Aiden Grimshaw has spent two years away from the spotlight putting together his fantastic debut album.
He may have made his name as a contestant on X-Factor but he has come out with an album that is all his own.
I caught up with to him to chat about the release of Misty Eye and what lies ahead for him.
- You are about to release your debut album Misty Eye so what can fans expect from the new record?
I am not sure really. I do think that it is different a little bit different to what people would expect from an X-Factor album - but in a good way.
Yeah I think that it is different to what people expect but it is honest and I am dead happy with it.
- As you say the album is different to what people expect as it mixes some pop tracks, there are some dance elements in there as well as some great ballads so how would you describe the sound of this album?
It is difficult because it is so varied. But it is coherent and they all seem to fit together well but there is a good varied base I think.
I just think that it is an honest album, which is how I would describe it.
- I was reading a quote from you and you said that 'you had no idea what sort of music was really you' so how have you gone about discovering and developing your sound in the two years that you have been away?
It was weird coming off the X-Factor because I was eighteen and you don’t really know what you are doing - I didn’t know naff all about anything or I thought I knew everything about everything.
So it was interesting to come away. I remember my first few experiences in the studio and I was just like ‘whoa, what is going on? What am I doing? This is mental’.
But I think that you find what you should be doing by discovering what you definitely shouldn’t be doing.
In the two years we have made hundreds of tracks and some gave us an indication of where to go while others gave an indication of where definitely not to go (laughs).
- The writing and recording of this album has been a two year process so how important was it to you to take your time with this record?
Really important. I thought it was really important to move away from the X-Factor thing and live a normal teenage life for a couple of years - so I had some experiences and grew up; I grew up as a person.
I think I just needed to get a little bit older and a bit wiser - I learnt how to change light bulbs and cook chicken and that sort of stuff. So it has been a really good process for me.
- And how did you find stepping into the album for the first time as a solo artist?
It was good. It was a little bit daunting at first because you don’t know how to speak as there are loads of people in the rooms and sometimes your confidence isn’t that high when you go into a room filled with strangers.
But it was good as it was a proper learning curve. I feel that I have been able to learn the basis of everything over the last couple of years instead of just being thrown in at the deep end and seeing how long I can stay afloat.
- So how have you found the early response to the record?
It has been really good, it has been amazing. The debut single went much better than we thought that it would and the second single has been taken really well by radio and people have been writing really nice things about it.
But I suppose I have mostly been excited about the album coming out as we have taken our time with it.
For me, it was about creating an album that was consistent and was a body of work that I could be proud of so if I took it home to show my friends I wouldn’t have to skip track four or be a bit cringy about track seven. I can play it all the way through and I am really happy about it.
- You have worked with a whole host of writers and musicians on this record so how have you found the whole process of writing with other people?
Yeah there are a couple of other people on it but the whole process has really just been me and the producer just sat in his studio - I call it a shed but it is really his studio; it’s a building at the end of the garden therefore I call it a shed.
The whole time was just me and him in there and it was really easy. I spent three months with this dude and we spoke about things and we gelled instantly and he is probably one of the few people who genuinely understands the weird things that I say.
So it was good because we just worked together and vibed. All the other people that came in and helped us on stuff were friends that I have had; a couple of the tracks were written at home in my spare room with a mate that I have met along the way. It has just felt like a really cool and organic process.
- As you said you have hooked up with Jarred Rogers and he serves as producer so how did that collaboration come about?
Over the two years you go around and meet people and we have always felt that it was important to find somebody who you gel with - especially as I am so weird (laughs).
So we met Jarred and we had a two day session where we instantly got on; in those two days we wrote the first song on the album and I was like ‘this guy has got to do the whole thing’.
- Well you have slightly touched on my next question how did you find working with him? And how beneficial was it having him as you were trying to develop your sound?
I only met Jarred in November of last year and he was the first producer I went into the studio with where there was no brief - there was no ‘we have got to make a song like this song that sounds a bit different to that song’ it was just we went in and wrote things that felt honest and good.
He is a great guy and we just instantly got on. It was 50/50 in everything that we did in there and we shared the work. He just pushed me every time and I pushed him.
He could be a bit of a diva as I couldn’t go in in the morning without taking him some Trebor Soft Mints.
- You are also going to be heading out on a headline tour in September so what can we expect from that?
Same thing maybe - the album is different to what people expect and so the live show should be similar. There are some big noises on the album and so the live thing should be a bit more like that.
I have been lucky enough to get a bands of six great musicians and so I think it should be a big sound - any boyfriends who have been dragged along by their girlfriends should leave thinking ‘yeah that was actually alright’.
- How excited are you about getting out on the road and showing off the tracks on this album?
I am really excited as I haven’t really performed anywhere for two years as I have just been sat in my flat.
And so to get back out and finally be able to be singing on stage and your own tour and it is your own music it’s loads of amazing things rolled into one. So I am really really excited.
- Of course you came to everyone's attention of X-Factor so what did you take away from that experience?
Just to not look like you are going to murder someone all of the time (laughs) - just stop being a grumpy eighteen year old.
It was mental because one day I was working at Pizza Hut and the next I was some dude who looked like he was going to murder someone while singing Mad World.
It is a crazy process but what I learnt was that you just have to make your voice the loudest and you have got to know what you want to do and make sure that everyone else knows what you want to do.
- How have you found the transition from contestant to professional musician?
Pretty easy really. I cam off the show and for a couple of months I was ‘Mad World Aiden’ and as soon as time I lost the trademark quiff nobody really noticed me anymore so it was fine (laughs). It was dead quick and that brought me back down to earth with a bang.
- You have had success here in the UK with your singles so are there plans to push your music out into Europe and possibly America?
That would be amazing and I wouldn’t mind that at all. But at first we will see how things go here and if they like it and want to hear it then that would be fantastic - everyone loves a holiday.
- Finally what's coming up for you for the rest of the year?
So the album is out on the 20th and, as you say, we have got the headline tour from the 19th September - that ends in October. Then I am not sure we will just have to see where that takes us.
As I said I have had two years of sitting in my flat so I am just taking every day as it comes and enjoying being busy.
Aiden Grimshaw’s debut album Misty Eye is out now - check out what we thought of the record here.
Click here to buy the Album Misty Eye
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
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