Welcome Back, Durbin!

James Durbin left a lasting impression placing fourth on season ten of American Idol. Not only because he was one of the few contestants who performed rock to perfection, he was the only contestant ever on the show to have autism.

His debut album the rock oriented Memories of a Beautiful Disaster was a hit, which was followed up with the pop flavored album Celebrate, which was a departure from what Durbinators were hungry to hear from their idol. 

Well James is back and ready to rock with his first new music in over two years Riot On Sunset. 

In my opinion this is James best work as an artist to date mainly because the music is 100% pure Durbin. Durbinators rejoice, here's James!

JD: Hey Michael, how's it going?

MS: Fine, I love your latest Riot On Sunset, after Celebrate it's great to hear you rocking out again!

JD: Not to take anything away from Celebrate it's a great album. But it's more of a studio album and it's not something that I like to play live too much. It still holds up, it's just not a James Durbin album necessarily.

MS: I was going to ask how you felt about it, and you beat me to it. (laughs) Are you still going to experiment with different types of music in the future?

Ready To Riot
James Durbin
Photo: Heidi Durbin

JD: Yes. I am influenced by a wide array of music genres and artists. Everything from James Brown, Maroon 5 to Judas Priest. You might even find a Bieber track on my iTunes. (laughs) It's different songs for different reasons. The Bieber song in question has incredible production. As far as the kind of music I am making now, I am definitely back in my comfort zone. 

MS: My favorite song off of Riot On Sunset is the title track. Was that inspired by your performing at the The Viper Room?

JD: You know I actually wrote that song when I was twenty. Probably a good year and a half before all the "Idol" stuff happened. I had started a band with some friends called Hollywood Scars and I was looking up different things about the Sunset Strip I wanted to embody that in a song. That ended up being Riot On Sunset which was an actual event that happened in the 1960's basically it was about kids wanting to have freedom of expression, to be yourself whether "the man" has anything to say about it or not. I kept pushing for the song to be on my other two albums and the label kept saying it's not good, we don't like it, it's not going on your album. When I was in Nashville working on my second album with James Michael, we had a talk about it, he said to me: "This is one of those songs that you write once in your lifetime, it's on of those songs that comes from somewhere else." That message spoke to me to open myself up to letting songs pass through me. 

MS: Seriously?! I can't believe the label said those things to you about that song.

JD: There ended up being a struggle with it actually, after I left the label. They were going to keep it and not give it back to me. It fell in with my publishing deal with them. The fact that somebody can say they own a song that they don't think is good enough to go on a record is just stupid. We fought really hard and that's the one thing I got out of my termination deal with the label. This incident falls right in line with the story and vibe of the song, standing up for what you believe in, regardless of the fact that somebody tells you "No."

Photo: Heidi Durbin

MS: Your single Smackdown is doing really well, congratulations!

JD: Yeah, yeah it's doing pretty good right now on the Loudwire Battle Royale. It's gone up to number one, it's still in the top five on the liter board. That's all thanks to my awesome adoring fans, they're truly something else. 

MS: They sure are! Every time I tweet about you, whoever runs J.D's Outcast Army is on it! They re-tweet me within five minutes usually.

JD: When I was in Florida on a layover I went to Walmart at one in the morning and tweeted something about it. Immediately after I did it there were like four or five responses to it. It's a blessing to have such devoted fans.

MS: Here's a somewhat off the cuff thing that I've always wanted to ask you. Have you ever been skydiving?

JD: I have not. They were trying to get me to skydive to promote my single Parachute off of the Celebrate album, yeah, that wasn't going to happen. Now I would have totally done the indoor skydiving at Universal City Walk. 

MS: Does skydiving scare you?

JD: It depends on what mood I'm in. (laughs)

James  Performing
@ Universal City Walk
Photo: Michael Shinafelt

MS: Speaking of City Walk the last time I saw you was there performing for the organization Autism Rocks. It was a great show, you are always good live, how did you feel about that night?

JD: It felt great! The idea of the organization is to bring awareness to autism. That it is not something to be feared. All we want is to be loved and accepted just like everyone else.

