Rise of the high-end man band (From The Northern Echo)

Rise of the high-end man band

4:44pm Friday 16th December 2011 in Features & Interviews By Steve Pratt

Some people don't need X Factor or Britain's Got Talent, but singing success Il Divo still needed a little help from Simon Cowell. Steve Pratt reports.

HEAR the name Simon Cowell and you think The X Factor or Britain’s Got Talent. Shows that take unknowns and make them into stars, many of whom enjoy a here today, gone tomorrow sort of fame.

While several have been very publicly dumped by his record company after a few hits, one of his handmade singing groups has gone from strength to strength. Il Divo – once described as a “high-end man band”, meaning they’re older and more experienced than your average spotty boy band – is one of his long-running and most successful musical projects.

He was inspired, so the story goes, after hearing Andrea Bocelli singing while watching TV series The Sopranos. A two-year worldwide search brought together an American tenor, French pop singer, Swiss tenor and a Spanish baritone. Il Divo was born.

That was getting on for eight years ago. Today the “world’s foremost classical crossover group”

is embarking on a fourth world tour – including a date in the North-East – after selling more than 25m albums and being named Artist of the Decade at the classic Brits.

“Putting the four of us together was like a supernova of creative input into what we call Il Divo.

There’s so much emotion driving us,” says David Miller, the American in the group.

As another Il Divo member Carlos Marin says, “You put us together in a shaker and it’s like this Molotov cocktail, a huge explosion of vocals”.

Miller was the last to be signed – after Marin, Swiss tenor Urs Buhler and French pop singer Sebastien Izambard. “Obviously it was a risk because at the time I was in the middle of my opera career,” he says.

“I’d been singing leading roles on major stages around the world for ten years. They asked me, ‘do you want to be part of this group? We want you to sing with your operatic voice, but it’s not going to be opera’.

“There wasn’t any chance of going back to my opera career. They said I’d have to put it all to one side because they didn’t know how long Il Divo would continue and they needed my full-time commitment.”

HE had major operatic engagements ahead of him, at the Met in New York and European opera houses. “I thought I’m 30 years old and have pretty much performed every operatic role appropriate for my age. There’s nothing you can do about your voice maturing over time and there were roles I couldn’t sing until my forties.

So I thought why not take a risk?”

That all four of them had a wealth of experience in their different backgrounds was an asset that are usually lacking in bands assembled for talent shows. “No offence to Mr Cowell and his fantastically successful TV shows but when you get a group together they can sound rough around the edges. It’s a different energy when you bring together four people who have had full careers.”

The group dynamic worked. Of course there could have been conflict putting four people of different nationalities and outlook together. Miller sees the mix as more of a blessing than a curse.

“It was more difficult at the beginning. All sorts of cultural transitions had to be made. It was like an arranged marriage. Everyone had a different make-up emotionally. Musically we didn’t have a single consciousness, there was artistic discrepancy,” he admits.

But they worked their way through the problems to emerge a strong and cohesive group who have conquered the world stage, earning a place as the Most Multinational UK No 1 Album Group in the 2006 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records. They’ve toured the US (including as special guests in Barbra Streisand’s North American tour), performed the 2006 World Cup official song with Toni Braxton, and recently released their fifth studio album, Wicked Game.

Cowell is still involved with Il Divo, although less so with each successive album, says Miller.

“He was more hands-on on the first album and the second one, but by the time we got to the seventh we had a very clear understanding of what Il Divo is. We’d established a good working relationship with the producers and started taking the reins at that point. “We sit down with him to discuss things. Sometimes it’s over the phone and sometimes we’re granted an audience. It’s like, ‘here are our ideas, what are your ideas?’.

“We stir it around in a big pot and, after a couple of months, we get a few songs and go into the studio. At the end, he listens to the album and tells us what he likes and doesn’t like.”

Il Divo has achieved career longevity, something denied many going through The X Factor process. “It’s difficult because you get people who are working through their careers with brilliant voices and brilliant music but don’t ever seem to meet with a big break. Then there are kids with a lot of talent who go for it and then fade away,” says Miller. “For us it was the best of both worlds. We had slaved for our art and were then given a big break.”

What’s not in doubt is the international appeal of Il Divo. “There’s a universiality about what we do. I don’t know if it’s about musical contributions we all put in or the colour of our voices that have such contrast or maybe nature of the songs.

“We cultivate a sound. I’m not saying our music is like Mozart’s, but I call it the Mozart effect – you put on a song and can’t turn it off until the song is over.”

For Miller, the recording studio is his least favourite part of the process. “You’re trying to conjure up all the emotion without knowing what the finished product is going to be,” he explains.

“It’s impossible for us to all record in the same booth on the same day. We have to record one by one and out of sequence.”

Performing live is much more satisfactory because he knows what they’re aiming for.

How long Il Divo continues, rests with the audience.

“If people want us to be around, they’ll buy our albums. I hope it won’t stop. I’d like to continue as long as it will go,” he adds.

• Il Divo appear at the MetroRadio Arena Newcastle on April 2. Box office 0844-4936666