Michael Buble - Everything

Ask Michael Bublé how he felt going in to record his third studio album, Call Me Irresponsible, and this artist with 11 million albums sold and two Grammy nominations under his belt can sum it up in one word.

“Terrified,” he says simply. Terrified?

“Completely, because I knew that it had to be better than the first two — that it had to show growth without alienating anyone, and that’s a tough line. So I sat there from the very beginning and came up with the songs, put together the skeleton, and thought about what arrangers I would hire. I even ended up at the mastering session, which artists rarely attend. I wanted to be involved in every aspect because I wanted it to be conceptually beautiful.”

Bublé has certainly achieved success on that front. As with his previous two 143/Reprise bestsellers, 2003’s self-titled debut and 2005’s multi-platinum follow-up It’s Time, Call Me Irresponsible boasts more of Bublé’s buoyant, modern interpretations of standards from a variety of eras, including songs by such greats as Leonard Cohen, Eric Clapton, Cy Coleman, Gamble and Huff, and others, as well as two self-penned originals, including the first single, the uplifting love song called “Everything.”

But it’s hardly business as usual for this Vancouver native. It never is for Bublé, whose irrepressible spirit, engaging humor, and confident charisma once led the New York Times to call him “an entertainer who is completely at home on the stage.” His new CD, which he calls “my remark on the state of love,” contains a depth of feeling that will surprise and delight long-term fans and impress those new to his music. “To me, what’s different about this CD is that it has a certain raw emotion because I recorded many of these songs live in the studio.” Bublé introduces the electrifying, impeccably orchestrated set to follow with the opening track, Cy Coleman’s “The Best Is Yet To Come,” (made famous by Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and others). Then there’s the exhilarating, salsa-flavored “It Had Better Be Tonight,” written by Johnny Mercer and Henry Mancini, which Bublé attacks with a hot-blooded vengeance—“another very sexy song…and edgy.” From there, he takes on “Me and Mrs. Jones,” the 1972 Gamble and Huff classic popularized by soul singer Billy Paul. “David (Foster) brought it to me, I’d never actually heard it before,” Bublé says. “We wanted it to be authentic and tell the story.” Next up is Leonard Cohen’s “I’m Your Man” from the Canadian singer/songwriter’s 1988 album of the same name. “I always thought it was a wonderful song — desperate, sexy, and dark,” Bublé says. “I actually called Leonard and told him I was afraid of performing it live. When he asked me why, I said because he’d written too sexy of a song and I was afraid men were going to throw their underpants at me. He just laughed and said, ‘I wouldn’t worry too much about that.’”

Then there’s a swinging, hep-cat version of Mel Tormé’s 1962 pop hit “Comin’ Home Baby,” featuring vocals from Philly soul faves Boys II Men; and a sentimental, self-penned ballad “Lost,” co-written with Chang and Canadian singer-songwriter Jann Arden. “It’s an anthem for star-crossed lovers,” Bublé says. “Sometimes relationships don’t work out because love isn’t enough, but that doesn’t mean you have to discard the person. There is a way to end a relationship and still be there when they need you. That’s basically what it’s about.”

A languid, emotional rendition of Eric Clapton’s ballad “Wonderful Tonight,” on which Bublé duets with Brazilian singer-songwriter Ivan Lins, whose work has been covered by everyone from Sarah Vaughn to Ella Fitzgerald follows. “I’ve always been very sentimental about that song,” Bublé says. “What is interesting about that track is here I am, a 31-year-old guy from Canada who’s singing a song that means so much to me with a 61-year-old man from Brazil, who’s singing in his own language but it means the exact same thing to both of us.”

Other highlight’s include two of Bublé’s original songs, including the acoustic-guitar driven “Everything,” co-written with Amy Foster-Gillies and Alan Chang (who also co-wrote Bublé’s touching hit ballad “Home” off It’s Time) and produced by fellow Canadian Bob Rock (Bon Jovi, Metallica, Mötley Crüe, Bryan Adams). “I wrote that song about the great happiness of real love, but at the same time I was making a statement about the world,” Bublé says. “We’re living in really crazy times, and I wanted to say that no matter what’s happening, this person in my life is what really makes it worthwhile.”

