Welcome to Pure America’s Got Talent

Tomorrow I’m going to get the chance to interview many (and probably ALL) of the America’s Got Talent 2010 top 10. As always, I like to ask the readers of this site to let me know any questions they’d like to ask the acts during my interviews. It’s always more fun when you provide the question. I know this is short notice, but I thought I’d give you the chance.

You can either leave a comment on this post, or if you prefer to send it to me in private, just submit it on our Contact Us page.

Here’s the list of the AGT 2010 Top 10 in case you’re not following that closely:
Anna and Patryk – New Hyde Park/Maspeth, New York (Dancers)
Christina & Ali – Idaho Falls, Idaho (Singers)
Fighting Gravity – Blacksburg, Virginia (Dance Group)
Jackie Evancho, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Singer)
Jeremy Vanschoonhoven – Talent, Oregon (Stunt Bike Rider)
Michael Grasso – Cape May, New Jersey (Magician)
Michael Grimm – Waveland, MS (Musician/Singer)
Prince Poppycock – Los Angeles, California (Opera Singer)
Taylor Mathews – Alexandria, Louisiana (Musician/Singer)
Studio One Young Beast Society – Orlando, Florida (Dance Crew)

In anticipation of the premiere of America’s Got Talent 2010 tomorrow night, I got the chance to do a short interview with Howie Mandel, the new judge of America’s Got Talent (in case you didn’t know cause you were living in a box). We cover some interesting things about Howie as a judge, the coming battles between Howie and Piers and even talk about Howie watching previous America’s Got Talent seasons in his underpants. Anyone else excited to see AGT 2010 tomorrow night?

Listen to the Pure America’s Got Talent Interview with Howie Mandel.

By Pure America’s Got Talent fan request (and with their help), I was able to get in contact with the EriAm sisters from America’s Got Talent season 4. I was really excited to interview the EriAm sisters, because they were the only act that really moved me this last season. When I saw their first performance I was hooked on these girls. They were awesome and were sent home far too early.

I hope you enjoy the following email interview I did with the EriAm sisters.

Why did you decide to audition for America’s Got Talent?
The experience and exposure you can get by being on a show like AGT is huge and we found out they were coming to Seattle a week before they did and we thought it would be fun to audition. We didn’t really expect or intend to win or go as far as we did we just thought it would be a great opportunity that had the possibility to really accelerate our music career and we are SOO happy we did it.

What were the judges like in person?
Sharon, Piers, David are very sweet people, despite what many people may say. Once all the glamour and TV is over, you find really simple and nice people. Mr. Morgan can be very tough on the contestants and speaks out his mind, as everyone knows, so we were always afraid what his next comment will be after our presentation but we are very happy with all of them. Their criticism and comments has helped us to learn a lot in our performance abilities.

What was the craziest thing that happened to you because of America’s Got Talent?
Hugging Nick Canon was our craziest moment. One of Salinas 3 dreams in life is to meet Mariah Carey and with hugging Nick she came very close to it. She said “when I hugged Nick, I could smell Mariah Carey” :-

What was the best thing that happened to you since America’s Got Talent?
We all know music inspires people. But before America’s Got Talent we we never realized how much of an impact we could have on so many younger kids who have big dreams. We get tons of e-mails and messages from young kids who write “they now believe they can achieve their dream because we inspired them”. It is such a great feeling to know that something that you did is inspiring another person and making them think ‘hey, if they can do it, I can do it.” That is the most rewarding thing that can happen to us. But to be really specific, receiving the “key to the city” of Renton, Washington our hometown was by far the biggest and best thing that happened to us after AGT. We want to thank our community and all our supporters for supporting us, throughout all of our careers.

Your website has said you were coming out with an album for over a year. When will be finally get an EriAm sisters album?
Yes, we have worked very hard to record our first album with producers Andrew Lane, John Silva, DJ Freestyle and Kevin Gardner a year ago but for various technical and business related issues, we were not able to release it on time. Now, since we have grown and our vocals have changed so much we want to re-record some of the songs and touch them up before release. We promise the EriAm album is coming very soon. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, we do have a single “My BFF” on Itunes, Amazon everywhere

Will you be participating in the America’s Got Talent Live shows in Las Vegas with Kevin Skinner?
No, we were not called to participate in the AGT Vegas show. To be honest, the live show would have been a little hectic to go straight from Hollywood AGT to the Vegas show. We are very happy that we were relieved from the Vegas show and are able to enjoy home until the next wave comes. We do hope to go see it sometime when they begin

Are you planning a national concert tour? (one fan in Massachusetts wants to know if you’ll be performing there too)
It would be awesome to do a national and international tour to promote our album. At this point, it is too early to tell what is in store for us. However, we hope that 2010 will be a great year and when we do have our tour we promise we will work hard to have one in Massachusetts where we have great fans.

