WEBVTT - Adam Lambert 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:05.080 Welcome to Inside the Studio presented by I Heart Radio. 0:00:05.559 --> 0:00:16.239 I'm your host Joe Leading, Fire up the Pyro, turned 0:00:16.280 --> 0:00:19.800 the amps up to eleven, and don't skimp on the glitter. 0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:23.680 My guest this episode is Adam Lambert, a man who 0:00:23.760 --> 0:00:26.880 seems to have been born wearing fingerless leather gloves and 0:00:26.960 --> 0:00:31.840 platform shoes. Were certainly born to wear such things. We 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:33.800 talked about the four years it took him to make 0:00:33.880 --> 0:00:37.080 his new album Velvet, about what it would take to 0:00:37.159 --> 0:00:41.120 bring him to Broadway, and about his experience opening the 0:00:41.680 --> 0:00:45.319 nineteen Oscars singing we Will Rock You and We Are 0:00:45.320 --> 0:00:51.360 the Champions with Queen Now. A few performers appear to 0:00:51.440 --> 0:00:54.640 have been quite as preordained to be a rock star 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:58.520 as Adam Lambert, whose origin story is equal parts Jim 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:03.800 Morrison in the Desert in a CinemaScope movie musical. It's 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:07.640 the sort of collision of accident, preparation and lifelong dream 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:10.120 that feels like it was cooked up in a writer's 0:01:10.240 --> 0:01:23.640 room rather than being something real. But it was sometime 0:01:23.760 --> 0:01:26.840 around two thousand and eight Lambert, who had started out 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:29.800 singing on cruise ships at age nineteen and had worked 0:01:29.840 --> 0:01:32.400 hard to land a spot in a Los Angeles production 0:01:32.440 --> 0:01:36.240 of the Broadway musical Wicked was in the Nevada Desert. 0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:40.160 He was there for the party slash Pagan throw down, 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:43.800 Burning Man, and he was tripping on mushrooms. He looked 0:01:43.840 --> 0:01:47.240 up at the sky and had a psychedelic epiphany. I 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:49.760 realized that we all have our own power, and that 0:01:49.800 --> 0:01:52.480 whatever I wanted to do, I had to make it happen, 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:55.360 he later said. And what he wanted to do was 0:01:55.440 --> 0:01:58.360 stop being a chorus boy and try out for American Idol. 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:02.560 So he auditioned for American Idol's eighth season, singing Queen's 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:06.240 Bohemian Rhapsody and nailing the drama and high notes well 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:08.720 enough that he didn't just make the show, but people 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:12.760 started sending Queen guitarist Brian May the video of Adam's 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:17.760 audition because this just might be the singer you're looking for. 0:02:18.480 --> 0:02:21.560 Flash forward eighteen weeks and there's Adams singing We Are 0:02:21.600 --> 0:02:25.720 the Champions alongside Queen themselves in the American Idol finale. 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:29.280 Flashed forward a few more years from there, and Adam's 0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:32.400 second album, Trespassing, has made him the first out and 0:02:32.440 --> 0:02:35.240 proud man to top the Billboard Album charts, and he's 0:02:35.280 --> 0:02:39.680 on tour with Queen as their front man. Adam and 0:02:39.760 --> 0:02:43.519 I spoke after his EP, Velvet Side A came out 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:47.440 last year, and it's now been expanded into a full album. 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:50.280 In a couple of ways, this is music about liberation. 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:53.600 It's Lambert's first release on an independent label, and he 0:02:53.680 --> 0:02:56.080 oversaw the A and R in production, so it's his 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:59.120 first time calling all the shots himself. But in some 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:04.080 ways lamb Its whole career revolves around liberation. In two 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:07.720 thousand and nine, shortly after he finished Idle Is runner 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:10.280 up to Chris Allen, Lambert was on the cover of 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:14.600 Rolling Stone. He took the opportunity to make clear something 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:17.440 that he'd never really kept a secret, but he also 0:03:17.560 --> 0:03:21.799 hadn't talked about directly during the competition. I don't think 0:03:21.800 --> 0:03:24.079 it should come as a surprise for anyone to hear 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:27.639 that I'm gay, he explained. He also told Rolling Stone 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:30.440 that he had performed the Sam Cook song A Change 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:33.120 is Going to Come on IDOL with the fight for 0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:39.040 marriage equality in mind. Lambert's second album, Trespassing, found him 0:03:39.080 --> 0:03:42.360 still singing about freedom. It finished with a song called 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:46.520 Outlaws of Love about that same fight for marriage equality. 