Guy Sebastian talks to Noise11 about the ARIA Awards and battling X-Factor protégé Reece Mastin on the charts.
Guy Sebastian - Photo By Ros O'Gorman
Sebastian’s latest single ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy’ (not a Bobby McFerrin cover), hit the stores at the same time as X-Factor-winner Reece Mastin’s debut single ‘Good Night’.
While Sebastian might’ve missed out on the number one spot, he tells Noise11 he’s pretty philosophical about it.
“Obviously, whoever goes up against the winner of a show like that, that’s had that much of a ramp-up, is going to lose every time,” he laughs.
“He’s a great singer too. What we have is not only a very well-marketed result as a single, obviously the marketing behind that song is huge and whoever wins is going to do pretty well, but the fact that he’s a very talented kid who sings his bum off, and has a massive fanbase that will probably last for a very long time is then compounded into being record-breaking stuff.”
Mastin did go to number one, and Gold sales almost instantly with the song. But Sebastian knows the feeling, since he just won his second ARIA on Sunday night, for Highest Selling Single for ‘Who’s That Girl’.
Sebastian actually says that he would rather get a pointy pyramid for Highest Selling Single than for whatever ‘Best’ means.
“I would rather people buy it and have no peer acknowledgement,” he clarifies, “Than have peer acknowledgement but have people go ‘Uh, I don’t get it’.”
“I’m quite happy this way around,” he shrugs, “Both would be nice one day but I’m not holding my breath and I don’t really care enough to change anything that I do to make that happen.”
Sebastian goes on to say, “I make music for people, I don’t make it for my peers and I’ve seldom been stressed about that.”
He also wasn’t so impressed that the acceptance speech for his category was not aired on the broadcast, “I think there should be some acknowledgment there.”
“Highest Selling is definitely a tough achievement,” he says, “You’ll get one of those in your life, maybe. The fact that I’ve been nominated for a few and I’ve only got to do one speech and I haven’t done it since 2003, it would’ve been nice to get it heard, I guess.”
He also gives us an analysis of ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy’, provides a progress report on his new album, ponders the rapper search for new song ‘Battle Scars’, reiterates how lovely Gotye is, and shares his feeling about his impending fatherhood.
Check out the whole interview below.
Guy Sebastian by noise11dotcom
