Interviews for Listen Up! Release

[john]

NYLON magazine

THE INSIDER: HALEY REINHART

"Old guys were rolling $20 bills my way on the floor."


If the new single "Free" sounds kind of familiar, it's because you've heard the girl behind the mic many times before. Haley Reinhart was an American Idol finalist, a YouTube starlet, and a Chicago hometown hero. Now the 21-year-old has her first album - Listen Up - and a slot on the Lollapallooza lineup, where the Chicago native shares the bill with major stars like Jack White and Black Sabbath.

Reinhart visited the NYLON office last week. We were going to grill her about J. Lo's eye makeup, but this is what happened instead...

You are seriously the most relaxed person I've ever interviewed. Does anything throw you off? I do get nervous, but I feel like the way you can overcome it is by telling yourself there's no reason to feel that way. Every situation I put myself in, there's a reason for it, so it's chill.

Tell us about the first concert you ever did. I did a lot of karaoke when I was a little kid! But I mean, my parents are musicians, so I remember on my golden birthday - I turned nine years old on 9/9/99 - my parents played a tattoo convention. I got up there in my Princess Leia braids and everyone in the audience was covered in tattoos and piercings with, like, green hair. They all looked like ZZ Top, and they were all in the process of giving people tattoos. But my parents told me that when I got up and started to sing, all the tattoo artists stopped their machines. I sang "Blue," the country song that Leann Rimes made famous. My parents let me do it when they found out I could yodel. They didn't believe me at first. I said, "Mom, Dad, I can do it, I swear," and they started laughing at me. So I had to show them, and they were like, "Oh my god, you have to sing now." So I performed when I was nine, and I cried right after because it was very overwhelming. But I loved it. I think the crowd loved it, too; I mean, old guys were rolling up twenty dollar bills and rolling them my way on the floor. That's when I knew I would be a singer.

Do you have any tattoos? No! I don't! I listen to my parents; their word means a lot to me. And first off, my dad wouldn't want me to get them. Not that he hates people who have them, obviously; I mean, he worked at a tattoo festival! But also I'm kind of a perfectionist and indecisive, and I feel like if I got one, I'd be terrified every day, wanting that line to be a little smoother.

When did you decide to audition for American Idol? My family watched it every year, from Kelly Clarkson on. I always thought I could do the show, so I tried out on Season Nine; I got all the way to the judges but they were all cranky. It was their last day in Chicago. I didn't make it.

When you say you got all the way to the judges, what does that mean? The fourth audition is when you see the "real" ones. It's insane because there's a stadium full of people who want to sing. So there's all kinds of producers before [you meet the judges] and there's executive producers from the show [at auditions] so I've met all these faces once before. My audition for them went so smoothly; they all loved it, they even did a little story with me and my family walking the strip in Chicago. Then I didn't make it, so they didn't show any of the footage on TV! And thank god they didn't show me bawling, because I was devastated. It had gone so well. I was eighteen, and after that, I didn't want to try out again. But I got a call the night before the Season 10 auditions, and I found out they were happening in Milwaukee. And I just literally went out on a whim. I figured, "It's for a reason, why I'm hearing about this." And I'm glad I did it; it doesn't matter to me that I didn't win. The show was enough.

What were your goals for your new album? First and foremost, I wanted to wait for the Idol tour to be over, because I wanted to write it myself. I wanted to be hands-on with the whole experience and project. I finished tour. I moved from Chicago to LA, alone. I started cowriting with great producers and songwriters, and we finished it in three months.

Recording and everything? The first time you do a take, that energy can't even be duplicated. "Free," my single, is the only song on my album that I didn't write or co-write, and I picked it out on tour, and I recorded it here in New York! I even went back to re-record it, because I thought, 'Well, it was so rushed, and it's the first real recording I've ever done in my life,' and the rehearsed take wasn't even close to the original. If it works, it works - don't touch it again.

You're famous in Idol world for getting Led Zeppelin to clear their songs for you. What was that like? It was so cool! I kept asking the producers if I could do Zeppelin, and the producers kept saying, "No Haley, they're not gonna clear their songs, they never clear it for anybody - and I'm like, 'They cleared it for someone' and the producers are like, "Yeah Haley, who was that?" It was Adam Lambert. So guess what, it looks like I had to work my way up for the producers to actually give me a chance to ask Led Zeppelin. [The producers] sent them "House of the Rising Sun" and the band liked it a lot and they let me sing their stuff. I was in honor. I was like, "There's no turning back; this is my pick; I'm gonna get my dad up there to do it with me."

Can you describe your personal style? It's retro! Style wise, I've always loved '50s, '60s, '70s. But for TV and the album, I went a little more '50s. I feel like that classy, sexy pinup look fits the vibe of that song so well.

Like Amy Winehouse? I love Amy Winehouse... She came from jazz, I came from jazz. There's a lot of similarities in terms of our musical style, and I guess with the '50s pinup vibe, that's very shared, too. But I want to get back into my edgier psychedelic vibe!

What are you listening to right now? I have no time. There's a lot of people I really want to get into, so I write the names down. And I've been in love with Shazam lately. Since I got it, I've literally saved hundreds of songs. I can't wait until I have the time to look them all up. Right now, I love Alabama Shakes and Gotye, and I think it's so cool that Janelle Monae and Fun are on the radio. That's the best part, in terms of Top 40 music - that those kinds of musicians can be on the radio now.

People always compare your voice to Janis Joplin's and Amy Winehouse's, but you don't seem like a tragedy waiting to happen. Do you think you can be a well adjusted person and still be a great soul singer? Oh yeah. I've been watching Behind the Music stories - like back to back, ten of them in a row - and there are so many sad stories about these women growing up with bad families and with so much pain. I have so much respect for these people who use music as an outlet to get it out. But in my case, I grew up in a happy home, but with a dad who played the blues like nobody's business. I grew up in a house of music, and soul being a prime factor in my life, and my mom can sing her ass off and do Janis and Heart and all those kinds of songs. So there was a structure of blues and soul music built around me, and I actually found it really comforting! It's in my veins, you know? So yes, you do feel that pain when you listen to those artists, but it's not the only thing you can feel. You can also feel your roots, and for me, that's where it's at.
--FARAN KRENTCIL

http://www.nylonmag.com/?section=article&parid=8064

---

Could they have led her on only to pull the rug out from under her? She looked so devastated in the video that it seems like she was blindsided by whatever they had to say.

This NYLON interview suggests that she had good reasons to be optimistic about going to Hollywood, especially with the video they had taken of the family.