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:49.040 At the time of his third album, The Original High, 0:03:49.040 --> 0:03:54.240 and he was celebrating a different sort of freedom. This 0:03:54.400 --> 0:03:57.000 was his first album since he left the management company 0:03:57.000 --> 0:04:01.040 and record label he'd been with since Idol Now. Liberation 0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:03.760 is a core value of rock and roll from the 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:06.640 start in the nineteen fifties, when the music was about 0:04:06.800 --> 0:04:10.640 freeing the body and letting the mind follow. One of 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:13.040 the things about rock stars has always been that they 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:16.800 live free. They move, sing, dress and act in a 0:04:16.800 --> 0:04:18.880 way that most of us just can't in our day 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:21.240 to day lives. And you only have to take one 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:24.200 look at Little Richard or Elvis, or Mick Jagger or 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:28.360 Lady Gaga to know that Adam Lambert has always been 0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:32.240 really good at embodying this core value. From his eyeliner 0:04:32.640 --> 0:04:38.960 to his studded boots, he lives and performs free. So 0:04:39.000 --> 0:04:41.960 I was interested by the songs on Velvet Side A 0:04:42.160 --> 0:04:44.800 that we're about a kind of struggle for freedom, like 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:48.279 the Stranger You Are, where Lambert sings about feeling the 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:50.880 more different you are, the more they try to keep 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:54.599 you locked in the dark. When I first heard that, 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:57.560 I thought he gets to be whoever he wants. He's 0:04:57.680 --> 0:05:01.440 Adam Lambert, He's already fought this bad but even so 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:04.279 he still had to struggle to find a way to 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:06.800 make the music he wanted. Some of this is like 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:09.520 me having to affirm it to myself. I went to 0:05:09.520 --> 0:05:13.360 a couple of different writing sessions with great, great talented people, 0:05:14.080 --> 0:05:15.839 where what we ended up with at the end was 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:18.640 something that sounded just sort of like everybody else's song. 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:20.800 Right now, I would like walk away from that lessen 0:05:20.839 --> 0:05:22.640 be like, how have I so easily lead? Why did 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:24.960 I just fall into that? And that's how, you know, 0:05:25.040 --> 0:05:26.320 has to do with a lot of just trying to 0:05:26.320 --> 0:05:29.599 be a good team player. But it's so easy to 0:05:29.680 --> 0:05:31.840 fall into the same thing that everybody else is doing, 0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:34.480 and it takes a little bit of extra work and 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:37.480 discipline and sort of clarity in order to fight against 0:05:37.480 --> 0:05:40.360 that and do your own thing. The fight to do 0:05:40.440 --> 0:05:44.680 your own thing. After ten years, Adam Lambert wanted to 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:48.920 make his own music, his own way, something more geared 0:05:49.000 --> 0:05:52.640 to a funk strut than a pop bounce. He was 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:56.920 a little tired of the Top forty Carnival. It's important 0:05:56.960 --> 0:06:00.360 to remember just how central and how good it he 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:04.839 was at that carnival. His first album four year Entertainment 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:07.360 in two thousand and nine drew on what was happening 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:10.240 right then in pop music, but it also drew a 0:06:10.400 --> 0:06:14.040 blueprint for much of the next decade. It's packed with 0:06:14.080 --> 0:06:17.800 producers whose impact was already clear, like Max Martin and 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:21.400 Dr Luke, but it also features producers whose impact was 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:26.120 just then unfolding, like Ryan Tedter and Jeff Basker. The 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:29.800 co writers include pop prose like Linda Perry, but also 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:35.240 Pink and Lady Gaga and Rivers Cuomo from Weezer. And 0:06:35.279 --> 0:06:37.920 this is five or six years before all rock got 0:06:38.000 --> 0:06:42.080 sucked into the pop mainstream, with Caroline Policheck from Chairlift 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:44.640 