it’s from Brian Mansfield who according to David is a really nice guy!! you can see that with these totally super interviews!!

David Archuleta talks Nashville, new songs and forthcoming memoir

(click on David for the source)

Last week, David Archuleta returned to Nashville to write more songs for his next album. As he did during his last Music City visit in October, he worked with singer/songwriter Joy Williams, even staying at the house of Williams and her husband, Nate Yetton.

“Sometimes, people are like, ‘Nashville, it’s only the country and the ballads,’” David said Friday morning, while sitting at Williams’ breakfast table, eating a bowl of cereal and granola. “They are good at that kind of stuff, but they care about the music. Sometimes people forget that special thing and piece to music that is so important. People get lost in ‘We need the hit’ and ‘We need the hook.’ So much is missing from that that I enjoy about music.”

David and Williams brought a variety of other writers into last week’s collaborations, among them Cary Barlowe (co-writer of Lady Antebellum’s latest country hit, American Honey), Hillary Lindsey (Carrie Underwood’s Jesus, Take the Wheel), Danny Orton (Josh Gracin and Tim McGraw’s Telluride), Jenn Schott and Jamie Kenney.

“Jamie’s just such a sensitive person,” says the 19-year-old singer. “Even the melodies, and the way he plays the piano are so sensitive and emotional. When he was playing the piano part on the track, he paid so much attention to the way he played, how it emoted and what was trying to be said and felt in the song. I loved that. I’ve never seen anybody pay that much attention to those kinds of details, which I loved.”

On Tuesday, for instance, David, Williams, Kenney and Jesse Frasure wrote a song called Nervous. “It’s about going ahead and doing it, even if you’re scared,” David says. “The main thing is, ‘So what if I’m nervous?’ Sometimes you have to take those risks, and sometimes you’ll be nervous, but why should that be an excuse? Some things, you need to do that way. And sometimes those are the most fulfilling things in life.

Monday brought a love song with Jeremy Bowes and Cindy Morgan (“It wasn’t about anyone specifically; it was about wondering who that person might be in the future”). Wednesday yielded a ballad with Kenney and Schott (“It was an honest song, about admitting that you’re not perfect … It’s just about letting the inside out”).

In all, David says he’s written about 20 songs so far for his next album. And as much as he’d like to have more hit singles, he says it’s more important to him to convey his personality through his music.

“So many people know who I am and say they’re fans and don’t know I have an album out, even,” he says. “People are still fans, and it’s interesting, because it’s not even because of my music.

I want people to say, ‘I appreciate what David’s trying to do, in that he tries his best to be who he is and keep doing what he’s doing, and that shows in his music. I can see him and feel him in his music. I can see his personality, and I can see what he believes in and what’s important to him.’”

David started writing for the album in the fall, but then came his Christmas album and holiday tour. Then had had to work on his memoir, Chords of Strength: A Memoir of Soul, Song and the Power of Perseverance, set for a June 1 release.

“Now I’m finally getting back to the music,” he says.

Writing Chords of Strength was a difficult process, David says. “I never thought I was interesting enough to write about myself. I didn’t think I had enough words to come out of me to make sense.”

David calls writing the book a great learning experience, “because it helped me remember things I hadn’t thought about for a long time. Sometimes you get so caught up in what everybody else is focusing on — the music, American Idol — that that’s where your life is. It’s like that’s where you were born.

“Some people don’t even think about your life before music. Even the writer I was working with would just focus on music. I started liking music and singing when I was 6. I didn’t feel that into it until I was 11. I had a life.

“But my life isn’t just music. Music’s a part of my life. That’s the thing I tried to make most apparent: Music is a part of my life, it isn’t my life.”

David generally shies away from discussing his religious convictions during interviews. “I don’t want to weird people out,” he says. “People have different views of life, and I try to respect that. I feel like music has a universal common ground, so I’ve just let the music do the speaking.”

However, he delves into the subject of his faith in Chords of Strength.

“I decided if people want to know who I am, they need to know this about me, this part of my life and how important it is to me and how it has affected my decisions, how I view things, and why I am who I am.

“I feel like God’s the reason why I’m here, and the way that I’ve tried to do what I feel is right is the reason why I’m here.

“Sometimes I feel like I don’t have the knowledge it takes to be in this position. I don’t know if I deserve this. But God has different plans for me, and I trust him.”

