ANTHONY Callea didn't want a big party to celebrate his 30th birthday.
Instead the singer, who placed as runner-up on the 2004 season of Australian Idol, chose to mark his third decade with an album of songs that have inspired him throughout his life.
"I haven't put an album out for a while so I wanted to put an album together and I thought turning 30 was a good excuse to celebrate that milestone," Callea says.
The album (titled Thirty) includes covers of Cheap Trick's The Flame, Heart's Alone and Dance With My Father by Luther Vandross, along with two originals, My All and I'll Be The One, and a couple of Italian songs to pay homage to his family background
"This album was probably one of the easiest albums to put together and I say that in a really good way," Callea says.
"I've lived with these songs for so many years and I wanted to record songs that have somewhat influenced me over the last 30 years.
"These songs have been part of my life and I've sung a lot of them live but I've just never recorded them so it was a great opportunity to sit down and go 'OK what are the songs that really have spoken to me and captured me'.
"It wasn't about recreating these songs at all. It was about just putting my stamp on them and hopefully I've done that without playing around with them too much."
The album was recorded in Callea's home town of Melbourne with all of the strings on the album recorded live.
Releasing the album spells the beginning of a new partnership with ABC Music who released Thirty after Callea approached them with the project earlier this year.
"It was a bit daunting - totally," Callea laughs.
"You want to do this thing so badly and you want these people to come on board and so it's like you need to sell it to them.
"I'm so glad that they understood what I wanted to do with the album from word go."
Callea, who has been chosen as one of the acts to perform at the opening ceremony of the Special Olympics 2013 Asia Pacific Games in Newcastle on December 1, is touring the album with a run of dates in Victoria, NSW and Queensland.
The singer says he owes a lot to Australian Idol, conceding that the show was a huge stepping stone in his music career.
"I still get to wake up everyday and say that I'm a singer so it's pretty cool," Callea says.
"I don't have any regrets whatsoever. I wouldn't be able to do what I'm doing right now if it wasn't for that show.
"It gave me an amazing launch pad and it taught me so many things and I walked away with so many experiences and lessons learnt from that show.
"I was young - I was 21 - and I can only speak from my experience but the hard work definitely starts as soon as that show's over.
"At times it did get a little bit overwhelming but if you don't get lost in the hype of the show and just remember why you actually walked into that audition room in the first place then hopefully you can keep it all together."
As well as the tour, Callea is also appearing in a production of Grease The Musical which kicks off in Brisbane next month.
He says his partner of five years, House Husbands actor Tim Campbell, offers him plenty of tips for the stage.
"I'm the first one to put my hand up and say 'I'm not really the actor, I'm more the singer' [laughs], so living in a household where one's a singer and one's an actor, it's great," Callea says.
"I can give him singing tips and he can give me acting tips, so it's a fair swap. I've saved myself $100 an hour!"
Anthony Callea performs at Belmont 16 Foot Sailing Club on August 3. Bookings online at 16s.com.au or phone 49450888.
Anthony Callea burst onto the Australian music scene as the runner-up of Australian Idol in 2004, and since then he’s been working steadily in different parts of the industry, whether it’s supporting touring artists (including Diana Ross, Celine Dion and Whitney Houston), performing in musical theatre stage productions, or recording new music. His latest album, Thirty, is a compilation of covers, 12 songs that have had deep meaning in his life, and he’s about to embark on a national tour. On top of that, he recently landed the role of Johnny Casino in the upcoming production of Grease. We caught up with Anthony for the scoop on recording Thirty and why certain songs have stood out for him. You’re 30 now — how have your thirties been treating you so far? You know what, so far so good. I remember leading up to turning 30 I was a little bit, like anyone, it freaks you out a little bit, you’re leaving your twenties, but I’ve got so many friends in their thirties and they were like, ‘What are you worrying about? It’s actually really good to be in your thirties.’ So I was like, ‘OK, I guess I have to trust you on that, and I can’t really do anything about it.’ The first few months have been really good, so I can’t complain. How easy or hard was it to choose 10 songs that have defined your life, or made a huge impact? To be honest, it was probably easier than any other album I’ve put together. When you have grown up with a lot of these songs and they’ve been part of your life, and I’ve performed a lot of these songs on a regular basis with my band at events and corporates and all that stuff, I didn’t have to think twice about a lot of these songs because I love them. I thought, ‘If I have to think twice about any of these songs, then they’re not the right song to put on this album.’ There are songs like “When You Believe” and “Go the Distance” that I’ve been singing for years. I’ve sung them with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and I’ve never recorded them, so I thought this is the perfect opportunity to record these songs, and songs that I love and have made an impact on me.