Rounding out Call Me Irresponsible is Frank Sinatra’s “That’s Life,” which, in Bublé’s hands, becomes a powerhouse complete with a full choir. “I brought the song to a wonderful guy named Mervyn Warren, from the acappella group Take 6 and said, ‘I want to take this to church; I want to make it a huge gospel tune.’ So he brought in a choir and I love it. It’s one of my favorite things about the record."

To help him capture the intensity in the songs’ meanings, Bublé turned to his long-standing team of producers, which include 14-time Grammy winner David Foster (Barbra Streisand, Céline Dion, Josh Groban) and producer/engineer Humberto Gatica (Elton John, Destiny’s Child, Michael Jackson). “We definitely have a great working relationship where I think I interfere just enough,” Bublé says with a laugh. “I mean, David is the greatest producer in the world. They’re both so amazing, I couldn’t do it without them.”

Foster first discovered Bublé seven years ago when he caught the aspiring star performing at the wedding of former Canadian Prime Minster’s daughter. The son of a British Columbia-based salmon and herring fisherman, Bublé spent the months his parents were away with his music-loving Italian grandfather, who introduced him to the singers who would become Bublé’s idols: Bobby Darin, Dean Martin, Sinatra, Ray Charles, and Elvis Presley. “These guys were triple threats,” he says. “They could sing, they could dance, they could act. They were entertainers, and I believe that’s a lost art now.”

Bublé honed his skills as a showman through years of performing in hotel lounges and smoky bars — gigs his grandfather, a plumber, helped the underage singer secure by trading his plumbing services. By the time Foster met him 2000, Bublé already knew exactly what he brought to the table — a warm, engaging voice and unassailable taste in music. His debut album was an international smash, going Top Ten in the U.K. and Canada, and earning him his first Juno award for Best New Talent in 2004. The follow-up, It’s Time, sold more than 5.5 million copies, and has remained on the Billboard Traditional Jazz charts for a staggering two years, and in the Number 1 slot for more than 80 weeks, an all-time record.

But along with his passion for creating great music in the studio, performing on stage is pure paradise for Michael Bublé. “I just love getting in front of people,” he says. “It’s so important to be in touch with your audience. They’ve paid their money. I want them to be entertained. If they want to cry or laugh or dance or sing or yell, they can do whatever they want. My responsibility is just to take them away.”

Lifehouse - First Time

With Who We Are, their fourth Geffen album in seven years, Lifehouse, all still in their mid-20s, are really starting to enjoy the fruits of their success and have some fun. Their multi-platinum 2000 debut, No Name Face, produced “Hanging by a Moment,” a #1 alternative hit which crossed over to become Top 40’s Most Played Song, while 2005’s self-titled platinum effort yielded “You and Me,” a giant hit ballad that set a record by spending more than 60 weeks on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, Lifehouse are not just the sum of their considerable accomplishments.

On Who We Are, singer-songwriter Jason Wade—along with drummer Rick Woolstenhulme and bassist Bryce Soderberg—gets back to the basics of what made him first form the band while still a teenager in suburban California.

Says Jason: “We just love making music and feel really lucky to be able to continue doing it.”

Producing themselves for the first time with Jude Cole, who also co-wrote several of the new songs, that joy comes across unfettered on the rocking twang of the lead single, “First Time,” already climbing the Hot A/C and Top 40 charts, a fond look back at the butterflies and excitement of the initial rush of romance.

“It just felt urgent, like a first kiss, a first love,” says Jason. “Like the first time you realize there’s more to that relationship than you thought. I had to dig a little for that one, but I find myself at a place where I can write stuff that’s a little deeper than your average love song in terms of emotion.”

The approach was also pretty fresh. The band didn’t record demos before entering the recording studio. Wade brought in a skeleton of a song and the group worked on it as a unit. “Nobody really knew what they would be playing,” explains Woolstenhulme, the musical purist of the group. “We just cut it, listened to it and realized it was pretty electric…the kind of song where you just turn up the radio.”

