Aled Interviews Lemar

29 March 2010

Aled Chats To Lemar

Kids In Glass Houses couldn’t take over FemaleFirst without interviewing another musician, so we hooked front man Aled up with our favourite Fame Academy winner, Lemar to chat about his Greatest Hits album.

Hey man, how’s it going?

Yeah, im alright thanks had a pretty traumatic day - I had a flat tyre in North London, but it’s okay, I’ve got it sorted now!

So I’m here to talk about your new album The Hits, so what made you decide to do a greatest hits?

Well I just think that now everything is much more fast paced, people get it quicker, use it quicker and I think that the days when you waited 10 years before bringing out a greatest hits are gone now and so I think six albums is a good time, I thought it would be cool to have a look back at what I’ve done, have a party and bring the next album!

You’ve had phenomenal success over the last four albums, three of which went platinum, how did you go about choosing the greatest hits?

Well it was mainly because there are two or three songs which everyone knows of each record so there were them, and I was always planning on making the album about 11 songs, so after picking the most popular track, I went and recorded a couple of new ones to give people a bit of insight into what I want to do moving forward.

Are there any album songs that weren’t singles that you really wanted on there?

There is one song on there which I really wanted people to hear, it’s a track called Mayday and I really wanted people to have a chance to listen to it so I put it on there. Same for the track, What About Love, which is a song I play live and it always seems to go down really well, but most of the rest are singles.

So if you were to choose just one track for people to download to refresh their love for Lemar and convince them to go out and purchase The Hits, what would it be?

It would probably be Dance With U, my first song because it holds a lot of memories and it was my entry into the music business so it’s the one.

Lemar

It’s a good tune Lemar. Right, now we know you made your name on Fame Academy, so what do you make of shows like The X Factor taking over TV - is it really the ideal platform for getting into the business these days?

I wouldn’t say ideal - I just think over the years those kind of shows have become massive, but at the end of the day it’s just a glorified talent show but if you’ve done your homework already and you have something to offer then why not give it a go?

Okay, thoughts on Jedward…?

As people - For, but physically against!

Okay, good answer, well back to you - will you be going on tour to support The Hits?

I’d like to, we haven’t finished finalising that just yet, but if we do it will be after summer and not before. I’ve got a couple of shows over the summer and I have another single from this album to come out, so I’m going to be very busy with that but hopefully after summer ill be out on the road.

Okay, so we need to get to know each other more now Lemar, so tell me an interesting fact about you that nooone else knows so we can be connected forever and ever.

That noone knows? [Aled: yeah, just me and you, on the down low…] on the down low? Oh no! I don’t know… [Aled: you can make one up if you like…] okay, erm, I can fly a helicopter. Actually I have flown a helicopter, but I cant say I did it on my own.

Wow, that’s awesome, is it better than playing shows?

Erm, well shows are slightly better but the sense of flying is pretty cool.

Lemar

Wow, im going to have to give it a whirl. Now, out of all the songs in the world ever, which song do you wish you’d written?

Marvin Gaye - Sexual Healing

Would you ever consider covering it or is it too precious to touch?

I think that version is so classic and timeless it would be impossible to touch

Now, the girls at FemaleFirst are working on finding a new fella for Cheryl Cole (personally I don’t care about what she does) but they’re thinking Peter Andre or Calum Best… what do you reckon?

I think she should stay single for a while, go out and party and enjoy her new found freedom. Then after about two years she can think about meeting a new man.

Wise words Lemar! Thank you very much for your time and good luck with the new record.

Yes, you too, good luck with the new album. Take care. Laters.

Aled Phillips : Kids In Glass Houses.