Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with Kris Allen About Album 10

It’s been ten years since Kris Allen was crowned the 2009 American Idol winner. In the past decade, he’s toured the world and dropped six studio albums, including his latest, 10.

The recent release finds Kris reimagining hits from his impressive catalog and includes a throwback to Donny Hathaway’s “A Song for You,” the song that started his American Idol journey.

Pop Culturalist recently caught up with Kris while on his 10 Years 1 Night Tour for an in-depth conversation about his career and 10.

PC: It’s the tenth anniversary since you won Idol and released your debut album. Since then, you’ve experienced a lot of firsts. If you could go back and relive one of those firsts, what would it be and why?
Kris: I think hearing “Live Like We’re Dying” on the radio for the first time. It all happened really fast, and there was so much happening in those first couple of months after I was on the show. Nothing ever felt real. Nothing ever felt important enough, even though it was. I don’t know if I felt like I deserved some of the things that happened because it happened so fast. But I’d love to relive that because you don’t get to do that again. You don’t ever get to hear your song on the radio for the first time. You might hear a song on the radio. I could write another song and it end up on the radio. But the first time, that’s pretty special, so I’d love to relive that.

PC: Do you think you’ll share your American Idol journey with your kids as they get older?
Kris: I think I will. I think no matter what, they’ll find out. They’ll probably go searching themselves and find things and probably make fun of me for a lot of different things. [laughs] But I think that it might feel foreign to them whenever they’re old enough to realize what happened because the world is changing. I might not even be around. If they have questions, I’m going to answer them.

PC: What would you say to your kids if they want to follow a similar career path?
Kris: I think my parents were really great at how they encouraged me. I’d probably take a lot of what they did. They were never too pushy. They let me fall in love with music on my own. They would buy me stuff. They’d buy me guitars. My dad would buy me pedals. He’d take me to guitar stores and let me try stuff and play around. We would listen to stuff. They would let me play in my room whenever I needed to without ever being like, “Hey, that’s too loud.”

They never made me practice or say things like, “If you want to do this, this is what you got to do.” They let me do my own thing and just let me fall in love with music. So I’ve tried to do that with my kids. I think my son’s got an ability about him—at least musically and the way he sings. His pitch is perfect, crazy. So I’ve tried to be like, “Buddy, you sound great.” I don’t want him to be shy or be afraid to showcase his talent.

PC: You just released 10. It’s you reimagining a couple of songs in your catalog and songs you’ve done on Idol. Which was the most challenging to reinvent and which was your favorite?
Kris: My favorite to reinvent from that record was probably “Everybody Just Wants to Dance.” I wanted to do something from the album Horizons, and I didn’t know which one to do. I thought, “What if I did a different take on that song? What could make that sound like a little more groovier?” There was a riff that I came up with that was completely separate. It almost felt like a different song. I felt like it slowed down, but it also felt like it moved along quicker. It was interesting.

I feel like the way that we did it almost makes it feel fun, and so I really enjoyed doing that one. The hardest one to do was “I Need to Know.” That song is an anomaly in itself in that the way that I recorded it. I recorded it here in New York City, and it was a crazy night. We were up at like two or three in the morning. I laid on the floor recording that song. The formal take on the original recording is not great, but I could never get the emotion again. It always felt too clean or something.

I wanted to do it again. I was like, “I’m going to redo this vocal. It’s going to be great.” I recorded that stuff in my house, and I think I did it twenty-five times. I felt like I couldn’t redo it. It was weird. Then the very last thing we did, I was like, “I’m going to try that one more time.” That’s the take you hear, and it felt really good.

PC: What was that process like deciding which songs would make 10? You have a wide catalog.
Kris: Yeah, I’ve had four or five albums—I don’t even know. [laughs] I wanted to do a lot from the first record. I knew the five that I wanted to do from the first record because the rest of them I didn’t want to showcase. I didn’t want to break those. I did “Live Like We’re Dying,” “Written All Over My Face,” “Red Guitar,” “I Need to Know,” and “Before We Come Undone.” I was like, “Those songs have always been able to live on their own, at their core. Then I wanted to do one from each record, and “A Song for You” was my audition song that I did on the show. Then when I was actually looking at that song, the first song verse of the song feels like my life. I was like, “This is perfect.” Let’s do it! Let’s start the whole thing off with that.

PC: When you look back at that past decade, is there a particular moment that stands out to you?
Kris: I don’t know. There’s been a lot. There’s shows here and there. There’s getting to meet people, opening up for certain people. I don’t know if that moment has happened yet. I think because of the way that my career has happened, it’s hard to grasp all the things that I should have celebrated at the time, you know? Because all the big, huge stuff happened so fast, so I wasn’t ready for it.

PC: What’s one thing you know now that you wish you knew looking back?
Kris: I had this quiet confidence about myself. Back then that confidence made me feel like I was good enough for all of this. I was good enough to be on TV, good enough to do all these things, and now I look back and I’m like, “You’re not.” I mean I ended up doing well. The skill and the talent was there, but it doesn’t compare to the skill level now. You learn a lot when you’ve been in the music industry for over ten years. You learn what it takes, and I didn’t know those things. I was pretty naïve.

PC: You’re on the 10 Years 1 Night Tour right now. It’s very much a celebration of your journey and the fans. What was the concept for this tour? What can fans expect?
Kris: I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted this tour to be and what’s the point of me doing this. What’s the point of me doing this ten-year tour if I’m just going to go out there and play songs for people from the past ten years? I was like, “That’s not what I want this to be. I want this to be a gift.” I wanted it to feel like a gift to the fans to show my gratitude.

PC: How tough is it for you now? Ten years ago, you weren’t a father of three. How do you balance it all?
Kris: FaceTime is great. That helps, you know? It is hard though. It’s becoming harder and harder now that I have three kids. It’s going to get even harder now. There’s a lot of logistical things that we’ve got to figure out now. That’s hard. I’m not that guy. I’m not a logistics guy. I try not to be away for too long at a time.

Last summer, I did the Idol tour. I was gone for almost three months straight. My kids came and hung out with me for three or four days in the middle of it, and I felt bad. I felt bad I was gone for that long. That didn’t feel right. It really messed with me. I didn’t want to talk for a long time. I just think it’s figuring out how because I can’t like not be on the road. I obviously could. I think I have to be. It’s part of what I do. It’s part of how I connect with people. I love doing live shows.

PC: When you look back at the last ten years, what’s the biggest lesson that you’ve learned along this journey, and what’s probably surprised you the most?
Kris: I think the thing that has surprised me is how time-consuming this job is. I think we all have this idea of what a musician is going to be. It’s like, “Oh, you play guitar. You sing. That’s all you got to do.” It’s so much more than that, and I’ve had to learn that, I’m still learning that. I’m still learning how to do other things and create in other ways that are still part of what I do. Like designing the 10 album cover. I’ve never designed anything before, but it’s about getting creative, and there’s just a lot that happens.

I don’t know if this is the biggest lesson, but one of the lessons that I’ve learned is I do have something to say. I shouldn’t be afraid of that.

PC: As you look ahead to the next couple of years, can we expect more new music? I know you’re constantly writing on the road, anything you can tease about that?
Kris: So I’ve got a batch of songs I’m really excited about, and I’m excited for people to hear them. It’s about finding a team and the right people to help bring that music to life in the best way possible. I think I’m on a journey that I want to create the greatest thing I’ve ever made and not just put songs out there just because.

To keep up with Kris, follow him on Twitter and Instagram. Pick up or stream 10 on Amazon Music, iTunes, or Spotify.