Interview: Michael Bublé, singer

Published on Sunday 2 May 2010 12:38

Michael Bublé admits that, as he set out to record his fourth studio album, Crazy Love, "I wasn't looking forward to singing these songs."

The Canadian vocalist, who has become a worldwide star by interpreting the Great American Songbook and mixing in a few pop and rock favourites performed in that style, was going through "a pretty rotten time," having recently broken up with his girlfriend, British actress Emily Blunt.

In 2007 he had written the hit Everything for her, but his song selection for Crazy Love reflected a much different state of mind, from the opening Cry Me a River to the Eagles' Heartache Tonight.

Even though his mood and his song list were perfectly matched, Bubl says, he was concerned about being able to "sell" the performances and adequately convey the emotions he was going through.

"There was a lot of introspection and sadness and regret, and at the same time hope," says the 34-year-old singer, who is now engaged to Argentine actress Luisana Lopilato, 22. "I had chosen these songs because I knew that, especially in the moment, I could really mean what I sang.

"It wasn't the most fun thing in the world," he says. "It was therapeutic, but it wasn't exactly a feelgood thing. But in a weird way, it was exciting for me to be that vulnerable and, for the first time, really, to be that honest."

It apparently worked. Crazy Love spent two weeks at No 1 on the Billboard 200 after its October release last year, and also hit the top spot in Canada, Italy and Australia, where it was quickly certified double-platinum.

"My mother called me and said, 'Are you surprised?' " he recalls with a laugh, "and I actually said, 'No'. I thought it was a great record. I set these goals for myself and naively hope I'll reach them. I truly feel like it's the most, I guess, authentic record I've made so far."

But then, his entire singing career has been built on naive hopes and a willingness to work outside the lines.

As a child growing up in Vancouver, he was introduced to the standards by his grandfather, who recognised Bubl's vocal gifts early and taught him about Sammy Cahn, Bobby Darin and Frank Sinatra, while Bubl also soaked up more "regular kid" sounds by the likes of the Beastie Boys, Michael Jackson, Madonna and Prince. Grandpa, a plumber, would take Bubl to clubs where he would barter with the musicians, trading free plumbing work in exchange for their letting the underage youth sit in with their bands.

As a teenager Bubl made his mark with the Canadian Youth Talent Search, toured in North American productions of Red Rock Diner and Swing, and wound up performing at the wedding of Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's daughter, where Grammy-winning producer David Foster heard the young singer and signed him to his 143 Records label.

His first album, Michael Bubl (2003), went double-platinum, while It's Time (2005) and Call Me Irresponsible (2007) debuted at No 1. He has also won numerous awards, including one Grammy.

Despite his success, however, he wanted to expand his creative range beyond what he felt he had achieved on those albums.

"I wanted to record a record with presence," he explains. "I kept listening to my previous work … and I'm not putting them down. I'm really proud of those records, and obviously, 22 million people bought them and they made people feel something. That's really important not to forget.

"But, at the same time, with that commercial success, I felt that I had a responsibility to be more honest to myself and to the fans," he says. "I didn't want the record to sound good, I wanted it to feel good."

Modelling Crazy Love after his favourite albums by The Beatles, Elvis Presley and Sinatra – "They feel like I'm in the room with them," he says – Bubl worked with Foster and the album's other producers, including Alan Chang, Humberto Garcia and Bob Rock, to find the feel he wanted. "As much as I could, I tried to go live off the floor and not use the machines," says Bubl, who co-produced You're Nobody Til Somebody Loves You and also co-wrote the album's first two singles, Haven't Met You Yet and Hold. "I tried to keep it real simple.

"There's certainly things I love about modern technology," he says. "There's certain things I dig totally about getting to tune up your voice. But you trade something. You trade soul for perfection and, if you're going to ask me what's worth more to me, I guess I'm going to have to answer, soul."

Nowhere was that more fully realised than in Baby (You've Got What It Takes), which he recorded in New York with the formidable soul ensemble Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, a session that he acknowledges made him "a little bit nervous because I'd never recorded like that before".

His nerves were settled, however, when he heard the first rhythm tracks and stepped into the studio to record the vocal.

"It was amazing, man," he recalls. "The drums just sounded incredibly warm. It sounded like the records I used to listen to."

He also took the risk of alienating the standards-lovers in his audience with Crazy Love's rock covers, the Van Morrison title track and Heartache Tonight.

The latter is a song that Bubl was singing in clubs even before he signed his recording contract, and he hopes those two songs tweak the sense of him that has been created by his first three albums.

"There's this image of me as a soft kind of mama's-boy guy, who I'm not at all," he says. "But look at the songs. It's Put Your Head on My Shoulder. It's You'll Never Find …, Lou Rawls. It's How Do You Mend a Broken Heart? by the Bee Gees. There's definitely an image being sold and an audience being reached out to.

"So for me, for (Crazy Love], it was awesome to do different stuff and do Baby (You've Got What It Takes) with Sharon and the Dap-Kings and work with my friends, like Ron Sexsmith, and to have more poppy songs,'' he says.

There's more where that came from. He plans to release a second, expanded version of Crazy Love this year, adding some of the other songs that he recorded during the sessions. Among those are The End of May, by a group called the Actual Tigers, which he says "is so beautiful I can't even tell you," and Hollywood Dead, which is set to be the album's third single.

"That's probably the best pop song I've ever been part of," says Bubl, who co-wrote the track with Toronto songwriter Robert Scott. "It's kind of like our take on the culture of celebrity and how (messed] up it is and how people lose their way in the hunt for fame.

"It's just one of those things saying, 'If you're going to go for it, don't give everything up for it. Remember where you came from' … You need to remember what you asked for when you get it."

Bubl is in the early stages of a world tour in support of the album, which began in North America in March and will last well into next year. He's playing mostly in arenas, having worked with production designers from Michael Jackson's aborted This Is It shows in London.

"I'm going to have a huge production, yeah," he says, "but I do not want to rely on lasers or pyrotechnics or a set to make my show entertaining. I think a good entertainer should be able to have a stool and a microphone and a glass of water, and you should be able to entertain people. I think all the production should be a bonus.

"What I want to create is intimacy," he says. "You're playing an arena, and it can be so cavernous and cold. I want to make it really intimate. That's the most important thing."

Michael Bubl plays a sell-out concert at the SECC in Glasgow next Saturday, 8 May. Call the box office for returns on 0844 395 4000.

New York Times

&#149 This article was first published in The Scotsman On Saturday, May 1, 2010