Kicking off a new feature with a Wait…WHAT? favorite!
2011 was a big year for Tim Halperin. The Texas-based singer-songwriter competed on season 10 of American Idol, where he made it all the way to the semi-finals as part of the Top 24. He kept his post-show momentum rolling by releasing his single, “The Last Song,” only days after his Idol exit.
Last September, Halperin released his debut full-length album, Rise and Fall. The album debuted at #14 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums Chart.
The singer is already making the most of 2012 with the release of his new music video for “I Wanna Fall in Love.” Directed by Chris Wiegand, the video was shot earlier this year in the Bahamas.
Earlier this week, Halperin graciously took the time to chat with Wait…WHAT? for the blog’s newest feature, Five Questions With…, where he talked about the “I Wanna Fall in Love” video, working on new music, and who he is rooting for this season on Idol.
Five Questions With…Tim Halperin
How did the song “I Wanna Fall in Love” come about?
The song, “I Wanna Fall in Love,” you know, it’s one of those straightforward songs. It’s just a purely honest song. I wrote it after I had been single for a few months and you get to that place where you think that if you fall in love with somebody it’s going to cure all your problems, make the world a better place to live in, and so I wrote it from that place. I tried to stay true to that, because everybody’s been there and a lot of the times it’s hard to capture that emotion. So I wrote it from there, and I just wanted to produce it in a lighthearted and fun way. That’s where the video came from too.
What were some differences shooting this video and shooting the video for “The Last Song”?
It was like night and day. “The Last Song” was so concept heavy. You know, it was one of those videos shoots that, you know, you have to be so true to the art and so true to make it come across in the right way, because the emotion of that song comes from a very deep place. “I Wanna Fall in Love” is like a lighthearted, fun, and free and floaty kind of song, so it was completely different.
The “I Wanna Fall in Love” video was shot on a cruise ship literally over the course of two days, probably a total of five hours. “The Last Song” music video was shot over three days, probably a total of about 30 hours. Just completely different styles, completely different concepts, whereas “I Wanna Fall in Love” is very easy to keep track with, “The Last Song” is open to interpretation to the viewer
You know that I’m a fan of Rise and Fall, but do you have any new music in the works?
Yes, absolutely. I’ve been writing quite a bit lately, between co-writes and writing on my own. There are a couple of songs that I’m pretty excited about. You may have seen a couple of the videos that I’ve done with Hayley Orrantia from X Factor; we had a song that we wrote together and it’s one of those mature songs, you know? The song is called, “It’s Too Late.” I think Hayley and I are going to do an EP together, probably within the next six months, since we’ve been writing a lot and recording quite a bit.
So there’s that song and there’s another song that I wrote that I’m really excited about called, “Criminal.” It’s a little more dark, and it’s a little bit – kind of like “Bullet,” but at the same time, it’s a little bit of a faster tempo. It’s kind of funny, you know Jacob Lusk, he and I were doing a writing session together, and I showed him that song and he freaked out, cause he loved it so much. I think it’s going to be a really good pop song.
You mentioned Hayley and you two have put together different cover videos lately, including Justin Bieber’s new single, “Boyfriend” – how do you decide which songs you’re going to cover?
With Hayley, we decided to do One Direction because of The X Factor connection. Hayley actually knew Savan, who wrote the song “What Makes You Beautiful.” He was the vocal coach for her and her group Lakoda Rayne . She mentioned [that song] and I had heard it on XM Radio, because they had sort of championed that single this last summer. So we decided to cover it, because of the whole reality TV connection. It just made sense.
So we did that song, and then she and I were sitting around and trying to decide whether we should do an original or a cover. I just did a Google search to see who was coming out with a new single, and I saw that Bieber was coming out with a new single. We decided to cover that song, and we decided that three days before the single came out. His single came out Monday morning and we made it a point to just set aside Monday to do a cover of that song and try to get it out within 24 hours. We did that and it was crazy, because literally that was eight days ago and the video is about to hit 100,000 views.
Lastly, who are you rooting for on Idol this season?
Definitely Colton. I dig the fact that he knows who he is and he’s not afraid of that. I loved his voice last year too. It’s tough, because there’s always so much talent. I’m so psyched that he got the shot that he deserves this year.
For more information on Tim Halperin, check out his official website.
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