getting a co write on a Beyonce track, and rost 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:47.640 Him from Vampire Weekend producing and writing with Carly ray 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:54.279 Jepson on Lambert's second album, Trespassing In. He takes a 0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:56.800 bigger hand in the songwriting, co writing eight of the 0:06:56.800 --> 0:07:01.240 twelve tracks, but things are no less major league. The 0:07:01.320 --> 0:07:05.760 producers include Dr Luke again, along with Pharrell Williams and 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:12.320 Bruno Mars's crew, The Smeezington's the original High and finds 0:07:12.400 --> 0:07:15.520 Lambert working in Sweden for the whole album with Max 0:07:15.560 --> 0:07:19.120 Martin Who's then riding high with huge hits for Taylor 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:22.720 Swift in the Weekend. And this is probably Lambert's most 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:26.400 coherent album from start to finish. But I see it's 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:30.000 plain to me it presented its own set of challenges, 0:07:31.000 --> 0:07:33.720 and I don't just mean spending two months in Sweden 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:35.960 during the dead of winter when it can be dark 0:07:36.040 --> 0:07:40.800 for almost eighteen hours a day. So when he made Velvet, 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:44.200 he wanted to step outside the whole race to the 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:47.240 top ermost of the poppermost, as the Beatles used to 0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:50.920 put it. He wanted to make something a little more organic, 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:54.640 which is why last year's EP was called Velvet Side A. 0:07:55.360 --> 0:07:58.160 There's that sense of throwing back to the old school 0:07:58.200 --> 0:08:02.080 way of recording albums in the digital vinyl era, a 0:08:02.120 --> 0:08:06.120 bunch of people sitting in a room writing songs and 0:08:06.160 --> 0:08:10.120 playing them. It wasn't just a matter of deciding that 0:08:10.240 --> 0:08:13.040 and going into the studio. He had to unlearn a 0:08:13.040 --> 0:08:15.960 lot of the lessons of the previous ten years and 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:19.840 free himself of expectations. He talked with me about how 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:23.080 he did it and about where he drew his inspirations from, 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:26.120 and also about the song he Rode in a Castle 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:28.400 in the South of France, which turned out to be 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:33.000 a lot less glamorous than it sounds. Here's what else 0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:44.360 he had to say at Lambert Welcome to inside the studio. 0:08:44.480 --> 0:08:50.640 Thank you so velvet velvet side a. Let's get right 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:56.079 into it. Two questions. Why velvet? Why side a? Velvet? Um? 0:08:56.120 --> 0:09:00.880 I mean it's a feeling, it's soft, smooth, it's vintage classic. 0:09:01.720 --> 0:09:05.359 It made me think of fabulous suits from the seventies. 0:09:05.360 --> 0:09:08.640 It made me think of a curtain to a stage, 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:12.200 made me think of Velvet gold Mine, which is my 0:09:12.240 --> 0:09:15.720 favorite film, and also The Velvet Rage, which is an 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:18.600 incredible book. It means a lot of different things, I guess. 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:20.840 Let's dig into two of the things you just mentioned. 0:09:21.000 --> 0:09:24.320 First is Velvet gold Mine, which, for those who don't know, 0:09:24.600 --> 0:09:29.079 is a film directed by Todd Haynes. Yes, you are 0:09:29.120 --> 0:09:33.480 like a walking wiki. I love it. I am a 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:37.800 walking wiki. And this is Todd Haynes. Of course, went 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:42.600 on to direct Far from Heaven Carol, and also that 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:47.440 Bob Dylan movie that is loosely based on the legends 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:50.320 of Bob Dylan. I'm not there, but Velvet gold Mine 0:09:50.360 --> 0:09:53.600 was his glam rock movie. God, it's so pretty. It's 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:56.800 so fun to watch just visually nuts and all the 0:09:56.840 --> 0:09:59.920 actors in it are like bananas. They're all amazing actors. 0:10:00.120 --> 0:10:03.720 Jonathan Rees Meyers and you and McGregor in parts loosely 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:07.520 based on Bowie and Iggy Am I remembering, that's that's 0:10:07.520 --> 0:10:10.840 what it looks like. Yeah, Um, what was it like 0:10:10.880 --> 0:10:12.959 when you saw that? Um? I saw it a couple 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:14.160 of I don't think I saw it right when it 0:10:14.200 --> 0:10:15.760 came out. I saw it a few years later, and 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:19.440 I think I was in my early twenties living in 0:10:19.600 --> 0:10:23.120 l A and really kind of in this moment of 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:25.360 falling in love with classic rock in a way that 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:27.760 I hadn't before. Um. You know, it was like around 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:29.080 the house and I was growing up. But then I 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:32.480 like really dove into it on my own, you know, 0:10:32.559 --> 0:10:35.520 with with the help of the Internet and like really discovering. 