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Best-known as the runner-up from the fifth season of American Idol, Katharine McPhee is quickly establishing herself as an artist who can survive without the show -- a feat that hasn’t been achieved by many finalists. Her debut album, Katharine McPhee, dropped on January 30, 2007, and sold 116,000 copies in its first week, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart.
Well, it’s my first record. I’m super, super excited about it. And I’m just excited that I got to make the record that I wanted to make. [The sound is] more “poppy;” it’s like a rhythm-pop [album], and it does have R&B.
It’s a little bit younger than people would recall [from my sound] on Idol. And people ask me, “Oh, is that hard for you to make a decision to make a different record than what people thought?” If people ever ask me what kind of a record I want to make, I would say -- always, like even before Idol -- “I want to make a pop/R&B record.” But on Idol, I just got stuck in this older thing because that’s what I was comfortable with doing at the last minute. So after the show was over, I knew exactly what kind of record I wanted to make, but I had to tell people [at the label]: “No, no, no… that’s not quite the sound. Let’s go into the studio and develop songs from the ground up.”
Katharine is a self-proclaimed flirt. She admits, "That’s just so fun to go to a party and flirt.”
It was two and half months of really intense work and such great memories. I got the opportunity to write on the record, which was so exciting for me. And just a cool experience to go into a certain room and work on one song, and then go into another room and have a different bunch of writers working on another song, and just seeing the process develop right before your eyes. But I’m just so excited about it; I’m just so excited to go out there and sing live.
Just fun. It’s fun music. For girls too, it’s kind of empowering for some of them and it’s a younger Katharine. People didn’t really get to know me on Idol, so hopefully after this people will be like, “Oh, OK, there’s a smidgeon of Katharine we didn’t know about.” Katharine talks about her sexy album cover and reveals a little-known secret about herself...
I think those things are always kind of more [about] costumes, and they aren’t actually something I would wear out on a daily basis. To be honest, I’m really more of a jeans and T-shirt kind of a girl. That’s what I feel the most comfortable in, but I think you won’t see me walking down the street in thigh-highs and a little short skirt. But it just kind of gives you the idea that “Hello, I’m here.” It’s more of an attention-grabber, I think. It’s sexy and it’s definitely a part of me.
I’d like to work with My Chemical Romance -- people might be surprised by [that]. And I’d love to work with John Legend; I’d love to work with Chad Hugo again from the Neptunes and Pharrell. That would be amazing because [Pharrell] didn’t make any of the songs on the record, but I’m hoping on the second record we can really work together.
[I like] alternative… pop-rock [music]. I’m not like a hardcore rock [fan]. I love, back in the day, Journey’s stuff and all that kind of ‘80s rock -- but not hard metal. Yeah, I definitely have a rock side to me.
I think I’m going to be known as an Idol forever. Kelly Clarkson still gets put on the cover of Rolling Stone as an Idol. That’s always going to be a part of me. But I don’t look at it as a dark, heavy, sad cloud -- you know what I mean? It’s a franchise that has worked, and that has really been successful for people and so I look at it at something positive and something to be grateful for because you really don’t know if, without it, you would be where you are.
Katharine admits that she likes to smoke a cigarette once in a blue moon. She explains, "It just makes you feel sexy... is that bad?"
Well, before American Idol, I would wake up and see if I had an audition for that day and maybe I would go to dance class. You know, just try to fill the day. And then I would go to work at night… work at a restaurant or a clothing store or whatever I was doing at the time. And a year ago it was like just getting ready and geared up for American Idol, not knowing what was going to happen. So it’s pretty amazing how different my life is.
That’s kind of what I was doing before Idol; I was working as an actress in theater and also going up for television and film [roles]. But, yeah, it’s something I’d like to continue to do. I have an amazing team working with me, and right now we’re just really focused on the music, but I’d love to make films.
10 years from now I would honestly just like to be able to say that I’ve been someone who’s been able to work consistently. I don’t have to be a “gazillionaire;” what’s important to me is to just being able to work. You know, such a small percentage of people out there who are in the arts actually get to work consistently -- I think it’s like 1% or 2% or something. I’d like to do some Broadway in the future, and I’d like to have made a couple of films, maybe won some awards (I’ll put it out there!) -- that would be exciting.
Well I hope so. There hasn’t been a ton of discussion yet just because I think it always depends on how the music does and if the record sells and stuff. So, I hope so.
Pretty spontaneous, and really humbled just to see all those faces out there smiling at you and excited to see you. It’s just like, “Wow, these people took time out of their lives just to come see [me].”
A few interesting little tidbits there. I guess she really does like My Chemical Romance. I'm not sure what she'd do with them musically but...whatever.
I don't like the thing about enjoying a cigarette once in a blue moon. OK, it's fine once in a blue moon but singers should NOT be doing that!!! Plus, I find it unattractive anyway.
On the bright side, she can always get an endorsement contract with Virginia Slims:
Don't worry, the mass media will be its usual understanding self and not make a big deal out of it, they don't deliberately try to find bad things to say about people do they? Remember how quickly the Scientology kerfuffle blew over.