Post by Elle on Feb 22, 2004 13:56:25 GMT 10
Brisbane's Sunday Mail
RITCHIE YORKE
22feb04
FARM FRESH
SHANNON Noll, the farm boy-turned-pub rocker who wound up as the runner-up in the first Australian Idol event, says he was never worried over the prospect of losing out to eventual winner Guy Sebastian.
Time has proved he was right.
His debut album, That's What I'm Talking About, entered the Australian charts at No. 1 last week, its remarkable sales figure of 131,680 easily eclipsing the debut of the second album from last year's darling Norah Jones, Feels Like Home (which accounted for 37,248).
That compares with sales of 150,000 copies in its first week for Guy Sebastian's first album, Just As I Am, released in December, which went on to sell a total of 487,000 as of yesterday.
On the singles front, Noll, 27, remains a chart-topper with his revival of Oz rock chestnut What About Me, which has reached quadruple platinum in three weeks. There are almost 300,000 copies in the marketplace.
"I wasn't really disappointed about not being first in Australian Idol," Noll confesses.
"When I got to the top two, I thought to myself that the person who has come up No. 2 (in Idol contests) all over the world has ended up all right. So whether coming one or two, I wasn't too worried.
"I mean, I suppose I would have liked to have won for the sake of winning. But a lot of pressure came with winning – a lot more pressure than what was on me. So I thought, 'first or second, I'm happy'."
Coming second had other benefits, principally in production time. Whereas Sebastian underwent a marathon, week-long recording session so his album could be released within days of the announcement of his win, Noll lolled in the luxury of 4½ weeks in the studio.
"But we did have to build up all the songs from scratch," he says. "Ross Fraser, my producer, sorted out songs from all over the place. There was one from New York, a couple from London, a couple from Europe, one from Nashville and a couple from Australia."
Fraser then played the tunes for Noll, to determine his enthusiasm.
"As it happened, there were two songs on the original list that were a bit too R&B for my thing. But I was lucky enough to find two replacement songs I'm really stoked about – Drive and New Beginning. They're two real corkers, I reckon.
" Drive was written by Bryan Adams (the Canadian '80s rocker) and I recognised his voice on the demo when I first heard it. It's a good, real rocky little song."
Record company BMG confirms Drive will be the second Noll single, going to radio on March 15 with an April 19 release.
Noll is especially proud that he and brother Damian wrote one of the album tracks, The Way That I Feel.
"It's a real good feeling to know that something we wrote was good enough to put on the album. It gives you a bit of an incentive to write some more songs."
Noll was born and raised on the family farm, a 1820ha property at Condobolin in New South Wales, a five-hour drive from Sydney.
But his success has forced him to relocate to a suburban Sydney house, where he is based with fiancee Rochelle and their two young sons, Cody, 2, and Blake, 1.
They will be married in October "but I'm leaving most of the details to my fiancee" says Noll, who has a stack of commitments booked up.
Hot on the heels of the Australian Idol capital-city tour, he kicks off his own tour of Queensland on March 10, winding up in Ipswich on March 23.
Most of the evening shows have sold out, with matinees added.
"We aim to go out there and hone our skills if we can," says the singer. "We'll try and get everything up and running and trucking by the time we get to the metropolitan areas (on the next tour)."
Noll will be joined by a new band that features Damian on drums, several Sydney musos and another brother, Adam, acting as tour manager.
Noll looks to John Farnham as his major inspiration. "He has one of the most amazing voices that I've ever heard. I also like bands such as The Living End, Blink 182 and Nickelback – the sort of music that gets out there and hooks into the punters, pumps them up and creates a good vibe."
As for his outlook on Idol winner Guy Sebastian, Noll is characteristically candid. "You know, he's just what he seems. He wants to do his best and see where it takes him. He's got his feet planted on the ground and he's got a really good work ethic. I think he's got a huge future."
The same might be said of Noll.
