Up Close With The American Idols - Chikezie - Page 2

Did you like being on the show?

It was interesting. It was fun at times. There was a lot of tough stuff, but it was worth it.

Was it frustrating to have the judges go back and forth - one week praising your performance, and the next week criticizing it?

I just found it frustrating when they talked. It's like, 'What are you saying?' Let America figure it out for themselves.

What are your plans after the tour is over?

Right now I'm talking to different labels and stuff like that. Since I'm still under contract with the show, I can't sign with anybody or do anything major. So I'm basically waiting for the contract to be up. When that's up then I can kind of get into my own thing and start signing and working on my own projects. Right now I'm just writing. I think one of the coolest things about being on here is you actually come out of the box with options. Which I don't think any of us have really had. We kind of had to take whatever was handed to us. But at least in this situation our name comes with some kind of sway. So I can actually go out and say, 'Okay I don't want to do this. I want to do that.' And actually do it. Which is probably the coolest thing for me.

You had auditioned for Idol before. Were you a fan of the show or did you see it as a way to get into the business?

This is my fourth time [auditioning]. It's a little bit of both. I mean, it was really cool watching people's dreams come true, especially when they're shared dreams of mine. At the same time I'm watching it, I'm learning from it.

Of your own performances, which was your favorite?

My favorite performance was probably "She's A Woman."

How did you come up with the arrangement for that?

Oh, that was actually an interesting process. My original choice was "Help!" by The Beatles. I had redone the arrangement on that, kind of giving it a Gavin DeGraw feel; soulful. And I was considering playing the the piano for it. It would've been interesting. But when it came down to it, I was talking to the voice coach and they said, 'You've changed it a little bit too much. You can take liberties, but not that many liberties - and not with a Beatles song.' You know? So she said, basically, 'Pick a different song, or deal with the song the way it is.' I found the song list, just went through them. Because I didn't know any of these songs. I only had heard of "Help!" So I was just going through the list, and I was doing my research, and I found out that "She's A Woman" was basically Paul McCartney's take on Little Richard. I didn't hear it in there, but that's interesting. What I heard when I listened to it was basically bluegrass. It just had that kind of swing to it. So the first thing that popped into my head was, whenever I think of bluegrass is some guys hanging out on a porch. It's always a really friendly music style, you know? You've got your fiddle, you've got your banjo, and you've got your singer. After that, I was listening further on into the song, and what I started hearing was the melody. [Sings a little of it] I was like, 'Hold on - that reminded me of something.' It reminded me of "My Generation" by The Who. So that's where I got the rock side of it. And it just kind of fell together. I needed a really harder rock [sound] - but not quite The Who. More like between The Who and Jet's "Are You Gonna Be My Girl."

Article Author: Sherry Lipp

Sherry writes mostly music and dvd reviews and on occasion she gets to do an interview. She plays the guitar, enjoys playing with her dog Pepsi and she and her husband are currently in the process of internationally adopting from Poland.

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