MS: Personally, I accept people as they are, things like that don't scare me.

JD: Good. People may look at us and think we act funny, but we could be looking at you thinking the same thing. (both laugh)

MS: Thanks Buddy!

JD: Thank You Michael!

Riot On Sunset is out...now!

Follow James at:

Official website: http://www.jamesdurbinofficial.com/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/durbinrock

Facebook: http://facebook.com/durbinrock

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/durbinrock/

Get Riot On Sunset at: 

CD Baby

http://cdbaby.com/cd/jamesdurbin3

Riot on Sunset by James Durbin

https://itun.es/us/CPpFdb

Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01I629H70/ref=dm_aw_dp_sp_bb_sfa  

A Few Of My Favorite Things: Morrissey & Pamela Anderson

Pamela & Morrissey Sitting In A Tree...

Two of my favorite things, Morrissey & Pamela Anderson have joined forces for the video "Earth is the Loneliest Planet" a spoken word piece by the big M himself.

I encountered Morrissey once at The Viper Room in Los Angeles when he was there to see a band that I was there to see Girl in a Coma, an all female group with a name that "yes" was a homage to the Morrissey song "Girlfriend in a Coma" thus it made for an overall too cool for school evening.

Also I have interviewed the delightful Ms. Anderson for Instinct magazine when it was good for a great column they used to have "The Chick We'd Switch For."

When I posed the question "If you were gay for one day would you want that experience to be as a man or a woman?"

She enthusiastically said "A man . I have so many gay male friends and hear so many great stories."

To which I replied "What would you want to do as a gay man?"

Pamela quipped "If I was a gay man I would know how to give a better blow job ."

This is verbatim as I just transcribed it from a copy of the magazine with my interview in it.

Yep, you guys made my week!

                                                           Earth Is The Loneliest Planet



Go Facebooking with

Morrissey: https://www.facebook.com/Morrissey

Pamela: https://www.facebook.com/pamelaanderson

Time To "Celebrate" With James Durbin

James Playing The Viper Room - January 3rd 2014

Season 8 "American Idol" finalist James Durbin has come a looooooong way baby! With the success and critical acclaim for his debut album "Memories of a Beautiful Disaster" to touring around the world & getting married to the love of his life, Heidi.

Mr. Durbin is living his dreams. Well it's time to "Celebrate" Durbinators as James sophomore CD "Celebrate" drops April 8th, yep that's one week from today! "Celebrate" has already spawned the hit single "Parachute"- here he is the man of the hour, the guy you have all been waiting for, Mr. James Durbin!

MS: How cool was it to be on Conan O'Brien for you? You seemed to really enjoy doing it.

JD: Yeah dude, it was really awesome. I had done the show before with a song from my first album "Love Me Bad" I didn't have the same connection with the song that I did when I performed "Parachute" this time because I didn't write it. It was a lot fun going back, and I got to have a lot more fun with "Parachute" it was a little goofier than "Love Me Bad" was.

MS: Well you were the "Rocker Dude" when you were on "American Idol" and with your first album. With your current album you seem to have taken a turn to pop, why the switch?

JD: I don't really see it as a "Pop Turn" it's just sprinkling a little more mainstream on top of it all. Yeah I am toning it down a little bit, it's kind of hard to play with my son wearing a lot of rings & earrings. (laughs)

MS: Last time I saw you was in Los Angeles, CA at The Viper Room to kick off your acoustic tour. How did the rest of it go?

JD: The last date of the tour was in my hometown, Santa Cruz, CA and it was sold out!

MS: Awesome! You were talking about writing songs on your album this time out of the gate, did you write all of the songs on "Celebrate?"

JD: Most of them. Ten of the eleven songs were co-writes, I have much more of a connection with this record. I still love my first record, but with "Celebrate" it's more my story, more my experiences, so I have more attachment to them.

MS: For the track "Children Under The Sun" I heard you posted an image of the roller coaster from the boardwalk in Santa Cruz to inspire your writing of it.

