Access All Areas Interview
Dec 6, 2006 0:52:10 GMT 10
Post by irishrokit on Dec 6, 2006 0:52:10 GMT 10
While checking out the AAA site trying to see if the fan site is "official" I found this interview.
You've probably seen it but for those who havn't here it is:
Access All Areas.net.au: How's everything been going for you so far?
Damien Leith: Really really good, I am really in the swing of things at the moment and I've been catching on some sleep so it's great.
Access All Areas.net.au: How has the ride been for you post Idol?
Damien Leith: It's been hectic, but you know it's been fantastic, there’s been a really positive response. Even though it's been hectic, it’s been really positive and that has been fantastic which means that the adrenaline is high and it's been great to experience one thing after another and each one has been great.
Access All Areas.net.au: Congratulations on your first number one single!!! Where were you and when did you hear that you had the number one single in the country?
Damien Leith: Well I was out with my management, David Champion, and we had the Idol TV crew as well and it was sort of like a get the moment on camera so it was a Saturday night that we got word and yeah it was incredible. David built it up as if it hadn't happened yet and then I found out and it was brilliant and very surreal.
Access All Areas.net.au: Now not only did it go number one but it's automatically been certified platinum status, are you getting much time to enjoy it?
Damien Leith: I am getting enough time. Its quite busy at the moment but I've had the nights free so as far as that I am having time to catch up and think about a lot of things. It's a strange sort of thing the fact that I have a number one, it's all pretty alien for me and the whole notion that it happened but what does it mean.
Access All Areas.net.au: For the first time this year, you haven’t been rushed in to a recording studio to release your album only week's after Idol. Did you find this a refreshing relief when you found out?
Damien Leith: I did! Yeah it's great news. We actually knew for quite a while... all the Idols were told early on in the show saying for who gets through that this could happen and it is a very exciting way of doing it. There’s potential to have your own stuff for one thing and the other is it gives such a lot more freedom to get more involved in the songs and to get your own vibe on songs. That's what every musician would want.
Access All Areas.net.au: Will this give you a more creative roll on the album and where do you envisage taking this album?
Damien Leith: Well we're hoping to do as much of my own stuff as possible or at least for me to be involved in the songs as much as possible. I want to be able to sit with what ever number of songs we have and love the songs and know that they all mean something to me and that I have had major involvement with the songs. It’s looking good to have a few original songs on there but as long as I can walk away and love the songs that would be a great thing.
Access All Areas.net.au: You're a songwriter in your own right, can we expect to see some of your own tracks on the album?
Damien Leith: Yeah, definitely. So far to have 'Come To Be Me' as the b side to this single was a really cool thing for me anyway. But it's looking positive to having quite few of my own songs on the album so fingers crossed but I'm not going to get my hopes too high but it's all about the original songs but what I think might be good might not be very good to someone else but I am very hope full.
Access All Areas.net.au: Last week you sat down with SonyBMG to talk about your career path from Idol, what came out of that meeting and what is the plan of attack for you now?
Damien Leith: Definitely the main focus right now is on that album, it's top priority as far as making something brilliant because we have got the time but that adds a bit more pressure as well with the whole question being you've had more time so what have you come up with? After that point there's a tour for next year as well and we'll aim for a second album. There's lots of other smaller projects as well so we're just going to play it all by ear really and testing the water at the moment to see how each thing works. Everything's different this year, we've never done the souvenir package before so we're just waiting to see how everything goes.
Access All Areas.net.au: Are there any touring plans on the cards over the coming months?
Damien Leith: Definitely for me personally gigging is the most important thing really. I've always gigged and always will and I think it's an essential thing for me and for Sony and David Champion knows how important it is. It's important to let fans know what they've voted for and the show was one side of it and gigging is another and it is incredible and it's the only time to get out there and chat to the audience.
Access All Areas.net.au: It struck me as quite amazing having read your bio that you've already had a large amount of success musically having been signed to a US label and having Irish chart hits, what happened?
Damien Leith: Everything didn't really work in the past, they were all maybes and nothing was all the way really. We all just got courted with various different things rather than getting signed, we got close but not close enough and I think in lots of ways we were too young probably and that the element back then was a big focus on the original side of things and this was going back eight or nine years ago. What I was writing then to now is totally different and a lot of the stuff back then that I was writing was for my sister so I was writing songs for a female and I suppose sometimes I wasn't capturing all the right emotions. There were little things there that led to something but none of it was necessarily going to work.
