Kick start ... Adam Lambert is text buddies with Sam Smith. Picture: Norm Oorloff
Source: News Corp Australia
This year, Adam Lambert has said no to a covers album to follow his
heart and make a pop album steered by chart kings Max Martin and
Shellback.Lambert’s also found himself in synch with Madonna, accidentally, and Sam Smith, more deliberately.
There’s a story that you left your deal with Sony, who signed you after American Idol, because they wanted you to make a covers album.
Yep, a new wave `80s covers album. So I thought about it for a few weeks, had a listen to some songs from that period. There’s some great songs there but it just didn’t really resonate with me as a project that was the right thing for me. It felt like it was a step backwards. So I politely parted ways with them.
That’s a bold move to leave a major label early into your career ...
It was a little scary. I started writing and recordings in LA on my own. I stumbled over this demo I’d created, called The Original High. I organised a meeting with Max Martin and Shellback (the team behind Lambert’s first hits Whataya Want From Me and If I Had You) and they got excited about the song and some others I had.
We were talking and they realised I was in a new place in my life, they loved the sound of that song. They said: ‘We could oversee your entire album, how would you like that?’ and that was obviously the answer to my prayers.
I didn’t know what was going to happen, and the minute Max and Shellback said that, I was very confident.
Quiff time ... Adam Lambert bypassed `80s covers to make an Original High. Picture: Scott Roth/Invision/AP
Source: AP
Earlier this year, you announced you’d left RCA/Sony. Did you have anywhere in mind to go?
Well, after that announcement, literally the next day Warner contacted us and said they were interested. We met with other labels but it was the right vibe with Warner.
Were you working with Max Martin and Shellback when they were doing Taylor Swift’s 1989 album?
Yeah, I saw her in the studio one day; we were chatting a little about New York because she’d just moved there.
You’re a pop artist. When you see the way Taylor Swift is selling pop albums, it must give confidence that people will still buy the right record?
The thing that’s funny about pop as a genre is that it’s everything. What is pop? We borrow from so many different genres, maybe that’s what pop is. It’s not one specific thing. In all things creative I love fusion, reference the past, reference the future.
Your new album, The Original High, definitely showcases that — no one else could have both new Swedish edgy pop singer Tove Lo and Queen’s Brian May on the same album.
They’re both very different, different generations, different schools of thought musically. I’m lucky I have both of them on my album.
The Tove Lo duet Rumours seems to be about the perils of dating when you’re famous.
Yeah, we were talking about being in the music, being a public figure and dating, having a personal life. It’s not easy. You realise people will talk about you, gossip, have opinions but at the end of the day if you have someone in your life you have a connection with you can tune it all out. That’s really important.
Working it ... Adam Lambert says his third album is his least camp. Picture: Isaac Brekken/Getty Images for iHeartMedia
Source: Getty Images
You seem to keep your private life off social media, which you didn’t early on.
I haven’t been in a serious relationship for a while. If I found myself in a serious, legitimate relationship, I’m sure I’d want to share it with people.
You’ve said this album is less camp than some of your previous releases.
It definitely is. There’s definitely dramatic moments on the album but it’s done in a more grounded way. It’s not as stylised and not as theatrical.
You must have got a lot of theatrics out of your system touring with Queen last year.
Yeah. Their catalogue of music is so diverse and so challenging to sing. It was definitely a growing experience for me. They were so welcoming and warm, I was so lucky. I loved it, I had a blast.
You’d see faces in the audience and these songs had been a part of their lives for so long and they were just so excited to hear them live on stage, see Brian and Roger (Taylor) up on stage playing them.
There was definitely a fair share of sceptics, but in the audience usually by the third or fourth song they were laughing and dancing.
Did you read reviews of the Queen shows to see what the media thought of you?
I always laugh when I see musicians say ‘Oh, I don’t read reviews’. I personally work very hard. I want to always do my best and beat my best.
I find reviews to be really educational. I want to find out how it went down. I want to see what people are saying and what they think of what I did. I was relieved and excited to see the response, the reviews were really positive.
Dragon attack ... Brian May guests with new mate Adam Lambert on his new album. Picture: Norm Oorloff
Source: News Corp Australia
Does a bad review ruin your day?
There was a time in the beginning where I took it more to heart. Now I take it with a grain of salt. Everyone has a f----ng opinion.
You were recording this album while touring with Queen — presumably singing those timeless songs each night would spur you creatively?
Sonically they’re very different, but on a personal level I was reinvigorated. I felt like being on stage with them reignited a certain spark about why I love doing what I do. It definitely gave me a little bit of extra confidence. Getting to share the stage with legends and successfully present this music to fans who liked it, I felt good. It put me in a really good place.
There’s a weird symmetry with Madonna and yourself this year. You’ve spoken about the coincidence that you both released singles called Ghost Town at the same time. Now on this album the song Lucy features the phrase ‘Rebel heart’. Surely that’s not another coincidence?
It was! It’s weird, I’d already recorded Lucy before I heard Madonna’s album was called Rebel Heart. There’s something strange in the air, these coincidences. I don’t know how that happened. There’s this idea of the collective subconscious, that ideas are floating around in the ether and more than one person will pick up on them. I don’t know.
There’s worse people to share an idea with than Madonna ...
Exactly. It’s a good look.
For your entertainment ... Adam Lambert is text buddies with Sam Smith. Picture: Norm Oorloff
Source: News Corp Australia
Do you see any similarities with yourself and Sam Smith? When you launched your career you struggled with just being seen as a gay artist but you also knew it was important to talk about gay issues because there’s so few openly gay young musicians. Sam Smith seems to be going through the same process.
He’s amazing. I have a lot of respect for him. We text each other every once in a while about that. It’s not an easy thing to navigate. The frustration arises because the reason as an artist you don’t want to always talk about being gay is a lot of what comes out of your mouth you don’t have control over when the media gets hold of it. It’s tricky.
With Sam’s experience, there are some similarities with mine. You can say one thing in an interview after talking for 20 minutes, and all of a sudden, that becomes the only headline. And it wasn’t even the main thing you were talking about. So in order to try and make the interview about music you have to start saying: `I don’t want to talk about that’, and it’s a shame.
As an artist you’re all of those things, you’re a musician, you’re a person, your age and your race and your background, it’s the whole package.
Do you find you’re now Adam Lambert the singer rather than gay singer Adam Lambert?
I think as a society we’re moving towards a post-gay level. People aren’t as shocked by it or as hung up on it. I think things are moving in the right direction.
What’s the chance of you and Sam doing something together musically?
We haven’t talked about that yet but there’s a lot of mutual admiration there, I can’t wait to see what he does next.
The Original High (Warner) out tomorrow
Killer Queen ... Adam Lambert won over Queen fans last year. Picture: Norm Oorloff
Source: News Corp Australia
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