While David’s last trip to Nashville involved several outings in additions to his writing sessions, this most recent visit was more work-focused. He even had to skip a Lady Antebellum concert, which he had hoped to attend with actress/singer Jennette McCurdy because he was in the studio recording one of the new songs.

“I still want to go to the Pancake Pantry,” he says. “That’s the place that people keep telling me about. I haven’t been there yet.”

David Archuleta reflects on ‘Imagine’

(click on David for the source)

I’ve always thought David Archuleta’s Imagine was one of the riskiest choices a contestant has made on American Idol.

There were so many ways that February 2008 performance could have backfired on David. Simon Cowell acknowledged as much afterward, telling David it was “very, very risky to do a John Lennon song — particularly that one.”

After all, Imagine is an iconic song with a simple melody and a message considered both sacred and profane by different groups of people. Beatles fans could have turned on him David for having the audacity to change the melody so much — or simply for being 17 and sing it. The judges might have thought it was too old — or too weighty — for him.

If David had sung the first verse about imagining there’s no Heaven, he probably never would have won back large segments of the show’s conservative, religious viewers. But starting the song’s on the third verse could have caused problems, too. It might have sent the message that he wasn’t willing to sing that first verse — even though he had time constraints as an excuse.

There were so many reasons that performance might not have worked — and the fact that David sang and smiled his way right past every last one of them made him one of that season’s instant favorites.

It turns out, though, that Imagine wasn’t David’s first choice that week.

“I actually picked another song before I picked Imagine,” David says, though he declines to name the other number. “But I knew I needed to do Imagine.

“It was scary, because everyone else was doing uptempo stuff. It was ’70s Week. It was, like, feel-good week. I didn’t even know that no one else picked slow songs until rehearsals, and I was scared.”

David even went so far as working up the arrangement of the first song, only later telling producers that he wanted to change his performance number.

“They were not happy that I wanted to change,” he recalls. First of all, switching songs made an already tight schedule even tighter. Secondly, they wanted David to sing the song’s first verse.

But David stuck to his guns.

“There are more important things about the song than the first verse,” he says. “I leaves it to what matters — what matters in life and what matters in music. That song captures those things perfectly, and it captured what I wanted to do with music. It captured why I felt like I needed to be there and what I needed to say.

“Some people were, like, ‘Why didn’t he sing the first verse?’ You know what? The third verse is my favorite one. Not everybody focuses on what the song’s about — they just focus on those first words and obsess about ‘how bad it is.’ I’m a religious person. I felt like this song meant more than that, and I wasn’t going to let that distraction get in the way.

“People were upset that I wouldn’t do the first verse — ‘That’s the verse everyone knows!’ You know what? People need to listen to the song. I didn’t want people to think they already knew the song. I wanted people to listen, because there’s more meaning, and it captures a substance in music that is so meaningful to me.”

David says he also understood that, with switching verses, he ran the risk of being considered “cheesy,” but “it didn’t matter, because I said what I needed to say.

“Same with this next album. Maybe it’s cheesy, but there’s a point where you have to be brave to be cheesy, because you know it’s what you’re supposed to do. Maybe I’m a cheesy person, but that’s who I am. I’m not going to pretend to be somebody else just to humor society.”

The David Archuleta Music Scholarship: Mission Statement
Our Mission: To provide musically inclined, outstandingly dedicated high school students with the funds to strive for musical achievements in an instructional establishment of higher education.

What an effort!! Click on the pic to read more about this amazing scholorship and see how you can donate whatever little you can to some talented deserving students!!

David on EXTRA!!

Credit: StarryNites01

oh i love how they chose his solo part to air! ))

Scans from Malaysian magazine “Kwanku”!

thanks Archuleta Avenue Malaysia for the scans!

And lastly….

Teaser Trailer from Yvette’s awesome experience in Malaysia with David!!

wooo can’t wait for the full one!!

If you haven’t read them, you should go read her experience so far here!! it’s so worth it!! epic stuff i’ll remember for a reaaalllyyyyyy loonnggg time!!:D

Gosh it’s just a whole new avatar everytime! happy, cheery, uhhh–dooooo—rable!!!! i truly felt like i was watching a li’l cuddly bunny/bear talking animatedly!! so much happiness that emanates from his persona!! makes my whole entire life each and everytime!!!!:D

SOURCE

Catching up with David Archuleta

Season 7 runner-up David Archuleta has a new album in the works, a book about to hit the shelves, and a very busy few months staring him in the adorably dimpled face. But the 19-year-old native of Murray, Utah, still made time to talk to us between his travels to Nashville for songwriting sessions. The follow-up to David’s gold-selling debut is slated for release later this year, but read on to learn about its progress, as well as David’s experience with the Spanish-language “We Are the World” and his thoughts on the new season of “American Idol.”

