After adding “bad girl” to their CV with “Notorious” and making the party super naughty on the hot, hot, hot “All Fired Up,” the lovely ladies known collectively as The Saturdays have decided to take the BPM down a few notches with “My Heart Takes Over,” the third single from their upcoming studio album.

The Sats’ latest is a surging power ballad, not at all unlike your standard Leona Lewis/Ryan Tedder production circa 3 years ago (a la “Bleeding Love”). “‘Cause if there’s a chance we might have missed / And if there’s a ray of light in this / Baby you should know that this is where my heart takes over,” the girl powerfully chant during the chorus.

Overall it’s a good song–a fine song even, if not largely unadventurous (especially when compared to the edgier past two single offerings from this era.) Still, as an incredibly radio-friendly production, “My Heart Takes Over” nearly guarantees that the girls are about to have another smash hit single on their hands when released on November 14.

In the meantime, the video for the song will be shot later this week…in Iceland. Perhaps we can expect some Björkian undertones? Probably not, but I can always hold out hope to see Una dancing with a cat one day.

Also released today? The long-awaited details about the Sats’ upcoming third studio album, which has been titled On Your Radar: The album is out on November 21, and will feature production by Space Cowboy, Steve Mac, David Eriksen, Brian Higgins (Xenomania), as well as a feature by Travie McCoy. Yum, yum!

“My Heart Takes Over” will be released on November 14. (iTunes)

Over the last few weeks, I’ve gone from liking to full on L-O-V-I-N-G Leona Lewis‘ “Collide.” Or is it Avicii‘s “Collide”? Or Leona Lewis feat. Avicii? Or Avicii feat. Leona Lewis? I don’t know–all I know is that the single art changed to something rather dreadful to acknowledge the whole rip-off controversy, and I don’t really want to talk about it.

Luckily, the remixes just keep coming in for Lewis’ latest banger due out today in the US (it’s already climbed to #13 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart!), which also doubles as the lead single from her forthcoming studio album, Glassheart.

Check out the Alex Gaudino & Jason Roony remix, the Cahill remix and the Nay Ray club mix below!

Collide – Alex Gaudino & Jason Roony by LeonaLewis

Collide – Cahill Remix by LeonaLewis

Collide – Nay Ray Club Remix by LeonaLewis

Note: This post was roughly 89.7% inspired by my desire to post the brand new Glassheart promotional photo above, which I find to be generally fierce, fabulous and flaw free.

Thank you for your time.

The new Leona Lewis single, “Collide,” is great. It’s also mired in controversy.

The beef? The song’s instrumental is a direct lift from Swedish DJ Avicii‘s club track “Penguin” (later known as “Fade Into Darkness”)–a decision Camp Avicii claims they never made.

While Leona took to Twitter two weeks ago to explain that the song’s producer was well aware of its use for “Collide,” Avicii’s manager insists they were falsely told Leona’s song would merely sample “Penguin” (which contains a sample within itself)–not copy the “Penguin” formula entirely: “We never allowed [Syco] to replay our version of the track…the original sample rights belong to Simon Jeffes [Penguin Cafe Orchestra] and approval for using that composition is not in our control,” Avicii’s manager said in a statement according to the BBC.

Since then, it’s gotten downright nasty: “Thanks for accusing me of lying and speaking on my behalf,” Avicii wrote in response to a tweet from Leona on July 20.

But while that whole mess sorts itself out, one detail still holds true: “Collide” is a very, very good-to-great club-pop hit.

With its bright staccato piano riffs and surging synthesizers (courtesy of Avicii–or rather, Penguin Cafe Orchestra), oddly monotone speak-sung verses, and that utterly massive, arms-aloft chorus that rivals Kelly Rowland‘s summer smash collaboration with David Guetta (“When Love Takes Over”), “Collide” is a (slightly left-of-center) club smash in the making–a wise way to steer clear of the all-too-familiar sound of Leona’s–dare I say it–boring Ryan Tedder plodders.

According to a new press release, “Collide” will be released in the US on September 6, along with a bunch of amazing remixes from the likes of Cahill and Nay Ray. (All of which you can hear now, courtesy of RCA.)

Best of the bunch may be the Afrojack remix, which takes the song’s already massive chorus to utterly rave-happy new heights. Trust me, ye neon children of the night: You won’t need be needing that E once the beat drop hits. Euphoria!

Collide [Afrojack Remix] – Leona Lewis by RCA Music Group

“Collide” will be released on September 6. (iTunes)

Pia Toscano – “This Time” (Radio Premiere)

As a contestant on Season 10 of American Idol, Pia Toscano was prematurely ousted after a series of technically flawless vocal performances.

Her advocates were flabbergasted by the upset, while her detractors were unsurprised. In her brief time on the show, Pia had always been even-keeled and likable, with the kind of jaw-droppingly perfect vocals that made a star out of Leona Lewis. All of this is great, but none of it makes for particularly compelling television.

With the release of her first single, “This Time,” Pia doesn’t stray from her formula: It’s a highly listenable midtempo ballad about overcoming the odds and “getting back to the real me,” with modern production that takes its cues from the country-inflected R&B of Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable.” Penned by hitmaker du jour Ester Dean, who has demonstrated her songwriting prowess on smashes like Rihanna’s “S&M” and Katy Perry’s “Firework,” the lyrics have a certain bland potency — “This Time” may not Ester’s finest work, but it’s certainly a worthy feather in her cap.

There’s something about the song that feels oddly, and appealingly, nostalgic; “This Time” is a big belter of a track, one that demands an artist like Pia to lay down some diva-caliber vocals; there’s no David Guetta-aping house production or phoned-in rent-a-rapper on the bridge; and, in an era of obstinate insistence on artist “authenticity,” it’s refreshing that we’ve yet to see anything about Pia Toscano’s tortured relationship history or songwriting process or any nonsense of the kind. It’s straightforward, and uncomplicated, even if it is a little boring. And I can’t stop playing it.

After all, there’s a very good reason that Pia developed such an unusually strong following on Idol: Homegirl can sang. And that’s exactly what she does on “This Time,” a strong, if undifferentiated, debut from an artist who has more than enough talent to forge a real career.

Genre: Pop, R&B
For fans of: Leona Lewis, Sugababes, Jordin Sparks

Ladies and ladyboys, meet singer-songwriter Carrie Mac.

