Lemar, Blues & Soul

LEMAR

Blues & Soul

In another life Lemar would be driving a Parcel Force van. Or serving you at Sainsbury’s. Or be everyone’s favourite clerk down your local NatWest. In fact, he has done all these McJobs and if it wasn’t for Fame Academy he’d have finally folded to his family’s wishes and gone back to university. That other life is over though, and we’ve got BBC’s tele-visual talent search to thank for Lemar’s current pop star / urban artist (delete as appropriate) status. Despite being the biggest success to come out of the programme by far and one of the only contestants to escape the reality TV stigma reaped on the likes of David Sneddon, Hear’say and Michelle McManus, he was in fact the only finalist in the Academy that Mercury Records didn’t take its first option rights on. With the inevitable success of his soon-come sophomore album ‘Time To Grow’, the irony is quite delicious.

So what makes Lemar different to all the rest? Why should he excel where so many others have faltered? And more importantly, are his eyes really those much-reported deep pools of hazel? That is what B&S have come to Sony’s central London HQ to find out. It’s late in the day and a weary but jovial Lemar leans back in a leather sofa in one of the fifth floor meeting rooms. I’m his umpteenth interviewer of the day but the strain shows only slightly as he pulls his cap down over his tired, although still perceivably piercing, eyes. “It’s been mad today but it’s cool. I just got back from New York where we shot the video for the new single ‘If There’s Any Justice’. It’s nice and simple, just me and a girl. It was pretty nice.”

Cool, simple, nice – these are all words that could sum up this North London lad. Although his baptism-by-fire took such a public form and resulted in a phenomenal 18 months for the singer – three Top 10 singles, a platinum-selling album and Brit Award for Best Urban Artist – don’t forget that he’d been working the music circuit hard for eight long years before. He therefore doesn’t take his enviable current position for granted. He hooked up with production duo Best Kept Secret as a teenager and is still with them today. He supported everyone from Usher to Beenie Man over those years while working his day jobs and was briefly signed and subsequently dropped by BMG before seeing the ad for the show as his one last bid for glory. “I believe in fate, if it wasn’t meant to happen that time, it was meant to happen this time. I think everything happens for a reason,” he philosophises. “I really thank God for that period because while I was trying to get through I was also learning, so by the time I got noticed, the stage was a real comfortable place for me. An 18-year-old has no experience of the music industry and if you shove a novice on a TV show, they will be out the door.”

It took more than stage presence to remain in the Fame Academy house for three months and get down to the last three, however. It also demanded a little will power. “It was hard, it was fun, it was different. You’re locked away in this mansion with no knowledge of anything in the outside world. It’s like a prison sentence. As you sleep you’re recorded. There are cameras in the toilets and bathroom. It was weird but you adapt and try to start understanding the other characters around you. I had to focus on the fact that each week I was still in there, the more recognised I’d be getting and nearer to my goal. I thought by now I’d be able to go back and watch it all but I still haven’t, it’s too soon.”

Losing the show was to be his making. While other housemates had releases rushed out to an indifferent reception, he hung back, eventually signed to a deal and came to the table with his first smash ‘Dance With U’ ten months later – a lifetime in pop (make that two lifetimes if you’re One True Voice). But his patience paid off and on the cusp of Round Two, he’s achieved what no other Fuller Factory reject will ever have, and that’s - whisper it - credibility. “The Majority of the DJs knew me from before. Trevor Nelson had booked me onto his tours and I’d performed at all the clubs so I got some love from the urban side that has kept rolling on nicely. Then the other side, the general public, watched me on the TV show also thought, you know, he’s alright, that kid. I also put down on my first record what I genuinely believe to be me, I was 100 per cent happy with it. In retrospect there’s things I change but that’s when you get to the second album.”

As the title suggests ‘Time To Grow’ is a step on from its predecessor. Finding his song-writing feet, it’s still unashamedly broad in its appeal while embracing his sweet soul singer sound. “I’m really chuffed with it,” he beams. “It’s more R&B and soul than the last one and it’s more focussed. The other one was loads of good songs on an album but this has a contemporary sound and competes on an international level.” Featuring producers Brian McNight, Soulpower, Fitzgerald Scott, Soulshock and Carlin, Brian Rawling, Steve Jervier and naturally, Best Kept Secret, he laid down over 40 songs before choosing the final 13 and first single 'If There's Any Justice'. It’s a solid old school, mid-tempo love song, which recruits Cassidy on the remix to add his Philly flava to Lemar’s dulcet liquorice dish.

It’s not all about the ladies, though (we’ll get to them in a minute): on the album tracks such as ‘Call Me Daddy’ and ‘Give It Up’ he takes on some uneasy issues. “There’s plenty of songs on there about love lost, love gained, falling in love, falling out of love. But you’ve also got a song about a young girl who’s being pressured into having sex when she doesn’t feel ready and another that deals with miscarriage. It’s a couple and the guy is saying, if I die and I go to the other side, will I recognise my child? Because of my mum passing away last year, I was thinking I hope all that stuff is true because I’d see my mum again and that would be a nice thing. So this song is saying even though I haven’t met the child, will it know to call me daddy?”

There are plenty of female fans out there who think he is The Daddy, that’s for sure. Although he’s been with the same girlfriend for years, that doesn’t stem the tied of admiration. “The ladies? What about the ladies? I appreciate the appreciation and I show appreciation back. It’s much appreciated!” he laughs, coy as ever. “It’s part of the whole thing, you know. People like the music and if you sing a song convincingly enough it can touch someone emotionally. Sometimes you’ll get someone saying ‘My boyfriend hit me and then I heard ‘Good Woman’ on your album it felt like you were talking to me’, so that’s good.”

He won’t confirm how many frillies he receives in the post but he does confess the good British public have been easy on him to date. “Sometimes you want to go do something quickly but people know you so you stop a little bit more but it’s all love. I haven’t had anyone come up to me and say: ‘You’re crap’ and walk off. Not yet, anyway.” So you’re not getting all pop star on us? “No!” Not even a little bit? “Genuinely I’m the same guy. I’m a bit more financially stable, definitely. If I want something and it’s within reason I go get it but I think I’m the same. I don’t know.” A real diamond ring twinkles away on his finger these days I see and he’s considering upgrading his Beemer to Six Series too as a treat if ‘Time To Grow’ goes down well so the make or break gauntlet is most definitely down, whether he likes it or not. “I don’t feel pressured, I feel happy with what I’ve done, you can only do your best so now I’ve just got to promote and if people don’t understand, I’ll have to make them understand by getting my performances right. You need to paint the full picture, I’m not the kind of guy you can get in one song.”

For that last cherry on the cake, Lemar also makes his film debut in the new Cole Porter bio-pic ‘De Lovely’ alongside Robbie Williams, Elvis Costello and Alanis Morissette, which can do no harm to his chances of US success. Sod being the new Craig David, he could give Usher a run for his money on the charm offensive front if he keeps tricks like that up. Perhaps, like his US counterpart, who launched his own Usher pre-pay Master Card recently, we could be racking up debt on his flexible friend soon too. “Yeah, I’m paying by Lemar Amex. That’s taking it to another level,” he laughs. Well if anyone can, Lemar can.

‘If There’s Any Justice’ is out November 15, ‘Time To Grow’ follows on November 29 on Sony

Words Helen Jennings