Known for his brooding lyrics of teenage angst resulting from his parents’ divorce and his own poor relationship with his father, Wade explores more diverse songwriting topics this time around, putting himself into other characters in songs like “The Joke,” with its syncopated world beat, inspired by a newspaper article detailing the story of a British boy who hung himself after being bullied by schoolmates. Jason puts himself into the subject’s shoes, with lyrics that could be right out of a suicide note: “When you find me in the morning/Hanging on a warning.”

The wrenching ballad “Broken,” with a chorus that recalls the Police’s “Every Breath You Take,” came out of a trip Wade took to Nashville to visit a dear friend waiting on a kidney transplant, as once again he identifies in first person: “I’m falling apart/I’m barely breathing/With a broken heart/That’s still beating/In my pain/There is healing/In your name/I find meaning/So I’m holding on/Barely holding on to you.”

Lifehouse’s love of British rock comes across in the avant-Europop of “Make Me Over” with its ethereal opening and falsetto vocals (Wade: “Sometimes you’ll do anything to be in love, even becoming someone else”), while the stark, Plastic Ono Band strains of “Learn You Inside Out” is one of the rare songs Wade penned on piano.

“I wrote it really quick,” he recalls. “We decided just to freestyle. It was one of those moments when we really grew as a band, being able to reach each other and know where we’re going.”

“This record came very naturally,” agrees Bryce, the newest member of Lifehouse, who cut his teeth on tour before entering the studio with his bandmates. “On the road, we’d throw a song out during sound check and it just flowed together. There was a great deal of spontaneity involved. We were into similar influences. It felt like we were on the same page musically.”

“We’re closer as a band than ever,” nods Rick.

The raw energy of “Disarray” deals with Wade growing up in a strictly religious family, where questioning wasn’t allowed. “Angels, demons,” he says. “We all fight them both, and anyone who pretends they don’t is not someone I want to hang out with.”

In fact, the group was liberated by being left alone to create without outside interference or pressure.

“This time around it was about not having any preconceived notions,” confesses Jason. “It was about letting the tape machine roll and getting the music down spontaneously. I’m at a place where it doesn’t matter to me what other people think. I’m comfortable being myself. I’m writing from an honest place, not thinking about who’s going to hear it, what they’re going to think or how they’re going to interpret it. The lyrics can’t be contrived. They have to hit you right in the heart.”

One song that does just that is the album finale, “Storm,” which Wade wrote at 16 “when I was going through hard times,” and was included on the band’s first indie record, 1,000 copies of which were pressed back when they were called Bliss. The original version has been circulated over the Internet by the group’s fans and was even licensed by the television show So You Think You Can Dance. Wade decided to re-record the song when he realized how much it meant to people.

“That was fun to record because of its starkness,” says Jason. “We love the idea of the title, surrounded by negative space, like the a cappella beginning. Because when you’re lost in confusion, no matter how much is going on around you, you’re still alone.”

With all their radio airplay, multi-platinum sales and awards, Lifehouse are still intent on raising the bar, which makes Who We Are a revelation both musically and lyrically.

“It’s stripped down, very raw, the way we are live,” says Bryce. “We discovered along the way that less is more.”

“Since Bryce joined, this really has grown into a unit with its own personality and style,” concludes Jason. “We established camaraderie on the road and gelled as a unit. This record defines ‘Who We Are,’ which is why that’s the title. The sound fits where we’re at right now.”

With Who We Are, Lifehouse are free to be exactly who they are…a rock band with a gift for melodies and lyrics that touch people.

James Blunt - 1973

A former British Army officer, singer/songwriter James Blunt is a thoughtful performer with a knack for crafting melodic contemporary soft rock tunes.

Born in Tidworth, Wiltshire, England in 1974 to a family with a long military history, Blunt entered the army after graduating from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Ultimately achieving the rank of captain, Blunt served with the NATO peacekeeping force in Kosovo and finished out his time in the military as a member of the Life Guard Regiment in the British Household Cavalry.