Having just come off tour opening for X Factor winner Alexandra Burke, the multi-talented UK songstress (she plays violin, guitar and piano…plus the ocarina to boot!) is now gearing up to begin her official debut.

On April 18, Miss Mac will take a crack (too fun, too fun) at tearing up the charts with her debut single, “Till I See You Again.”

The song, a piano ‘n’ strings pop number, is chock full of radio-friendly appeal, playing somewhere in between the ranks of a modern R&B-tinged mid-tempo (Keri Hilson‘s “Energy”) and the power pop balladry of yesteryear (I’m hearing a touch of Celine Dion‘s “Power of Love” in the chorus).

Given her track record thus far, it certainly seems as though Mac could make a dent in the UK Singles Chart: Last year Mac released a gorgeous ballad called “Hello” for digital sale in Scotland (now available worldwide–watch her perform the song live) that managed to crack the Top 40 without any promotion.

“A few years ago I wasn’t ready for this. But now I feel I can deal with whatever is thrown at me now. It’s time for me to show people I can sing live, write my own songs and play my own instruments. This is a long overdue, here I am,” Mac says of her forthcoming debut.

With any luck, it’ll be worth the wait!

“Till I See You Again” will be released on April 18. (iTunes)

Oh, look: Queen of Trash Ke$ha‘s gone and vommed out yet another completely obvious, frivolous glitter-drenched video about unicorn-headed men (Gaga‘s pissed) and epic rainbow laser gun battles with James Van Der Douche Beek.

Honestly…haven’t we seen this rehashed enough by Susan Boyle and Sarah McLachlan? BE. ORIGINAL. KEYSHIA.

LOLOL OMFG I’M J/K…It’s UH-MAZING!

The video for “Blow” is like a tour of the hazy dreamworld that K$ drifts into whenever she passes out on the Get $leazy Tour bus toilet, and it’s exactly the reason I first fell in love with this silly, smelly betch: She’s lookin’ all shades of garbage-chic, the plot and dialogue are genuinely hilarious…and let’s not forget, the song that its supporting utterly slays!

Hang onto your trash bag thongs, y’all…

This place about to BLO-OO-OW!

“Blow” was released to radio on February 8. (iTunes)

Today is October 30, which means it’s time for the ghoulish Halloween X Factor spook-tacular! And oh, how terrifying it was: Damning choir chants from Hell, epilepsy-inducing flashes of lights, Louis Walsh’s general existence—wait, how’s this any different from any other week of the X Factor? Oh right, heavier eyeliner.

To kick off the night, the Beloved Jewel of Ireland, Tesco Mary Byrnes came out in a pair of modest devil horns for a gloriously dramatic, disco-y rendition of the already dramatic, disco-y “Could It Be Magic?” by Barry Manilow. And all of a sudden, Tesco Mary became even better in my mind: Imagine. Not only is she a Shirley Bassey-like belter, but a true disco diva in the making! The judges all ate it up (although Cheryl said she was expecting something more like “I Put A Spell On You”,”which is exactly what I thought she was going to sing! GET OUT OF MY MIND, CHEZZA) Simon called her a “horny little devil.” Naughty. (VIDEO)

Looking a bit Adam Lambert with the eyeliner, broody Aidan Grimshaw delivered a really spooky, really intense version of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” amongst a graveyard of dancers and mannequins. It worked really well—at least in the beginning, although it got pretty awkward and quivery in spots toward the end. Cheryl begged him to smile (which he did a few times, though nothing can seem to make that sad boy smile) and Dannii bitched about him not getting enough credit—I agree. I never really realized how hot he was until this week. (VIDEO)

Then came the poor man’s The Saturdays, perhaps better known as Belle Amie. Simon announced that his lady group would be performing “a well known girl group song,” which is apparently an entirely different concept compared to last week’s performance of Girls Aloud’s cover of “I’ll Stand By You.” The group came ambling out of their coffins as train-wreck Brides of Frankensteins to sing Bananarama’s “Venus,” sloppily non-harmonizing with each other and remaining generally un-extraordinary. Dannii called them out for being somewhat shit singers and the crowd booed, and then Simon bitched about them not getting enough credit—I agree. I never really realized how dull they were until this week. (VIDEO)

Rebecca Ferguson came next, looking every bit of gothic glamour perfection to perform Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game,” an amazing selection. Everything about the performance was just PERFECT—chilling vocals, a full set of string players in the background, nice and dark moodiness abound. Delicious. It was probably my favorite performance from her thus far! Louis shot his load all over the performance “You’re perfect! You’re such a nice person!” Simon called her a classy broad and said she reminded him of Leona Lewis (gasp!) and then Cheryl called her the “perfect ambassador for Britain.” Apparently X Factor duties include forays into global politics as well. (VIDEO)

Treyc Cohen, who became the unexpected other half of the bottom two of the results show last week, revealed that she had a massive panic attack during the results show. Dan Hartman/Take That’s “Relight My Fire,” looking a bit Grace Jones/Lady Gaga with a lovely hooded mini-dress and about a million back-up dancers. The reaction was alright from the judges until Simon turned on the sass and accused Chezza of not paying enough attention to Treyc in order to develop her as a recording artist. “Yer out of awduh! Yer out uh awduh!” Cheryl cried out amidst both boos and cheers, her newly crimson hair glistening under the lamps. It’s no wonder she’s caused most of the beauty shops in the UK to sell out of red hair dye. Wait, what’s going on again? (VIDEO)

Matt Cardle performed Leona Lewis‘ “Bleeding Love,” and it was kind of too fast-paced at first and his mouth was too close to the microphone for most of it—until the second half of the song, in which he unleashed the power in the most awe-inspiring of ways and became objectively amazing. (VIDEO)

Wagner came out to sing Meatloaf’s “Bat Out Of Hell” next, and then I took a bathroom break. (VIDEO)

Paije Richardson performed “Back to Black” by Amy Winehouse. He was once again really, really good (technically speaking), but I got bored and started singing my own version of the song over him after a few seconds, so that was fun for me. Unfortunately, I still don’t care for Paije. Sorry, (VIDEO)

Katie Weasel came to the stage next to perform a twinkle-toed rendition of “Bewitched.” “OH GOD” I shouted upon seeing her wannabe-Gaga makeup-slathered face swivel around in the egg chair. With each week, my dislike grows stronger. Does she seem really disingenuous to anyone else? I feel like she’s got a diva’s attitude without a diva’s voice (but rather the voice of a dozen other pop stars that do it better), and the result is something really fake and cloying. (VIDEO)

One Direction sang Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of The Heart,” complete with subtle traces of fake blood all over their faces that kept making me LOL. It was good, but…you know. They’re little boys. (VIDEO)

And then from the ruins of great suckage before her, the great Lloyd did appear unto the X Factor stage as the final act of the night.