JD: All the songs that I wrote on the album with a guy named Ted Bruner - every time we would write we would put up a visual that we could base the song around. So for "Children Under The Sun" it was a picture of the biggest drop on the roller coaster itself, it's where my mind exploded and it's pretty much what that song is about. I really wanted to go into "Celebrate" with more involvement in songwriting than my last album, I had already written thirty songs in Nashville.

MS: Wow! Every artist I know gets sent to Nashville, it's like songwriting boot camp, I hear it's very creative, collaborative and supportive.

JD: It is, I wrote a different song every single day. Pretty catchy songs and for the most part they were all pretty rock. Some were punk rock, pop rock - some were very Green Day, some were very Fall Out Boy... (laughs)

MS: I love Green Day!

JD: The songs were all over the place. When I went to Nashville, I was told: "Go Write Songs" but I was not given any kind of direction or ideas that were interested in me writing. It was kind of lame that no one told anything like that, they waited until my two and a half months in Nashville was up - and they did not like any of the thirty songs I had written. I was afraid I was going to get dropped from my label. They asked me to try to go a little bit more radio, mainstream...I was like "You Know What?" I'm open to anything. Hey bring me good songwriters and if we get along and we find magic, you can't fight it.

MS: Everyone who has worked in Nashville tells me how productive the atmosphere is.

JD: Me and my wife want to move there. We want to have a summer house there. Most tours are based out of the East Coast. People usually tour the most in the Midwest and the East Coast. The Nashville house would be the main base for touring and when I'm home and not busy I can go write songs a couple days a week.

MS: It's the "it" place to create.

JD: And you can drink and drive. I'm not saying it's good, I'm saying it's another thing you can do in Nashville. (laughs)

MS: You've got to be kidding me.

JD: No, there has to be one less container of alcohol in the car than the number of people in it to make it legal.

MS: I felt the title track of your current album "Celebrate" was written to your wife, Heidi on some level.

JD: Yeah. There are definitely a lot of levels to that song, layers like a parfait. (laughs)

MS: Well the first thing I thought of when I heard it was Heidi.

JD: Good. (laughs)

MS: Are you going to tour nationally to support your latest?

JD: My booking agent is looking at some tours right now, it's going to depend on what's the right timing and what's the best market that allows me to share as much music as possible.

MS: What would you like people to take away from "Celebrate?"

JD: That it's another piece of the puzzle, another step in the journey. It's not a complete one hundred and eighty degree turn for me. For example, The Beatles, I'm no comparing myself to them, I'm using them as an example. They are country, rock, blues and punk and everything in between. When I last toured all I had to perform from was "Memories of a Beautiful Disaster" and all of those songs were at level ten and they really didn't take you anyplace.

"Celebrate" has more levels to it, it takes you places it has quieter moments. I'm thinking the bigger picture here. My next record could be something completely different than "Memories" or "Celebrate." Who knows where I'll be at by then, I'm going to just go with the flow.

"Durbin Rocks" at:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DurbinRock
Online: https://shop.durbinrock.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DurbinRock

"Celebrate" on the 8th at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/celebrate/id825143445

It's Durbinator Time! The Latest On James Durbin

Photo: LeAnn Mueller

                                                                   

James Durbin Announces Tour Dates For His 2014 Acoustic Tour

Lyric Video For His Single, “Parachute” Debuts on Yahoo! Music

James Reveals Album Cover Art & Full Track Listing for His Sophomore CD Release “CELEBRATE”- Due - April 8, 2014

James Durbin has announced the initial dates for his upcoming 2014 acoustic US tour beginning January 3, 2014 at The Viper Room in Los Angeles.  The six week trek will end on February15 at The Catalyst in Santa Cruz.  Kelley James Kelleyjames.com will be direct support on all shows.  All confirmed dates listed below.

After a flurry of tweets poured through to twitter from fans wanting to tweet to unveil the album cover, James Durbin recently revealed the album cover artwork and full track listing for his sophomore CD release titled, CELEBRATE.  Wind-up Records will release CELEBRATE on April 8, 2014.

