EW: How much beat-boxing can we expect?
BLAKE LEWIS: It'll have a hip-hop overtone.... Beat-boxing will be throughout the whole album, as kind of a journey. When you start the album and you finish it, it'll be like an electronic or hip-hop mixtape. I call it my Michael Jackson Bad album, in the sense that every track on that album is pop music but every single track is totally different than the next. He has his ''Dirty Diana'' and then he has his ''Smooth Criminal,'' you know. The album's organic, but very mechanic at the same time — that's where the Audio Day Dream comes in.
EW: Any response or feedback so far from the label?
BLAKE LEWIS: Every single idea that I have for this project, the company is in love with. I'm also making a documentary. We've been filming every single time I'm in the studio. We're making a DVD that should be released with the album as well — kind of a journey through American Idol to the making of this album. It's going to be great for the fans to pick up a copy of this album and see what I've been doing for such a long time.
EW: Are you writing with your pal and fellow Idol finalist Chris Richardson?
BLAKE LEWIS: Me and Chris Rich actually wrote this song, and in the studio it was just magic. It was probably one of the most magical days in the studio, where I recorded some guitar in Canada with Tim, our guitarist from the tour. I flew that night to L.A., woke up, got some talk-box on the track, and it's just banging.
EW: Is Chris getting a co-writing credit on that?
BLAKE LEWIS: Yeah, he's a brilliant songwriter. He might have a couple on Jordin's and his solo album. So, yeah, him and I have spent 24 hours a day together since Hollywood week. Our melodic sensibilities are totally different, but they mesh really well together. He and I are definitely writing, like, every other day together. My stuff is more on the jazzy side, and his stuff is more on the pop, I guess, urban [side]. The mixture of both of those is really paying off. So him and I may have the first single.
On the other hand, Blake Lewis, the contest’s runner-up, is able to turn all of the affectations that grate on TV into winning traits on the concert stage. While week after week on TV his thin voice, mannered dancing and insistence on beat-boxing became predictable, in the compressed atmosphere of concert he comes across as a talented, professional performer, one intent on maintaining musical integrity while showing the audience a good time.
Best Battle: The beat-boxing showdown between Chris and Blake. Blake totally won, of course, but Chris put together a pretty convincing redux of "SexyBack."
And Blake Lewis not only beat boxed to beat the band, he led other guys in the practice as if he had invented the hip-hop staple, showing his live, multi-tracking skills on a version of Maroon 5's "She Will Be Loved."