Oh…my God. Just watch. (VIDEO)

Without a doubt, Lady Lloyd’s rendition of Shakespears Sister’s “Stay” reigns as the indisputable performance of the night. Dropping the ghetto mamacita shtick for a hot second and whipping her hair up into a nice Elvira poof, Lloyd simply sang the damn thing—and the results were staggeringly amazing. So, so emotional and so, so right. I know how good Lloyd is when she goes hard with her swag, but I absolutely l-o-v-e when she actually sings. The judges all do too, and Simon called it the performance of the season. I agree.

With about five performances under her belt, Cher Lloyd is literally already a better pop star than half of the dire trash-bags stuffing up the radio these days. I cannot believe what I’ve just witnessed—‘tis only the stuff of a pure legend-in-the-making. Nearly cried!

Performance of the Night: Cher

My Picks:
Girls: Cher
Over 28′s: Mary
Boys: Matt
Groups: Belle Amie

The thing is I don’t know when to shut my mouth. That’ the problem.

Sky Ferreira is an ‘it’ girl.

Immortalized by the industry’s top photographers (Rankin, for instance, took the snapshot above), suited and styled by the most desirable modern couturiers, and produced by arguably the biggest names in the music industry, the 18-year-old Los Angeles native has certainly made a name for herself far before ever…well, making a name for herself. Yet.

After sending out a MySpace message to Swedish power pop producers Bloodshy & Avant back in 2006 begging for a collaboration and armed with nothing but a few raw demos, the singer was stunned when she received an answer back inviting her to come record with the duo. Suddenly she was off to Stockholm, and so began her formal endeavor into the industry.

With her first single already making waves in the UK–the infectious, stuttering electro-pop smash, “One”–as well as an upcoming Ryan Tedder-produced single due out in the US later this summer (“Obsession”), Ferreira is now heading full steam toward her long-awaited debut record, currently slated for release in January. (Click here to hear a 30-second sample of the song now!)

I got the chance to speak to the rising starlet last week during her promotional spin around Londontown. Barring an impromptu (albeit hilarious) cameo by PopJustice and more than a few Britney related questions on my end, Ferreira had lots to say about her music, the industry, and the culture of leaks (of the musical variety). Oh yes, and I asked how she gets her hair so nice.

Click “Read More…” to read the full interview.

Oh, hi! Sky?!

Hi!

Hi! How are you today?

I’m good. How are you?

I’m good. How is London treating you?

It’s good.

Yeah?

Yeah.

Well, my name’s Brad. I’m the editor of a pop blog in the states called MuuMuse. I have to let you know that I’m actually recording this on my iPad, so it’s kind of like a wave of the future right now [laughs]. You’ve always been a buzz artist–kind of just below the radar for the past couple of years. I was wondering what it was that really brought you from demos on MySpace to working with pretty much every producer in the industry?

Oh, I–I don’t even know! Greg Kurstin, Paul Epworth, Bloodshy and Avant–they pretty much jumped on board before any of the labels.

Is it true that it was because you sent a message right to Bloodshy?

Yes. [laughs]

Very bold! That’s amazing!

Yeah. That all happened and then, I don’t know, it just started happening and I spoke to the producers and we got along really well.

Now you have your first single in the UK called “One,” which is amazing. As far as the music is concerned, how does “One” compare to the sound of your album right now?

My album? Well, I don’t want to say all over the place. It’s pretty consistent. “One” is similar, but each song is something way different, which is how a record should be. It should never be all the same songs–it can have a similar sound, but just not the same songs, you know? “One” is by Bloodshy and Avant. They pretty much did more than half of my record. They executive produced it.

Oh, wow! How was it working with them?

We worked really well together, I think. We go back so long now–now almost four years.

Did you work in the U.S. on it? Did you fly over?

I worked in Sweden.

Oh, wow! Just like Britney.

[Laughs] Yeah.

On a similar note: I don’t want to turn this into a Britney-fest, but did any of the songs you’re working on actually come from Britney’s sessions, like from Blackout?

No. I’ve written for Britney, but none of the songs I’ve ever done were Britney songs. There was one song I almost sang on that was a Britney song, but it wasn’t a Bloodshy and Avant. It was a song called “Follow My Fingers.”

Was that written by Nicole Morier? That’s happening?

Yeah, it was written by Nicole. No, it didn’t end up happening. I didn’t end up getting it because I usually end up writing my own stuff with other writers, and not songs that are already done. But yeah, that was the only Britney song I’ve ever heard of that was hers once. I’ve written for her, but that’s as far as it goes. None of my songs were actually for her, you know?

Right, you just submitted them?

Yeah. Nothing that’s on my record was ever written for her. Everything that’s on my record was written for my record.

You said your record’s very eclectic because it has different producers and sounds. You also have a single in the U.S. coming up with Ryan Tedder called “Obsession.” I think Ryan’s kind of known for his really big ballads with people like Beyonce, Leona Lewis, and Kelly Clarkson, but I know this is an uptempo song. Can you tell us anything about it?

It’s very poppy, and it has like a Gary Glitter chant in the intro. I would say it’s glam rock-based, but… [Laughs] It’s not glam rock-based, because Gary Glitter is glam rock, but it’s very bold.

How would you say it compares to “One”? Is it entirely different in terms of style?

Um… [Starts laughing]. Sorry! I just looked at my phone and looked at Twitter and PopJustice goes, “I just did a very shit phone interview with Sky Ferreira!”

[Gasps!] Are you serious?!

Yeah! Well, I was just saying I don’t want to be–I want to be successful and I want to be a pop star, but I don’t want to be famous, if that makes sense. I don’t want to be a tabloid person.

Okay. Did you fight with him about it?

Kind of…

Oh no. Actually, I was just half-fighting with him earlier on Twitter about the Spice Girls and Girls Aloud.

Really? Well, I just fucked up that website–oh! [Laughs]

No. I’m sorry!

It’s okay! I’m putting him on blast and it hasn’t even been ten minutes! [Laughs]

Maybe he’s kidding. You know that’s his sense of humor.

Yeah.