More from Anthony when you keep reading. Those two tracks, for me, are familiar because they’re from animations — how much do movies influence you in that way? Not a lot! [Laughs] I know, a lot of people have said that. To be honest, and this sound really bad, but I’m not really a full-on movie buff. I’m not one of those people who goes to the movies all the time, or has to check out a movie, especially when it comes to animation! I’m just not the biggest fan. However, these two songs are just brilliant and stand out on their own; they don’t need the movie, I think. “When You Believe” was fitting for me to have on the album because I opened up for Mariah [Carey] and Whitney [Houston], and they obviously originally recorded that song. When I went to New York I went to [composer] Stephen Schwartz’s house, and I actually held his Grammy and Oscar for this song. They were in his alarmed cabinet in his apartment and I got him to open it, and I just went, ‘That’s pretty cool.’ So there’s a great story behind that track, and behind a lot of these songs there’s a reason why they’re on the album. You have stayed faithful with most of the covers in terms of arrangements — was that always your intention or did you want to try different things, too? Totally. I never wanted to recreate these songs — that was never the intention. Why would I? They’re beautifully-written songs and I’m a big believer in if they’re not broken, why try to fix them? I didn’t want to change them, I wanted to record them with live musicians and live strings. I basically said to James Kempster, who I asked to produce this album, “I want you to stay true to these songs, I just want to put my own stamp on them. Even when I record my vocal, I don’t want too many bells and whistles. I just want it to be as real as possible,” and hopefully that comes through when you hear it, because I didn’t want it to be a ridiculously-overproduced album. I just wanted to record a beautiful live album, and hopefully we’ve achieved that. It came together quite nicely, and it was probably one of the best experiences I’ve had putting an album together.
When I wanted to record this album I walked into a couple of record companies, and when I walked into ABC Music I just knew that it felt right. I said, “This is what I want to do: I want to call it Thirty; I want James Kempster to produce it because I’ve known him for nine years and he knows my voice back to front; these are the songs; I want Susie Ahern to do a duet with me because I’ve known her for 15 years; I want live strings and musicians . . .” I was waiting for them to turn around and say, “What are you on? You can’t have all this,” and it was actually quite the opposite. They were so open and basically let me do what I wanted to do. Do you keep up with all the singing shows on these days? To be honest, if I’m home I’ll most likely put it on and watch it, but lately I haven’t really gotten into it [The Voice], and with the first series I was actually in LA, so I was only seeing snippets online. I did Australian Idol nine years ago, and I think the whole dynamic and structure of these shows have changed dramatically, especially with social media that’s come into play. It’s changed the whole game a little bit, and that goes for a lot of industries, not just the music and entertainment industries.
You just hope these people going onto these shows can take something good from it and use it to their advantage. And that they realise that it’s actually not about the contestants on these shows anymore, it’s about the TV show. It’s about the hype of the TV show, so don’t fall into the trap of believing in your own hype, because it’s actually not about you. [Laughs] The hard work starts as soon as you’re off that show. It gives you an amazing platform, and for me I wouldn’t change it for the world because Idol gave me a massive launch pad. With any nine-year period there’s always going to be ups and downs. I’ve turned 30 and nine years down the track I still get to wake up every day and call myself a singer, and say that’s my job, so I’m pretty lucky, but it goes with a lot of hard work. How did you get cast in Grease and how influential was it for you growing up? I think Grease is one of those movies that everyone loves — I don’t think you can come across one person who doesn’t like the musical, or the movie. To be part of a show like that is going to be lots of fun — for me it’s not your traditional musical like Les Mis, it’s more of a jukebox, feel-good musical that you can bring the family to, and that everyone’s going to enjoy. So when they came to me and asked, “Can you be part of it?” I went, “Yeah, you know what, that sounds like a lot of fun.” And I get to work with my old pal Bert Newton again, so I’m very excited about that.
ANTHONY'S TOUR DATES
Saturday 13 July — The Palms, Crown Casino Melbourne, VIC Friday 26 July — Bankstown Sports Club, NSW Saturday 27 July — Dee Why RSL, NSW Friday 2 August — South Sydney Juniors, NSW Saturday 3 August — Belmont 16 Foot Sailing Club (Newcastle), NSW Friday 9 August — Broncos Leagues Club, QLD Saturday 10 August — Twin Towns Resort, QLD
Anthony Callea is soon to be out on the road, bringing his new album Thirty to a fan base that has been hanging out for some new material to sink their teeth into. The vocal powerhouse and recent ABC Music label member, chats with me about making the album, how personal it was for him to be releasing the selected originals in amongst some covers of songs that have personal significance for him and touring the material in a brand new live show!
Thanks for taking some time out to have a bit of a chat!
Oh all good, thank you!
The tour is going to be kicking off relatively soon – how exciting is it to be taking this new album out?
Yeah, it’s a month until I kick it off in Melbourne with the first show. I suppose, for me, I can definitely say that this is the best part about what I do. You can coop me up in a studio for so long and as much as I love that process of putting an album together, I really do, I love it when you can just get out there and perform with your band in front of an audience that actually wants to be there. It’s not a corporate or it’s not an event where people are already going to be there; it’s pretty cool to think that you’re putting on a show and people are spending decent money to see you sing. I’m very lucky to be able to do what I love and you know, have a great life. It’s good! [Laughs]
You’ve always been known as quite the dynamic and energetic performer and vocalist – with these shows coming up, was there any game plan set in stone for how you wanted these particular shows to be formed?
