This is later with Lee Matthews, the Lee Matthews Podcast More what you Hear
Weekday Afternoons on the Drive. That is a cut from the new extended play
that is out now by Il Divo. A Merry Christmas from Il Devo And
they are joining me now here now are the vocalist Erst Buller, Sebastian Ismbard,
David Miller, and Stephen LaBrie. Hello fellas, Hey, Well let's
start with how you guys first got together. I gather you were all soloists
in your own right, but at what point did you come together as Ildevo.
Well, there was a gentleman that is known I think by a lot
of people called Simon Call who had the idea to put a band together.
When he heard the three tenors, he is like, oh, that would
be really cool to put like some classical trained singers together in a band.
So he got Orse and Carlos. Back then they were the first ones and
they were still struggling to find two more members. I was a pop singer.
This is Sebastian from Paris. I was doing my own stuff as just
a pop singer. And then David and I have met ed the upper bestide
back then and if we go basically were put into a studio together and they
said, create some music, guys, and we went in there and did
the best that we could and Sami Ont Break My Heart was our first single
and became number one I don't know, like pretty much around everywhere around the
world, and the rest is history, basically, right. Well, you
do a number of different languages as well, erst Booller. I imagine as
you're all classically trained, that wasn't much of a stretch for you. That's
true, actually, you know, and people ask that often do you speak
all these languages? And that's absolutely not necessary, especially because singing opera before
that. I've seen opera in check in Russian, in you know, and
I don't understand a word of these languages. But you get a language coach
and they tell you how to pronounce, and you obviously know what you're singing,
but you don't speak the language. That's not necessary. So singing different
languages for us was that was not anything extraordinary. I've done my own share
of that urse, and I must say some of the Scandinavian languages are difficult
to hold a note, like Naha Orange Japanese. You have to sing a
note on h like that. I mean, if if we're being honest,
English is actually one of the most difficult languages to sing in operatically, to
go into that gear, oh yeah it's true and the yeah it's not not
great well, and the diphthongs the a. You know, most of most
of your Latin based languages there are no diphthongs, so it's much easier to
project Oh yes, yes, I'll Devo, the most commercially successful classical crossover
group and international music history since they first banded together in two thousand and four.
Their new EP release is called A Merry Little Christmas. How did you
narrow down the songs you wanted to do on the on this EP? Well,
so, hi, this is even sorry I did so yeah. We
basically just, you know, we were planning the double X album, so
we were kind of starting to pick repertoire for that. But then there was
also this idea to do some Christmas songs because the original Christmas album only had
ten songs on it, and some of them aren't even really Christmas songs,
they're kind of some more sacred music, and so the idea was, how
can we supplement the Christmas concert with more festive Christmas music. So we just
got together and we just threw around some ideas what would it be like if
we sang this, and then we kind of you know, sat on the
piano, we kind of like thought about it and we just went through the
idea is there's even more ideas to do some hymns and make them kind of
with the more epic I Devo endings. And then we just settled on these
songs and we're really happy with how they turned out because they're all super different.
You know, I think have yourself a Mary Little Christmas is a little
more is the most in line with kind of a big OLDEVO climax and big
Oldievo ending, but most wonderful time of the years, this fun big band
theme I'll be Home for Christmas. You know, we were actually sitting in
the car and seb co produced a few of these songs, and you know,
he was saying, Oh, I have this idea to make I'll be
Home for Christmas with this Latin bassanova rhythm and guitar, and we were like
really, and we did not buy it, but he trust me, guys,
trust me, and so then we're like, Okay, Okay, do
it. And it's actually such an amazing track. We heard it, we
were like, oh, this is so cool, so sexy. And then
the last one is, uh, it's always beginning to look a lot like
Christmas, which is just you know, they're just classic, beautiful, nostalgic
American songs that we you know, we just love ild Oh and the Christmas
EP is a merry little Christmas. Yeah. Culturally, and I'm directing this
to David, but culturally you all bring your own kind of Christmas flavor to
the to the party. Yeah, I think, you know, I think
it was and Sebastian and Carlos back in the day. You know, everyone
had their own traditions, but uh, you know, Christmas was a tradition
for all of us, so there was that kind of common thread. It's
it's not like, you know, one of us came from Japan or China
or somewhere where. You know, it's a completely different religious mindset. For
me, it was all about family. It was all about kind of more
than the religious it was. It was really about connecting with family and having
that that heart space to uh, to really kind of celebrate each other.
And Orse and sab Tell us about yours good morning. Well, well,
so Bashi and I wanted to ask, is there a particular French carol that
you don't hear a lot of, but but that is it's traditional for you,
for instance in Flambagi and ette Isabella or something along those lines. Well,
there's one that I often joke about called Petita Panuel mih Matiu, you
know, was an amazing singer, actually had an incredible voice, and sometimes
I joke around it. So we should be doing that one. But that's
the one I grew up with. Anyways, like that, check it out.
That's pretty it's I think Josh Groban actually did a version of that.
Funny enough, Yeah, Anders, is there some Is there one of yours
from your childhood? You know what I discovered, if you like, when
we did the last Christmas show last year in the UK, I discovered that
everything I grew up with is, as David pointed out, religious, and
here in the United States, all the typical Christmas carols are about family and
being together with friends and chestnuts on an open fire and that kind of stuff.
All we had is literally about boy in the Manger and the angel singing
from this guy. So it's very different somehow more secular in the United States
as usual, A merry Little Christmas is with us and we look, oh,
you're on tour as well, so we want to plug that at a
theater near you. You can go on the website to get more information about
that and where is the EP available? What's all platforms? Spotify, Apple
Music Music, what else, Pandora exactly anything out there that you want to
type il zevo and put a mary a Lot of Christmas or a little Christmas
and you'll find that. And like you said, we're going to be touring
actually until December twenty third. We have more shows here on the East Coast.
Then we're going off to text This is somewhere like that and then Reorida.
Also our first single Crazy just came out last month and on Friday we
have another single coming out from the Double X album, so that's really exciting
too, and those will also be available on all those streaming platforms and for
us, yes, it is a busy season and a merry little Christmas to
Ildevo. Thank you for joining us, gentlemen, thank you, thank you,
thanks for listening to Later with Lee Matthews, The Lee Matthews podcast and
remember to listen to The Drive Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and iHeartMedia presentation