I’m sure it’s fine. Do you know when “Obsession” is coming out?

“Obsession” should be out end of August, I think. Or early September.

Is the album still coming out on January 11th?

January 1st. I think it’s the first, but I don’t know–I might have it confused. It just looks like a day that goes one one one one one one.

Well, you have to keep that. I think that’s the most genius idea ever. You definitely have to release on a day of all ones.

Yeah.

I wanted to ask, we’re kind of in a culture where illegal downloading is considered the norm. There’s things like iLeaks.com and forums. What do you think about that and how that may affect the career and the music you make and work hard on?

That’s the thing. I also kind of got in a weird conversation about this with him [PopJustice]. He said it’s not the random people that you mind having the songs, it’s the money. But I was like, that’s not it. I worked very long on this–anyways.

I just feel like people that are my fans…you can listen to the song and stream it, but I don’t know. The leaked downloads and stuff? I know people think that’s helping–well, it’s not people that’s helping. It’s usually people you know and have this problem with you. That’s what happened with Ke$ha, right? The person who leaked her pictures or whatever.

Anyways, that’s all I have! This career I do–it’s one of the only ways I make money and I just–it frustrates me. I mean I understand that people want the songs, and that’s cool, but don’t you think you want the finished product instead of some demo? I understand people having it, but it’s like, if you’re such a big fan then why are you doing that? And then I see people selling stuff on eBay and selling the demos to people…

Yep. That happened last night, actually. Two Britney demos leaked.

Yeah, I don’t know. It’s so weird. I don’t know. I don’ want people angry with me, but it’s like–I’m trying my best to support it, but I don’t at the same time. I don’t mind getting free music, but the stuff that’s on my record, I do mind! [Laughs]

But nonetheless, you’ve managed to avoid leaks at a huge level, considering the amount of people you’ve worked with compared to artists like Ke$ha. You have really had a huge seal on your music. Why do you think that is?

I was really careful about who I gave my songs to, except like twice, and that’s why I know who has them because I never give my songs to too many people ever. I think there’s only two people who have my songs and I know who they are. That’s why I get frustrated because I know who those people are. The thing is there’s nothing you can do because they deny it too, so it’s really frustrating. But I’ve been really careful about that.

It’s hard to say because at the same time it increases your exposure and it gets you new fans.

Yeah. That’s the hard thing about it. At the same time, it’s extremely upsetting.

I think they’re building a new business model around streaming and things like that instead of downloads, because the leaks are definitely affecting…

But everyone finds a way to get stuff. It’s just weird because these people who are your fans will also be the people who re-post your blackmail photos. You know what I’m talking about, right?

I do. Absolutely! It is an interesting culture. People want a piece of you, I guess.

But without your fans you’re nothing, so it’s a really thin line to cross. So it’s like, do I say anything? Then I’m like, “Fuck that. I’m going to say something!” I’m terrible. The thing is I don’t know when to shut my mouth. That’s the problem. I’m the worst about that.

Have you done anything unfortunate lately? Have you said anything bad?

No, I never say anything bad, but I’m sarcastic a lot. The thing is I don’t actually diss people. I point out things that they do. I would flat out say something to you, but I wonlt say “Oh, I hate this person” because there is no one I actually hate.

I’m always like “This person, I don’t agree what they do and this thing and that thing, but I really do like their song,” but I never really talk shit about people. If someone asks me a question, why am I going to pretend? Would you rather me be a liar?

You’re speaking your mind. That’s what you think.

That’s the problem. I don’t know.

I have a few questions from fans and readers that submitted them! I’ll warn you, they get random, but it’s all out of love I guess.

Cool. That’s fine! I hope I don’t come across as a bitch or something. I totally appreciate my fans!

No, no. It’s totally fine. They’re silly more than anything. Let’s see: What song would you love to cover?

“Life On Mars” (David Bowie) without ruining it. I love covering songs though, obviously. I cover a lot of stuff. “Stand Back” (Stevie Nicks) and “Animal” (Miike Snow). I just really like covering songs and having a different take on it, and I like singing. [Laughs]

I think you put a really different spin on each song that you cover. Okay, what music did you grow up listening to?

Um…Britney Spears! [Laughs] Elton John. The thing is I like the whole Top 40 stuff, but I also like The Misfits, Marc Bolan, David Bowie and April March–I like all different genres. It’s not a problem, but it’s hard for people to understand sometimes why I do certain music, because I want to be able to do all different types of music.

If you listen to Britney..I’ll just say I’mthe number one Britney fan. I said that. What are you favorite Britney songs?

“Born to Make You Happy” was my first official–”Sometimes” too, when I was like six or seven. “Born To Make You Happy” was my first favorite. I liked the music video for “Sometimes” when I was little. I like “Lucky,” “Overprotected,” “Boys,” and the whole Blackout album. The whole Blackout album was so good. It’s still one of my favorite albums.

Amazing. That’s actually another one of the questions. What are your favorite albums of all time?

The thing is I like more songs than I like albums, so I’d pick greatest hits for everyone. [Laughs]

I love songs, so maybe I should answer the question that way. “Life On Mars” and “h! You Pretty Things” by David Bowie. And “The Man Who Sold The World.” “Cosmic Dancer” by T-Rex. The whole Blackout album. “As Tears Go By” by The Rolling Stones. “Bang Bang” by Nancy Sinatra. Early Madonna is my favorite. And Vanity 6, “Nasty Girl.”

I’m guessing you heard “Sex Rules.” Did you?

Oh, yes. Yep. I listened to it literally all day yesterday.

Yeah, that’s based off of Vanity 6.

Oh, that’s perfect! I always complain that we need an artist that brings Vanity 6 back. It’s that vibe. Playful, sexy, but really danceable. Is it going to be on the album?

Yeah, that’s one of my favorites. It’s definitely going to be on the album. That was like the first demo.

I was going to say that was probably like an early demo, and that it hasn’t been mastered or anything.

Yeah.

What products do you use for your hair?

Uhh..That’ so weird. [Laughs] I use Mane n’ Tails conditioner. I swear on my life.

You do have very nice hair. Finally, where do you see yourself in five years?

I see myself with a lot more records and different music projects. Happy and successful.

Aw, good! I really appreciate you talking to me. Very excited for the album. I wish you loads of success!

Thank you.

Have fun in London. I’ll talk to you soon!

Thanks! Nice speaking to you!

Many thanks to RJ Kozain for providing the transcription of this interview.

