Blake Lewis :: back to dance music
In the world of music, having an American Idol alumnus release a new CD is hardly a big event anymore: it seems every other hit record has ties to the powerhouse Fox series.
During a chat with EDGE’s Jim Halterman, however, sixth season (2007) runner up Blake Lewis showed no signs of standing quietly among the pack as evident with the heart-thumping release earlier this month of his new CD entitled Heartbreak On Vinyl. With a collection of songs falling into the pop/dance genre, Lewis talked about his inspiration for songwriting, how it felt to go from Idol back into his beloved clubs and getting Michelle Obama to beat box.
Great dance feel
EDGE: The CD has such a great dance feel that I think you’re going to find a strong gay audience. What have you been hearing from your fans?
Blake Lewis: The reviews have been pretty awesome so far. I’m on my Twitter, Facebook and MySpace everyday and I think I’ve gotten one negative comment through a whole week, so that’s pretty damn good.
EDGE: When you set out to make this CD, what’s the process like for you? Do you have a common thread for the whole album or do you just build it song by song?
BL: It’s definitely song by song. It’s just where my mood or inspiration is that day. Sometimes I’ll wake up from a dream and then I’ll write a song or it all depends; every song is totally different. This record is more personal because I had just gotten out of a relationship with my girlfriend so it’s a personal record and a dance record at the same time.
EDGE: I personally know of the Virgin Record store in New York City that you sing about in the title track to comment on the demise of the record store. What’s your connection to record stores?
BL: I’m from New York and Virgin was my stop in Union Square. I’m an avid collector of vinyl and CDs still and I really don’t download anything from the Internet. Of all those record stores, the third line of the song is Easy Street is empty and Easy Street is my favorite record store in Seattle on Mercer so it’s a kind of call-out to Seattle. My friends used to work at record store and I worked at a record store and now they’ve all closed down.
Not to bitch but the Best Buys and Wal-Marts, the K-Marts and Targets are the record stores now and that’s tough when there’s only four stands in these huge major corporations and the clerks don’t even know what they have in stock. It’s not the same anymore. So the song just kind of came out and I was very inspired as soon as I saw Virgin. I was like, "Damn, Virgin was like the last big record store."
Watch Blake Lewis sing "Sad Songs" of his new CD Heartbreak on Vinyl:
