From unplanned lip-syncing to midnight rendezvous, American Idol’s Matt Giraud dishes on life on the road, life onstage and what’s to come next for the smooth singer.
“I’m finally feeling in the groove of things on the road,” Matt tells us. “The performance part took a few to really get my thing going. Now it’s more natural. I don’t have to think about it, and I can improv a little bit here and there. And I still like my songs, which is good!”
That doesn’t mean there haven’t been a few bumps in the road…
Any mishaps onstage yet?
Oh yeah. I’ve had a couple of extremely embarrassing moments onstage. One night I went out and my fly was down. Another night, I went out without my microphone so there was like a six-second solo where I was just lip-synching it. It was really embarrassing. I had the mic stand, so I just cupped it pretending to hold a mic that wasn’t there. Another night my mic stand came apart onstage. It’s just funny. We all laugh, but it always happens to me. I looked on Twitter and no one said anything, so I guess no one noticed.
A few readers wrote in asking why you take the tour bus sometimes and fly other times. Do explain it to them.
Here’s how it works. We usually overnight on the tour bus around midnight to the next town, and we check into a hotel in the middle of the night or early in the morning. If we need to, we sleep during the day a bit in our hotel rooms and then go to the show. If the next stop is farther away, we’ll fly instead of taking the tour bus and the buses will meet us at that next stop. I hate flying. There are so many of us, so it’s hard to deal with us all in the airport.
What’s the latest on a record deal?
I’m in talks right now with 19 and other companies. It’s just a waiting game to see what happens. I’m just trying to stick to what I do, which is write and keep booking shows. I hope something comes up for a record deal. But if I have to, I’ll record myself. I want to make about five good songs to get out there to present to the labels of how I want to be as an artist.
How much are you writing on the road?
I’ve written some stuff on the pianos in the hotel lobbies we stay at in the middle of the night. I recorded some stuff on my phone so I don’t forget the idea or the melody. I need to get a little keyboard for my room so I can really work. I’m getting anxious to get out there and write more.
I see you have a solo show booked on Jan. 29, 2010 at the Forest Hills Fine Arts Center in Grand Rapids, Mich. Is this the start of a solo tour?
I’m not sure yet. As of now it’s my first show, but I’m booking other shows right now for fundraising and private events, and I hope to do a solo tour later. The idea is to do stuff like the national anthem for the Detroit Tigers and stuff like that—spreading myself out.