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:38.040 Did you have the feeling that glam rock was kind 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:41.199 of an almost buried history, that that that we knew 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:43.559 some of the music but didn't know everything. Yeah, it's 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:45.440 like very of the time. Yeah, it was like a 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:49.439 moment um and I think I think it resonated with 0:10:49.480 --> 0:10:52.040 me just because everybody was so dressed up and I love, 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:54.360 you know. They we had bands in the eighties that 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:56.840 were really you know, they've tarted up, as they like 0:10:56.920 --> 0:10:59.760 to say. But I was never really that into hair metal. 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:03.000 I was. I think the seventies stuff is just more 0:11:03.080 --> 0:11:06.680 me um and Yeah, I don't know. I think I 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:08.679 was just drawn to it visually first and then kind 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:10.800 of fell in love with the sound of it. Yeah, 0:11:11.000 --> 0:11:13.280 Like it just felt like a fit. I like the 0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:16.959 camp nature of it. I like the theatricality. It felt 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:20.800 like something that, like, I don't know, resonated with me. 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:23.640 It's so interesting that you brought up hair metal, which 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:28.439 is derived musically stylistically from glam rock. No glam rock, 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:32.320 you don't really get what happens in the hair metal days, 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:37.960 but the music and certainly the personas are you not 0:11:38.400 --> 0:11:42.199 as gender fluid as glam rock was? Right, I mean 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:46.960 it sort of takes the look without necessarily the politics 0:11:47.000 --> 0:11:49.560 of it. Yeah, I feel you're totally right. Like, if 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:51.240 you look at most of those eighties bands, like, yeah, 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:54.600 they were dressed like Sunset Bulevard hookers, but they were 0:11:55.320 --> 0:11:57.720 sort of all like, weren't they kind of all like 0:11:58.040 --> 0:12:01.400 womanizers basically? I mean probably that was sort of like 0:12:01.440 --> 0:12:03.079 what they were hinting at it was that frat boy 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:05.360 kind of mentality. I think it was more than a hint. 0:12:05.440 --> 0:12:07.560 Yeah yeah, um, but yeah, you're right, Like in the 0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:09.520 seventies you had artists that were sort of like easy 0:12:09.600 --> 0:12:11.800 or isn't he you know? You had Bowie for example, 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:16.119 who like famously was sort of like quote unquote bisexual. 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:18.040 I don't know if he ever really actually said the word. 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:22.280 I think he did. Um. And that was like trailblazing 0:12:22.320 --> 0:12:25.480 at the time. And then you also mentioned The Velvet Rage. 0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:29.160 It's a book by a Los Angeles therapist. Do I 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:32.440 have that right? Yeah. It's like a focus group study 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:34.719 of a group of men. It's an older book, so 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:38.160 it's it's slightly you know, slightly out of date now 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:41.280 if you read it today, but some of the psychological 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:44.320 ideas and it, you know, are timeless. I think it 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:47.720 breaks down why gay men are the way they are, um, 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:50.080 sort of the patterns, the types. And I read it 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:51.600 when I was young, and I was sort of like 0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:54.680 just coming into my own in l A. And it's 0:12:54.679 --> 0:12:56.920 sort of like filled in a lot of my question marks. 