Carol
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Join date : 2009-06-28
 |  Subject: FOLHA DE SAO PAULO Brazilian Interview  02.02.10 17:18 | |
| - Quote :
What king am I?
Black hair, eyeliner, leather jacket, black nail polish. The guy on the picture, with his emo-punk look, is the new phenomenon in American pop music. The 28 year old singer appeared in a lot of the Best of 2009 lists (Time magazine included him in the 10 personalities of the year; he was 10th in the Sexiest Men Alive list of People; and he was the third most important male artist of the year, according to MTV). With a voice of incredible range (many compared him to Freddie Mercury), a strong sex appeal and a natural talent to create controversy, he has been called the male version of Lady Gaga, or the love child of Elvis and Madonna.
translation of interview:
Thank you for taking your time to talk to me. I understand you’ve been really busy lately.
Oh, it’s my pleasure.
You realize you have lots of fans here in Brazil.
I’ve seen it on Twitter, I’ve seen tweets coming in from people from Brazil and I’m like: “What! I can’t wait to go, I wanna go visit!” I’m so excited to come there.
You should come to Mardi Gras, in February. It’s fabulous, lots of people covered in glitter and feathers, dancing and partying. It’s amazing, you should come!
Sounds like my kind of party! When in February is it?
From 12 to 16th of Februay. What do you know about Brazil?
I don’t know a lot, no!
American Idol is not very popular here. Not a lot of people watch it. Do you think it’s a good platform for young artists in United States?
Definitely. I think there’s no other program like that here in the States where you’ve got that many people being exposed to. It’s very difficult to make it in the music industry nowadays because there’s so much to choose from. And so, the fact that I had so many people watching me thankfully allowed to make a record that they’re waiting for, you know? That’s amazing.
But doing well on the program doesn’t guarantee your success, right?
Yeah, but it definitely gives you a fair shot, a fair chance. I’m only trying to do the best that I can, and see if that works, you know?
How would you present yourself to the Brazilians who have never heard your music?
I think the music video and the song speak for themselves. The music video for FYE is very theatrical, sexy, and it’s like underground club scene, and it’s all about dancing late at night and I think people will enjoy it.
Some people compare you to Lady Gaga, do you like the comparison?
Oh, I think it’s a great compliment. She’s a good musician, she’s creative, she likes theatrics. We’re from the same family, yeah.
Do you think Fever will ever be a single?
Yeah, I actually think it could be. We’re looking at it as a possibility. A very very strong possibility.
Some people think that because you sing “There he goes”, that it could be a problem, that some people would refuse to play the song.
Maybe in United States, but I have a feeling that in the rest of the world, no one will care. (laughs)
I’m sure in Brazil no one will care.
I think I live in the most conservative country that we really have to worry about.
I think you do. It’s like, all that AMAs controversy, what was that all about?
I don’t know, I think people get scared of things they are not used to seeing. It was all meant to be in good fun, you know, theatrical, silly and crazy. I think people took me too seriously.
Like you are a threat to good costumes or something.
Yeah! I don’t know why it’s threatening, it’s not that big of a deal. But that’s the thing about my country. People get more scared by two men kissing than they do by a bunch of people walking around with guns. I mean, that’s how we live. (laughs)
But do you worry about that? Are you concerned that homophobia might be a problem, that people won’t play some of your songs because of that?
Well, it’s a slow and steady progress. I think it’s definitely an issue, but I try to not worry too much about it, just try to be myself. If people like it, then they like it, if they don’t like it, then they don’t like it. (laughs) It’s more important to me to be truthful to who I am than for me to try to please everybody. You can’t please everybody.
Some people even suggested, oh, he should change the lyrics of “Fever” to a “she”.
Actually, it’s funny, Lady Gaga and I talked about that, when we were recording the song. She said, “What do you think?”. “Well, I like it.” And she said, “I like it too. Of course, there are gonna be people who are going to have issues with it.” And I said, “Yeah”, and she said, “Do you care?”, I said, “No. Let’s do it!”.
Do you think that will be a problem only in USA?
Mostly in the United States. You know, ultimately, it is what it is.
Talking about the AMAs, some people said, oh, he just likes to be the center of attention. He just kissed his bass player because he likes to create controversy and get coverage by the media, and that’s been done before, so what’s new.
Of course I like to be the center of attention, why do you think I do this for a living? (laughs). It has been done before, but it’s never been done by a boy! With another boy! I didn’t think about it at the time, but now looking at it in hindsight, perhaps it’s proving a point.
Yes. You didn’t think the reaction was going to be that strong.