See Brisban’es Sunday Mail, Page 65, or on line at
www.thesundaymail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,8747196%255E12852,00.html
RITCHIE YORKE
22feb04
FARM FRESH
SHANNON Noll, the farm boy-turned-pub rocker who wound up as the runner-up in the first Australian Idol event, says he was never worried over the prospect of losing out to eventual winner Guy Sebastian.
Time has proved he was right.
His debut album, That's What I'm Talking About, entered the Australian charts at No. 1 last week, its remarkable sales figure of 131,680 easily eclipsing the debut of the second album from last year's darling Norah Jones, Feels Like Home (which accounted for 37,248).
That compares with sales of 150,000 copies in its first week for Guy Sebastian's first album, Just As I Am, released in December, which went on to sell a total of 487,000 as of yesterday.
On the singles front, Noll, 27, remains a chart-topper with his revival of Oz rock chestnut What About Me, which has reached quadruple platinum in three weeks. There are almost 300,000 copies in the marketplace.
"I wasn't really disappointed about not being first in Australian Idol," Noll confesses.
"When I got to the top two, I thought to myself that the person who has come up No. 2 (in Idol contests) all over the world has ended up all right. So whether coming one or two, I wasn't too worried.
"I mean, I suppose I would have liked to have won for the sake of winning. But a lot of pressure came with winning – a lot more pressure than what was on me. So I thought, 'first or second, I'm happy'."
Coming second had other benefits, principally in production time. Whereas Sebastian underwent a marathon, week-long recording session so his album could be released within days of the announcement of his win, Noll lolled in the luxury of 4½ weeks in the studio.
"But we did have to build up all the songs from scratch," he says. "Ross Fraser, my producer, sorted out songs from all over the place. There was one from New York, a couple from London, a couple from Europe, one from Nashville and a couple from Australia."
Fraser then played the tunes for Noll, to determine his enthusiasm.
"As it happened, there were two songs on the original list that were a bit too R&B for my thing. But I was lucky enough to find two replacement songs I'm really stoked about – Drive and New Beginning. They're two real corkers, I reckon.
" Drive was written by Bryan Adams (the Canadian '80s rocker) and I recognised his voice on the demo when I first heard it. It's a good, real rocky little song."
Record company BMG confirms Drive will be the second Noll single, going to radio on March 15 with an April 19 release.
Noll is especially proud that he and brother Damian wrote one of the album tracks, The Way That I Feel.
"It's a real good feeling to know that something we wrote was good enough to put on the album. It gives you a bit of an incentive to write some more songs."
Noll was born and raised on the family farm, a 1820ha property at Condobolin in New South Wales, a five-hour drive from Sydney.
But his success has forced him to relocate to a suburban Sydney house, where he is based with fiancee Rochelle and their two young sons, Cody, 2, and Blake, 1.
They will be married in October "but I'm leaving most of the details to my fiancee" says Noll, who has a stack of commitments booked up.
Hot on the heels of the Australian Idol capital-city tour, he kicks off his own tour of Queensland on March 10, winding up in Ipswich on March 23.
Most of the evening shows have sold out, with matinees added.
"We aim to go out there and hone our skills if we can," says the singer. "We'll try and get everything up and running and trucking by the time we get to the metropolitan areas (on the next tour)."
Noll will be joined by a new band that features Damian on drums, several Sydney musos and another brother, Adam, acting as tour manager.
Noll looks to John Farnham as his major inspiration. "He has one of the most amazing voices that I've ever heard. I also like bands such as The Living End, Blink 182 and Nickelback – the sort of music that gets out there and hooks into the punters, pumps them up and creates a good vibe."
As for his outlook on Idol winner Guy Sebastian, Noll is characteristically candid. "You know, he's just what he seems. He wants to do his best and see where it takes him. He's got his feet planted on the ground and he's got a really good work ethic. I think he's got a huge future."
The same might be said of Noll.
See Brisban’es Sunday Mail, Page 65, or on line at
www.thesundaymail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,8747196%255E12852,00.html