For more on Sky Ferreira, click here to visit her official website or her Twitter.

And If you haven’t already, please check out Sam Lansky’s guest Muuse, “Fame Fetale: The Rise of Sky Ferreira” right here.

So, this is something new and interesting.

The night before my interview with Sky Ferreira, I received a vaguely mysterious e-mail from MuuMuse reader Sam Lansky with an attachment entitled “Fame Fatale.” The e-mail suggested that the attached may assist me in preparing for my interview.

As soon as I began reading, I already knew: This had to be published immediately.

“Fame Fatale” is not only a remarkably in-depth analysis (and personal account) of Ferreira’s curious rise to fame, but a thoughtful contemplation of the manufacturing of the modern pop star and the very conventions of the music industry itself. It’s extremely well-researched, poses tough questions, and deserves your full attention.

With his permission, I’ve asked Sam to feature his article on MuuMuse. It’s an incredible piece, and I do highly recommend that all of my Muusers give it a thorough reading–even if it’s “tl;dr” territory.

I do, after all, hope to keep a literate company.

Click “Read More…” to read Sam Lansky’s “Fame Fatale: The Rise of Sky Ferreira.”

In April, I recognized Sky Ferreira in the VIP section of the Bell Room in Brooklyn. She was wearing a fur coat and leggings. A tangly mane of hair haloed her heart-shaped face. When she smiled, her mouth was full of small, sharp teeth. I knew instantly that she was too cool for me, that we could never be friends. But still, I surged with the aching, sexless lust of a childhood crush. I wanted to be her sassy, outrageous gay best friend. I wanted to cluck my tongue when she tried on an ill-fitting deconstructed vintage leather motorcycle jacket. I wanted to be the one to whom she tweeted a pithy one-liner.

So I approached the roped-off platform. The clamor of the club swelled around me, blotting out my heartbeat in my ears. I called up to her.

“Sky!” I yelled. She looked down at me, searching my face for familiarity that she wouldn’t find. I extended a hand and she shook it, tentatively. “I’m such a huge fan.”

“Really?” she said.

I have been following the rise of Sky Ferreira for well over a year now. In February of 2009, British music journalist Paul Lester featured her as the “New Band of the Day” in The Guardian, after being tipped by up-and-coming synthpop act Frankmusik to “this incredible 16-year-old model, promoter, singer and lyricist” he’d stumbled across. “She’s a great idea brought to life, a young internet celebrity and art-glam-trash-pop teen who makes Lady Gaga look a bit, well, old and crap,” Lester wrote.

The only song on Sky’s MySpace page was a remix of the song “Teen Lovers” by indie-dance quartet The Virgins, which featured Sky singing tinnily on the chorus. Information on Sky was scarce online. Pictures on her MySpace showed a lissome girl with messy hair, a pouting mouth, and eyes smeared with kohl. In one, she licked her lips, offering a tantalizingly half-eaten hamburger to the camera; in another, she squinted and bared her teeth, exposing shiny braces; it was the perfect juxtaposition of a patriarchal fantasy of sexually precocious teenage girls and the reality of adolescence in all its awkwardness. The contrast was self-consciously clever, if a little self-satisfied.

Early on, I unearthed another demo called “Almost Lover,” from when Sky was fifteen; it is a dissonant, ambient sprawl of a record that sounds like it was cut in a bathroom. It was the first I had heard of Sky’s voice, which is, if anything, a bracingly mature instrument. It is also the stuff of legend: I have read that she is a classically trained gospel singer, that she has the same vocal range as Mariah Carey, and that she sang for Michael Jackson when she was eleven (her grandmother was his hairstylist) and brought him to tears. It’s easy to imagine why. Her voice is rich and throaty, but unlike the theatrical ululating that’s become so ubiquitous among VH1 divas and reality talent show contestants, with its Broadway pitch and showy runs. Sky’s is not the voice of a teenager, but one inflected with melancholy, wearied by years of painful experience and lost love. In “Almost Lover,” the vocal track is raw and unmastered, soaring and collapsing into trilling synths. “You sing me lullabies to waste my time/The sweetest sadness in your eyes,” she murmurs. Then, with wrenching emotionality, The Voice breaks loose: “I try not to think about you,” she sings, “but I am just too naïve.” In a press release, Sky described one of her first songs as “‘Careless Whisper’ in space”; I suspect this description refers to “Almost Lover.” If so, it is a more accurate description than this writer could devise.

The only other recording I could find, at least at that point, was a cover of the Billie Holiday song “God Bless the Child.” If this recording is less experimental, it nonetheless betrays the same maturity at which “Almost Lover” hints. She carries the final note for ten long seconds of chill-inducing vibrato.

Sky was a fan of Bloodshy & Avant, née Christian Karlsson and Pontius Winnberg. The Swedish production team are best known for their work on Britney Spears’ critically lauded single “Toxic,” though their popularity among the indie set has risen due to their production as two-thirds of the pop outfit Miike Snow. She sent them a message via MySpace, which, she claims, read like this: “I write my own songs and sing. I can do everything, and I can do it better than Britney Spears, so you should work with me. There’s only problem: I don’t have any money, so I can’t pay you, but I swear to God, I’m going to be a huge pop star.” To her surprise, they wrote back, charmed by the audacity of this curious American girl. Over the next several years, Sky corresponded with Karlsson and Winnberg, until finally, they flew her out to Sweden to begin recording music.

How are pop stars actually “manufactured”? The term suggests construction from raw materials into a finished good. It connotes big business, industry. With a manufactured star, a corporate interest is responsible for the development of a product, with the physicality of the artist as one asset in a portfolio of agents, managers, songwriters, producers, and handlers. The face, the body, the voice (and in the era of digital manipulation, the necessity of vocal talent is questionable at best): these corporeal components are the artist’s sole contribution, while everything else is filtered through channels of commoditization. Sculpted, mastered, abridged. The performer’s personality and image are subject to the whims of the record label and the desires of the public, never the vision of the singer’s artistry. This is what we’re told.

