Catchy Acoustics: An Interview with Singer/Songwriter Tyler Stimpson

He might not be this year’s winner of American Idol, but East Bay native Tyler Stimpson has a bright future ahead of him. The up-and-coming singer/songwriter was the featured artist at UrbanKnightRadio.com’s final Tuesday Tunes event of Spring 2015 on May 5.

“I started getting into music when I was about 13 years old, which is when I started my YouTube channel,” said Stimpson, who is an online student at the Berklee College of Music. “My dad started teaching me how to play guitar then, and we started learning blues covers and just been going since then.”

Continue reading Catchy Acoustics: An Interview with Singer/Songwriter Tyler Stimpson

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Idol Wired >> Keith Urban and Nicki Minaj Join Mariah Carey and Randy Jackson on ‘Idol’s’ Judging Panel

Continue reading Idol Wired >> Keith Urban and Nicki Minaj Join Mariah Carey and Randy Jackson on ‘Idol’s’ Judging Panel

Wait…WHAT?’s Favorite Concert Moments of 2011

2011 was apparently the year of the live show. I somehow managed to attend 27 shows this year, which is a new record for me. I saw some artists for the first time, like Rihanna, Goo Goo Dolls, and Keith Urban. I also tallied up more shows from some of my favorites, like Gavin DeGraw, Kris Allen, and David Cook.

Continue reading Wait…WHAT?’s Favorite Concert Moments of 2011

RECAP: Keith Urban LIVE at the HP Pavilion in San Jose

On the morning of October 1, I received this awesome email that told me that I had won two tickets to Keith Urban’s Get Closer tour that night at the HP Pavilion.  SCORE!

Granted I’m not a huge country music fan, but I’ve been a Keith Urban fan since college. I remember hearing “You’ll Think of Me” on the radio and swooning over his voice. I was not about to pass up on an opportunity to see him live, even if I was fighting off one of the worst colds ever. Robitussin cough syrup, kids. Works miracles.

I have to say that Keith Urban is one helluva performer! This show had all my favorite things: a great stage set-up, with a huge digital screen as to see Keith’s beautiful, smiling face throughout the show, audience participation, a flow to the set list, and cute boys playing everything from bass to banjos.

Continue reading RECAP: Keith Urban LIVE at the HP Pavilion in San Jose

Tour Talk With Kris Allen

As his tour with Lifehouse comes to a close this week, Kris Allen took some time to talk with me about being on tour the past year supporting different artists, the “Alright With Me” video he did for his fans, and what he thinks is the biggest misconception about his music.

I caught your show the other night in San Francisco, it was great.

Thanks, that was a really fun show.

My friend mentioned after the show that her favorite part about your set was that you’re converting Lifehouse fans in about eight songs or less.

Tell her thanks. That’s kind of what we’re trying to do.

Can you tell while you’re performing that you are drawing people into your music?

I feel like we can tell. It takes about three or four songs. You know they’re like, “Oh, this is fun,” and by the end they’re like “Wow, that was a lot of fun!” And it’s always cool when you can win over the dudes. Girls are probably the best fans that you can have, but when you can win over the guys at a show, especially the older guys, it’s awesome.

Very cool. You’ve supported different bands this year on tour. Is it a feeling of “same thing, different band” or is the vibe different on each tour?

I think it’s a different vibe, you know? We were out with totally different kinds of artists. We went out with Maroon 5, and Keith Urban, and now Lifehouse. Also, I think the vibe really depends on the venue. With Keith, we were playing those monster fairs with like 10,000 people there. With Maroon 5, it was like smaller outdoors stuff, but still pretty big. And with Lifehouse we’re doing theatres. It’s been a blast, it really has been for every one of them.

Is it more intimidating to play a small intimate show or a large venue?

The most intimidating crowd to play for is about five people. When it’s super small and you’re just sitting in a room with friends and they’ll go “Hey Kris, sing us a song,” you’re like, “Oh no, I can’t do that.” It’s really weird.

In the beginning of the tour you had “Man In The Mirror” on the set list, and then switched it out for Tears For Fears’ “Everybody Wants To Rule The World,” what was behind that decision?

I think that it was a conscious decision to say you know what, “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” is a little more upbeat of a song. And we’ve been playing “Man In The Mirror” forever. It was just nice to play something new, and I think when we introduce new stuff into the set everyone gets excited about it. It may not be perfect at first, and it may not even be that great, but we get excited about playing new stuff. Continue reading Tour Talk With Kris Allen