After a year and a half away from the spotlight, Clay Aiken returns with an edgy new look, a far-from-edgy new album and a newly secure sense of self.
“I know it’s a new chapter but it’s kind of like a whole new book — the sequel to my life before,” says a casually dressed and scruffy-faced Aiken, sitting in an office at RCA Records, his label. “It’s like we’re starting out on something brand new where I’m really getting to be myself.”
But not everything is brand new. On his new album, “A Thousand Different Ways,” Aiken covers 10 classic love songs and introduces four original tracks. It was a “challenge” issued by music mogul Clive Davis, who oversaw the project — and one that Aiken says he was initially reluctant to accept.
“I don’t feel that I had the credibility or the background or just the repertoire to go in and put the Clay Aiken sound on somebody else’s song,” says Aiken, one of “American Idol’s” most successful alums.
“The examples that were given to me were Barry Manilow, Billy Joel and Rod Stewart and Barbra Streisand. I said, ‘Let’s look at those names and how huge their careers have been — Elton John was also one — and Clay Aiken doesn’t fit in that category.”’
But despite his misgivings, he and his team of producers rearranged and reinterpreted each track, from Foreigner’s “I Want to Know What Love Is” to Dolly Parton’s “Here You Come Again,” to make them Aiken’s alone.
A crooner’s collection of love ballads isn’t exactly on the cutting edge of pop music, says Rolling Stone associate editor Brian Hiatt. But for Aiken and his fans — known as the Claymates — it might not need to be.
“His audience is outside the mainstream of hip, young pop culture,” Hiatt says. “By making an album that doesn’t even make an attempt not to be cheesy is acknowledging who his fan base is and what he is an artist.”
It’s an “odd move” to make a covers album so early in a career, says Craig Marks, editor-in-chief of Blender magazine. Marks describes Aiken’s fans as “parents and grandparents who think he’s wholesome and adorable and sings songs as though rock ’n’ roll never existed.”
Celebrating with a makeover
Though he’s just 27, Aiken’s audience and appeal has always been more Barry Manilow than Justin Timberlake. From his first appearance on TV’s “Idol” to his improbable, second-place finish in 2003, Aiken had a geeky, boyish, sanitized charm that recalled a crooner from the 1950s.
So perhaps a covers record, suggested by Davis, wasn’t so far fetched. But the suggestion came midway through Aiken’s attempt to make an original album; Only one new song, “A Thousand Days,” survived the transition.
When the album was completed, Aiken celebrated with a makeover. He’s sporting a new shaggy-haired, more stylish look, a marked departure from the college campus look he sported before.
“We took so much time to make this album that we thought, ‘Let’s come back with a bang and do something different,”’ he says. “It’s really a drastic change, I guess, but it’s kind of exciting.”
Combined with his new look, Aiken hopes the new album reveals his grown-up side.
“I feel like maybe (people) think I’m a kid and I’m naive and I’m stupid,” he says. “So I’m excited about being able to show my real self.”
Nearly four years after being thrust into the spotlight as runner-up on the second season of “Idol,” Aiken is finally getting accustomed to his new career.
He says he’s grateful for the opportunities the show has given him, but admits that singing isn’t his dream job.
“I always thought I’d be a teacher and I still miss that to some extent,” says Aiken, who taught kids with disabilities before trying out for “Idol.” “I still have friends who teach and when they tell me about kids in their classes, I get kind of jealous.”
Fame has its downside, too. Aiken has been the target of speculation about his sexuality. Tabloid reports earlier this year suggested he had a gay affair. Aiken has never directly addressed the rumors.
He says talk about his sexual orientation used to bother him, he says, but now he shrugs it off.
“The people who know me, know me,” he says. “I don’t really feel like I have anybody to answer to but myself and God and the people I love.”
Aiken keeps himself grounded by living in his hometown of Raleigh, N.C., where status and celebrity “don’t matter.”
He doesn’t have any grand goals for his career other than to “do stuff that I like singing and other people like hearing,” he says. Still, he doesn’t know what’s next.
“Being open and trying new things has always been the policy for me,” he says. “Maybe we’ll do an album of all original stuff, maybe we’ll find another concept and try to wrap great hit songs around another concept. Maybe we’ll do all Bulgarian hymns.”
For now, he’s concentrating on the new record and his plans to support it with a tour in the new year. But will young fans respond to its slow, crooning style?
Executive producer Jaymes Foster says yes.
“You can’t deny great songs,” she says. “These songs have already proven to be No. 1 hit songs.”
Besides, Aiken adds, love is a universal concept that fans of all ages can relate to.
But he’s quick to point out that the album wasn’t inspired by any personal love affairs: “It was inspired by Clive Davis totally.”