Wywiad ze Stephanem Stohn'em

Zamieszczam wywiad z naszym kochanym Stephciem. Wywiad znalazła AJ, a jest on na stronie www.alexz-johnson.net
1.Some fans were a little disappointed that Alexz won't sing every song. And some of them were hoping that the full versions would be leaked. Is there any chance of you or anyone else doing that?

We need to respect what we are allowed and not allowed to do… in the Minis of course Alexz does sing most of the songs, and while on the Season 4 CD she sings 4, there’s another 2 on the Greatest Hits compilation which will come out… I would have loved to have albums featuring nothing but Alexz—but for that I think we all need to wait until her solo album is released, and THAT will be worth the wait!

2.Do you have any shows in mind that you are thinking of creating?

Yes, I'd like to create a comedy with a musical theme to it.

3.Who decides on who sings what on the Instant Star soundtracks? There's a group who are involved, but a lot of it comes down to discussions between Christopher Ward and me, and if there is blame to be attached it must fall on my shoulders!! We know how many songs we are able to have Alexz on, and then we discuss who would be the most appropriate for the others.

4.When will the Instant Star 4 Album and the Instant star season 3 DVD be released

We have a new distributor for both Instant Star and Degrassi, and so the release of DVDs for both shows are taking a bit longer than the fans would like. But DVDs for both Season 3 and Season 4 will be released, I just can't give you exact dates yet.

5.Some fans were a little disappointed that Alexz didn't sing "I Still Love You" and "Ultraviolet"...so they wanted to know who chooses which songs for Alexz to sing. And why they didn't choose the ones that were more personal to Jude?

No one in the world can sing a ballad better than Alexz, in my opinion. So when we knew we had four songs to choose (apart from Perfect and I Just Wanted Your Love, which will be on the Greatest Hits CD) the first and most obvious one was 2AM, which I think everyone would agree on having Alexz sing. Deeper is a great song too, and Alexz loved singing it. Interestingly Deeper was originally written for Season 3, for the second part of the birthday episodes, but ended up not working there, but it works great this season and just seemed a natural. I'm not saying it's better or worse that I Stlll Love You, but the two are similar in some ways, and for me personally I'm more of a fan of Deeper. I'm not sure if the Mini for That Was Us has been released yet (it hasn't been in Canada, maybe it has in the U.S.) but that is a very personal retrospective for Jude, and Alexz sings it so well it's hard to imagine anyone else singing it. And finally, Higher Ground is a bit more up-tempo and I'm just a real fan of the song. Obviously a great case can be made for any of the others, they are all great songs, but someone had to make a choice, and the choice was made!!

6.Why wasn't Cory Lee or Tyler Kyte featured in more songs?

There are certain songs that their voices are better suited for than others… we try to match the song to the artist where possible

7.Why didn't they choose "The Music" to be sung by Alexz seeing as it's the final song from the show?

Please see my answer to #5

8.Why didn't "That Was Us" make it into the show?

We shot the first three Minis very early in the season, and had to choose quickly which songs to make minis of, at that point we thought That Was Us would fit into an episode later in the season, but it turned out that other songs kept being more appropriate. We'd already recorded and done a Mini to That Was Us, though, and it's a great song!!

9.Why isn't Tim singing "Here We Go Again"?

The truth is that Tim would be the firt to admit he is not really a professional singer. In the first season it was Joel Feeney who sang his Boyz Attack number, and since then Luke McMaster has been his singing voice. There have been a couple of ad lib instances where Tim has sung, and we then used ProTools to make it sound like he was more of a natural singer, but he’s not an Alexz, or a Cory or a Tyler (or a Joel or a Luke)!!!!

10.Is there any new information on the release of Alexz's new album?

Not really new information, but she is writing every day to find the perfect couple of songs to round out the album. My guess, just a guess, is that the album will be released in early 2009, probably February, but we'll have to see what the exact plans are that Epic has once all the songs have been completed.

11.There are some people who don't like the new album because of the people singing it. What do you say to them?

If they can listen to the songs without pre-conceived notions about who is singing them, I think they'll find that they are good songs and great to listen to. I know everyone would love hearing as many songs sung by Alexz as possible, me too, but there are some GREAT singers and musicians on there and I'd ask people to step back for a moment and given them a chance!

12.There are also some people who dont like the new songs Alexz put on her myspace, what do you say to them?

Anything I've heard is that people LOVE those songs—certainly I do!!!

13.Are you in production of any other projects at this moment?

Just Degrassi, Season 8.

14.Will Season 4 of Instant Star be released on DVD? If so, will the minis be on there

Yes and yes.

15.Why was there no album release of the song "Shatter Me"

Shatter Me was not a full song, it was just a demo and we only used part of it.

16.Why isn't "Just Wanted Your Love" on the CD?

It's on the Greatest Hits CD. I love that song.

17.What made you, or inspired you, to create Instant Star? And was Alexz just how you had pictured Jude or better?

Alexz was better than I had ever could have imagined for Jude. To have found someone who was a great singer (perhaps one of the greatest singers in the world), a great actor, and a great songwriter, all-in-one, what could be more amazing!!

18.How has Instant Star changed you?

I've had the chance to work with so many great songwriters, singers and musicians on this series, I’m really hoping to produce another one that uses as much original music in it, so we can carry on with our songwriter camps.

19. Where do you see Jude 20 years from now?

I see her creating albums like Joni Mitchell does, great artistic albums that touch people even if they don’t have singles that get to the top of the charts.

20.A lot of people have gotten a hold of a bunch of Alexz's demos such as "Running Back", "Secret Heart" Stop the World" "Wheres The Sky" "My First In Love" and more. But lots of people want the full versions. Do you know anything about these songs and the possibility of them being released or leaked in full versions?

When an artist creates demos, they are just that—demos. They aren't meant to be released to the general public, they're not complete. I can't imagine that Alexz would want those demos commercially released or leaked, because they don't really represent proper renditions of the music that is in her heart.

21. Are you happy with the way Instant Star ended?

I had never intended that it would end after Season 4, to me Season 4 is one of the best seasons of any television series anytime, anywhere. I'm still shocked that we're not in the studio right now shooting Season 5. But when it was clear that it couldn't happen, I think it worked out that the final episode is not a bad way to end a great run.

22. Is there anything you would like to say to the people who have been with Instant Star from the beginning

Thank you for being fans, and giving all of us the chance to work on Instant Star for 4 seasons... I got the chance to fulfill a lot of dreams while we made it, and met some great people. I'm sorry we couldn't do Season 5, but just so happy and proud that we got to make 4 great seasons of television and music!!!