So in this model, Britney Spears at age fifteen is an ontologically vacant vessel, sculpted by the Man to be sexily virginal, pruriently wholesome, exotically American, girlishly mature. We buy her records and watch her videos and in exchange, she lets us pour our fantasies and preoccupations into her. This is the popular illusion, perpetuated by music snobs to disparage chart pop — that Britney’s persona was somehow cooked up in a conference room by Clive Davis and a bunch of other suits. This notion is pervasive, even though Britney, as a teenager, was the one tugging her family out of some backwoods bayou town, cutting demos with producers, grinning like an idiot on The Mickey Mouse Club, fighting tooth and nail to develop her image. When Britney signed her record deal and recorded a few future smashes, the label pitched a treatment for the “…Baby One More Time” video, which involved Britney and her friends dancing around on an oversized vinyl record. She thought it was silly, so she proposed an alternate premise. In her aesthetic vision, she was prancing around in a Catholic schoolgirl uniform, skirt hitched up, midriff bared.

It is too tempting, too easy to undercut the business acumen and musical talent of our “manufactured” pop stars. The successful female solo pop artists of the last few years, despite the rapidity that tends to characterize the eventual ascent to fame, actually floundered for Hollywood eons until finally breaking big. Lady Gaga was a fixture on the New York burlesque scene for years before she became the next Madonna; Katy Perry, whose lesbian-lite single “I Kissed a Girl” dominated the airwaves in 2008, had an unsuccessful career as a Christian contemporary artist under the pseudonym Katy Hudson; Ke$ha sang background vocals for Britney Spears, The Veronicas, and Paris Hilton (of all people) before her drunken chav-pop ever charted. There is, of course, the Disney machine, which has been churning out freshly scrubbed triple-threat tweens with the vulgar commerciality often ascribed to pop music as a whole, but their market is niche, limited largely to kids in the heartland and gays who listen to musical theater. That is, for every crossover success like Miley Cyrus, there are countless singing-dancing stars of Disney Channel original movies who have faded into the sonic ether, too jaundiced by age sixteen to be commercially viable. Even Taylor Swift, easily the most blandly palatable popstrel of the last few years, toiled in the Nashville circuit throughout her adolescence, turning down a development deal with RCA because they wouldn’t let her record the songs that she was writing — the same songs which have shattered airplay records since Taylor broke big with Fearless.

These women paid their dues to the industry. They failed enough times to understand how to effectively cultivate a successful image. They learned through trial and error that, with a thousand pretty girls with big voices groping for the same elusive record deal, no management team is willing to do the hard work for them. The little creative control that Britney Spears once exercised over her career has yielded to a process that is unexpectedly driven by grassroots efforts and sheer tenacity, such that any resultant popularity is legitimately deserved. The old paradigm of the manufactured pop artist is simply no longer operative.

But rather than honor the artist for the ruthless intelligence they must exhibit, it’s easier to credit the industry, or better still, fault the parents, disturbing as it is to think that the children of the next generation possess the cool, calculating savvy that is necessary to claw one’s way to the top. The Algeresque scrap of a rags-to-riches fame narrative is only endearing once a star has already made it, for the drive itself is unattractive; as in all art, the craft should appear effortless, never revealing the teeth-grinding tenacity required for mastery.

The truth is, the progeny of the Dina Lohans of the world never had a chance to be the doe-eyed naïfs we’d want them to be—it’s just that the domineering stage-mom archetype is a useful foil that helps defuse the desperate quest for stardom which is so intrinsic to the pop star. The obdurate narcissism of a fame-starved teenage girl isn’t oppositional to the precocious innocent—actually, the former facilitates the presentation of the latter. Given the right resources, some pluck and a squadron of hitmakers, the girl goes triple platinum: the self-made Lolita, selling nothing more than herself.

Sky released two tracks in the summer of 2009. The first, “Lolita,” was posted on YouTube by her record label; the other, “Femme Fatale,” appeared on her MySpace.

“Femme Fatale” was produced by Greg Kurstin, a producer well regarded for his work with artists as diverse as Lily Allen, the Flaming Lips, and Britney Spears. The song has a jangly ‘60s sound, but harsh and dissonant, with vocal delivery that is variously seductive and antagonistic. “If you bother me, I’ll hiss,” she begins, sounding less threatening than coquettish, “My claws will dig deep into your skin/My paws are the only thing I’ll lick/Only thing you’ll taste is my fist.” The message of the song is compelling in its oxymoronic simultaneity; the urge to dominate a man (“Lay in the sun and get a tan/As you crawl to my demands”) coexists with a mutually exclusive disgust (“Don’t ask me questions, I’ll tell you nothing/Don’t touch me, don’t bug me, you’re wasting time”). In the chorus, she sings, “You’re able to tame the tiger but you can’t tame me too…All I do is make you a fool.” Putty-willed, the subject worships Sky, but the affection is never reciprocated. Is the material autobiographical? If Sky was a fixture on the Hollywood nightclub scene by age fifteen—compounded by her modelesque bearing and obvious precocity—it seems inevitable that she would be intimately familiar with the unwelcome advances of older men; in “Femme Fatale,” she harnesses her sexuality by withholding it.

The other song released in the same period, “Lolita,” is a frothier cousin to the causticity implicit in “Femme Fatale.” An earworm of a five-note piano riff is layered over a cacophony of handclaps and keyboards as Sky entreats: “Come on now, can you please turn the radio up?/Turn it on, make it loud, cause it’s oh-oh-oh/Hear the music and lose my self control.” If it is indeed a fairly typical ode to the beat—reliable lyrical content for most pop fare—it takes a twist after the bridge (“I can’t stop the beat, I can’t stop,” repeated ad infinitum). The chorus defies the song’s conventionality in a testament to the singer’s putative originality (“There’s nothing like this Lolita/You fall apart when I look at you”), then yields to a rapid-fire rap bridge in the vein of “Hollaback Girl”: “Pop pop ‘em when I’m dropping come on baby drive me crazy/You’re cute and I’m so bitchy when I’m gone you’re gonna miss me.”

Though it would be misguided to ascribe too much meaning to these lyrics, when juxtaposed with the prowling sexuality of “Femme Fatale,” the artistic statement is too compelling to be coincidental. Like many artists who could be reductively aggregated under the hipster umbrella, Sky’s musical influences have a willful eclecticism; she cites Madonna (but only “during the Blonde Ambition years”), Britney Spears, Serge Gainsbourg, Vanity 6, Brigitte Bardot, Sarah Brightman, and Dr. Dre (go figure). To be a student of contemporary music, Sky would be shrewd enough to discover, and creative enough to comment upon, the paradoxical dichotomy that has always bounded young women in pop: they must be both femme fatale and Lolita.

