Interview - David Archuleta

Print    Email

David Archuleta phoned our hotline this week to discuss his new holiday record and current holiday tour. The full audio recording of the interview can be found here. David stops at Cleveland’s PlayhouseSquare on December 12th. Complete show and ticket details can be found on our concert calendar.

The holiday season is once again upon us. The most wonderful time of the year! This means Christmas trees for living rooms, lights and wreaths for houses, and a tour focusing on holiday music for season 7 American Idol runner up, David Archuleta. His tour recently kicked off as a homecoming of sorts in Utah, David’s state of origin. David tells us the start of the tour has been,

“… great! It’s been a lot of fun. We got to start in Salt Lake. We did two shows there and it was just so much fun to have the hometown crowd and the family there.”

Archuleta is on the road supporting his new holiday record, ‘Christmas from the Heart,’ which was released in October. The album features twelve Christmas staples, as well as an original, “Melodies of Christmas,” co-written by David. With hundreds upon hundreds of holiday songs out there, narrowing a tracklist down to 11 is no easy task.

“There are a few that I have just grown up listening to and grown up singing, so it was fun to put those on the album. Songs like ‘Silent Night’ and ‘O Holy Night’ and ‘Angels We Have Heard On High’; songs I’ve been singing since I was a kid and used to Christmas carol.”

Archuleta is bringing out more than holiday cheer on his current trek.

“The focus is on the holiday music but there is a section of the show that is non-holiday songs, so there’s some stuff from the first album and there is some other stuff, too. So just a mixture.”

No stranger to playing large arenas with the American Idols tour and a trek this past summer with Demi Lovato under his belt, the return to small, intimate theaters is somewhat of an adjustment for Archuleta.

“Arenas are fun just because there are so many people and so much energy, but the smaller venues you feel like you can sing to everyone that is there, and you can see everyone. They're a lot more up close and a lot more intimate.”

Aside from music, Archuleta has found himself doing a little bit of acting, making appearances on the hit shows Hannah Montana and iCarly.

“It’s just something that came up at the time. It was really fun, actually. I really enjoyed it. I’ve never done anything like that before. And I was really nervous at the time. But once I got to do it and I was around the other actors it was just so much fun. I wouldn’t mind doing some more of that stuff, more of that acting. It’s fun getting to work with people around my age, too, on iCarly and Hannah Montana. At first I was like ‘I don’t know if it’s going to be cheesy’ and stuff, but it was really fun.”

Having the opportunity to work with teenage cuties Miley Cyrus and Emily Osment on the Hannah Montana set and Miranda Cosgrove along with Jennette McCurdy on iCarly, as well as touring with Demi Lovato, David certainly used his boyish charm to woo the ladies, right?

“No. {laughs} Not yet. I guess I’m just married to music right now. I guess it’s just not the right time quite yet. But we’ll see.”

So what’s coming up for David after the holiday break?

“I’ve actually been working on a new album. That’s what I was doing before going on this Christmas tour. I’ve been writing in Nashville, and New York and LA, just working with different writers for this next album so we can come up with ideas and some songs, and it’s been a lot of fun so far. I know that after the tour and after the holidays we’re really going to focus on working on this next album and project and just focus on which writers to be working with and which direction we’ll be heading more towards. It will be a pop album again. I kind of just want to show a little more personality in my writing, whether it be to the more imaginative side or the more realist side of me. I’m kind of one of those daydreamer people…I’m very honest with myself I guess. I just want to show people what’s in my mind and what’s in my head and just the things that go on and what I think about.”

With a busy schedule between now and Christmas, David is certainly looking forward to a little R&R when the tour concludes.

“Just getting to relax would be nice. Not have anything to do, just be with the family. We’ll probably have a Christmas dinner and stuff, but the best part will just be getting to spend time with the family. I don’t know if we’ll be home, last year we went to Las Vegas for Christmas, got to get away with the family, which was nice, just spending the time with my brothers and sisters.”

Check out the full audio from the interview, here.

David Archuleta performs at PlayhouseSquare on December 12th. This performance engagement is part of the Smart Seats program at PlayhouseSquare that offers smart entertainment at a smart price. All balcony tickets and select mezzanine tix are priced at $10. Other tickets are available for $30 and $40. For complete show and ticket information, please visit our concert calendar. David’s new album, ‘Christmas from the Heart’ is available now at all physical and digital retailers.