Blake Lewis looks to move beyond 'Idol' with new CD
WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. -- Blake Lewis checked an e-mail on his iPhone and gasped.
"Rough cut of the video!" he announced, and quickly a half-dozen 19 Entertainment employees gathered around a computer screen at the "American Idol" production company's slick offices above Sunset Boulevard.
Lewis watched himself singing in front of a wavy purplish background in the clip for "Break Anotha," the uptempo first single from his first album. "It's good!" somebody volunteered after the video played a second time.
"For a rough draft," he muttered.
No, the 26-year-old beatboxer from Seattle is not another just-happy-to-be-here "American Idol" finalist. Given a long-awaited shot at a major label album release with his second-place finish (Jordin Sparks was the winner), he's trying to exercise as much artistic control as possible.
He co-wrote all but one song on "Audio Day Dream," released Tuesday on Arista Records, and is already plotting a remix album to add hip-hop and electronica flavors that he favors but wasn't able to include.
On "Audio Day Dream," what Lewis does in 16 tracks is, in his words, "electro-break funky soul pop music." To get there, he enlisted the aid of hitmaker JR Rotem (on "What'cha Got 2 Lose?"), Fiona Apple collaborator Mike Elizondo (on "1,000 Miles") and Timbaland protege Ryan Tedder, frontman in the rock band OneRepublic. The album was recorded largely while Lewis was on the road this summer with the "Idol" tour, which he called "tedious and long."
"Gots To Get Her" is Lewis' most ready-for-radio next single, borrowing and reforming Irving Berlin's "Puttin on the Ritz" melody to craft embarrassingly effective fluff.
The urban flavor seen in his "Idol" back-and-forth with Doug E. Fresh is in short supply on the CD. There's just one guest rapper, Lupe Fiasco, on the celebrity crush tune "Know My Name."
"I was hoping for more hip-hop flair. It comes down to the time thing and the release date," Lewis said. "I didn't get as much beatboxing on there as I wanted to. You know, next record."