Sky has said that she is “interested in telling stories about youth and desire…[n]ot love, though, because I haven’t experienced that yet.” Implicit in the lyrics of these first two songs is a desire to circumnavigate the hypersexualization that characterizes most female pop artists by claiming her incipient femininity as hers and hers alone.

In the last decade, celebrities with no putative musical talent used a cult of personality as a platform to musical success. This is, admittedly, not a completely recent trend; Eddie Murphy’s 1985 smash “Party All the Time,” produced by—who else?—Rick James, springs to mind; but the wave of so-called celebutantes in the mid-noughties produced a glut of pop music spanning a dramatic gamut of quality. As is so often cited as one of the elemental faults in pop music, image favored heavily over substance, such that when Paris Hilton released her first single, “Stars Are Blind,” in 2006, the backlash against the heiress for her musical aspirations was so severe, virtually nobody noticed that the song was actually brilliant. (The unlikely champion of “Stars Are Blind” was none other than indie bible Pitchfork, whose reviewer described the track as “so lovely and decent, I want to stab out my eyeballs.”) In an anomalous act of selflessness, Nicole Richie quietly shelved her debut album, Dandelion, but in recent months Heidi Montag, star of MTV’s The Hills, has revived the reality-star-cum-would-be-diva fantasy with her LP, fittingly titled Superficial.

As with Paris, Heidi is so widely reviled by, well, everyone, that her musical career never had a fighting chance. Never mind that most of her album was penned by Cathy Dennis, who is considered to be one of the greatest pop songwriters of her generation, with writing credits on eight #1 singles including Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl,” and that bastion of pop excellence, Britney Spears’ “Toxic”; Heidi’s shrill, wafery vocals render even the catchiest songs virtually unlistenable. As a case study, the failure of Heidi’s music career is tragic—over three years in the studio and $2 million of her own money to record an album that sold 658 copies in its first week. Unlike Paris, whose vapidity could be occasionally charming, Heidi’s persona is entirely loathsome. It makes good sense that her ubiquity in the tabloids wouldn’t translate into an actual fan base. But the pop market is fickle, even when the artist isn’t universally despised. The irony of naysayers who claim that pop music is shallow trash because image matters more than substance is that they’re right: the image of pop music as shallow trash precludes good pop from actually being judged on its own merits.

Of course image matters, but conventional wisdom would dictate that the voice should always matter more. This is not to say that an artist with no vocal talent can’t become successful on a platform of image, but rather, that an artist equipped with strong pipes and a compelling persona should put the music front and center. After a string of belters, Christina Aguilera’s makeover for her sophomore album was shocking because her voice was so magnificent—why would she want to mud-wrestle, popping and locking like an overeager stripper, with such an extraordinary instrument humming in her larynx? Likewise, the disgust surrounding the decline of Whitney Houston into drug-addled disarray was horrifying because it betrayed the implicit pact she made with the public by singing at all. For anyone to dwindle away the years freebasing crack cocaine would be regrettable, but to trash a gift as precious as her voice was unforgivable (as the failure of her recent comeback album, I Look to You, can attest).

The MySpace years promised a new democratization of music, a meritocratic system in which an artist with good tunes and a web page could be virally catapulted into success. But this has had its own casualties. The hype machine eats up and spits out artists with relentless impunity—Arctic Monkeys, Vampire Weekend, and Little Boots are three of the most salient examples of the last half-decade. The Next Big Thing is declared so quickly, in a glut of leaked tracks and feverish buzz, no label could hope to act quickly enough to capitalize upon the hype. By the time the album is actually released, blogs are lambasting them for being derivative and fans are complaining that they’ve already heard all of the songs in various stages of production on MySpace; besides, there’s already someone newer and better. If it is easier than ever for a musical artist to get famous, it is harder than ever to develop longevity. As ferociously driven as an artist must be to attain success, it is actually subtlety and restraint that are the keys to keeping it.

Besides the aforementioned Bloodshy & Avant and Greg Kurstin, Sky has clocked studio time with Dallas Austin (Pink, TLC), Linda Perry (Christina Aguilera, Gwen Stefani), RedOne (Lady Gaga, Usher), Ryan Tedder (Beyonce, Leona Lewis), Paul Epworth (Bloc Party, Florence and the Machine), Diplo (M.I.A., Santigold), Benny Blanco (Lady Sovereign, Ke$ha), Dr. Luke (Britney Spears, Katy Perry), Mark Ronson (Amy Winehouse, Adele), Teddybears (Robyn, Sugababes), and Fernando Garibay (U2, Whitney Houston). If those names of those producers are meaningless, as they are to most casual music listeners, this list is arguably the most impressive roster of producers with whom a debut pop artist has ever worked. And yet, with the exception of the Greg Kurstin-produced “Femme Fatale,” none of the work with any of those producers surfaced, at least not in the early months. The buzz tracks and covers have been produced by lesser-known names—Skeet Skeet, Cory Enemy, Daniel Luttrell—while the other work remains heavily guarded.

It must be no coincidence that the artist who is arguably the first big talent of this decade has shrouded her music in secrecy, instead using hype built on furious tweeting and being photographed at events as her initial platform to cultivate a digital mystique. Using a portfolio of social networking tools and images, gathering a following of devoted young fans, Sky has developed a magnetically cooler-than-thou persona—without leaking all of her music.

Having just turned eighteen, Sky is of the first generation to be raised in the Internet age rather than arriving to it as an adult. The virtues and vicissitudes of digital fame must, I think, be inherent to her understanding of her career, rather than retroactively applied. Although musically, there is only very little to support the suspicions that are growing on message boards and blogs that Sky Ferreira is going to pervert the conventional logic of the teen pop star in how she’s manufactured herself—that doesn’t stop me from believing it. I can only speculate, but it seems to me now that Sky Ferreira has played the game just right.

Three covers have played a pivotal role in the rise of Sky Ferreira. The first is a twinkly, synth-laden cover of the Stevie Nicks song “Stand Back.” Lyrically, it fits easily into the canon of Sky’s other work, a simultaneous gesture of kiss-off and come-hither. “He asked me for my love, that was all,” Sky intones. More recently, Sky released a brilliantly unexpected mash-up of the beat from Dr. Dre’s “Still D.R.E” with her vocal of the Beatles’ “Happiness is a Warm Gun,” titled (somewhat lazily) “Happy Dre.” By the final notes, her voice has risen into a panicked, anguished cry: “Happiness is a warm gun for me!”