Having long been interested in music, Blunt wasted no time in pursuing a pop career after leaving the army. A subsequent performance at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, TX, brought Blunt to the attention of 4 Non Blondes singer/producer Linda Perry, who signed Blunt to her Custard Records label.

Released in 2005, Blunt's debut album, Back to Bedlam, was hugely successful and featured the hit single "You're Beautiful." Blunt toured for much of 2005 and 2006 and released the two-disc "odds and sods" live/documentary album Chasing Time: The Bedlam Sessions in 2006. His sophomore effort is scheduled to drop in 2007.

Natasha Bedingfield - Soulmate

With a number 1 single in America, a number 1 UK debut album, and over 6.5 million units shifted worldwide, Natasha Bedingfield is the UK's biggest female pop star bar none - a bold, beautiful home grown answer to US Uber-Divas Christina Aguilera and Pink.

Natasha took the US by storm last year with the first British chart topping hit by a female in almost twenty years. Vanity Fair singled her out as the spearhead of a new Britpop invasion; she became one of the faces of Gap (alongside Mia Farrow and Common); she was invited by her hero Prince to jam with him at a private party; Bono enlisted her for his (RED) campaign; and her song Unwritten proved to be the most played song on mainstream American radio in 2006.

To everyone else she is "The 'Single' Girl" who blasted her way up the British charts in 2004 with her typically outspoken take on the lifestyles of independent young women. So her return to action this year may come as something of a surprise...

"I want to make music that matches who I am. My first album was about independence and opportunism. I'm still very independent and I find it hard to let go of that freedom, but I'm in a different place now. I've been dating, searching for a partner, looking for Mr Right..."

Natasha Bedingfield's sophomore album N.B. is very much reflective of this 'different place' that she is in now, proving that affairs of the heart, although difficult, make for excellent song-writing material. Each track on the album explores a varying stage of the 'relationship' story, and the issues, experiences, and processes that come with these stages: from the lonely place of never feeling like you will fit with anyone (Soulmate), through the flirting, dancing stage where you feel you might (How Do You Do?), to the moment at which the game playing ends and open honesty prevails (Say It Again). Never one to mouth empty platitudes or re-hash well-worn clichés, Natasha's gift for creating pop music that does not sacrifice intelligence on the altar of universal appeal prevails throughout.

Recorded in Los Angeles, Natasha Bedingfield has co-written and co-produced N.B., working with a stellar team of talent including Mike Elizondo of Eminem/Dre/50 Cent fame, Adam Levine (Maroon 5), Greg Kurstin (Beck, Lily Allen), previous collaborators Steve Kipner, Andrew Frampton, Wayne Wilkins, Danielle Brisebois and Wayne Rodrigues and long time Madonna collaborator Pat Leonard.

The first cut to be taken from N.B. is forthcoming single I Wanna Have Your Babies, due to be accompanied by a colourful and entertaining video from Dave Meyers (Pink, Missy Elliot, Outkast). Lyrically I Wanna have Your Babies touches on a female's fight to reign in their natural disposition to 'rush into things' in an effort to find that elusive 'one', that potential father to their children. Musically it is distinctly 'Natasha Bedingfield' - the voice to melt radios, the beats that drop either side of the Atlantic, the arrangements that are undeniably quirky, but still, somehow, work.

Gwen Stefani - 4 In The Morning

Before she discovered she could write songs, Gwen Stefani was looking forward to a life of marriage, children, and white picket fences. When her brother introduced her to ska and new wave music, it set off a chain of events that would eventually lead to millions of albums sold and a Madonna-sized public image that extended past music and into the worlds of film, fashion, and technology.

Born and raised in Fullerton, CA, Stefani had a musical epiphany at the age of 17. She had fallen in love with the Madness and Selecter records her brother, Eric Stefani, was playing constantly. Seeing Fishbone, the Untouchables, and other bands involved in Los Angeles' ska revival scene only reinforced her interest in music, so she was more than ready when her brother asked her to join a ska band he was forming with a friend named John Spence. Gwen originally shared lead vocals with Spence but in December of 1987 he committed suicide, leaving the band -- now called No Doubt -- with an uncertain future. According to numerous interviews with the bandmembers after their breakthrough, Gwen was the glue that held No Doubt together during these hard times, pushing the group to keep trying. She was also romantically involved with the band's bass player, Tony Kanal, by this time.

