http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/music/cdreviews/5348414.html
Exerpt:
That's really the strength of Lewis' original work. Perhaps more than any other contestant's post-Idol debut disc, Lewis comes with a fully realized musical identity and a real sense of how things work on record. (And yes, I'm counting Chris Daughtry, who still needs to shake off some of that Nickelback sludge.) What you saw on TV is what's often effectively showcased here.
Audio Day Dream leaves the beat-boxing Idol with room to grow, but it grooves like a genuine musical statement.
Blake Lewis - "Neo of Beatboxing" Interview
http://www.ugo.com/ugo/html/article/?id=18067§ionId=2
Exerpt:
UGO: So you're gonna bring your own band along? Are these your buddies from home?
Blake: Yeah, all of 'em. We're all from Seattle. I've been playing with my drummer [Kevin Sawka] for something like 6 years. He's been my partner in crime. We've been producing drum and bass and breakbeat music together for a long time. Everyone else, Jeremy [Lightfoot] the bass player has been playing with Kevin for 15 years, they went to high school together. I've been playing with everyone for a long time, and everyone's just stoked I got them on the record as well. All the tracks we did were live, all the vocals, everything's live. As far as the stuff that we did, as far as the filler tracks, the stuff that flows the main tracks in and out.
UGO: You were the first to sing one of your original songs, "She Loves the Way," on the American Idol tour. How'd that go down?
Blake: It was the last date, I didn't ask, I just did it.
UGO: So do you keep in touch with any of the contestants or judges from AI at all?
Blake: Yeah, I keep in touch with C-Rich [Chris Richardson], he's my homie. He's working on an album, still trying to get on a record label and management. He's lucky he's friends with Danja. He's been working with Danja and Timbaland for years. A lot of people don't know about that.
UGO: Do you have any future musical plans, collaborations, any big producers lined up?
Blake: Yeah, definitely. I couldn't get a lot of the stuff I wanted to get done on this record because i got sick. A lot of hip-hop stuff. Black Thought was down to do a track. Doug E. Fresh and I have been talking for a while. I wanna do a cypher, completely live beatbox, me Doug E. Fresh, some of my favorite emcees, definitely live in the studio, like a hundred people, totally old school jam.
Exclusive Interview: Blake Lewis, of 'American Idol'
http://www.buddytv.com/articles/american-idol/exclusive-interview-blake-lewi-14472.aspx
Exerpt:
Blake Lewis was one of the biggest underdogs American Idol has ever seen. Seemingly coming out of nowhere, the kid from Bothell, Washington burst onto the scene thanks to creative arrangements of classic songs on American Idol and his prodigious beat boxing abilities. Blake eventually was the runner-up on American Idol, but that's just fine with him. Blake's debut album "ADD: Audio Day Dream" was released yesterday amid a solid amount of hype and positive reviews. Blake spoke with us recently about his experience on American Idol and his new album.
Below you will find both the written transcript and full mp3 audio of the interview.
What was your process for creating the album? Were a lot of songs brought to you? How many are completely original and how many are collaborations?
It's a very big collaborative record. All of the songs but one were written by me, and co-written. I worked with so many different producers, there's five different producers on this record, and I couldn't be more fortunate to work with these amazing, creative people that I've been inspired by and that are inspired by me. That's why they wanted to work with me, so a lot of people called out to my A&R guy to work with me. I did the same thing. I wanted to work with BT, cause I opened with him a long time ago in Seattle, and he actually called out to me because he saw a song that I had written that was up on YouTube with all my loop pedals and vocal effects and all vocal song that I do. We worked on that song, and we wrote another song together for this record that just turned out amazing. Then I might with Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic, and the day we met it was like wow, I didn't know we were best friends. It was crazy, because I found amazing friends through this whole entire project, and amazing musicians and collaborators that I'll forever work with.
I know you collaborate with your fellow Idol Chris Richardson a lot. How much involvement did he have in the album?
We wrote one song together called “What'cha Got 2 Lose,” and then we co-wrote another song with Sam and Frodo out of New York called “I'm Just Human,” which will be a bonus on iTunes. With “What'cha Got 2 Lose” I got co-production on that song as well with JR Rotem. It's just great, a rollercoaster ride. “What'cha Got 2 Lose” is kind of along the lines of “Break Anotha,” but definitely funkier. It's Prince meets James Brown meets The Zapp Band, rollercoaster into Michael Jackson “Thriller” in the breakdown with me scratching over it. It was definitely the ADD track of Audio Day Dream.
Blake Lewis Exclusive!
http://www.theinsideronline.com/news/2007/12/14548/
Exerpt:
Click to view interview
"American Idol" runner-up BLAKE LEWIS' debut album, Audio Day Dream, was just released this week, and "The Insider" is exclusively with the singer as he shoots the music video for his first single, "Break Anotha."
A new interview and performances with the beat-box bad boy also debut on AOL Music's Sessions page Friday, Dec. 7th. Blake says he was inspired by the one and only MICHAEL JACKSON for his new album.
"I've got drum and bass with some metal in there, you know," he says. "I tried to make my Michael Jackson Bad record, but with all of my influences, because that's like one of my favorite records of all time."
Disc debuts: 'Audio Day Dream' by Blake Lewis
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/stories/DN-cd_blakelewis_1204gl.ART.State.Edition1.369caae.html
Exerpt:
A TRUE MTV 'IDOL': As the runner-up to Jordin Sparks on the last season of American Idol, Blake Lewis showed promise as a shameless (some would say aimless) ham of all urban-music trades. From beatboxing and scat singing to plucky hit reinterpretations and alter-ego parading, his confident eclecticism endeared him to many, including the judges. The challenge after season six was to bottle up Mr. Lewis' dervish sonic wanderlust and present it as a visionary teen-pop manifesto.
Disc debuts: 'Audio Day Dream' by Blake Lewis
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/stories/DN-cd_blakelewis_1204gl.ART.State.Edition1.369caae.html
Exerpt:
A TRUE MTV 'IDOL': As the runner-up to Jordin Sparks on the last season of American Idol, Blake Lewis showed promise as a shameless (some would say aimless) ham of all urban-music trades. From beatboxing and scat singing to plucky hit reinterpretations and alter-ego parading, his confident eclecticism endeared him to many, including the judges. The challenge after season six was to bottle up Mr. Lewis' dervish sonic wanderlust and present it as a visionary teen-pop manifesto.
Sidewalks Entertainement Interview
Host Cindy Rhodes interviews singer Blake Lewis, a finalist on season six of American Idol. Blake talks about his album, Audio Day Dream.
Yahoo! Interview
Video:
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=5365953&ch=4226715&src=news
LI's Sean Gould bids 'Hello' to Blake Lewis
http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/music/ny-ffbuzz5489563dec09,0,539433.story
Exerpt:
The new album from "American Idol" runner-up Blake Lewis may be a bit uneven, but one surefire hit is "Here's My Hello," a slice of Maroon 5-ish pop that was engineered by Sean Gould, better known as the guitarist from Seaford-based Bandcamp.
Gould, who has been working with the production team of Sam Hollander and Dave Katz at Fresh Kills studio on several projects, including Metro Station and We the Kings, also lends his guitarwork to the track. The song helps bulk up Lewis' "Audio Day Dream" debut, which has a solid shot at debuting in the Top 5 next week and beating out the debut of this season's "American Idol" winner Jordin Sparks.
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