The final cover, and the song that cemented my fanboy love for Sky Ferreira, is a rendition of “Animal” by her mentors, Miike Snow (comprised of Fires of Rome vocalist Andrew Wyatt, as well as Bloodshy & Avant). Consisting of only Sky’s voice and a piano, it is an astonishingly emotive vocal performance, transforming the tangy rhythms of the upbeat original into a crushing, devastated ballad, tenderly questioning and deeply wounded. “And now I’m pulling your disguise up/Are you free or are you tied up?” she sings. “I change shapes to hide in this place but I’m still, I’m still an animal/Nobody knows it but me when I slip but I’m still, I’m still an animal.”

This premature adult weariness comes through again in the content of her first promotional single, “17.” The song opens with simple, quiet instrumentation as Sky sings: “She, she, she, she came home late again tonight/You could see it in her eyes/She’s been up to something/We, we, we don’t know what to do with her/She’s from a different world.” When the chorus hits, the volume rises by several decibels, and there is something patently sinister about the layering of the vocals as she describes, “She’s been sneaking out at night, she’s dancing at the nightclub/Yeah, she’s got a fake ID, they’ll never know she’s seventeen/She’s drinking with her friends and they’re all twenty-one/I wonder how much longer she can get away with her dirty little secret.”

For me, there are two things that are intriguing about the message of this song. The first is that, though the story is nothing fresh, Sky chooses to tell it from the perspective of her parents, which suggests a self-aware perspective far beyond her years.

The second, actually, is that Sky wrote the song when she was fifteen. But really, this is just par for the course after a lifetime’s worth of preternatural insight. If fame is the central thematic thread woven into the narrative of Lady Gaga’s work, youth is what is most central to Sky’s. There is nothing more telling than the fact that the retroactive reflection on the spoils of her youth that Sky explores in “17” was composed by someone who had yet to experience it.

Sky’s first official single, “One,” will be released in Europe on August 23. In the recent tradition of brilliant pop songs about robots (“I Am Not a Robot” by Marina and the Diamonds; “The Girl and the Robot,” by Röyksopp with Robyn; “Self Machine” by I Blame Coco), “One” tells the story of a heartbroken robot. It’s a shimmering pop gem, produced by Bloodshy & Avant. It’s currently B-listed on BBC’s Radio 1, and will probably be A-listed by next week. It’s everything that her first single deserved to be.

Since I started writing this story, I have seen Sky in the pages of Interview, Nylon, and Entertainment Weekly. Her upcoming debut American single, “Obsession,” was written by Ryan Tedder, the Timbaland protégé, OneRepublic frontman, and master hitmaker responsible for “Bleeding Love” by Leona Lewis, “Halo” by Beyonce, and “Battlefield” by Jordin Sparks. I haven’t heard it yet, but I have every confidence that “Obsession” will be an international smash, and Sky Ferreira will be a household name. I am excited for her, but I’m also saddened that she won’t be my secret anymore. But I am comforted by the knowledge that when she is incredibly, hugely famous, it will be on Sky’s terms — not her label, not her manager, not her parents. Sky made Sky this way.

Standing in the VIP section with Sky Ferreira in April, clutching my tonic water, I told her what a huge fan I was. I told her that I was certain she was going to be famous. I tried to defuse my starstruck energy by dropping the name of a mutual friend who works in the music industry.

“Oh, he’s great,” she said. “We’re supposed to record a song together soon.”

“That’s amazing,” I said stupidly.

“You should hang out with us later,” she said, pulling out her BlackBerry. “Let me get your number.” I was dumbfounded. My breath clotted in my throat. Sky Ferreira wanted my number. I was cool, at least by proxy.

“Yeah, okay, that would be great,” I said. I punched her phone number into my iPhone, thinking how strange it was to see her name in my contacts, rather than on my playlists. After a moment of standing awkwardly, I said, “I should go find my friends.”

“Cool,” she said brightly. “I’ll see you later!”

After the show, I found her standing by the bar, talking to someone who looked much cooler than I was. I tried to act casual. “So, are you guys doing anything tonight?” I said.

She shrugged. “Not really.” My heart sank.

“Oh, okay. Well, it was nice to meet you!” I scampered away, feeling humiliated. Had I just been rebuffed by Sky Ferreira? Was she going to go do cool hipster music things with people who were eminently cooler and hipper and more musical than I was? On the G train, wallowing in unglamorous self-pity, I listened to “Animal” on repeat.

A week later, I sent her a text to ask if I could interview her for this essay. She never responded.

She did accept my friend request on Facebook, though.

Sam Lansky is a writer who lives in New York City. Follow him on Twitter or Tumblr.

Christina Aguilera is bringing Bionic on tour.

From Billboard:

Christina Aguilera will return to the stage this summer, when she kicks off a 20-date North American outing on July 15, tour producer Live Nation announced today (May 10).

Leona Lewis, the British pop singer, will also appear on the dates.

Aguilera’s latest album, “Bionic,” her first since 2006′ “Back to Basics,” is due in stores on June 8, and all fans who purchase tickets for the tour before June 4 will receive a download code for a digital copy the album on June 7, the day before its official release.

Tickets will be available beginning on May 21.

The dates so far are as follows, courtesy of Christina’s official website:

July 15 – Uncasville, CT – Mohegan Sun Arena
July 17 – Darien Center, NY – Darien Lake Performing Arts Center
July 18 – Bristow, VA – Jiffy Lube Live
July 20 – Toronto, ON – Molson Canadian Amphitheatre
July 22 – Camden, NJ – Susquehanna Bank Center
July 24 – Detroit, MI – DTE Energy Music Theatre
July 25 – Chicago, IL – First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre
July 28 – Wantagh, NY – Nikon at Jones Beach Theater
July 30 – Holmdel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center
July 31 – Boston, MA – Comcast Center
August 03 – Pittsburgh, PA – First Niagara Pavilion
August 05 – Atlanta, GA – Aaron’s Amphitheatre at Lakewood
August 07 – West Palm Beach, FL – Cruzan Amphitheatre
August 08 – Tampa, FL – Ford Amphitheatre
August 10 – Dallas, TX – Superpages.com Center
August 12 – Houston, TX – Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion
August 14 – Phoenix, AZ – US Airways Center
August 15 – San Diego, CA – Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre
August 18 – Mountain View, CA – Shoreline Amphitheatre at Mountain View
August 19 – Irvine, CA – Verizon Wireless Amphitheater