What is the measure of an artist?
When it comes to Clay Aiken, you certainly can’t tell from 2003’s “Measure of a Man,” a CD released just five months after he lost to Ruben Studdard on “American Idol.”
“When that first album came out, the music on it was predetermined before ‘Idol’ was even done,” said Aiken, who has a new recording due this week. “At the time, I was just so excited that I had this opportunity, I was like, ‘I’ll sing “The Crawdad Song” if you want me to!’ “
Aiken didn’t write any of the songs on “Measure,” but his cooing delivery made him an even bigger star in the adult contemporary world. And after sporadic touring, it was time to cut another record — this one a holiday CD. “Merry Christmas With Love” was released a year after “Measure,” and six weeks later it reached platinum status.
After that one, he thought: Now is the time for my “me” record. Little did Aiken know that mogul Clive Davis had different plans for him.
Two years after the Christmas record came “A Thousand Different Ways,” an album of familiar covers from Richard Marx (“Right Here Waiting”) to Bryan Adams’ “Everything I Do (I Do It For You).”
“They wanted me to sing songs people knew, like what I did on ‘Idol,’ ” Aiken said. “But it wasn’t what I really wanted to do. … I was miserable. I fought to get four original songs on the album.”
Fans and critics were in awe Aiken had released three incredibly impersonal records in three years.
While working on the covers record, Aiken hit it off with producer Jaymes Foster. Together they agreed to work on his next album, his first personal statement as a pop star. And that’s where we find Aiken now, introducing “On My Way Here,” in stores Tuesday, as a document of the singer’s life.
The record is heavy on the melodramatic ballads and light on substantive songwriting. While Aiken says “On My Way Here” represents the last five years of his life, he again didn’t write any of the material. The singer said he’s “not great” at songwriting and that he’d rather “let the people who are experts in that field do what they do, and I’ll do what I do.”
The lead single and title track on the new record was written by OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder.
“When we heard that one a year ago, we changed the whole direction of the record,” Aiken said.
“We had no theme before. We were just going to make an album. But with this song, everything rang so true. Right there we started looking for songs that talked about something that I had experienced in the last five years or something that explored a feeling I’d had.”