No, not at all. My intention was not to upset anybody, obviously. I didn’t think it was going to be as controversial. Because that’s the thing, because for me, with my friends, the types of parties and clubs and areas that I go to, something like that is not...people are not scared of that where I come from. There are places here in United States where that is very very scary. But I don’t live in those places, and I don’t know those types of people...
Thank God!
Yeah, thank God! So in a way, I kind of took if for granted.
You talk a lot about doing glam rock, glam pop. What’s glam to you?.
Glam, back in the seventies, was people like David Bowie, and T. Rex, and Sweet. Glam is rock’n’roll, but it has...it’s dressed up, it’s being very flamboyant with your style, and your manners, and your persona. Using make up and fancy clothing. In think nowadays there are a lot of female artists that embody that spirit. People like Lady Gaga, Kate Perry, that kind of over the top theatrical over -the-top performer. I try to bring that spirit back to my music.
But, like you said, there’s no male artist doing that. So is there space for it, do you think?
Yeah, that’s kind of what I was going for, something that we don’t have right now. Back in the seventies and eighties we had artists like David Bowie, and Prince, and Boy George, and Adam Ant, and even Michael Jackson at times, that were giving you high fashion, very glamorous make up and hair, we just don’t have those figures right now. And I love that style, I think it’s so different, and I think that teenagers and kids and adults of all kind need to see that as an option, you know?
People need entertainment and that’s what you intend to do.
Yeah, I’m here for your entertainment and that’s part of the beauty of entertainment as escapism. If you have your life, and you have worries, and stresses, it’s nice to be able to throw in your CD or your video and kind of forget about your problems for a minute.
You’ve got this fine instrument that some people call THE VOICE. And it’s been compared to Freddie Mercury and Steven Tyler. Anyway, I think you’re better than those two.
Awwwwww.
You are. How do you see it? Do you feel like it’s a gift, that you have to use well, or something you worked very long and hard to get to where you are right now?
I think a little bit of both. I definitely, early on, went, “Oh, I can sing! I don’t know how that happened!” (laughs) And I do think that it’s a gift, and I think that, for whatever reason, this is why I’m here. I’m here to do this. That’s my purpose. At the same time I have worked hard on it. I did take lessons when as a kid, for singing, and I’ve been singing for a long time, and learning a lot about my voice, and recording, learning how it sounds recorded. So yeah, it’s both.
2009 has been quite a year. Not so long ago, you were singing at small clubs, doing the Upright Cabaret show, now you are talking to Oprah. Do you wake up in the morning thinking, OMG, I can’t believe this is happening.
Yeah, I do. I think for a while there, like all last year, before this all started, I thought to myself, I want more out of my life, I want to do more, I want to challenge myself, I want to travel, I want something new. And...I got it! (laughs)
You got it!
I got a lot of it.
But it has a price, right?
Yeah. I mean, it’s entirely worth it, let’s put it that way, it’s worth every moment of it, I would never trade it. But there are times...it’s a lot of work, you know? It’s a lot more work than people realize it is. And it can be a little bit lonely, because when you leave the house, and you are chased by paparazzi everywhere you go...Sometimes I don’t even wanna go out. I’m gonna stay home tonight because I don’t wanna deal with it. So it can be isolating.
You said this to RS: “Private lives don’t exist anymore for celebrities”.
Yeah, it’s hard on your private life. But, the way I look at it, I had my entire twenties to have a private life. (laughs)
Oh, don’t say that!.You said lots of times that this is a dream come true, but you certainly have more dreams. No that you’ve got this far, what is your wildest dream, what do you want to achieve? What else?
I think I just want longevity. I want to keep going. I want to be able keep doing it. So often in the music industry someone puts out an album and then...it goes away, like, it doesn’t work, people don’t buy it, and they get dropped by the label, and they don’t have a way of making music anymore. So I think my big goal is, I just wanna to be able to keep doing it.
Are you planning a tour right now?
There’s definitely going to be a tour at some point. I’m not sure what the details are, we haven’t decided it yet.
But you have an idea. You told EW that you wanted to do a something more intimate.
Yeah, if it works, if I have my thing, I want to do a solo tour, in smaller venues and have it be like a very interactive, intimate experience, you know? 500 people, to a thousand people. And really put on a show that they can see every detail, and they can really appreciate it.
Do you have plans for movies? TV series? Do you have any invitations?
I would very much love to do movies or TV. No invitations yet, but there’s definitely some ideas floating around, so there’s interest. Let’s see what happens.
(His personal assistant says it’s over, I have to wrap it up)
Just one last thing, then: thank you for being such an inspiration for so many people, myself included.
Awwww, thank you, thank you very much, I appreciate that.
And hopefully I’ll see you soon here in Brazil.
Yeah, definitely, I can’t wait to go visit!
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