Blake Lewis' Dream Come True

December 05, 2007

Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3

That’s an impressive achievement for a kid from Washington state who was virtually unknown less than a year ago. "It has been an amazing year," Lewis smiles. "Amazing is definitely the word to use with a big exclamation mark after it to describe everything that has been going on. I finally got the make the album I always wanted to make, I got to make a cool music video, play shows and I got my band from Seattle on the record. We are just ready to get out there and kick some ass with some pop music."

Lewis and his American Idol pal Chris Richardson quickly became the topic of much internet banter after a doctored photo of the two surfaced on prominent gay blogs. The two are pictured hanging out together intimately in a chair. "That photo is hilarious," Lewis laughs. “There are a lot of gay people that wish I'm gay, but they gonna keep dreaming for a long time (. . .) I'm very straight.”

He adds that he doesn’t label people and is excited about anyone who is a fan of his music. “Gender or sexual preference doesn't mean anything to me,” he says. “If you like my music then we're going to have a good time together, I can talk your ear off about it or sing you a song."

Lewis started to record his album immediately after the American Idol finale and continued working on it during the American Idol tour this summer. “Every day I was off on tour I flew out or somebody flew in and we worked on music, writing or producing," the singer explains. "By the time the tour was over I had an album done. It was all about getting all the tracks lined up and tightening down the bolts, and writing a couple of more songs."

Before his run on American Idol, Lewis was a familiar face in Seattle's underground club scene, where he was known as beatboxing vocalist B-Shorty. One of the people he knows from that time is Oscar-nominated DJ/producer BT (aka Brian Transeau) who is one of his collaborators on "Audio Day Dream. "[Brian] didn't even know I was on American Idol," Lewis says. "And one day he called me and I was like 'I just got second on American Idol!' He flipped out."

"We did a song called "She's Making Me Loose It" together (. . .) The stuff we came up with is ridiculous. I can't wait for people to hear it. I wrote this very Prince-inspired, '80s song with BT on it. The vocal editing on it is just crazy."

READ MORE > >