David has displayed an ability to assess new situations rapidly and incorporate his learning without sacrificing any of his unique characteristics. The challenges involved in working a crowd can be formidable, but after several weeks of performances David has clearly raised his game in this regard. His affection for his home turf in Utah certainly helps, but there is a considerable level of comfort and control in evidence here that offers exciting glimpses of what David is likely to bring to adoring audiences in the years to come. The ‘gosh laughs’ are still there (I hope they never disappear), but now too is some real bravado, and a level of ownership of the stage that we haven’t quite seen before.

I’ve said that when David has dominion, no one can touch him, and here’s a great example, Stand By Me from the Tuesday night show in Salt Lake City. Note how he works the crowd before the number. Becky/ITTO’s videos are also some of the best we’ve seen yet–be sure to check out the rest of her recent posts at YouTube.

Heaven

Download it here

Crazy

NSFW if weeping will alarm your colleagues.

The phenom strikes again. Unreal.

Here’s a download of the MP3

“Apologize” from the Tacoma show. Dare I say it? Is our little David bringin’ the smexy?

Caseydog is one of our regular commentators and a working journalist for a prominent northwest newspaper. He got a chance to sit down with David for a few minutes at the Tacoma show and filed this report exclusively for notingDavid. Thanks, Caseydog!

Good morning, Angels!

I decided I owe you all a better account of the interview I had with David yesterday afternoon. Here are my assembled Archie “tweets,” as well as some other added tidbits. I only had him for about five minutes. And I had more questions we didn’t have time for - Dang it!

Before I get started though, I have to say it was kind of surreal sitting down at a table and talking to a person I’ve “idolized” from afar for more than five months. My good fortune to actually be chatting with the person from the talent show video (”I’ll Be”) and the Mormon youth assembly (”Angels”) didn’t really hit me until it was all over - way too quickly. (BTW, each idol only does press on alternate tour stops, so I was lucky that this was David’s day!)

Keep in mind that I was doing this for my newspaper as part of my job, so it would have been out to place to tell him how much I enjoy his singing or ask for his autograph. No photos were allowed in this press room. (And no, Jeff Archuleta was not hovering behind him. He was nowhere to be seen.)

David was brought over to my table and we were introduced. I shook his hand. He seemed a bit tired, and I guess he was more soft-spoken than usual because he was told to rest his voice.

I asked him if he’d been to Seattle before and he said he had, visiting relatives. He was trying to remember the town around here where the kids have to take a boat to school. He thought it was Valencia, but I’m not aware of any town in the state with that name. This was classic David rambling time. At one point I said we kinda have to move on with the questioning and he said his classic “Sor-ree.”

I told him I thought he must get tired of the same old questions all the time, so I thought we’d try something different. “Ice cream or frozen yogurt?” I said. He kind of gave me a quizzical look and I said which do you prefer. “Neither!” He said he loved ice cream, but about a month ago he stopped eating dairy because it’s known to increase the amount of phlegm. Gotta keep that voice pure!

“Video games or board games?” Archie said video, “but it depends. I like Scrabble and Boggle too.”

“City or country?” Again he waffled, saying he liked both for different reasons. He said he loves getting out in the outdoors, but that he loves the cities too.

Then it was on to the more meaty stuff. I asked how he felt about the upcoming shows in Salt Lake City. He said it’s always nice to go back and see his family be home again, that he’s really excited about it. Hmm. I couldn’t help but think he still has not grasped the extent of his popularity. Won’t SLC be off the charts INSANE? He’s too modest to admit something like that though.

Then I asked him how the new album was going. He said he was working on it on his off days. I asked him if he has to fly to LA to record or do they come to him. He said it was some of both.

He said the biggest eye-opener for him has been all the various aspects of the album-making process: meetings with the label, talking to songwriters and producers, the intensity of “laying down the various tracks” of a song. He said it was much more detail-oriented than the iTunes recording sessions.

He said he spent a lot of time going over the lyrics of the songs to make sure they were appropriate, and then tried to work on the music that accompanies the lyrics and singing. He implied that the instrumentation for the iTunes recordings was almost an afterthought - not so with the new album. That’s good news for his fans who had to live with things like sleigh bells in his iTunes recordings.

David used the phrase “right balance” to describe the type of songs on his album. He certainly wants “radio-friendly” songs that are “catchy,” but there need to be message songs too. He kind of rambled a bit on this too, but it was clear he was really putting a lot of thought into crafting the right mix. He said he wanted it to be soulful too, bringing up John Mayer again.

I told him the presales on his unnamed album shot him up to No. 4 on Amazon. He seemed to indicate he knew about that, but I’m not totally sure. I told him Coldplay was No. 1, and he immediately diverted the topic to Coldplay rather than his own album. David said he loved Coldplay and would love for his songs to have a “big sound” like that.

About this time the handler was hovering over David and we got the hint and said goodbye. I could have used another hour!

It was a joy to meet him and learn a little more about him. Years (or maybe only a few months) later when he’s a worldwide superstar, I will be able to look back and say, “In July 2008 I had the pleasure of meeting and talking with David. I’m sure I’ll never forget the experience.”

