It’s Kris Allen week in the American Idol universe, with the season 8 champ currently on a rigorous promotional tour on behalf of his self-titled debut CD that hit stores Tuesday. As part of that “journey,” Kris swung by Hudson Terrace in Manhattan where the Réalité crew set up a cozy-yet-glamorous spot for a verrrry in-depth discussion about the writing and recording process for the album. Press play below for our seven-part* conversation about the significance of the sideways glance in his album cover photo, the psychological perils of recording while touring, the song he was pretty sure sounded like a hit when he finished writing it, and the one aspect of “Live Like We’re Dying” that almost made him regret picking it as his first single. Oh, and for all my Idol updates, follow me on Twitter @EWMichaelSlezak!
* Yeah, we may have also saved a couple bonus questions for Monday’s regularly scheduled edition of Réalité.
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I love you!
o m g
Oh….gets popcorn ready so can sit here and enjoys this. YAY!! B/t this and Kradam hug last night/this morning is epic!
Wow, this is an awesome interview and I loved all the information you got out of him! I agree that Before We Come Undone should be the next single, but the whole album in general is great!
Alright Me reminds me of a Michael Frante song. Just saying.
Fave song on the album is Red Guitar.
I love that song! It’s underrated on iTunes.
Slezak, I love that you know your stuff! It’s so refreshing to hear soneone ask questions about each of the songs individually. Thanks! Great stuff!
hell yes! Before we come undone!
Alright With Me is my favorite song on the album. “Before We Come Undone” is a great song but it doesn’t seem like a smash hit single to me. Alright With Me does.
HEY!
Good Ol’ Triangle Mouth is back!
why are you here, Kevin?
This is the strangest comment board on the internet.
Good lord – enough already. I can’t wait for next week when hopefully Slezak will have something else to talk about.
you didn’t have to come here, ya know… nobody forced you…
Yeah, I know – however it’s all over the main page of EW.com so it’s sort of hard to ignore – kind of like all that retarded Twilight BS.
OMG, wow…you came back here again hours later?? You’d think coming here once was enough… No sense in making excuses anymore…
That retarded Twilight BS suits you.
Oh…very “lush” interview! I love it. The problem with Kris Allen’s album is that all of it is so damn good and it makes it hard to choose. Hmmm…maybe that’s not a problem. Those snippets went really well interspersed with the talk. It is really refreshing to see people ask him smart questions about HIS music instead of the crap that he usually gets asked. YAY! I definitely will be re-watching this one!
nice interview! kris is such a good guy. i hope this album does really well.
It won’t be – it’s projected to sell 80k units in it’s debut week, by far the LOWEST American Idol debut in the history of the show.
Because an album doing well is based on first week sales? Oh ok
In some sense I agree with you, Chambers. But if Kris really had a solid fan-base, they’d be buying the album in its first week.
As someone who watches the Billboard charts almost religiously, most albums fall an average of 60% in their second week.
So Kris is going to have a REALLY tough time even going Gold. Even Jordin Sparks did better with her 2nd album, and it’s generally accepted that she flopped this era.
its now projected at 95K. its thursday, who knows how much they will change that projection until next tuesday. most of the music world is suffering, those numbers dont tell the whole story. and yeah, big debuts fall the hardest. but smaller ones tend to climb up the charts.
“Hits Daily” has Kris projected at 85-90k.
Definitely underwhelming, although his second week won’t be too bad thanks to Black Friday sales.
But after that, I’m pretty sure the album is going to slide down the charts – it has no radio support.
‘Live Like…’ made a paltry #70 peak on the BB charts, and after listening to the album…..he really has nothing more radio friendly than that. It’s going to be a tough climb for him, that’s for sure.
FlashPoint, I think you’re in the minority when you suggest that there’s no songs on his album that are equally or more radio-friendly than LLWD.
Also, only Idol and media snobs care about comparing Kris’ “underwhelming” debut sales numbers to past Idol winners in this downturned economy.
LOL Jess
Not sure what you’re talking about, but stop blaming the “depressed” economy on Kris’ crappy sales.
Heck, even Justin Beiber is poised to sell over 110k of his album (and he did NOT have the promo vehicle of Idol, including its 35+ million viewers)
So please, stop making excuses for Kris and how he’s UNDERPERFORMING.
mady, I don’t need to make excuses, and I wasn’t making any. I’m simply saying that only Idol and media snobs care about comparing Kris’ sales numbers to past Idol winners’ debuts in this downturned economy.
I don’t care about Justin Beiber’s projected sales numbers… he’s had a couple radio hits already, which has obviously helped his projected album sales. whoop-dee-doo…
Actually they have already revised the projected estimates to 90 K. And those are only estimates. Also, there are albums that haven’t sold a lot its opening week that build and eventually sell quite well. WAY too early to know how well this album will do.
Flash Point
Kris has plenty of radio support. His single, LLWD, is currently in the Top 20 on the Hot AC radio airplay chart and in the Top 40 on the Pop radio airplay chart. It also jumped 22 spots on the Billboard Top 100, from #92 last week to #70 this week.
You should check your facts before posting…
I’m kinda leaning towards “mady’s” assessment.
Yes, lots of albums start off slow and then grow.
However, that’s usually with smaller, unknown artists who take time to catch on.
Kris Allen is *NOT* an unknown – he was from the most popular show in TV, period. People have already generally made up their mind about him. If they weren’t fans of his before, chances are they won’t suddenly “find” this new singer and become a fan of him now. As someone else pointed out, his first single is going pretty much NOWHERE.
I know his fans are passionate about him, but let’s face reality…he’s not going to do that great with this disk.
joanna, FlashPoint *WAS* right – the single is at #70. You just pointed that out yourself.
And if you think “Hot AC” sells records, you’re seriously delusional.
YourMamma, yo! check it! Using your logic, Kris’ first single LLWD, should have already died in sales, because it was released back in September. And since he was already “known”, then people either bought it the first week it was available or they didn’t like it, because as you say, they wouldn’t “suddenly” become a fan of his. Oh, but let’s see here… he kept selling thousands of copies of his single week after week since it’s release! Imagine that!
He did have alot of competition. Leona Lewis, John Mayer, OneRepublic all released albums on tues.
He’s doing well enough that trolls like you can’t stop yourselves from coming here to pi$$ on all things Kris Allen… that is actually a better barometer of success than any industry chart.
Can I just say that your made of awesome, Slezak! Your interviews, along with Jim’s are ALWAYS the best! Kris actually feels really comfortable around you two, to the point of giving you insightful information about the Album! So four for you!
And Kris, he is seriously BEYOND talented! The way he just comes up with songs is so intriguing! I hope he succeeds and releases as many records as his sweet heart desires! He’s not only a talented musician, but also an amazing songwriter…this I hope puts him on the map!
If this solid Album does not make it big, my faith in people will definitely be hindered music wise. He deserves all the success in the world!
Great interview Slezak!!! Good Luck Kris, I love your album.
LOL @ the categories
Thanks, Slezak!