Jeremy Bradley-  Keith, the comedian from Canadian Idol.

Keith Macpherson-  (laughing)  I was the new comedian this year, I guess. 

JB-  Was that your trick?  To kind of have the likability factor or is that just how you normally are?

KM-  I tend to take life as it comes and I don't like to be too serious about anything.  But the Canadian Idol thing it was funny because initially I totally went in as a fluke.  It was really not something I was planning on doing.  But my bandmate Renee (Lamoureux, from Easily Amused) and I ended up at the auditions at the last minute kind of thing.  And it just kept progressing and initially and I definitely have to admit that I wasn't taking it all that seriously.  I thought it was kind of funny that, you know, I've been playing music for 10 years and slugging it out on the roads and now I'm in a reality television show.  (laughing)  I thought it was kind of hilarious.

JB- So what was the reason you went on the show?

KM-  There's two reasons.  At the time, Renee, my bandmate, really wanted to go.  She's like, "This is a great chance to get in front of like a zillion people."  And so that was one reason.  And we had just flown into Toronto for the auditions and it was the last hour of the last day and so we decided to rush down to that.  And secondly I kind of agree with her.  We've been playing the last 10 years for like all sorts of college kids in the U.S. and a lot of college cafeteria janitors that end up coming to the shows.  So it's definitely a tough business and any opportunity to get in front of people and perform is really worth doing, I think.  As time went on with the contest it turned out to be this amazing experience that I so was not expecting.  I think it really hit me during the first week of the Top 22 when I sang the song "Collide" and it was just this moment when the (television) camera light came on and just realizing that you're communicating with three million people that are all watching and you have this opportunity to say something or not and I really tried genuinely to make that the experience for me.  And I felt very satisfied with that it was just such an amazing opportunity to get in front of people and sing and share some music.  It was pretty cool.

JB-  Most people go on the show to launch a music career.  In a sense you kind of did it backwards because you already have one.  Were you hoping this exposure would help your current music group or are you planning on going solo?  What was the idea?

KM- I was thinking it would just give some more exposure to everything that I'm doing.  It really has.  Our MySpace (page) has been constantly visited by new people that saw the show.  The one thing I really thought going into was what my band Easily Amused does, like the music we play and write and sing is very similar to the kind of audience Canadian Idol draws in.  So I thought I kind of thought going on and singing, unfortunately it couldn't be the band, but I feel I'm enough of the band as a singer of it and stuff that people would watch and if they were into what I was doing they could find out more.  It really worked out like that so it's great.

JB-  We'll talk about the band in a second.  But first, how certain were you that you would make it all the way and be the next Canadian Idol?

KM-  How confident was I?

JB-  How certain were you that you have what it takes to be the next Canadian Idol?

KM-  It was one of those things where I didn't really go in with that expectation of wanting to win the contest initially.  As things went on and all these perks came up and I really found out how powerful a medium it is to be on television.  I definitely really wanted to win then.  I never really try to predict the future, I try to really live in the moment because so many things can change.  You never can predict the future and I didn't really want to go into this expecting to win and then not and that happened to be the case!  So I don't know, I can't really say that I was confident that I was going to win.  I didn't really try to dwell on it.  I tried to make it more about just being on television and every opportunity that I was on the show to communicate good energy to the people watching.

JB- So you've seen yourself on television now, right?

KM-  Yup, oh yeah.

JB-  If you could change one thing about your Idol performances or the experience, what would you do differently or what would be different?

KM- I don't want to use the "I would just do all this again" or "I wouldn't change anything".  Um, I don't know.  That's a good question because I really do feel like I was true to who I am and really tried to portray myself… well, I was, I was just being myself.  I don't know what I would change.  (laughing)  There's not really one specific thing that I would change about what happened on there.  I felt really good about it.  I feel like the love this country gave me is just overwhelming.  Just the feedback I'm getting from people who were touched by what I did on there and they listen to the band stuff now and they are just as excited and I just feel so genuinely grateful about all that that for me I don't think I would have done anything differently.  I tried to be as honest as I could on there.

JB-  So do you think that's the honesty the viewers are wanting or are they wanting the superstar who fits that mould of being the next…

KM-  Idol…

JB-  Kelly Clarkson or whoever.

KM-  I think there's different ways to look at that.  There's definitely a market and a niche in the music industry for Kelly Clarksons and for the sugar pop kind of thing.  I know for myself doing this for 10 years I definitely come from a singer-songwriter background and even the way I write I can't help but go a bit deeper than that.  For me, it was very surprising in a way.  I felt like Forrest Gump going through this contest.  Every week I kept getting further and further and it was so bizarre to me in a sense.  But in another sense it's not really that bizarre because really (with) doing this for so long if you're true to yourself and you're being honest about who you are as an individual, it's going to translate to the people that want that.  I feel like the Idol audience is very dedicated to supporting the people on the show.  People that watch the show love the show and they definitely make sure that you feel love when you're going through it too.