David’s incredible generosity to his fans is already becoming legendary, and the tour is only just underway. In city after city, report after report describes David as utterly gracious, thoroughly engaged, and willing to indulge his fans in almost any request. He is often the last of the performers to leave the crowds of autograph and snap seekers–and then often only after insistence by security.

This is hardly due to the fact that David wants to bask in the adoration. Indeed, what we know already about his personality suggests quite the opposite; he is rather uncomfortable with the idea of notoriety, he is shy and admittedly awkward in social situations. Despite years of praise and applause and even screaming girls (some of the early videos reveal just how soon this particular phenomenon started), David’s natural humility still compels him to characterize all the attention as “weird.”

Due to his introverted nature, David’s natural inclination would be to avoid the very scenes that now require his participation. Yet here is a young man who frets at the possibility that each and every fan won’t get their opportunity with him. He has handled some of the most awkward moments anyone could encounter with enormous grace and tact (what would you do if someone you didn’t even know was sobbing uncontrollably at you?). If he is asked about something he is not at liberty to discuss (his first single, for example, which savvy fans were able to identify by scouring the ASCAP registrations) David gets flustered, not, I would suggest, because he doesn’t know how to politely demur or cheerfully chastise, but because it pains him not to be able to give a fan what they want.

As unlikely as this combination of characteristics might be for someone whose livelihood involves a spotlight both onstage and off, this level of generosity, this degree of selflessness, is not an inconsequential aspect of David’s power as a performer. In classes about performance technique, one of the concepts discussed and dissected is the notion of availability. The potential for a performer to truly connect with people’s hearts and minds is realized to a large extent by how open, how accessible–how available–that performer is willing to be to his or her audience. Make no mistake: this is a courageous thing. It takes an unusual amount of self possession to allow an audience access to the truth of one’s emotional life. It is why the greatest singers in the world have always characterized their very public work as a very intimate act.

It will be interesting to see how David’s availability in offstage settings evolves over time, especially as his star rises, his public expands, and the press gets increasingly ravenous. Privacy issues aren’t likely to become an issue anytime soon (I have a hunch that we won’t be seeing any romantic liaisons for quite some time), but David will at some point need to make some determinations about boundaries that I suspect won’t be easy for him.

Until then, we have this tremendous example of mutual devotion, both initiated and perpetuated by one remarkable young man. There is little doubt in my mind that the audience response and the dedication of the fans have been fundamental to the increasingly full-throttle performances. It’s as if the so-called bubble David was in during the show season effectively omitted half the equation. Now, the circle is complete. And what fuels David is not the knowledge that his fans are there for him, but the knowledge that he can be there–and available–for them.

Thanks to Jennifer at Fanblast for the magnificent photo of David in Portland, OR.

David to Sing “Crazy” This Tuesday

Official announcements are now posted for David’s appearance on Salt Lake City’s NBC affiliate KSL channel 5 at 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, July 15th. David will appear on the station’s mid-morning show, Studio 5, and is scheduled to perform Crazy by Gnarls Barkley.

As most of you know, David sang this as part of his Hollywood audition for American Idol, but broadcast rights could not be secured and the performance never aired. Viewers did see the judges’ reactions to the performance, however, which included some of the highest praise that David–or anyone-received during the entire season.

Crazy was the first single from Gnarls Barkley, a musical collaboration between Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo, from their 2006 debut album “St. Elsewhere.” It became a top-ten hit throughout Europe, North America and Oceania in the first half of 2006, reaching number one on the singles charts in the UK, Ireland, Denmark, Canada, New Zealand and other countries. The song won a 2007 Grammy Award for Best Urban/Alternative Performance, and was also nominated as Record of the Year. It won a 2006 MTV Europe Music Award for Best Song, and was named the best song of 2006 by Rolling Stone and by the Village Voice’s annual Pazz & Jop critics poll.

The KSL channel homepage includes a panel labeled “KSL On Demand,” but the only streaming media appears to be their radio station.

Imagine Imaginary Images
I’ve always been so enamored of R4D’s magnificent, totally over-the-top collages centered around David’s photographs, and there seems to be no end to the creativity. Here are just a couple of examples.

See all the wonderful work here.

I Can Dream Can’t I?
Okay, so, I don’t mean to start a topic about what we’d all like to hear David sing (but don’t let me stop you), only this song came into my head like a storm today with David’s name written all over it.

I mean, come on, right?!

On the Playlist

I finally ran into Cody (a.k.a. Lucid, a.k.a. SonicEther) the other night online, and was delighted to learn that he got to meet David at long last. Cody, for those of you who don’t know, is a brilliant young musician, one of the original Love Nuggets, who has a heart-rending back-story that culminates in David’s music having contributed to his new lease on life. He is profiled in the “Hero” book put together by Linha and presented to David at his homecoming. Cody has gone on-tour with Eric and the crazy crew from Fanblast, and appears to indeed be having himself a blast.

Cody reports that when he met David, he reminded him about the dance remix we had produced from his AI studio recording of Think of Me (which we knew that David knew about through Dean Kaelin).

“He looked at me kind of blankly for a few moments, trying to figure out what I was talking about,” said Cody, “and then suddenly his eyes brightened like fireworks and he said, ‘Oh, my gosh! You did that? How did you do that? I downloaded it and I have it on my iPod!’ ”

Needless to say, Cody was stoked. Okay, so am I.

Play and download the remix here.