Definitely, I’ve been working on these shows for a few weeks now and just tightening it up and looking forward to getting into the rehearsal studio with my band, that’s going to be a lot of fun. Obviously, there’s definitely going to be some structure to these shows, but I want them to be live, vocals shows. I’ve got some great musicians and I’m taking Suzie [Ahern] out on the road too. I’ve known her for 15 years and she’s an amazing singer; there’s going to be a duet in there and she’s going to be doing all the backing vocals. These musicians I’m working with, I’ve known for quite a while now, so they know me inside and out. It’s just great to be able to work with musicians like that and hopefully, I want people to walk away and be like, ‘That was a really great vocal show’. There’s not going to be too many bells and whistles but at the same time, hopefully it’s going to be a lot of fun. For me it will be, so hopefully for them it will be the same! I guess, for a performer like yourself, all the reviews that have come out from your shows are always praising your voice and they’ve frequently commented on the fact that the vocals have always been a massive part of the live show. In that sense, your voice is the ‘bells and whistles’ aspect – people go to hear that recognisable voice.
Well, if people go away saying that, then that means I’ve done my job well! That’s great! [Laughs]
Just on the new album, Thirty…it’s a great thing to be in a position where you can go ‘Okay, let’s make an album full of songs that I really admire, give them my own spin and also add some originals’. That must have been a pretty cool record to make.
This album didn’t come from a record company, there was no A&R person that said, ‘We want to do this and we want to put this album together’. Basically, I had the idea early last year and I wanted to put this album together myself; I was unsigned at the time and so I walked in to a few record companies and said, ‘This is what I want to do and this is my plan, this is how I want to put this album together’. I had this whole concept of what I wanted to do and I was really fortunate that ABC and their relationship with Universal took this project on board and we’ve been able to produce a really beautiful album. I’m so happy with it and when I put it on a listen to it, it’s something that I’m really proud of. Hopefully that comes through; when you listen to it, these songs have somehow meant something to me along the way, along the last 30 years.
It wasn’t about recreating these songs at all, because they’re beautiful, classic songs. Let’s not play with them too much, but let’s pay respect to these songs; whether it was the songwriter or the artist behind these songs, or even just the lyrics and the melody, somehow they had affected me. I wanted to go in the studio and just put my spin on these songs without changing them too much. A lot of the songs too, obviously there are your big, power ballad anthems, but there’s a song that I wrote called “I’ll Be The One”, which I really love and it’s quite sensitive and quite basic in terms of production. I think that is what makes that song work. Hopefully, when you listen to this album, it does take you on a little bit of a musical journey.
Totally. With “I’ll Be The One” and the other original track ("My All") featured on the record, what was it about these tracks that made you decided that it would be this album that fitted them specifically?
For me, I wrote both these songs probably about four years ago and I’ve done a lot of writing since then, but I’ve just been waiting for the right time to have these two songs a part of a body of work that actually complemented every song on the album. I didn’t want to just throw these two songs out there and just hope they stuck, I wanted them to be part of a body of work that worked well together. When I was putting these songs together I was like, ‘You know what? I want to put these two songs on the album because I think they would really work’! It was beautiful to have these two originals on there, plus the covers and then having some Italian on there as well because obviously, that is part of my heritage. I wanted to put this album together that was a good mix of songs that reflected me.
Definitely, I think that putting together a collection of material that is ultimately coming from quite a personal place…that must be a cool feeling to have as it gets out there.
Yeah, it’s just makes it real. You learn a lot; in the last nine years since I stepped off that Idol stage, obviously you learn a lot…
Has it really been nine years?
Yeah, it’s been nine years, don’t worry I’ve got the wrinkles to prove it! [Laughs] You go through a few obstacles along the way and I suppose that, when I was putting this album together, I didn’t want to fall in to any trap of putting an album together for any wrong reasons. I wanted to make sure it came from a good place and it was probably one of the most enjoyable recording experiences that I’ve ever had. Working with James [Kempster], I didn’t have to go and base myself in Sydney for this album; it was just nice to be able to wake up and go to bed in Melbourne and then just drive to the studio and work with James, who has known me for so long. It was a good experience.
That’s awesome to hear. Now, I see you’ve just done a run of in-store signings; I miss those days where you could actually rock up with your physical copy and meet the artist regularly!
[Laughs] Oh tell me about it! Kids probably don’t even know what a physical copy of a CD is today!
So with this run of appearances and now the tour coming up, it’s fair to say that you’re going to be kept pretty busy.
Totally, basically, the day after I finish my last show at Twin Towns, which I think is technically NSW although I think it’s more Gold Coast…the next day, I basically go straight into the theatre to start rehearsing for Grease, which is opening up in Brisbane. Until the end of March next year at least, I’m working. So that’s a good thing!
Well yeah, you’ll be in a job!
For a musician, that’s a good thing! [Laughs]
For sure – it’s great to see you, any musician really, being able to perform and produce music they enjoy on their own terms.
Oh thank you, I appreciate it.
Thanks for the chat Anthony, it’ll be great to see how the tour goes and everything that comes after it!
Oh thank you. Take care!
Anthony Callea will be performing along the east coast in July and August. Check out www.anthonycallea.com/shows.php for more information!
