2006 New York Post
New York Post May 21, 2006
“American Idol- Where Are They Now”
SCOTT SAVOL, 30
THEN: Fifth Place in Season 4
NOW: Pitchman for iKTV Karaoke machines on QVC
During the burly soul singer’s first appearances back in December, sales jumped 100 percent. The single dad
2006 Cleveland Plain Dealer
The Plain Dealer
Scott Savol
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Birthdate: April 30, 1976.
Personal: Engaged to Rochelle Waddell; a July 8 wedding is planned. Savol has a 5-year-old son, Brandon, from a previous relationship. Savol is the second of four children of Edward and Catherine Savol of Shaker Heights; he has an older sister, a younger brother and a younger sister.
Best part of being on “American Idol”: “Exposure! On TV, we sang for 30 million people. We sang in front of more people at one time than Usher or any other big artist.”
Worst part: “I have no regrets, really. With regrets, you start thinking about things you would change. I wouldn’t change anything. There was one time I sang ‘The Impossible Dream’ the way they wanted me to do it. It backfired, but I was still on the show.”
On turning 30 later this year: “Some people in the industry look at my age as a negative, but I look it as a positive. I know what I want to sing. A lot of young artists just sing whatever you put in front of them, even if they know nothing about it. I can interpret a song, as opposed to just singing it.”
© 2006 The Plain Dealer
The same old Scott
‘Idol’ also-ran making tracks back home
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
John Soeder
Plain Dealer Pop Music Critic
Last year, Scott Savol was on “American Idol,” chasing his dream of a big-time music career in front of tens of millions of television viewers.
Last week, he was in a Cleveland Heights house, holed up in a second-floor bedroom that had been converted into a home recording studio.
Not a TV camera in sight. No nasty Simon Cowell nitpicking every move, either.
Savol is still in hot pursuit of the same dream, however.
“Sometimes in life, to win, you have to lose,” he says, waxing philosophical from his perch on a folding chair before he gets back to work in the vocal booth.
He doesn’t have a record deal. Nonetheless, he’s plowing ahead with an album. He hopes to finish it by next month, then start shopping it around to record companies.
Framed photos of Martin Luther King Jr. and Tupac Shakur look down from the walls. The studio is run by William Lynch and his son, Ray. They’ve known Savol for years, long before he went to Hollywood to compete on “Idol.”
“I Do,” a romantic ballad written by Savol, is cued up. His soulful voice wafts from the speakers in multitracked harmony:
Say I do
What you feel is true
You mean the world to me, girl. . . .
Smiling approvingly as the refrain builds to a crescendo is Lynch, director of the Cleveland Merchant Music Family, an organization that nurtures aspiring musicians.
“It’s going to be the next big wedding song across the country,” Lynch says. “Scott’s going to have some very hot songs on his CD.”
Savol was cut from “Idol” in May, finishing in fifth place on the fourth season of the hit TV series.
“I was there as long as God wanted me to be there,” says Savol, 29. A silver cross dangles from the chain around his neck. He’s wearing a FUBU jersey, gray sweat pants and sneakers.He fidgets with the Detroit Tigers cap in his hands.
The jersey is a gift from a fan he met last summer on the American Idols Live Tour, which included a sold-out concert at Cleveland State University’s Wolstein Center.
For Savol, the road was exhausting.
“We would travel anywhere from two to 11 hours on a bus to the next city,” he says. “You would get to the hotel, have a nap, take a shower and go right to the next venue.”
These days, Savol sleeps in until about 10 a.m., then heads to the gym.
“I’m getting ready to live up to my ‘Scotty the Body’ nickname, by my wedding day, anyway,” the heavyset crooner says.
Savol and his fiancé, Rochelle Waddell, plan to get married July 8. They live together on Cleveland’s West Side.
Four or five nights a week, Savol will put in five hours at the studio. He spends every other weekend with Brandon, his 5-year-old son from a previous relationship.
For the holiday season, Savol recorded a one-off single titled “Upon a Christmas Night,” available as a 99-cent download from Cleveland International Records.
“We sold a few hundred downloads,” says Steve Popovich, head of the label. “We just did it to test the water.”
Popovich, who was instrumental in launching the career of another beefy singer, Meat Loaf, believes Savol has potential.
“He can do well,” Popovich says. “A white guy with soul can always do well.”
Despite being one of judge Cowell’s favorite punching bags, Savol proved to be a tenacious contender on “Idol.” When he belted out the Phil Collins hit “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now),” it could’ve been his theme song, although Savol had a different take on the tune.
“It made me remember how things were when my grandmother died, how my dad took it, how he was feeling,” he says.
Time for
new material
Savol plans to downplay covers on his album in favor of fresh material, penned by himself and others.
“The majority of it will be R&B and pop, with a few club tracks,” he says. “It’s going to be along the lines of what people heard me do on the show.”
“But on another level!” Lynch adds.
Last year’s “Idol” champ, Carrie Underwood, is sitting pretty atop the country charts.
“I’m happy for her,” Savol says.
He doesn’t begrudge the success of runner-up Bo Bice, either.
“I’ve tried to call him a few times, but he’s so busy,” Savol says.
How about Constantine Maroulis? He’ll be in town Thursday for a gig at House of Blues with his band, Pray for the Soul of Betty.
“I haven’t stayed in touch with him,” Savol says. “We had a few problems on the tour, but we left on cool terms. I may drop down there when he’s here, just to say, ‘What’s up?’
“There were a lot of issues on the tour, just people whose personalities changed.”
