Daniel Bedingfield |
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Mon. June 23.2003 11:13 AM EDT |
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Daniel Bedingfield: Believe the HyperThe voice behind Gotta Get Thru This is not a black woman. Heres how he made a hit in his bedroom, and celebrated it with wedgies. by C. Bottomley |
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Daniel Bedingfield (Linda Zacks) |
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Daniel Bedingfield, a 22-year-old former Internet designer from London, has been keeping some good company.
The Eagles invited me to one of their concerts the other day, he beams. I did a duet with Elton and I met Sting. Theyre all
Lord knows what Sir Elton of John made of Bedingfield, a veritable ball of enthusiasm. Performing in the cozy VH1.com studios, he plays to the cameras like he is rocking Live Aid. Unprompted, Bedingfield throws down an extemporaneous "human beat-box" performance of Michael Jacksons Billie Jean and, bizarrely, Ice Ice Baby. Look out kids - he also does reggae. Even more specifically, Bedingfield wails the hell out of his own If Youre Not the One, a ballad that will be playing at a wedding reception near you sometime this summer. Blush at its unabashed sentiments if you want, but concede its catchiness; the melody's more addictive than Bedingfield is hyper. Fortunately, the singer stops short of collapsing as he makes the walls quiver with his on-target money notes. Wryly comparing his beat-box prowess to Justin Timberlakes, its clear that Bedingfield's restless energy complements a boundless ambition. Soaking up the garage and dance beats of his Brixton neighborhood, he turned his confused emotions about a girl into Gotta Get Thru This, and recorded the stuttering electro-funk number in his bedroom. Within months, his lo-fi high-gloss jewel was also his first UK No. 1. Then it began climbing the American charts. Just as Bedingfield was tossed into the club kid shoebox, he delivered the ballad If Youre Not the One. Investigate his Gotta Get Thru This debut and youll be impressed with its breadth. This is how pop is meant to sound - stylistically diverse, heavy with hooks, and beats Vanilla Ice would kill for. VH1 got the rising star to talk about losing his cool with the ladies, bedroom records, and what you ask Sting. See two VH1 exclusive live performances, "The Human Beat Box" and "If Youre Not the One". VH1: What was meeting Sting like? Daniel Bedingfield: Sting is amazing. Hes hard to talk to. Im very star-struck around Sting. My first question to Sting was Does it ever get easier? - because touring takes it out of you. He said No. I said, If you learn all about jazz, does it stop your ability to write hits? He said, No, its a soul thing. VH1: Did his work with the Police get you into reggae? DB: I cant live without that diversity. Im schizophrenic musically. I love Bob Marley, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Sting, The Beatles, Rage Against the Machine, the Prodigy and System of a Down. The only thing I dont like is country & western. I dont like country or western. So on the album you've got the proper rock stuff, the R&B, the garage and techno. I dont ever want to find one sound. I cant fit into a box. Im too hyperactive to fit in a box. VH1: Are you this on on all the time? Do you make an entrance everywhere you go? DB: I made a pretty massive entrance when I was born. I popped out and havent stopped since. Its been just music, music, music. I was two years old and I started singing a tune, at six years old I started writing songs, started performing at nine and it was great. Ive always been a showman. Ive been doing beat-box since I was nine as well. I love my beat-box so much. [Watch Clip] VH1: Who inspired the beat-boxing? DB: It was Biz Markie back in the day. I didnt particularly like the fact that it went out of fashion so I kept it going. Justin [Timberlake] is trying to bring it back with his buum-buum-chick-buum-buum but it should be WHAAACK-WAACK-BOOOM-CHICK-BOOOM! VH1: Do you rap, too? DB: Ive been doing rap since I was about eight. I was writing about not taking drugs and being responsible with your life. My parents were social workers and worked with prostitutes, drug addicts, and homeless people. I saw the devastation around me and said Im not going to be a part of this so I started rapping about positive stuff. VH1: Do you remember any of those lyrics? DB: Oh, it was bad back in those days. A friend of mine was shot yesterday/ They took him to the hospital right away/ I got there in a hurry/ They said dont worry & It was really bad. Rap wasnt the same back then. VH1: Where were you when you realized Gotta Get Thru This was a smash? DB: I realized that the world owned my song - that it was theirs and not mine anymore - very slowly. It took about six months. Then I got over here. People say Gotta get Thru This! Wow! I thought you were a black fat woman! So we had to sort that out with the next single: Im not a fat black woman, I am indeed a white male. I did If Youre Not the One because its so different than Gotta Get Thru This. I hope people can take the journey that I took on the album around these different styles. Im not a dance artist, Im not a ballad artist, Im all of that, and I really want people to get that. [Watch Clip] VH1: What happens when your record goes to No. 1 in the UK? DB: In England the DJ give you a ring and he says Youre No. 1! You know about three hours before its announced on the radio, but when he tells you its like Ahh! I went absolutely mental. We were splashing champagne on the walls. I was pulling my butt out and slapping it. Its very fun & giving everyone wedgies, punching them in the face. Every single time I have a hit I want to put down the phone. This is the scary thing: friends start ringing me more when I get hits. Everyone is bombarding me - Daniel, Daniel, Daniel & Theyre thinking about me all the time. When I get a hit, I cant walk down the street. When I havent got a hit, I can walk down the street and Im fine. VH1: I Cant Read You and Blown It Again are about getting tongue-tied. Does that happen often? DB: There is this one girl I wrote so much of that album for and, man, she made me feel like crap all the time. I felt tongue-tied and horrible around her. She is everything I wanted - apart from her attitude! Any kind of strong emotion was squashed out like a zit. Its like Chernobyl. You have to shut down this nuclear power plant thats about to explode, so you cram all the radioactive material into this tiny little cube and expel it from the power station. Its like a song thats outside of you. Now I can deal with the stuff inside because the powerful emotion is not in there. [Watch Clip] VH1: Are you a more productive songwriter when youre in love or when youre out of it? DB: Whenever Im going through terrible, horrible agonizing death Im the best songwriter, so far. I hope I can write songs in a very balanced state of mind - but I doubt it! |
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