The last time we did an inter-view, or a story rather, on Il Divo, the group did not like it one bit. It was more of a tongue-in-cheek comic-themed piece that had all of us laughing, but them. You can then imagine how awkward it felt to have to chat with them recently about their forthcoming tour and new album Wicked Game.
Fortunately there was no indi-cation of resentment when the interview took place. So maybe the group member I spoke to, David Miller, had forgotten the story or they just decided to bury the hatchet.
“Wicked Game was unanimously chosen to be the title of our latest album because after eight months of trying, it was the first song in the process that gave us some direc-tion,” Miller said about the name of their new album.
The record-breaking classical crossover quartet is made up of the Swiss tenor Urs Bühler, baritone Carlos Marín from Spain, the French pop artist Sébastien Izambard and tenor David Miller from the US. They first came together in 2003 through an extensive search by music producer Simon Cowell to find four singers who could sing classical music.
“I don’t think any of us knew the level of success that we would have when we started.
“We all thought we would sell a few thousand CDs and we would be just fine,” Miller said.
Fortunately for them there were at least 25 million people out there looking for their kind of music.
They have had 150 gold and platinum discs with over two million in concert ticket sales. Since some musicians never get that far, you’d think Il Divo would be toying around with early retirement.
“Our motivation stems from our enjoyment of the process. The mix of our different backgrounds always brings in interesting dynamics. Also, live public reactions make it all worth it,” explained Miller.
While their previous albums like Ancora, Siempre and The Promise did not take much time to produce, Wicked Game was a stubborn project.
“It took us 18 months to have this project completed and it was a frustrating experience. We are not used to taking that long on an album. For instance, it took only 14 days to make our Christmas album.
“Sometimes on a good day we take one day to do one song. So Wicked Game took us longer because we were trying to figure out the ultimate sound that would work this time around,” Miller said.
“Eight tiresome months later, we were still working on Wicked Game and suddenly we knew what we wanted to do with this album. So we decided to give the album the name of the song that gave us direction.”
Anyone who has listened to Il Divo must have wondered when they will do an all English album so we can understand the lyrics.
“We’ve had many cries from fans asking us for more English content and we do take heed of that.
“Just so you know, we record all our songs in three languages, English, Spanish and Italian. Then we decide which version sounds the best,” he said.
Concerning their tour early next year (scheduled for February at this stage) Miller promised fans the best performance they have yet had from the group.