0:12:57.520 --> 0:13:01.520 And I think with gay culture, especially twenty years ago, 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:04.599 we had lost so many of our elders with the 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:07.559 AIDS crisis in the eighties, so the gay community didn't 0:13:07.559 --> 0:13:12.040 have a lot of like wisdom left. We had lost 0:13:12.080 --> 0:13:14.880 a lot of our wise ones. And the rage in question, 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:19.480 if I remember this right, is about internalizing lessons from 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:22.040 the world around you that who you are, what you're 0:13:22.080 --> 0:13:25.080 feeling isn't acceptable. I think the tagline is growing up 0:13:25.120 --> 0:13:27.720 gain a straight man's world, So it's it's yeah, it's 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:31.360 about just being different and how that affects people. Sort 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:34.359 of the common effects of it. People that are overachievers, 0:13:34.400 --> 0:13:37.280 people that are um you know, that have a Peter 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:39.760 Pan complex, people that have daddy issues, people like it's 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:43.840 these kind of quintessential therapy issues. Because you had mentioned 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:47.520 this book previously in reference to Velvet Side A and 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:49.920 we should be clear Side B is coming. It's coming. 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:53.800 And then I was listening to the EP and that 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:58.840 first song Superpower, where you're saying, try to put me 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:01.760 in a box, make me some thing I'm not there's 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:11.800 something missing on piston. I got something to say. Oh yeah, allllo, witch, 0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:18.479 just send the thing. It's better get on my way 0:14:20.520 --> 0:14:30.040 back up. When all the pain from the law put 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:34.480 me in box, miss something I'm not, don't give a 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:42.000 I'm take back. And I thought, well, first off, who 0:14:42.040 --> 0:14:45.720 puts Adam Lambert in a box? At this point? Who 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:50.240 who dares? Yeah? But is some of that older feelings 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:52.560 or is that lyric referring to things that you've been 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:55.640 going through recently. I think it's kind of always going 0:14:55.720 --> 0:14:58.560 to be around. It's always sort of there, just being 0:14:58.600 --> 0:15:01.480 at somebody that's different, that's daring to be different. You're 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:04.920 always going to encounter opposition of that. You're always gonna 0:15:04.960 --> 0:15:06.960 encounter people that don't get it, that are scared of it. 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:08.640 And also, you know, yes, I wrote it from a 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:11.600 first person and I and it is about my experience, 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:13.720 but I also really intended it to be something that 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:16.760 could be an anthem for a lot of different people, 0:15:17.200 --> 0:15:20.720 because I think everyone's had that moment where somebody's told 0:15:20.720 --> 0:15:22.280 them what they can or can't do, or what they 0:15:22.280 --> 0:15:25.600 should be or shouldn't be. And yeah, it's frustrating. And 0:15:25.640 --> 0:15:28.000 the superpower in question, of course, he's drawing really on 0:15:28.040 --> 0:15:32.640 your own strength, right, Yeah, exactly like my superpower is 0:15:32.680 --> 0:15:34.760 staring to be exactly who I want to be. That's, 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:38.440 you know, my superhuman thing that I can draw upon 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:41.600 and it's it's it's not ever present. Sometimes it gets 0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:45.240 snuffed out, sometimes it gets overshadowed by other things. But 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:47.400 you gotta keep fighting the good fight. I think two 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:52.320 points your first, that maybe your superpower, but also you 0:15:52.360 --> 0:15:56.200 can sing like a motherfucker. Well that's in the song too. 0:15:56.200 --> 0:16:02.120 It's there's some there's some wailing in second. You just said. 0:16:02.360 --> 0:16:05.720 Not always there. Sometimes it gets snuffed out people, you know, 0:16:06.040 --> 0:16:10.040 sometimes it's a struggle. Yeah, when recently, can you think 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:11.640 of a time when well, I mean right when I 0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:13.480 was starting the process on this album and I was 0:16:13.480 --> 0:16:16.720 starting writing it, I had just finished touring my my 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:18.960 last album, the Original High. I had also done some 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:21.280 touring with Queen, and I was just a bit fried. 