JB-  Last week you commented on the show that the girls had taken it.  They had taken the week from the guys.

JG-  That week.  But the week before the boys did.

JB-  Judging by how it's been going do you think the next Idol is a guy or a girl?  Who stands out for you right now?

JG-  Keith stands out for me.  I really like Nancy Silverman.  I like Craig Sharpe, the kid from Newfoundland.

JB-  Nancy, for anyone who isn't familiar, is the Alanis Morissette-typish girl.

JG-  She's Nancy Silverman!  (laughing)  I think she's one of those women where you either loved her or you hated her.  It's amazing because you read the press stuff and you see one woman says, "I hate them" and another woman says, "I love them".  I don't have a problem with that kind of reaction… I actually enjoy that kind of reaction.

JB-  Because it's memorable enough to get people talking.

JG-  Yeah!  At the end of the day, with this show you've gotta be memorable.  Think about it:  what they're doing is not easy.  There's no other job in the world where every week you go on television and you're being judged by a nation and they decide your fate.  Even the prime minister does it every four or five years.  But there's no other thing like it.  We can say things, but I guarantee you last week when I jumped all over Brandon it probably got him votes as opposed to people not voting for him.

JB-  How does that work though?  We've seen it on American Idol and, I guess, Canadian Idol, that you don't even have to necessarily win… the winner is not always the better selling artist of the two or three people who made the finals.

JG- That can happen because it's an opportunity, you know what I mean?  It's kind of what you do with the opportunity that makes the difference.

JB-  Right.

JG-  That's what I would think.

JB-  Really any of them can win the competition but you're just wanting to get something started, or get the ball rolling, from an appearance on the show.

JG-  Hey, listen, we saw it last year number two, Rex (Goudie), sold more records than (Idol winner) Melissa (O'Neil).

JB-  That's what I'm saying…

JG-  And the year before, you have Jacob (Hoggard of the group Hedley) and Kalan (Porter) and Theresa (Sokyrka).  I think seven of those top 10 all put records out.  Even from season two, Gary Beals put a record and he sold close to 20,000.  Billy Klippert sold 40,000, he was number three.

JB-  I don't know if you've followed their careers though since they appeared on the show, but I'm sure you've seen them grow as an artist from the first time they auditioned for you.

JG-  Yeah, well we haven't seen that growth yet.  The one advantage...the kids who are one the show right now…have at this level is they get to work with Debra Bird.  She's like one of the top vocal coaches around.  She doesn't just help them with vocals, she helps them with performance because it is a TV show.  You almost have to think about every performance that you're making a video, albeit a minute-and-15 or a minute-and-a-half video, but that's what you're doing.

JB-  So what does she do with the contestants?  We talked about song selections…

JG-  She doesn't help with the song selection but once they chose the song that they chose she works with them on the arrangement of it and the performance and notes and, "Maybe you shouldn't do this there or maybe you should do it there," you know, that kind of thing.  And (she) works with them on movements and some of them need more (help) than others.  Sometimes the movement is no movement and the decision is made just to stand there.  Or if you look at Steffi last week she started the song at the back of the stage just on a mic stand and then when it went into the more up-tempo part she grabbed the mic off the stand and walked forward.  That's something that Bird would work on with them.  We call her Bird!  But she's also the American Idol coach.  She started with us in season two.  She actually really enjoys being here, I know that for a fact.

JG-  It's going to be fun.  We have some really interesting people this year which is what I like the best about it.

JB-  Different types of artists and personalities and…

JG- Yeah.  I'm really big on that.  I just find it really interesting.  We purposely chose people that weren't cookie cutter.  We felt the Canadian public deserved better than that.  We felt they deserved to have an opportunity to pick from what we felt were the really interesting people.  I don't think there's any two people that are alike on the guys or the girls.

JB-  Now you're auditioning for Canadian Idol…

JG-  Umhmm…

JB- What song are you singing?

JG-  Me?  I wouldn't audition for Canadian Idol!

JB-  Oh, come on.  You've done music, you've been on stage.  What would you perform?

JG-  You know, I couldn't even think about it.  In an audition it's a cappella… hmm… off the top of my head… I would be on the best of the worst show!

JB-  So what song would you do?

JG-  There's plenty of songs I would do, whether or not I could sing them is a whole other story!  (laughing)

JB-  Come on, Jake!

JG-  Maybe something by Elton John.  Yeah, maybe something by Elton John.  Or a Neil Young tune.  Maybe Simon and Garfunkel.  Something with melody.

JB-  What's your range like?

JG-  Well I used to be able to sing really high, but your voice changes! (laughing)

JB-  Now it's only if someone kicks you in a certain spot!

JB-  How many hours a day are the contestants working on their songs?

JG-  I don't know in terms of how many hours.  We don't actually talk to them much because we're not supposed to.  We'll say hello and just general banter but we can't get into any real conversations with them.

JB-  So when you see them on the stage performing during the show, is that the first time you've seen them?

JG- I go to dress rehearsal.  We go to rehearsal that same day.  It happens earlier.  And part of that, for me, is to hear how it sounds.  We sit in our dressing room watching it on television.

JB-  So you're not in the same room?

JG-  Oh no.  No, we're not in the same room.  We don't need to intimidate them that way.  They're already nervous enough.  Like I said before, it's a nerve-racking thing.  Whoever stayed last week, the next day they're busy trying to choose the song, working with the piano player to get the arrangements right, working on all the performance stuff.  And not every song they can get.  Plenty of songs that they ask for and they go and try and clear them and they can't clear them.  Because you have to clear the rights so they can perform them on television.  Not everybody will let someone sing their song on TV.

JG-  The other night last week when he got kicked off, Chris Labelle, you know, the character…

JB- The weatherman.

JG-  He says to me, "I know how to make a record, man.  They've got something called AutoTune."

JB-  What's that?

JG-  That's where they can tune vocals to sound good.

JB-  Like Cher.

JG-  Like a lot of people, by the way.  That's the other thing about this show is that these people, when they audition for us, they are auditioning with no musical accompaniment.

JB-  So does that make it harder then?  You don't have music that can make you seem better.

JG-  Of course it does.  When was the last time you heard a vocal without music behind it?  And when they're performing on TV there's no embellishment.  That's just their voice.  So it's not like making a record where you have the advantage of singing the song multiple times and they "comp" it, they "comp" vocals where they take this verse from this performance and this chorus from this performance and then they plug it in and make a compilation of the best vocal performances and that becomes the vocal performance you hear on the record.  Or they tune the vocals so it's not out of key.  Those kinds of things go on when they make records today.

JB-  So the Idol competition is good because we're seeing the raw talent these people have.

JG-  It's pure!  It's way more pure than most of the records you hear.  That's a fact.