends to a string of family bands in Ireland.
All the while he'd record demo tapes, send them to record companies or try to get Irish record stores to sell them.
But, at 30, he decided he should stop and concentrate on the real world.
"There were definitely moments of me thinking, 'I should probably give it up'," Leith says. "I had times when I questioned spending money I didn't have on making demos, desperately trying to get the attention of A&R agents."
Then came Australian Idol. Leith entered merely to get attention that might lead to the occasional gig or interest from a local record company.
"I was hoping if I got into Idol that'd be one week of exposure," Leith says.
"I went on a week-by-week basis."
Leith not only had his dream come true by winning Idol, he had the dream Idol run.
His winner's single, Night of My Life, was radically altered to suit him. In the past, every potential winner has merely taken what they were given.
"When I heard the winner's single I thought it's a great song, but not necessarily a great song for me," Leith says.
"We spent 13 hours rearranging the song, trying to find a way to make it sound more like something I would do."
He's also been allowed to put an original song, Come to Me, on the B-side.
It's a song he recorded at his Sydney home on a Pro-Tools system.
Guy Sebastian and Anthony Callea lost hundreds of thousands in potential income by not having a self-penned song on their first post-Idol singles.
Their singles sold by the skipload and the writers of each song on the single gets an equal percentage of the profit -- after the Idol machine has taken its cut.
Leith was told weeks ago that if he won he could put an original on the B-side of his debut single.
"In my case, it was definitely right place, right time," Leith says. "The show decided to allow older contestants to enter, it couldn't have been a better year to be in Idol for me.
"Writing and performing is an important thing for me, it's really an essential thing for me, if the truth be known. To get in the show this year, there's been an awful lot of luck for me the whole way along."
Unlike the past three years, when the winners have banged out pre-prepared albums in five days to cash in on Christmas, Leith will have at least two months to work on an album.
But Christmas won't be Leith-free; finally someone in Idol HQ has realised what people want post-Idol -- an album of the songs the winner sang on the show.
The Winner's Journey, out next week, features a CD and DVD of his highlights from the program -- even his infamous disco cover of Celebration, which earned the judges' wrath.
"I don't regret it," Leith says of singing that song. "I just did what I thought was best at the time. As bad as the comments were, it was part of the whole thing and I'm still here, so hopefully it didn't do me too much harm. Mentally, it hurt though."
Leith says being told he was "ugly" with "Tic Tac teeth" by judges Kyle Sandilands and Mark Holden, after his disco bomb, was a blow to his confidence.
"I'm a pretty placid guy. I don't dwell on things, but you get to this age and you think you know yourself pretty well without anyone telling you who you are or what you should be," he says.
"To get criticism now, it's the last thing you want to hear. That week was a tough week, I felt pretty low."
On The Winner's Journey, Leith has hit the jackpot again -- he has two self-penned songs on the album, Come to Me and Sky (a song Leith says is "a little happier than my regular style") which he performed on the show's originals night.
He also performed some of the most interesting covers in Idol's history.
He auditioned with Damien Rice's The Blower's Daughter; Leith had even befriended the Irish singer/songwriter.
"He used to play at this pub called Malloys to about 30 people on singer/songwriter night. We used to go down every Thursday. Now all these years later, I'm singing his songs. It's funny how things turn around," Leith says.
He also managed to cover two songs by Radiohead -- High and Dry and their angst anthem Creep.
"When I told some of the people in the show I was going to do Creep, the initial feedback was 'Oh, gee, are you sure?' But I knew I had to do it," Leith says.
"You have to take a few risks to stay in line with the style you like, so people know what you're into."
The next challenge for Leith is making his first album sound the way he wants, while remembering what the public want.
"I think my age is helping me deal with everything that's going on," Leith says.
"I have quite a lot of life experience of speaking my mind, getting my ideas across. I think it's important to do something I want to do and not just go with the flow."
L EITH was due to meet Sony BMG this week to discuss how much input he's going to have on his own album. It's the battle all Idols have over their first album, but Leith has the luxury of time.
He's already handed over his latest batch of songs to Ross Fraser, the A&R man who'll steer his album.
"I hope they make the grade," Leith says. "The feedback I'm getting is there's going to be a lot of focus towards what I've done, from an original point of view.
"I will be able to have more of a say over how I'd like the songs to sound, even if they are other people's songs. For me personally, that's the only way I can get into a song."
Leith is worried about being turned into a one-man Westlife.
He's keen to keep straddling the line between commercial and interesting, like the musicians he loves -- Muse, Radiohead and Jeff Buckley.
"That's exactly where I'd like to be. All that style of music is a little left of field, but with great vocals, great mood in the songs. Fingers crossed, I can push in that direction," he says.
"I think when the show started working for me was when I started doing stuff that was really my style. Songs I really liked.
"I don't mind ballads, I love them, but I'd like to be very careful about the ones we do, give people something different. Staying true to my own style is definitely important to me, but I understand the need to be commercial as well. We'll have to try to balance it all out."
The fact he's recording his debut album at the age of 30 isn't lost on Leith.
"Maybe at 30, it's the right time," he says.
"I think back to when I was sending off demos and getting near interest and things nearly happening and some of that stuff wasn't that good. Now, well, it's a cliche, but it's a dream come true. It really is."
Night of My Life (Sony BMG) out now. The Winner's Journey out next Thursday.
Cameron Adams
November 30, 2006 12:00am
A year ago, Damien Leith was in his adopted home of Sydney with a wife, a baby on the way, a job as a chemist and his musical dreams were on hold.
