Q&A with American Idol's Anoop Desai
Ray Mickshaw/FOX
Anoop Desai brought a cool kind of confidence to the American Idol stage. With standout performances like "You're Always on My Mind" and "Everything I Do," Anoop had audiences on their feet. Find out why this top seven contestant feels he can do better, and will.
Screening Room: So, tell us what this whole American Idol experience has been like for you.Anoop Desai: It's been insane. You know, the show is one thing, and then you get off and it's a completely different thing that's still very busy. But right now, it's sort of figuring out where I'm going to go from here because, you know, we start hopefully talking to record labels and things this summer. That's going to be a very exciting time for me. It's kind of a stressful time because you want to make sure you're putting your best foot forward on tour so you can attract those writers, producers and labels.
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SR: The American Idol tour seems like a big opportunity.
AD: I'm really excited about the tour. I think just getting up there and singing. Because you know, for me, I still feel like I have something to prove, definitely. Not only to the people I was mentioning before, but to the fans, too, because I think that I didn't do all that I wanted to do with my time on the show. So, I'm sort of looking at this as a time to prove myself and to really set myself up for a successful career from here on out.
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SR: What do you want to prove?
AD: I'd like to show people that I'm a contemporary singer and artist. I got to do that a little bit, but throughout the show I was still finding myself. I'm sort of looking forward to doing a couple of the songs I did on the show but sort of doing them either a little differently or doing them better. Quite frankly, I would watch back some of my performances and just think that I could have sung them better or just performed better. So I'm looking forward to doing that on a nightly basis. You know, this is, like I said, this is a proving ground. So if I can do that, if I can get that practice and people see me, then that's really the goal for me.
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SR: Do you feel the pressure has lessened some now?
AD: Yeah, it does feel like it'll be a notch down just because the judging isn't right in front of you. ... You're not going out in front of 30 million; you're going out in front of 30,000 people, but still a big crowd. But I think there's a pressure, like I was saying, from here on out, the pressure you put on yourself to do the best you can do. And for us who don't make it to the top two, it's really the pressure to show people that you belong there.
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SR: What inspires you?
AD: On a daily basis what inspires me is to do my best, because I'm the type of person who's hard on myself when I know I haven't lived up to my own expectations and so, that's, in a very general sense, what keeps me going every day. ... In a more spiritual way, I guess just my friends and my family. They inspire me every day because I think through this process I've sort of found out how much support I have and who my friends are and how much they care about me. And that's a very inspiring thing, when you realize the people you care about the most are also the people who care about you the most. So that's a very special thing.
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SR: What's the best piece of advice you've received?
AD: It's actually something that the vocal coaches told me, and my fans are telling me, and my friends told me, and everyone's told me—it's just smile more. You know, because when I'm onstage I have a tendency, I guess, to just look like I'm thinking a lot, and that's because I am. But that is not only something that comes across better onscreen, but also helps me to stay on pitch. If you smile, you're going to do better. That's just been my experience. ... It's a really simple thing, but it's crucial.
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SR: It seems like you really appreciate hearing the feedback.
AD: That's invaluable. When we're in dress rehearsal, we have 10 people watching us, telling us, "Oh, maybe you want to do this; maybe you want to do that." It's overwhelming, but if you can take the good advice from them, it's helpful. Because at the end of the day, hopefully, we're going to be, I'm going to be touring for a long time, and I'm going to be on TV a lot. ... It's really helpful to have that feedback when you're practicing, because this is, pretty much, a dry run for us, and hopefully it's going to go well into the future.
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SR: Okay, so tell us, what's playing in your iPod?
AD: Let me go to my recently played. Okay, I have the Lonely Island thing from Saturday Night Live, called "I'm on a Boat," featuring T-Pain, that's the last thing I listened to. A new Rick Ross song called "Maybach Music."Beyoncé, "Halo." "Knock You Down," Keri Hilson. "Kiss Me Through the Phone," Soulja Boy.
I feel like I haven't gotten the chance to listen to new music in a long time. I feel like I'm listening to music, pop music, on an entirely different level now because I'm hearing what they're doing to make themselves sound a certain way and what the production value on a song is. You can sort of tell where they cut and pasted, and you can tell that their engineer or their producer said, "Why don't you try it like this?"
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SR: If you had the perfect day off, what would it be?
AD: My best friend is getting married in Chapel Hill, and so all my close friends are going to be there. His family, who I'm close with, is going to be there, but we're going to be on tour. If I had one day off, if it wasn't a general thing ... it would be August 29, and I'd go to my friend's wedding.
Want to hear directly from Anoop yourself? Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/anoopdoggdesai
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