Savol won’t go into details.
“People tried to say I changed, too,” he says. “It’s not me who changed. Your idea of me changed, because now I’m Scott from ‘American Idol,’ not Scott who’s just walking down the street.”
“You look at me differently. And everything you see me do looks different because you’re not looking at me in the same light as you did a few years ago.”
Life is different
in little ways
Surely his life isn’t entirely the same?
“Well, my credit is better,” Savol says, laughing. He used to work as a security guard. For the time being, he’s living off his “Idol” earnings.
He often gets recognized in public, too.
“Some people just whisper as they’re going by, which is fine,” he says. “Other people walk up and say, ‘Hey, you’re that guy from “American Idol!” ‘ They want to get your autograph and to take pictures.”
The fifth season of “Idol” is under way, airing Tuesday and Wednesday on WJW Channel 8. Savol videotaped last week’s premiere.
“I watched a bit of it when I got home from the studio,” he says. “A few girls sounded pretty good, but it’ll be a guy who wins this year, just because they’ve already had three girls win.”
Savol recently returned to the small screen to hawk a karaoke machine on the QVC shopping network.
In October, he sang the national anthem before the Browns-Bears game at Cleveland Browns Stadium, where Savol’s “Idol” journey began with an August 2004 audition. He performed at a local bridal fair this month. On Friday, Feb. 10, he’ll headline a concert at the Shore Cultural Centre in Euclid.
There is talk of booking him on the county-fair circuit in the summer.
If all of this seems like a bit of a comedown after basking in the coast-to-coast spotlight of “Idol,” Savol isn’t complaining.
“I’ve moved on from the show,” he says. “I didn’t win. Big deal. I’m free to do what I want now.
“I just know there’s no reason for me not to be up there with Carrie and Bo. Once we’re done with this album, we’ll be up there, too.”
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: jsoeder@plaind.com, 216-999-4562
© 2006 The Plain Dealer
2006 Star Beacon
‘American Idol’ finalist and eight local bands in area to record album
Savol also currently working on recording his own first album
By STACY MILLBERG
Staff Writer
smillberg@starbeacon.com
HARPERSFIELD TOWNSHIP – Former “American Idol” finalist Scott Savol has been keeping himself busy since the end of the show working on recording his first album.
He made his way back to the area Saturday, though, to begin working on a different project at Wood Shed Recording Studios. Savol, along with eight other local bands, are recording an album titled Ohio Zone.
The album will feature everything from mellow music to metal music, said Keith Lipovich, of Tevis Entertainment Inc. Savol will record two songs that will be featured on the compilation album.
One of the songs Savol will record, on Ohio Zone, is an original track off the album he is currently working on.
Savol said his album is a mix of Rhythm and Blues and Pop music.
“I didn’t want it to fall one way or another to where we were gearing the project toward a specific genre,” he said. “It’s kind of like putting Boyz II Men and N’Sync together vocally.”
Savol has been working on the album since September and said he has made a lot of progress with about half of it complete. With several upcoming performances within the Cleveland area, Savol said he will begin to introduce some of the songs.
Savol has not signed with any record labels yet, because he wanted to record his album before he began looking for a label. Savol said a lot of times, it’s the record labels that make the decisions as to what will be recorded and appear on the album. Savol wanted to be the one to make those decisions for his album. He did, however, receive several offers from various labels after the show.
“People will be able to relate to it,” he said. “I’m not going to sing something that I don’t like just to put money in my pocket.”
Savol took a lot away from the entire “American Idol” experience especially from the tour.
“The tour was fun,” he said. “I learned a lot about what it takes to be on the road.”
Savol said there were positive aspects as well as negative ones. Being away from his family was certainly a negative one, he said. But the best part was being on stage doing what he loves to do.
“For the most part it was fun,” he said. “I spent two and a half months doing something I love.”
During the 41 city tour, Savol said he was more nervous performing in Cleveland than anywhere else.
“I don’t know why,” he said. “I guess I didn’t want to let my hometown down.”
Savol said it is difficult for him to perform in front of a small crowd because he can look at all of them.
“When you are performing in front of 10,000 people, you don’t have to think about looking at all of them,” he said.
Each of the top 10 finalists from the show received about a 10 minute spotlight at each of the performances. Savol said it was like 10 mini-concerts combined into one big show.
Even though it’s been a while since the show ended, Savol said it is still hard to go out in public without being recognized.
“I’m not one of those guys who goes looking for the spotlight,” he said. “If I don’t have to go out, I stay home. I’m not a social butterfly. I don’t go to parties and I don’t go to clubs. Those aren’t my kind of environments.”
Stardom hasn’t changed him though, he said, more so, it has changed the people around him.
“People see you in a different light than they are used to seeing you,” he said. “They start to look at you as the person on TV and not the person you were before. I’ve always been the same person I was before the show.”
Savol said he plans to do a promotional tour for his upcoming album and would like to kick it off in Cleveland. His album will feature songs along the same lines as the ones he performed on “American Idol.” Savol said he does not want to be categorized into any particular music genre. He wants to try a little bit of everything.
Savol said he hopes to release his album in April and is planning a wedding for July.
Ohio Zone is slated to be released in May.
SCOTT’S ON ‘OHIO ZONE’
DANIEL KRAUS / Star Beacon 01/14/2006
MUSICIAN SCOTT Savol sings a “test” for what could contribute to the local compilation album “Ohio Zone.” The album is being put together at Woodshed Recording Studio in Harpersfield Township by Keith Lipovich of Tevis Entertainment, Inc.