Interview by Marc Mancini
You've probably seen it but for those who havn't here it is:
Access All Areas.net.au: How's everything been going for you so far?
Damien Leith: Really really good, I am really in the swing of things at the moment and I've been catching on some sleep so it's great.
Access All Areas.net.au: How has the ride been for you post Idol?
Damien Leith: It's been hectic, but you know it's been fantastic, there’s been a really positive response. Even though it's been hectic, it’s been really positive and that has been fantastic which means that the adrenaline is high and it's been great to experience one thing after another and each one has been great.
Access All Areas.net.au: Congratulations on your first number one single!!! Where were you and when did you hear that you had the number one single in the country?
Damien Leith: Well I was out with my management, David Champion, and we had the Idol TV crew as well and it was sort of like a get the moment on camera so it was a Saturday night that we got word and yeah it was incredible. David built it up as if it hadn't happened yet and then I found out and it was brilliant and very surreal.
Access All Areas.net.au: Now not only did it go number one but it's automatically been certified platinum status, are you getting much time to enjoy it?
Damien Leith: I am getting enough time. Its quite busy at the moment but I've had the nights free so as far as that I am having time to catch up and think about a lot of things. It's a strange sort of thing the fact that I have a number one, it's all pretty alien for me and the whole notion that it happened but what does it mean.
Access All Areas.net.au: For the first time this year, you haven’t been rushed in to a recording studio to release your album only week's after Idol. Did you find this a refreshing relief when you found out?
Damien Leith: I did! Yeah it's great news. We actually knew for quite a while... all the Idols were told early on in the show saying for who gets through that this could happen and it is a very exciting way of doing it. There’s potential to have your own stuff for one thing and the other is it gives such a lot more freedom to get more involved in the songs and to get your own vibe on songs. That's what every musician would want.
Access All Areas.net.au: Will this give you a more creative roll on the album and where do you envisage taking this album?
Damien Leith: Well we're hoping to do as much of my own stuff as possible or at least for me to be involved in the songs as much as possible. I want to be able to sit with what ever number of songs we have and love the songs and know that they all mean something to me and that I have had major involvement with the songs. It’s looking good to have a few original songs on there but as long as I can walk away and love the songs that would be a great thing.
Access All Areas.net.au: You're a songwriter in your own right, can we expect to see some of your own tracks on the album?
Damien Leith: Yeah, definitely. So far to have 'Come To Be Me' as the b side to this single was a really cool thing for me anyway. But it's looking positive to having quite few of my own songs on the album so fingers crossed but I'm not going to get my hopes too high but it's all about the original songs but what I think might be good might not be very good to someone else but I am very hope full.
Access All Areas.net.au: Last week you sat down with SonyBMG to talk about your career path from Idol, what came out of that meeting and what is the plan of attack for you now?
Damien Leith: Definitely the main focus right now is on that album, it's top priority as far as making something brilliant because we have got the time but that adds a bit more pressure as well with the whole question being you've had more time so what have you come up with? After that point there's a tour for next year as well and we'll aim for a second album. There's lots of other smaller projects as well so we're just going to play it all by ear really and testing the water at the moment to see how each thing works. Everything's different this year, we've never done the souvenir package before so we're just waiting to see how everything goes.
Access All Areas.net.au: Are there any touring plans on the cards over the coming months?
Damien Leith: Definitely for me personally gigging is the most important thing really. I've always gigged and always will and I think it's an essential thing for me and for Sony and David Champion knows how important it is. It's important to let fans know what they've voted for and the show was one side of it and gigging is another and it is incredible and it's the only time to get out there and chat to the audience.
Access All Areas.net.au: It struck me as quite amazing having read your bio that you've already had a large amount of success musically having been signed to a US label and having Irish chart hits, what happened?
Damien Leith: Everything didn't really work in the past, they were all maybes and nothing was all the way really. We all just got courted with various different things rather than getting signed, we got close but not close enough and I think in lots of ways we were too young probably and that the element back then was a big focus on the original side of things and this was going back eight or nine years ago. What I was writing then to now is totally different and a lot of the stuff back then that I was writing was for my sister so I was writing songs for a female and I suppose sometimes I wasn't capturing all the right emotions. There were little things there that led to something but none of it was necessarily going to work.
Interview by Marc Mancini
