When exactly do you know you’ve ‘made it’? At what point does the whole fame game click over and you realise that in the name of fame you’ve seriously hit the point of no return?
Is it when you make the final 12 on a reality music competition like Australian Idol? Or is it when, like last year’s winner Wes Carr, you take out the grand final at the Sydney Opera House in front of thousands of fans? Or, is it when you get bailed up in the street by said fans only to find that they’ve changed their name in your honour? For Wes Carr it was the latter when he discovered his fans had become… wesbians!
‘I didn’t have time to think about it when I went though the hardcore promotion four weeks after Idol,’ laughed Carr when quizzed about the emergence of these diehard slightly Sapphic fans. ‘But yeah, when it happened I just went ah yeah, sweet, thanks… that’s normal. But I’m very flattered that they all decided to change their names to wesbians for a while.’
Now it seems the wesbians are getting ready to start screaming all over again. Carr has not only released a new studio album The Way The World Looks (interesting note – Carr recorded and released two full length studio albums prior to appearing on Australian Idol, Rhythm to Fly and Simple Sun, both of which are available on iTunes) but is also about to tour the nation from May to July. It’s a long way from the end of last year and that fateful night at the Sydney Opera House, the night he won Australian Idol.
‘I remember sitting in the car at the start and it was a pretty miserable night,’ Carr recalled of the Australian Idol grand final. ‘It was raining and we had all these people come out to brave the rain and it was packed. The whole grand final was packed. And I remember just looking up at the moon and just feeling strange. I felt that it couldn’t get any more surreal than that.
‘Then at the end of the show when the winner was announced it was really weird. I didn’t know what to think or what to feel or what to say. It was just one of those situations where I’ll never forget that screaming. It was unbelievable. It felt like Australia was throwing a party for me.’
And with just cause too – the nation’s bet that Carr would be the next Australian Idol has paid off. The new album is a gem, crammed full of ‘rock and pop with a bit of a vintage feel to it’, as Carr describes it. Not only is the lead single, Feels Like WOAH, gaining legs and running up the charts, but there are some real treats in store. Carr’s personal favourite is When We Were Kings, which is a burst of grand nostalgia. However, it’s the track Light Years that is sure to shoot Carr into the stratosphere. No, it’s not Carr getting his Kylie on. It’s rather an epic ballad, one which is heartfelt, emotive and soaring in equal measures.
‘It’s about being with someone but growing apart from each other,’ Carr explained. ‘What you hear on that track is the first take too. That’s what I’m proud of the most about this record: a lot of the vocals are the first performance of the song.’
So what advice does Carr have for anyone who is considering going to the Perth Australian Idol auditions on Sunday April 19 at the Perth Convention Centre? It’s the same advice his girlfriend gave him when he entered Australian Idol, or rather the same advice she had inscribed on to a chain that she then gave him: Truth Integrity Honour.
‘Always be true to yourself,’ Carr concluded. ‘Go in there and have a crack. Don’t worry about what they are going to say or anything like that. Just get in there and be yourself and whatever they say just know it’s someone else’s opinion and opinions are like arse holes – everyone’s got one.’
Wes Carr’s new album The Way The World Looks is out now through Sony Music. He’ll be touring Australia too, appearing in Perth on Saturday June 6 at the Burswood Theatre. Tickets are available now through www.ticketek.com.
Scott-Patrick Mitchell
