i dunno if this has been posted. and i don't know where else to post...but from the Noise from San Fran Bay Guardian.
www.sfbg.com/blogs/music/2009/07/omfg_american_idol_interview_s.html Nice guy Anoop Desai.
San Francisco Bay Guardian: With your busy tour schedule, my first question has to be, are you getting enough rest?
Anoop Desai: Yeah. You know, most nights it’s just like, after you get off stage, obviously the adrenaline rush goes down and then you’re tired, and you have to do meet and greets. We get to go outside and sign stuff for the fans, so that’s cool. But by the time we make it back to the hotel, it’s like one in the morning. You know, I try and work out in the morning and then catch the bus, so — I don’t know, it’s a routine. It is pretty tiring, but I think we’re all getting enough rest.
SFBG: How is touring different from how you imagined?
AD: It’s actually kind of how I imagined it. Yeah, big bus, going around staying in hotels, and just singing every night. The best part of it is when we’re on stage, so that’s what we always look forward to.
SFBG: With all the press you’ve been doing, what question are you tired of hearing?
AD: I don’t know. I always hate questions about, like, the show [American Idol]. Because the TV show is one thing and now this is a very, very different thing that we’re doing. So I hate when people are like, “Hey, remember when you did this four months ago?” Yeah, I do, but I don’t really care about that and you shouldn’t either.
SFBG: You have all of this newfound exposure, not all of it positive. Do you read the gossip blogs, or do you try to avoid them? Do they bother you at all?
AD: It doesn’t bother me. When we first started out on tour, I just read a couple of reviews and stuff, which were all favorable. But one of the things we learned from our experience in Hollywood is that you can’t read all that stuff, because eventually someone’s gonna say something bad about you that might mess with you if you’re not careful. I am quite content going out there and trying to best my performance every night, and being content with that. And I think it’s going well for me.
SFBG: Is there any song you’ve performed that you never want to perform again?
AD: I mean, “Beat It.” I think now, given [Michael Jackson's death], that song officially can never be touched by anyone ever again.
SFBG: And on a lighter note, how about a song you haven’t had a chance to perform that you’d love to do?
AD: Well, any of Stevie Wonder’s stuff. I really admire him as a songwriter and as a singer. I think all of his songs are just so filled with emotion. “All’s Fair in Love” is a beautiful, beautiful song. I don’t know, I would love to sort of get my chance to interpret his stuff, because I think it does take a fair amount of interpretation. You can’t sing it exactly like him, because he’s the greatest.
SFBG: Is there anyone you didn’t get a chance to know while you were doing the show whom you’ve gotten to know on tour?
AD: To a degree, I think definitely Michael, Michael Sarver. He left tenth, so we were together for about two weeks. We all hang out together anyway, but out of all the people I didn’t know well before, now I know him really well.
SFBG: So you’re in Twitter now, as, I think, everyone else is?
AD: Most of us are. [Since this interview was conducted, all of the top 10 finalists have joined Twitter.]
SFBG: Even though you control what you write, you’re still sort of putting yourself out there. Is it weird having so many followers knowing what you’re doing and how you’re feeling?
AD: No. I mean, the only thing about Twitter is sometimes it becomes a burden, just because you feel like you have to keep people updated. Since I got it, if you go 24 hours without writing something on that thing, people start freaking out. So that’s weird. But I say everything on there from, “Hey, thank you to all the fans,” and then this morning, for whatever reason — remember the old Goldfish commercial? “I love goldfishes ‘cause they’re so delicious…”
SFBG: Yeah.
AD: Yeah, so I put that on there this morning.
SFBG: Yeah, that was stuck in my head all morning, because I read your Twitter.
AD: I don’t know why it was in my head. I wasn’t even listening to it.
SFBG: That’s tremendous power, though. You got that song stuck in many people’s heads!
AD: (laughs) Yeah.
SFBG: Kind of random question — hopefully you haven’t heard it. If you had to have a theme song that played whenever you entered a room, what would you want it to be?
AD: I’ve been asked this once before —
SFBG: Damn.
AD: And I said “Out Here Grindin’.” It’s a DJ Khaled song. It’s like Rick Ross and Akon and, you know, just a bunch of people, like he does. So that would be mine. But the best one that I’ve ever heard, one of my good friends used to play baseball at Ole Miss, and his walkout song was “Pony” by Ginuwine. I thought that was hilarious. That would be a really good one.
SFBG: You were in Sacramento last night. You’re off to San Jose tomorrow. Have you had any downtime to do fun Bay Area things?
AD: Not really. I went to Papalote two nights ago. I still have a couple friends who are here. We got in two nights ago, got to have dinner with them. But all in all it’s just, we leave the hotel in the morning, we get back at one in the morning. Especially when we have back-to-back-to-back shows, it’s pretty impossible.
SFBG: Are you able to go out and not get mobbed by fans?
AD: No, you know, most people are pretty cool about it. Even if people do recognize us, it’s more quiet. Like, “Hey, look over there, it’s that guy.” Which is cool. And it’s really funny. When people aren’t looking for you, they don’t see you. If you’re just — I was just with my friends at a random bar in the Mission. No one even looked at me, because it’s like, why would I be here right now? But it’s crazy. As soon as you walk off the buses at every arena, it’s exactly the opposite.
SFBG: The reason I was asking about that newfound exposure earlier, is that it’s sort of this curious feature of reality TV fame. It happens so quickly that I imagine it’s overwhelming to catch up with it. And also kind of cool.
AD: Yeah, it is. But given the stakes that we were on, it’s probably the fastest you’ll ever go from being anonymous to having any degree of fame. And so we learn to deal with it pretty quickly. I think some people do better than others with it. And I mean, I think that’s just a reflection of our personalities. I’ve never been really that vocal in normal conversation — I mean, I’m someone who’s very content to sit there and have a quiet conversation with someone, whatever. So that definitely comes out when I’m — I’m not showy about it, so I guess it doesn’t affect me that much.
SFBG: Do you have plans for what you’re going to do next, or are you still trying to figure that out?
AD: Still trying to figure that out. Hopefully, especially these shows in California, in LA, New York, there’ll be a lot of people in the audience, a lot of important people in the audience that potentially could sign me. That’s what I’m really hoping for right now. If not, I’m moving to LA after the tour and I’ll just go from there.
SFBG: I asked what you were tired of being asked. Is there anything that no one has asked you yet that you’d love to answer?
AD: I don’t know. You know, I’ve been asked a lot of interesting questions. I did a live video chat with a lot of my fans and followers on Twitter, and I did that through Justin.tv. I got asked a lot of random things at that, so I think I’m covered.