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Thursday, May 8, 2008
5/8: Jason Castro exit interview: “I’m a chronic yawner.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In today’s press conference, Jason Castro proved he could say full sentences and denied he was tanking on purpose.
He also said the yawning he did on camera was not an indication of ennui toward the show, that people who noticed thought it was funny. “I am a chronic yawner,” he said.
I asked him specifically if he said “Don’t vote” Tuesday night.
“I was trying to emphasize ‘Vote,’ ” by saying it twice, he said. “Nobody heard me. I sat down and was thinking about it. It had the same syllable. [Don’t and vote.] [The second time,] I consciously went and said ‘vote’ once.”
On Simon saying he forgot his words on purpose. “I did not do that on purpose. I can’t believe I forgot such a popular line [during ‘Mr. Tambourine Man.’] THat’s writtong on your soul. It somehow slipped my mind.”
Insisting he wanted to win: “I still wanted to win. I think it came down to my inexperience. Once we doubled on songs, I couldn’t focus. My mind was just split. I couldn’t deliver either [song.]” Later he added. “I was doing my best.” He said when he said he wanted out to “Entertainment Weekly” a couple weeks ago, “A lot was going on that morning. I don’t know. That kind of came across wrong. People were kind of thinking I didn’t want to be there. That was never my mindset.”
How much experience does he have: “I started playing guitar freshman year and singing soon after. I’d learn songs but never all the way through. So trying to do two was tough.” [Longest set he’s ever done: 30 minutes.]
Songs he couldn’t get cleared: As we know, he said “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley didn’t get aired because Danger Mouse nixed clearance after he had already performed it. He also almost got “Santeria” by Sublime cleared, then it wasn’t.
Why so mellow? “I’m grounded. Nothing comes as a surprise to me, but, um, I don’t know. I am like that. I’m not always so calm. I am kind of goofy. Some don’t see my hyperness. I still have fun. I am pretty relaxed about everything.”
Doing two songs: “I was losing that power. I couldn’t connect with the songs in the given time. I wasn’t committed to either one. I couldn’t fall in love with them.”
HIs speaking skills: “I’m an awkward conversationalist. I’m trying my best now! What you see is what you get. I didn’t change at all coming here.”
HIs singing and performance skills: “I’m as raw as it gets.”
On Paula’s snafu last week: “That was kind of funny. I was confused… I don’t think it affected my performance [of his second song.]”
Was he relieved by his departure: “It was my natural reaction. I felt relieved. The pressure was off. I loved my time on there. I would have liked to have gone farther.”
Watching “Idol” in past years: He vaguely remembers watching it one season in college.
On Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah” doing so well after he sang it: “I realized the power of ‘American Idol.’ It was such an honor. Cool. People hadn’t heard it. Now they have.”
What he wanted to sing next week: “Blue Eyes” by the Carey Brothers, from the “Garden State” soundtrack. (see below)
In other “Idol” news:
-DJSlim has what is a song by Jennifer Hudson called “All Dressed Up In Love.” I really like it but it sounds very ’60s, very old school, not modern at all. I have no clue where he got it from or whether it will be on her upcoming album.
-Reports are that Jordin Sparks is back to work, her voice recovered.
-Jon Peter Lewis from season three is going to be on “Good Day Atlanta” on WAGA-TV next Thursday, May 15. I can’t say he was going to be a star, but he seemed like a nice pen salesman. I’m not sure if he’s selling pens right now but that was Simon’s prediction for him.
-Q100 had Randy Jackson, Kat McPhee and Elliott Yamin on the phone this morning at the same time. McPhee said she was thinking of throwing in the towel earliy on and both said the show was extremely stressful. She felt she got worse as she went along. McPhee had Kellie Pickler at her wedding. Randy placed Kat and Elliott on his album. The trio are promoting the song “Real Love.”
-Phil Stacey’s self-titled new album opened at No. 43 with 13,000 copies sold, which is about what I would have expected. That’s comparable to Josh Gracin’s second CD, which opened a few weeks ago at 18,000. Stacey’s single “If You Didn’t Love Me” is at No. 28 on the country charts in its 15th week while Gracin’s “We Weren’t Crazy” is at No. 22 in its 29th week, according to Radio & Records. Last year, Bucky sold 61K in his first week.
-Jordin Sparks passed Taylor Hicks with 19K more sold and has 717K total. She’s now the fifth highest selling “Idol” winner, only behind Taylor. She’s now selling far more downloads—more than 3 million. Daughtry is at 4.02 million with 17K more sold. Carrie’s latest is at 2.06 mil with 14K sold while “Some Hearts” moves another 9K and is at 6.4 mil. These numbers all courtesy of Idol Chatter.
-For Clay Aiken’s “On My Way Here,” first-week sales, as projected by Hits Daily Double,, based on first-day sales is 80,000 to 85,000. That’s down from 205,000 for his last release “A Thousand Different Ways” in 2006, 270,000 for his Christmas CD in 2004 and 612,000 copies of his very first CD right after he came in second to Ruben Studdard in 2003.
And according to Georgia Claymate prez, Jenna McBride, this is what I missed Monday night at Manuel’s while I was trying to find my camera (to no avail):
*We had about 25 or so there last night. Most of the Georgia Claymates were in NYC for Clay’s last performance in Spamalot and some stayed over to attend the NYC CD Release Party and some stayed over for the CD signing today at Virgin Megastore in NYC. We had two girls who had literally just flown in for the party last night and came straight from the airport. It was an awesome party. And we especially enjoyed having my friend Jason there who came and played and sang. I think that Jason said that he knows you. His name is Jason Bowen. He is a singer/song writer for Sony/AVT or ATV (one or the other). Sony has changed so many names recently with so many different departments it’s hard to keep up.
Jason has been writing songs for Sony for about 12 years and he just happens to be friends also with Ryan Tedder, the guy who wrote the lead song on Clay’s new CD, “On My Way Here”. Of course Jason sang it for us last night and did a magnificent job. He and Ryan have co-written songs before and he sang one of them last night also. It was awesome too. And another song that he sang last night was one that he wrote that Sony has sent to Kelly Clarkson for consideration. Jason also sang a couple of other songs that Clay has recorded. Hopefully Jason will be able to write some for Clay some day and since their voices and style are somewhat similar, I would love it if he could sing backup for Clay also. Jason has toured with Barry Manilow as a backup singer.
Here are a couple of reviews for the new Clay Aiken CD:
The Daily News gave him one star.
The music Aiken’s writers matched to such hoary bromides continues the singer’s established love for the kind of power ballads that died in the mid-’80s. In this world, the band Mr. Mister still rules; Rick Springfield remains a pop player.
At least such warm-milk pop suits Aiken’s creamy tone. More than ever, he sounds like Boy George, only not so butch.
Here’s the Baltimore Sun, somewhat kinder:
As much as his record company would want him to be, Aiken isn’t a crossover pop star. He’s a male Celine Dion, a nerdier Michael Bublé, a new-millennium Barry Manilow, and there’s nothing wrong with that. The sooner he embraces that, the better his albums will sound. With “On the Way Here,” he’s not quite there.