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:25.280 I got home and I was like, who, so this 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:28.720 takes us about or so yeah, and I was just 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:32.000 like wiped out, and I felt like a little disillusionment 0:16:32.040 --> 0:16:34.440 within the industry. Um, you know, I love music, I 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:37.280 love performing, I love that interaction with fans. All that 0:16:37.320 --> 0:16:40.040 stuff is the good stuff. But the business side of 0:16:40.080 --> 0:16:43.080 it can get toxic and it can get draining, and 0:16:43.120 --> 0:16:46.560 it can make you just sort of feel inadequate or 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:48.720 affect your confidence and I think I was at a 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:51.680 point where it had I felt like, oh my gosh, 0:16:51.680 --> 0:16:54.600 am I getting enough return on my investment? Because I'm 0:16:54.640 --> 0:16:56.840 working real hard and I don't know if I'm seeing 0:16:56.880 --> 0:16:59.400 the results that are making me feel content. So i'd 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:03.680 really kind of sit down and like journal and talk 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:06.160 to friends and kind of get back down to like, Okay, 0:17:06.160 --> 0:17:07.919 why do I do this? What is the real reason? 0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:10.760 Is that a good enough reason? How do I insulate 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:14.720 my creativity so that I feel like that's a little 0:17:14.720 --> 0:17:18.000 more sacred and that's something that's mine. And there's a 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:21.040 handful of different ways where I had to things that 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:23.920 I did to sort of make that happen at that point. 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:26.520 And I think it's important that we stop here for 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:29.120 a second and just linger on this. This wasn't a 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:32.679 moment when you've been brought down to your lowest. Necessarily 0:17:32.960 --> 0:17:36.560 you had just been touring with Queen. You've got to 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:41.320 be a certain dream come true element to that. If 0:17:41.359 --> 0:17:45.080 we go back and look ten plus years ago, you're 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:49.159 auditioning for American Idol singing Bohemian lacity. Now you're on 0:17:49.320 --> 0:17:53.960 stage right and these are big crowds, and still you're 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:57.640 coming away from that thinking, am I getting what I want? 0:17:57.680 --> 0:17:59.720 Am I getting what I need? I think that was 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:02.520 selected more in my my solo stuff that was sort 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:05.840 of where that feeling was being generated from. And I 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:08.800 think in a perfect world, in my fantasy is like 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:12.040 having a balance between the two is actually really great. 0:18:12.480 --> 0:18:14.480 I like being able to do both and feeling a 0:18:14.520 --> 0:18:18.399 sense of accomplishment from both. And they're very different. With Queen, obviously, 0:18:18.520 --> 0:18:21.720 you have these hits that are iconic, audiences all around 0:18:21.720 --> 0:18:24.320 the world are like singing along with us. It's like 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:26.120 I'm getting to be on stage with legends. I mean, 0:18:26.119 --> 0:18:28.879 it's a big honor, it's a big thrill. But the 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:31.439 sense of ownership is different. You know, I didn't create 0:18:31.480 --> 0:18:34.080 that music. I didn't originate that music, and so I 0:18:34.080 --> 0:18:37.040 always feel like I'm I'm being more of service when 0:18:37.080 --> 0:18:39.440 I'm with Queen. I'm I'm a catalyst to let Brian 0:18:39.440 --> 0:18:41.960 and Roger do their shows. I'm there to help the 0:18:41.960 --> 0:18:45.159 audience celebrate Freddie Mercury, and it is a great gig 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:47.960 for that. But with my stuff, if it's satisfies a 0:18:48.000 --> 0:18:50.280 different part of my artistry. You know, these are songs 0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:52.119 that I've created that I put out that have my 0:18:52.200 --> 0:18:54.520 name on them. So let's dig into that side for 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:56.880 a little bit. You're saying you're coming off the original high. 0:18:56.880 --> 0:18:59.000 This was a record. You'd gone from our c A 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:02.880 to Warner Brothers, You'd gone to Stockholm to work with 0:19:02.960 --> 0:19:05.240 Max Martin and his crew. Yeah, and that there was 0:19:05.280 --> 0:19:07.359 a group called the Wolf Cousins, which is like a 0:19:07.400 --> 0:19:10.480 writer's collective, and they were great. I spent like two 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:14.240 months there the dead of winter. It's nice and cold. 