Your YouTube channel has a variety of song types: R&B/Pop/Rock. Can we expect your album to have a similar mix of music?
That is a good observation We have a hard time finding one type of music that we can be labeled with. We love so many different types of music we can never stick to one. However, a mix of Pop and R&B and some soft Rock is what you could expect from us in the next album. The album has some really amazing songs written by renowned song writers and we hope people will love it as much as we do

Who was your favorite contestant on America’s Got Talent (besides yourselves of course)?
There were so many great act and we really made such good friends with all of them. Barbara, Voices of Glory, Mia, Drew, Recycled Percussion, Kevin Skinner, Erik and Rickie are just some of them we had so much fun experiencing AGT with everyone and going out to shop, eat, enjoy Hollywood with them, we bonded so much. We miss everyone so much the contestants and staff were what made this experience so great.

What advice would you give those who want to be on America’s Got Talent?
Well when you open a business people, it is all about Location. Assuming that you have great singing talent, when you audition for singing, it is all about selecting a song that shows your talent. We had the challenge of selecting a song that shows the talent of each one of us and ultimately, we believe the song selection and presentation are the two important aspects of your audition. And in general, just have fun, have confidence in your talent and really try to have fun because if you have fun, what more could u ask for?

Much Love,
EriAm

If you’ve been following me on Twitter or in the comments, then you know I had a chance to be able to interview the finalists of America’s Got Talent. It was interesting, because originally they said it would be all the finalists, then they told me it would just be Grandma Lee. So, I just prepared for Grandma Lee. Then, when I was on the call Grandma Lee, Barbara Padilla, Kevin Skinner, Drew Stevyns (and they said some other name, but I couldn’t make it out) were on the call. Very cool experience.

Of course, the biggest problem was that they only gave me 7 minutes for the interview. Yes, that’s right. I had 7 minutes to interview 4-5 finalists for America’s Got Talent. Plus, I’d only planned questions for Grandma Lee. So, basically I was pretty flustered with what to do. You’ll hear below, but I rushed through Grandma Lee so I could talk to Barbara and Kevin. Listening back I acted like such a fan boi of Barbara and Kevin, but what can I say. I only had a few minutes to think what to say.

All in all, I think you’ll enjoy hearing from some of the America’s Got Talent finalists. I need to find a better way to embed an MP3 file (maybe I’ll make a video out of it), so until then here’s a link to download the AGT Finalists interview. Please excuse the bad recording at the very beginning. I promise it gets better. Also, I’ll put a quick summary of my thoughts from the interview.

Grandma Lee – It was interesting that she’d already toured the country as a comedian. They make it sound like she’d never done this before until America’s Got Talent. Another storyline ruined;-) Granted, if you’ve read this blog for any time, then this is nothing new.

Barbara Padilla – She was so gracious and kind and her accent was beautiful. I almost felt bad for discounting her previously. I guess maybe it’s just not me being a huge opera fan. It is interesting that I think she’s going to get a good part of the women vote, cancer vote, hispanic vote and opera junkie music fan vote. That’s a lot of good people backing her.

Kevin Skinner – I loved talking with Kevin. He really is what you see on TV. I loved when he talked about bonfires not happening in LA.

Drew Stevyns – I had to dig him for kicking out my EriAm sisters. Like he says, it’s entertainment. Sadly they cut the interview off as I started with Drew. He’s very personable though.

Overall Impressions – Interviewing these people was a lot of fun. Far too short, but still worthwhile. Talking to them like this really made them real to me. I guess when you see them on TV the show kind of makes them what they want them to be. Talking to them gave me a feeling that these are good people just trying to do what they do.

Let me know what you think of this interview. Just be kind. I was shooting from the hip and I don’t do this very often. Also, I’m really subconscious about hearing my own voice so take it easy on me.