What do you think of Season 9 so far?

I just really feel for the contestants. I want to talk to them, to tell them: I went through this, and I know what it’s like. While you’re there, you’re overwhelmed with so many different things. It’s a lot of work but you’re gonna learn so much from it, and there will be so many opportunities that you wouldn’t even imagine coming to you. And all the people who work on “Idol” — so many of them made what I thought was an impossible dream come true. These are the people who can really change your life.

Talent-wise, do they measure up to previous contestants?

I think they’re really talented. They show a lot of their own personalities, and I liked that about them. And there’s some really good singers, too. Like Andrew Garcia, I like the character that he’s shown. I feel like there’s a lot of pressure for them because people are now expecting them to change up the songs, and they’re not sure exactly what to be showing people. It’s matter of balance — changing the song enough to show who you are but still preserving the song for what made it magical.

Is that the secret, David? You would know, having made it all the way to the finale.

It’s difficult. You only have so much time in the day to think about that. Especially for the kids who are in school who study and are supposed to use their brain in another way for a lot of the day. Sometimes it’s hard to focus on both things at once, especially when you have to sing in front of millions of people. But “Idol” is like boot camp — that’s what I always say. It just makes you strong and gives you the knowledge and experience that you’ll need in the future. I’m excited to continue watching.

Tell us about your new material, and how long you’ve been working on it.

I’ve been working on it since January, but I had my first writing sessions in the summer, and I went to Nashville to write in October. Then the Christmas album came out and sort of took over, but I go back to Nashville this week.

Why Nashville?

It’s a really fun town, and I just love the people there. They’re really focused, very humble people, and the writers want the songs to be meaningful. That means a lot to me. It’s just a matter of finding that balance between radio hits and songs that really bring a message across to people. Plus, I love to tell a story, but I want to talk about my own stories, so I’ve been learning a lot about the writing process by working with people like Matt Squire.

Is there something you’re trying to accomplish with this record that you weren’t able to do on the first one?

[Lyrically], I just want it to sound more like me. I want people to say, “This is David talking.” Instead of just interpreting — and I’m sure there will be songs like that — I want to focus on showing people who I am, what my personality is like and hoping that I leave an impression on people. Even if it’s a light, fun topic, I still want it to make people think. I don’t want a typical everyday relationship song. If it’s going to be about a relationship, I want to create an image in people’s minds and let their imaginations go.

Have any current artists helped inspire you as the album has come together?

Jason Mraz, A Fine Frenzy, Owl City, Imogen Heap… those are some of my favorite artists. I love how Imogen gets you thinking and her music paints all these pictures in your mind. Owl City too, the weird abstractness makes all these colors and images come to life in your head. I love it when a song can do that. I don’t wanna get too abstract about it, but I want people to have a good time with the music and for it to match my personality. That’s kind of the goal right now, which is still kind of difficult because I’m still figuring out what exactly I want to do.

Please tell us we won’t be hearing you all auto-tuned. …

I hate auto-tune! There’s a certain emotion that you work on trying to get into your voice all these years, and I feel like auto-tune takes that away. Sometimes imperfections are supposed to be there! I have a hard time singing with it on because I pay so much attention to what is coming out of me, that when what I’m hearing in my headphones is not the same as what’s actually coming out, it really throws me off. So, no, I’m not a fan of auto-tune.

One of your songs, “She’s Not You,” was leaked recently. Is it a contender for this new album?

That was like the third song I ever recorded a year and a half ago. I don’t know how it got leaked. I guess people are hacking into things a lot more, like Jason Mraz’s Twitter [account] got hacked into.
I recorded over 30 songs for my first album, and this was one of them. It was written by E-Man [Emanuel Kiriakou], who wrote “Crush,” and I really liked recording it, but it didn’t make the record. And now, he worked hard to write that song, record it and produce it, but because it’s not released or for sale on iTunes, he’s not being provided for all the work he did. So I feel really bad for him.

