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"Adam is unusually confident in my mind but not in a pretentious way," Tedder said in an e-mail. "He has the confidence of a guy that absolutely knows who he is to the core, both musically and personally. He spent four days in Denver working with me and was as laid back and comfortable in my studio as he was being swarmed by fans when we went to dinner. For a first-time artist, he definitely had more control creatively than I've ever seen a new act given, but Adam is the kind of person that would rather not put out anything than put out something that was less than 100% his vision."
Pinfield, Fram's co-host on WRXP and a defining force within alternative rock as an MTV host during the 1990s, thinks his eclectic approach could work for Lambert. He might have a tough time on rock radio, Pinfield said, but the singer's fans might not care.
"There was a different world before, with the rock 'n' roll thing," he said. "Today, the same kids who love the Beatles and the Stones and Zeppelin could love Radiohead, and Adam Lambert. Young people today are not as worried about being genre specific."
In the studio, Lambert enlisted hot ingénues Pink and Lady Gaga as writers while securing some of that fabled rock cred by covering material by Justin Hawkins, formerly of English glam revivalists the Darkness, and Muse, a band that he loves.
"I listen to crazy, robust rock music where they sing their faces off, and soul music, which can be similar," Lambert said. "But I also listen to a lot of dance music. I love that style. I was a Paula Abdul fan, a Michael Jackson fan, a Madonna fan. When Christina Aguilera came out when I was in high school, that was a great example of someone taking the pop-dance feel but who could really sing. Pop stars have done it; it's just not a lot of guys have done it. Maybe it's a question of masculine persona."
The singer's edge
As an openly gay man during a time when that identity has become more acceptable (in the media, at least), Lambert starts with a surprising advantage over apparently straight rockers: He's expected to be in touch with his feminine side.
"I'm the gay guy pushing the straight boundaries," he said. "But that's what I did on the show! Like when I did 'Ring of Fire,' I went full-on with eye makeup, a really weird outfit and leather. The very next week, I did 'Tracks of My Tears' in a suit, looking really hetero. I was playing with my image. It wasn't that I was trying to be straight."
His playful pan-sexuality and flamboyant swagger, once qualities common to hard rockers, are now owned by the likes of Pink and Lady Gaga. Lambert understands that. He also cites Justin Timberlake as a kindred spirit, if not musically, then in terms of showmanship and fluid style.
"I think the next generation coming up is a little bit more open-minded," he said. "More accepting, more colorful, more multi-genre, multiethnic, multi-sexuality, which is more utopian. Or I think so. I hope so."
What separates Lambert from much of pop's young elite is his voice, an instrument whose timbre, power and range recalls those titans of hard rock.
"He can sing almost any note on a guitar from the lowest to highest," said Cavallo, who thinks Lambert's sense of style and soul, combined with that range, puts him in the realm of the greats. "And if you're in the studio with him and say, 'Can we get a little more dirty?' he'll go 'Waaaaah!' And then the microphone is melted and the speakers have exploded."
Lambert studied opera as a teenager, then turned away from lessons for a while. "I started rejecting the proper way to sing and I started singing," he said. "I was listening to more and more rock music and wondering, wow, how does that person do that with their voice?"
He discovered there was no name for what rock singers do. Lambert's singing, like his taste and his personal style, put him beyond a boundary.
"I met with [a vocal coach] over the summer and talked to him about it, and the funny thing was, you know when I do those little, crazy, screamy notes? He's like, 'We don't really have a way to teach that. It kind of goes outside of our box.' Those notes that sound sort of like rock-scream, no one ever taught me to do. I sort of had to teach myself. You just do it. It's just a sound you make."
ann.powers@latimes.com
Pinfield, Fram's co-host on WRXP and a defining force within alternative rock as an MTV host during the 1990s, thinks his eclectic approach could work for Lambert. He might have a tough time on rock radio, Pinfield said, but the singer's fans might not care.
"There was a different world before, with the rock 'n' roll thing," he said. "Today, the same kids who love the Beatles and the Stones and Zeppelin could love Radiohead, and Adam Lambert. Young people today are not as worried about being genre specific."
In the studio, Lambert enlisted hot ingénues Pink and Lady Gaga as writers while securing some of that fabled rock cred by covering material by Justin Hawkins, formerly of English glam revivalists the Darkness, and Muse, a band that he loves.
"I listen to crazy, robust rock music where they sing their faces off, and soul music, which can be similar," Lambert said. "But I also listen to a lot of dance music. I love that style. I was a Paula Abdul fan, a Michael Jackson fan, a Madonna fan. When Christina Aguilera came out when I was in high school, that was a great example of someone taking the pop-dance feel but who could really sing. Pop stars have done it; it's just not a lot of guys have done it. Maybe it's a question of masculine persona."
The singer's edge
As an openly gay man during a time when that identity has become more acceptable (in the media, at least), Lambert starts with a surprising advantage over apparently straight rockers: He's expected to be in touch with his feminine side.
"I'm the gay guy pushing the straight boundaries," he said. "But that's what I did on the show! Like when I did 'Ring of Fire,' I went full-on with eye makeup, a really weird outfit and leather. The very next week, I did 'Tracks of My Tears' in a suit, looking really hetero. I was playing with my image. It wasn't that I was trying to be straight."
His playful pan-sexuality and flamboyant swagger, once qualities common to hard rockers, are now owned by the likes of Pink and Lady Gaga. Lambert understands that. He also cites Justin Timberlake as a kindred spirit, if not musically, then in terms of showmanship and fluid style.
"I think the next generation coming up is a little bit more open-minded," he said. "More accepting, more colorful, more multi-genre, multiethnic, multi-sexuality, which is more utopian. Or I think so. I hope so."
What separates Lambert from much of pop's young elite is his voice, an instrument whose timbre, power and range recalls those titans of hard rock.
"He can sing almost any note on a guitar from the lowest to highest," said Cavallo, who thinks Lambert's sense of style and soul, combined with that range, puts him in the realm of the greats. "And if you're in the studio with him and say, 'Can we get a little more dirty?' he'll go 'Waaaaah!' And then the microphone is melted and the speakers have exploded."
Lambert studied opera as a teenager, then turned away from lessons for a while. "I started rejecting the proper way to sing and I started singing," he said. "I was listening to more and more rock music and wondering, wow, how does that person do that with their voice?"
He discovered there was no name for what rock singers do. Lambert's singing, like his taste and his personal style, put him beyond a boundary.
"I met with [a vocal coach] over the summer and talked to him about it, and the funny thing was, you know when I do those little, crazy, screamy notes? He's like, 'We don't really have a way to teach that. It kind of goes outside of our box.' Those notes that sound sort of like rock-scream, no one ever taught me to do. I sort of had to teach myself. You just do it. It's just a sound you make."
ann.powers@latimes.com
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