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:17.280 I've spent a lot of time in Sweden and you 0:19:17.320 --> 0:19:20.359 went at the wrong time of year, I think so. Uh. 0:19:20.720 --> 0:19:23.199 And and for those who don't know, when you go 0:19:23.240 --> 0:19:25.400 to Sweden and the dead of winter, you could get 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:28.320 up at nine ten o'clock in the morning and it's 0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:32.280 pitch black and the sun comes up and then it 0:19:32.359 --> 0:19:35.960 sets it three. Yeah, it's weird. Yeah, I had to 0:19:36.000 --> 0:19:39.159 take those vitamin D pills, you know. But one thing 0:19:39.200 --> 0:19:43.200 that's really interesting about working with this crew is there's 0:19:43.240 --> 0:19:47.240 something right about that match because these are people who 0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:50.280 like they're interested in pop, they're interested in dance, but 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:53.520 they're also really interested and capable when it comes to 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:57.760 guitar rock and roll. Yeah, so it should be a 0:19:57.800 --> 0:20:03.000 good catalyst good collection of songwriters and interests for you, 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:05.680 and it produced a strong record. Yeah. I mean I'm 0:20:05.720 --> 0:20:09.320 a huge fan of that whole group. Um, Max is 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:13.280 he's genius, you know, He's an amazing hit writer, and 0:20:13.320 --> 0:20:15.800 they're so good and they're so polished, and they have 0:20:15.960 --> 0:20:18.960 they have it sort of dialed into almost like a science, 0:20:19.000 --> 0:20:22.960 like they really know what works. They know it sounds great. Um, 0:20:23.040 --> 0:20:24.960 And so being a part of that was was great. 0:20:25.000 --> 0:20:26.879 Like I felt like, Okay, I'm in really good hands. 0:20:26.920 --> 0:20:28.399 They know what they're doing. They know how to craft 0:20:28.440 --> 0:20:31.680 great pop records. And was it a different process going 0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:35.560 there and working with this collective than albums passed? Yeah, 0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:37.119 it was a bit different. I mean I think that 0:20:37.119 --> 0:20:39.119 the original I had a little more of a cohesion 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:41.800 to it because I was working with all of their people, 0:20:42.480 --> 0:20:45.199 you know, Max executive produced it, so sort of like 0:20:45.280 --> 0:20:49.000 he had his crew all over it. And I love 0:20:49.080 --> 0:20:51.360 those songs. They were really good, but I wasn't as 0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:54.359 involved in the process. I wrote with them for two months, 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:56.399 but to be honest with you, the majority of the 0:20:56.440 --> 0:20:59.720 songs sort of started as other people's songs. You know. 0:20:59.720 --> 0:21:01.320 I'm have added a couple of things here and there, 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:04.440 but I was less in the driver's seat on that, 0:21:04.920 --> 0:21:07.040 and I was really happy to get in the passenger 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:09.240 seat with all these amazing guys because I know what 0:21:09.280 --> 0:21:12.440 they do. But again, that's sort of like an exercise 0:21:12.520 --> 0:21:17.199 in trying to be a competitor in the business. It 0:21:17.280 --> 0:21:19.440 felt like a business move to me. It felt like 0:21:19.560 --> 0:21:23.080 I was playing the game and I'm and I'm like, Okay, cool, 0:21:23.160 --> 0:21:24.720 let's play the game. Let's do it. You know, I 0:21:24.800 --> 0:21:27.720 get it. That's top forty. But yeah, at the end 0:21:27.760 --> 0:21:30.439 of it, I've there was a sense of Okay, I 0:21:30.480 --> 0:21:32.239 did that. I played the game. I worked with like 0:21:32.359 --> 0:21:35.520 the best of the best in pop and ghost Town 0:21:35.560 --> 0:21:37.320 turned into a hit, which was awesome. I was really 0:21:37.320 --> 0:21:40.120 excited about that. I love that song. Um and then 0:21:40.200 --> 0:21:42.640 it was like then it kind of tapered off, So 0:21:42.680 --> 0:21:45.359 I was like, okay, And when I got down to like, 0:21:45.760 --> 0:21:48.240 what do I want to do next, I thought to myself, Okay, 0:21:48.720 --> 0:21:51.000 no shade to them, because that was a great experience. 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:53.159 I loved working with them. They were really sweet too. 0:21:53.320 --> 0:21:55.360 But I want to just do something different. I want 0:21:55.359 --> 0:21:57.359 to go Not only do I want to create different 0:21:57.400 --> 0:21:59.320 sounding music than I've created, but I want to go 0:21:59.359 --> 0:22:02.639 about it diff Really, I don't need to go to 0:22:03.080 --> 0:22:04.560 the best of the best of the best because of 0:22:04.600 --> 0:22:06.960 the name check value. I want to I want to 0:22:07.000 --> 0:22:09.400 start more like grassroots approach on this one. I want 0:22:09.400 --> 0:22:12.440 to like sit in a studio with musicians who play 0:22:12.520 --> 0:22:15.719 instruments and songwriters that I've met and just do this 0:22:15.760 --> 0:22:18.399 sort of my way and kind of start slowly and 0:22:18.720 --> 0:22:22.199 not rush and not be answering to a room like 0:22:22.240 --> 0:22:24.439