Your book, “Chords of Strength,” is coming out. How do you respond to those who say you’re too young to write a memoir?

I agree with them. When the idea was brought to me, I was like, “Huh? I’m only 19, and I don’t think my life has been that interesting.” At first, I wasn’t sure how I was going to do it. Except in my liner notes [laughs], I was never good at writing a lot. Even in school, I always stayed after class because I’d never finish my essay in time. So writing has been a challenge but something I’ve been working on. Also, a lot of people ask me questions about my life, and I thought this is a great way for me to finally explain how I managed to get to this point at a young age and why I’m still the way I am. That’s the focus in the book: There were so many times when I thought, “I’m not good enough,” or, “There’s no way this is going to happen,” and then it does happen. I like to share those things with people, which is what music’s all about — having even a small influence by sharing my stories.

What was the process like?

It was very challenging, but I feel like it taught me a lot of things. It brought back memories that I completely forgot about because it got me thinking deeper and in more detail.

Last month you joined Emilio and Gloria Estefan, Ricky Martin, Shakira and a host of Latin luminaries to take part in “Somos El Mundo,” the Spanish-Language version of “We Are the World.” How was that experience for you?

It was just amazing to be around so many Latin artists. I was a little nervous because I don’t have the greatest Spanish, but I was able to get by. And my mom idolizes Gloria Estefan, so I brought her with me, which was really special. Plus, I just love to be able to reach out, and I love when people come together for such a good cause. I feel such a love for people [in need] especially now, with all the things that have been happening, not just with Haiti.

Would you consider doing a Spanish album?

I really want to. I love those people. I love what they’re all about, the culture they’ve given to me in my life with my mom’s side of the family. … Latin people are so passionate about music and emotional and expressive that way.

Perez Hilton recently suggested that Gloria Estefan would be a good “Idol” judge. Would you agree?

I think she’d be a really good candidate. She has a lot of knowledge, she’s a songwriter and a performer, she’s been under those pressures and has accomplished a lot in her life. Plus, she’s a very nice, down-to-earth person. I think she’d be a really good candidate.

Any plans for you to appear on the show this year?

I’d love to. I really wanna go back, and I’ve been trying to watch this season as much as I can.

thanks all you lovely archuweeple for the heads up!

makes me wish for a looonnnggg and new video blog!!!! <333

Looks like some of us still can’t seem to view it, Lisa on twitter shares that “The DNS is still propagating around the world. They’ll see it eventually.” thanks for the info! so here are some screencaps courtesy zs803 on IdolForums!

Hope this change helps David get more and more people to discover his music and know him!!! this world needs more Archies and ArchAngels!:))

Click on David to watch the video from Univision!

and now it’s just David!!

Credit: r2rod2

And we’re all groooooving and mooovin to She’s notchuuuuu LOL! it’s official that i can’t stop listening to it gah! it’s David and RnB in one!! <33

Credit: thebeatreview

Oh how i’ve fallen for this song, this voice, this persona, this heart! <33

ET – http://pt-br.justin.tv/karipu7#r=Dp7dt1k~

PT – http://www.montecristochannel.3a2.com/

David sounds DIVINE!!!!!! DIVINE!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Its  on Youtube for the moment, but PLEASE buy it legally from iTunes at http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/somos-mundo-25-por-haiti-single/id359012602

Thanks for the initial find @omygoshashley and thanks to musicrt on youtube for the upload. Picture courtesy of http://justjaredjr.buzznet.com

David Archuleta joins We The Kings at their concert in The Great Salt Air at Magna, Utah

Check the video posted by @alarmvsme.

We’ll keep you updated on this!

Dylan trying to teach David to Yo Yo

UPDATE!

It is now available for Pre-order at Amazon and the release date will be on the 4th of May.

PS. Now if anyone has a large resolution of that cover… ya know what I’m talking about. haha

Would you scream? and Die?

This woman right here is very, VERY VERY lucky to receive a phone call from him.

AND OMG. David sang to her. LIKE OMG. THE DAVID ARCHULETA SANG TO YOU.

I won a contest and the prize was a phone call from David Archuleta! He called me and we talked about some sweet stuff! He’s so nice! and then at the end he sang happy birthday to me because my birthday was last week :] totally made my day!

Tweet her here. I can’t get over, she’s one SUPER LUCKY woman!