After playing numerous gigs and parties, No Doubt were signed to Interscope in 1991. The label considered their 1992 debut album a flop and refused to financially support a tour or further recordings, but the band refused to give up. The self-financed Beacon Street Collection appeared in 1994 and did well enough to make things nice with Interscope, but the band was once again going through a traumatic period behind the scenes. Eric Stefani left to become an animator for The Simpsons and Gwen and Tony's relationship had ended. Gwen wrote a collection of songs focused on heartbreak and rebirth that would become No Doubt's third album, Tragic Kingdom, and the rest, as they say, is history.

With the smash singles "Just a Girl," "Spiderwebs," and "Don't Speak," the album reached the number one spot in Billboard and garnered two Grammy nominations. The press began to focus on Stefani's role in the band. Voted one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People," video and photo shoots focused on her and rumors spread that the other three members of the band were unhappy with the lack of attention they received. This topic of discussion continued as the band released Return of Saturn in 2000 and Rock Steady a year later, but it was overshadowed during this time by new gossip -- Stefani's romantic relationship with Bush's frontman, Gavin Rossdale. She also started doing some work outside the band, lending her vocals to the remix of electronica artist Moby's "Southside" and rapper Eve's "Let Me Blow Your Mind." In 2002, she arrived 45 minutes late for her wedding with Rossdale in London.

After Rock Steady, No Doubt took a break. Stefani approached Kanal about producing an off-the-cuff solo project that would be influenced by her non-ska favorites. Prince, the Time, Club Nouveau, and Madonna were the names thrown around and the idea was to make the project "fast and easy." Over time, the "fast and easy" record morphed into something much bigger. Old friend, former labelmate, and hit songwriter Linda Perry became involved and the project became much more polished, slick, and dance-oriented. A pile of high-profile collaborators -- Dr. Dre, the Neptunes, Dallas Austin, Andre 3000, Nellee Hooper, Jimmy Jam, and Terry Lewis -- became involved. In September of 2004, the infectious and hyper dance single "What You Waiting For?" appeared with its accompanying video dominating MTV.

The album, Love.Angel.Music.Baby., hit the shelves in November with surreal artwork that introduced Stefani's four-woman "posse," the Harajuku Girls. The all-Asian Harajuku Girls were inspired by Stefani's fascination with the Harajuku girls of Japan, young club kids who have a flippant and fun attitude toward fashion. Appearing with Stefani live, in videos, and in photos, the Girls quickly drew criticism from the Asian community, angry about the rumor that they had to sign a contract to never speak English even though they could, and that Stefani's Girls looked nothing like the "real" Harajuku girls. Based on a dancehall cover of Fiddler on the Roof's "If I Were a Rich Man," "Rich Girl" became the next smash single with the anthem "Hollaback Girl" becoming success number three. While the singles were dominating pop and dance radio, Stefani appeared as Jean Harlow in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator. With music and movies checked off, Stefani moved into the world of fashion and introduced her clothing line L.A.M.B. Taking her influence to the world of tech, she designed the Harajuku Lovers' 4.1 MP Digital Camera for Hewlett-Packard. The camera was released in a limited edition with a Stefani-designed case and biographical DVD.

Late in 2005, Stefani discovered she was pregnant, but her schedule remained busy in 2006: along with working on L.A.M.B., she released a line of limited-edition Gwen Stefani fashion dolls complete with outfits from her videos and tours, and worked on her second solo album with producers including Akon, Swizz Beatz, and Nellee Hooper, as well as the Neptunes and Tony Kanal. That spring, Stefani gave birth to a boy, Kingston James McGregor Rossdale. The Neptunes-produced "Wind It Up" arrived that fall and heralded the full-length The Sweet Escape, which was released on the same day as the live DVD Harajuku Lovers Live.