Leith had got the bug for music as a teenager, when he sang in Oliver. A strange musical path followed, from a death metal band with friends to a string of family bands in Ireland.
All the while he'd record demo tapes, send them to record companies or try to get Irish record stores to sell them.
But, at 30, he decided he should stop and concentrate on the real world.
"There were definitely moments of me thinking, 'I should probably give it up'," Leith says. "I had times when I questioned spending money I didn't have on making demos, desperately trying to get the attention of A&R agents."
Then came Australian Idol. Leith entered merely to get attention that might lead to the occasional gig or interest from a local record company.
"I was hoping if I got into Idol that'd be one week of exposure," Leith says.
"I went on a week-by-week basis."
Leith not only had his dream come true by winning Idol, he had the dream Idol run.
His winner's single, Night of My Life, was radically altered to suit him. In the past, every potential winner has merely taken what they were given.
"When I heard the winner's single I thought it's a great song, but not necessarily a great song for me," Leith says.
"We spent 13 hours rearranging the song, trying to find a way to make it sound more like something I would do."
He's also been allowed to put an original song, Come to Me, on the B-side.
It's a song he recorded at his Sydney home on a Pro-Tools system.
Guy Sebastian and Anthony Callea lost hundreds of thousands in potential income by not having a self-penned song on their first post-Idol singles.
Their singles sold by the skipload and the writers of each song on the single gets an equal percentage of the profit -- after the Idol machine has taken its cut.
Leith was told weeks ago that if he won he could put an original on the B-side of his debut single.
"In my case, it was definitely right place, right time," Leith says. "The show decided to allow older contestants to enter, it couldn't have been a better year to be in Idol for me.
"Writing and performing is an important thing for me, it's really an essential thing for me, if the truth be known. To get in the show this year, there's been an awful lot of luck for me the whole way along."
Unlike the past three years, when the winners have banged out pre-prepared albums in five days to cash in on Christmas, Leith will have at least two months to work on an album.
But Christmas won't be Leith-free; finally someone in Idol HQ has realised what people want post-Idol -- an album of the songs the winner sang on the show.
The Winner's Journey, out next week, features a CD and DVD of his highlights from the program -- even his infamous disco cover of Celebration, which earned the judges' wrath.
"I don't regret it," Leith says of singing that song. "I just did what I thought was best at the time. As bad as the comments were, it was part of the whole thing and I'm still here, so hopefully it didn't do me too much harm. Mentally, it hurt though."
Leith says being told he was "ugly" with "Tic Tac teeth" by judges Kyle Sandilands and Mark Holden, after his disco bomb, was a blow to his confidence.
"I'm a pretty placid guy. I don't dwell on things, but you get to this age and you think you know yourself pretty well without anyone telling you who you are or what you should be," he says.
"To get criticism now, it's the last thing you want to hear. That week was a tough week, I felt pretty low."
On The Winner's Journey, Leith has hit the jackpot again -- he has two self-penned songs on the album, Come to Me and Sky (a song Leith says is "a little happier than my regular style") which he performed on the show's originals night.
He also performed some of the most interesting covers in Idol's history.
He auditioned with Damien Rice's The Blower's Daughter; Leith had even befriended the Irish singer/songwriter.
"He used to play at this pub called Malloys to about 30 people on singer/songwriter night. We used to go down every Thursday. Now all these years later, I'm singing his songs. It's funny how things turn around," Leith says.
He also managed to cover two songs by Radiohead -- High and Dry and their angst anthem Creep.
"When I told some of the people in the show I was going to do Creep, the initial feedback was 'Oh, gee, are you sure?' But I knew I had to do it," Leith says.
"You have to take a few risks to stay in line with the style you like, so people know what you're into."
The next challenge for Leith is making his first album sound the way he wants, while remembering what the public want.
"I think my age is helping me deal with everything that's going on," Leith says.
"I have quite a lot of life experience of speaking my mind, getting my ideas across. I think it's important to do something I want to do and not just go with the flow."
L EITH was due to meet Sony BMG this week to discuss how much input he's going to have on his own album. It's the battle all Idols have over their first album, but Leith has the luxury of time.
He's already handed over his latest batch of songs to Ross Fraser, the A&R man who'll steer his album.
"I hope they make the grade," Leith says. "The feedback I'm getting is there's going to be a lot of focus towards what I've done, from an original point of view.
"I will be able to have more of a say over how I'd like the songs to sound, even if they are other people's songs. For me personally, that's the only way I can get into a song."
Leith is worried about being turned into a one-man Westlife.
He's keen to keep straddling the line between commercial and interesting, like the musicians he loves -- Muse, Radiohead and Jeff Buckley.
"That's exactly where I'd like to be. All that style of music is a little left of field, but with great vocals, great mood in the songs. Fingers crossed, I can push in that direction," he says.
"I think when the show started working for me was when I started doing stuff that was really my style. Songs I really liked.
"I don't mind ballads, I love them, but I'd like to be very careful about the ones we do, give people something different. Staying true to my own style is definitely important to me, but I understand the need to be commercial as well. We'll have to try to balance it all out."
The fact he's recording his debut album at the age of 30 isn't lost on Leith.
"Maybe at 30, it's the right time," he says.
"I think back to when I was sending off demos and getting near interest and things nearly happening and some of that stuff wasn't that good. Now, well, it's a cliche, but it's a dream come true. It really is."
Night of My Life (Sony BMG) out now. The Winner's Journey out next Thursday.
