November 14, 2008

'American Idol' Runner-Up David Archuleta Shows His Range On Debut Album

By Jocelyn Vena, with reporting by Jim Cantiello (MTV.com)

Remember that episode of The Brady Bunch where Peter's voice changes while the gang is recording a song? David Archuleta wishes that would happen to him.

"Well, I think my voice is getting lower - I'd like to think anyway," he told MTV News, while promoting his self-titled debut album. "It's actually a lot lower than it used to be, which is kind of funny, 'cause I don't exactly have the lowest voice. It's actually gotten a lot lower."

While competing on American Idol earlier this year, Archuleta became known for his ballads. But the Idol runner-up hopes that, on the album, he can show everyone he's not just some kid that sings sappy songs. "I'm 17; I'm still a teenager. I still really like pop and this is what I do, and I just wanted to show that I still wanted to be relatable to kids my own age," he said.

This is one of the reasons why he chose "Crush" to be the first single off the album. "I think it was a really important song, 'cause it was the first one to show myself as an artist and to give people an idea of where I was going to go with my music," he explained. "It surprised a lot of people, because they were expecting this Josh Groban-type song.

"There are actually a couple ballads on the album, and I tried to give as much as a variety as I could, just to show different sides," he continued. "If I did any more ballads, I didn't want to fall into that little place where I [was] stuck on the show. I wanted to show that I'm not just Mr. Ballad. I'm 17 and I love music. Maybe in the future the music will mature as I mature."

The teen also co-wrote two songs on the album, "Don't Let Go" (which he wrote with JC Chasez) and "A Little Too Not Over You." He said that recording a song he had a hand in crafting wasn't any more difficult than singing someone else's song, but it did allow him to have a better understanding of what he was singing about.

"There was a song called 'Don't Let Go,' and that was a lot of fun to record 'cause I really understood the song," he explained. " 'A Little Too Not Over You' was a fun collaboration. That one was a little more difficult to record, just because it was a little more rhythm and things going on with the song."

And unlike some other former Idol contestants who had post-show issues with their record labels, Archuleta insists things went quite smoothly for him. "The label was really good to work with, and they had some ideas, and I had some ideas too. We found a compromise, but they were really easygoing, and they were open to our ideas," he said. "They were really great."