Full Track Listing For CELEBRATE

1.     Children Under the Sun

2.     Parachute

3.     You Can't Believe

4.     Issues

5.     Fool For You

6.     Louder Than a Loaded Gun

7.     Live Right Now

8.     You're Not Alone

9.     Forget It

10.Celebrate

11.Real Love

As previously announced,  James, who co-wrote 10 of the albums 11 tracks is busy putting the finishing touches on the 2014 release with producer Scott Stevens. The first single from CELEBRATE is “Parachute” and is available for purchase via iTunes here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/parachute-single/id738550728?ign-mpt=uo%3D4

The lyric video for “Parachute,” an homage to 80’s retro arcade games, made its premiere on Yahoo! Music and can be viewed on James’ VEVO channel on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjgJCbV5rNE

In addition, a robust album pre-order campaign for CELEBRATE includes the following four offers: 1. Autographed album.  2. Autographed album & exclusive Tourette Syndrome Association (TSA) Charity shirt - $5 from each sale is donated to the TSA.  3. Autographed album & exclusive “CELEBRATE” bracelet.  4. Autographed album & exclusive hoodie & limited edition autographed canvas photo print. 

All orders will automatically grant fans access to exclusive VIP opportunities with James (buyers will receive a special code allowing them early purchase for VIP opps and concert tickets).  All orders include an instant download of “Parachute” at http://shop.durbinrock.com/

“Parachute” is the first new music from James since his last two singles “Love Me Bad” and “Stand Up” were released in 2011.  “Love Me Bad” cracked the Top 30 at Hot AC/Top 40 radio while the anthemic NFL rock single “Stand Up” landed in the Top 20.  “Stand Up” was an official NFL anthem used on jumbotrons nationwide during the NFL’s 2011-12 seasons. Both tracks were featured on his debut release Memories Of A Beautiful Disaster which debuted in the Top 10 on Billboard’s Rock Album chart and #36 on Billboard’s Top 200 Album chart.   MOAB has sold over 120,000 copies to date and was named one of Billboard’s Best Rock Albums of 2012.

“Parachute” showcases new territory for James leaning more on sing-a-long choruses with crisp pop-rock hooks while still letting his powerful and energetic voice shine.  “Parachute was the 10^th song I wrote for the new album and as soon as we finished in the studio I knew it had to be the first single.  I can’t wait for everyone to hear it” said James.  “Parachute” is available on iTunes now and will impact Hot AC & Top 40 radio in January 2014. 

   

2014 Tour Dates

January

3                                          The Viper Room                       Los Angeles, CA

7                                           Belly Up Tavern                      Solana Beach, CA

8                                           Pub Rock Live                         Scottsdale, AZ

10                                         HOB-Cambridge Room           Dallas, TX

11                                         The Station Bar & Grill           Lafayette, LA

12                                         HOB-Peacock Room               Houston, TX

14                                         The Parrish                              New Orleans, LA

15                                         Wills Pub                                Orlando, FL

17                                         Brewster’s megaplex              Jacksonville, FL

18                                         The Masquerade                      Atlanta, GA

21                                         Ziggy’s                                     Winston-Salem, NC

22                                         Lincoln Theater                       Raleigh, NC

23                                         Empire                                     Springfield, VA

24                                         I Play America                         Freehold, NJ

26                                         The Note                                  West Chester, PA

29                                         The Hollow                               Albany, NY

30                                         Marlin Room@ Webster Hall   New York, NY

February

4                                            The Rock Factory                    Akron, OH

5                                             Agora Ballroom                      Cleveland, OH

6                                            Thompson House                     Newport, KY

7                                            Austin’s                                   Libertyville, IL

8                                            Another Hole in Wall              Steger, IL

9                                            7^th St. Entry                             Minneapolis, MN

12                                          Marquis Theatre                      Denver, CO

15                                          The Catalyst                            Santa Cruz, CA

    

Get Durbinated at:

 http://twitter.com/durbinrock
http://facebook.com/durbinrock
http://www.durbinrock.com