Will.i.am wants Opera House album

Black Eyed Peas singer will.i.am says he hopes to record an orchestra album in Sydney. Source: Supplied

• Says he enjoys performing and appearing on TV talent shows
• Will tour #willpower with a new kind of live show
• Wants to record an orchestra album at the Sydney Opera House

AMERICAN hitmaker will.i.am calls it the TV Show Tour, where artists, coaches, judges and mentors get to showcase their wares on the top-rating small screen talent quests.

Back in Australia to spruik his solo album #willpower, the Black Eyed Peas creative controller will perform his chart-topper #thatpower on tomorrow night's first results episode of The Voice.

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"You know what I think is cool? It gives artists a new venue. You play the Sydney Opera House, I played the Big Day Out, now I'm touring The Voice. It's a new tour, just touring all the countries' Voices," he said, laughing.

"Check this out, I mentored on (American) Idol last year, I did the coaches' house visit on X Factor, I've done the Voice and I did Idol again last week. I tour TV. I tour the tube."

Will.i.am is a coach on the British franchise of The Voice which is running concurrently with the Australian series. He was originally approached to join our series.

He laughed at the suggestion it might be awkward performing a song in front of the Australian coaches.

"I am going to be looking at Seal like, you know you are the Australian me, right? And I'm the UK you, right? And Usher is the American us, right?" he said.

"Then (Black Eyed Peas member) Apl, my best friend, he's doin the Filipino Voice.

"I'm tellin' Seal, 'I'm coming for your chair next'."

The producer, singer, rapper and brand man said the orchestral themes running through #willpower will inspire his next solo record.

will.i.am is a regular visitor to Australia since 2001 and credited his nightclubbing experiences here while working on Wolverine for inspiring the dance-heavy sound of the Black Eyed Peas record The End.

Now he wants to return with a grander plan.

"I would like to do an orchestra album and record the whole record here at the Sydney Opera House," he said.

"Let's work it all out somewhere, know your repertoire, what you are going to be recording, know all the parts and pieces, do all the rehearsals and then you record it all in one place. And you invite people to come.

"What else is there to do? Everything is in a computer now and don't mind, I like computer beats but I think there is a thirst for the human."

He promises he will tour #willpower - not just on TV shows - but wants to invent a new way of playing live.

And he still has to executive produce the new record from Britney Spears, who guests on his No.1 hit Scream And Shout.

"I want to tour, I want to tour here in Australia, but I want to put in the same effort I did with making the record and come up with something different," he said.

"I don't want it to look like 'Where are the other guys at?"'

Will.i.am performs on The Voice on Tuesday.

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Will.i.am to make more than music

Performer will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas is branching out from music into other endeavours. Picture: AP Source: AP

WILL.I.AM wants to be known as a maker - not just of music, but things, from cars to headphones.

The Black Eyed Peas frontman is computer chip-maker Intel's "director of creative innovation". He's also partnered with Coca-Cola to create a new brand of products from recycled bottles and cans, including headphones and clothes.

Not that the seven-time Grammy winner - who produces, writes, sings and raps - has lost his ear for hits. Three songs from his new album, "(hash)willpower" - featuring Justin Bieber, Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus - are now in the Billboard Hot 100 in the US.

It's his fourth solo album but the first in six years and the first since the Peas became global megastars with hits like Boom Boom Pow and I Gotta Feeling. As a solo artist, he has yet to match the Peas' success in album sales; his latest debuted at No.9 on the Billboard Top 200 albums chart this week with 29,000 copies sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

But will.i.am is looking well beyond pop charts to measure future success. The 38-year-old Los Angeles native sat down with The Associated Press in a recording studio for a conversation that touched on topics ranging from the Notorious B.I.G. to his late grandmother.

AP: In one song on the new album, you quote a Notorious B.I.G. line about being on the cover of Fortune magazine. But you actually did it recently. Does that make you reflect on how far hip-hop has come?

will.i.am: The line is, 'Willy be flossing/Geeking on the cover of Fortune/Five double-oh sending flows to Martians.' The fact that I sent a song to Mars is like 'Whoaaaa!' And then being on the cover of Fortune magazine and Biggie Smalls saying that in a rhyme never having been on the cover of Fortune was just like 'Whoa!' Just 'whoa' moments. ... My music career had nothing to do with that. The cover of Fortune came from recent disciplines and sacrifices and dreams I've been having in the other part of my career. That's philanthropy, being an entrepreneur and thinking outside the box.

AP: Can you envision yourself doing that and not making music anymore?

will.i.am: I'll still make music. You've still got to promote the (stuff) you make. So I'll use my music to bring awareness to the things I make. ... It's the original use of music. It's just that the people making music never participated in the things that were sold around it. For example, before there was a music industry, people played music in speakeasies and juke joints. ... Music still sells alcohol in bars. ... And music sold radios and turntables and CD players. But the musicians never participated in that business. And if they dared sell anything outside of that circle of products, they were sellouts. ... Now, Dr. Dre has Beats. And his music and everything it stood for sells other products: headphones. ... So hopefully musicians get hip to the fact that we should be selling the things that we want to make. Making us makers. And our music sells the stuff that we bring to market.

AP: The Black Eyed Peas announced their hiatus two years ago. When did you start working on the album?

will.i.am: I started working on '(hash)willpower' for about two, two-and-a-half years. And when you're in a group like The Black Eyed Peas and you're successful, a lot of times the company that you're with wants you to do just that. And they don't see that you can be successful outside of that. So I had to do '(hash)willpower' all by myself - fund it, pay for it. ... There's a lot at stake. You don't succeed, you mess up your group. ... Very few people succeed outside their group when their group is successful. So it's been a hurdle.

AP: You dedicated the album to your late grandmother Sarah Ann Cain (who died last Thanksgiving). How did she influence you?

will.i.am: We're from the projects - East L.A. On welfare the majority of our lives. A lot of my friends are dead and in prison. Just like any urban person that comes from areas like I'm from. But my grandma was supergrandma. Ain't nobody mess with our family in my neighbourhood because everybody loved my grandma. She was the one that prayed for everybody. ... We were one of the first families in the projects. And I moved them out. Music allowed me, helped me move my family out of the projects. ... If there was anybody who sculpted me, who moulded me - my mind, my perspective, my heart: my grandma. ... She's not here anymore. But she's still here.

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Mona Lisa smiles on Will.I.Am

Singer Will.I.Am was allowed into the Louvre at 2am to record his new song Mona Lisa Smile. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied

GRAMMY award winning US musician Will.I.Am was allowed into Paris's Louvre museum at two in the morning to record part of a song entitled Smile Mona Lisa in front of the famed painting by Leonardo da Vinci, he has told reporters in Paris.

"That song touches me because I recorded a large portion of that song inside the Louvre, next to Mona Lisa's picture," the lead singer of the Black Eyed Peas said, adding that the song would appear on his next solo album.

"They let me go to the Louvre at 2am to record the guitars for that song, I wanted to capture the ambience of the Louvre, that Mona Lisa lives in.

"That was exciting, to walk through the Louvre at 2am with the manager."

The singer added that if he had not entered the world of music he would have wanted to have been a scientist.

"I'm fascinated with quantum physics. That's the reason why I'm going back to school this September to learn computer science," he said.

He urged young people to look to new technology for opportunities.

"If you live in a ghetto and really want not to just change your life and your family's life but change your ghetto's life, make your ghetto a good neighbourhood, learn science, try to be like Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs," he said.

"You'll change not just your family and your neighbourhood, you'll change your whole city.

"Music is great, athletics is great, but the guys in Silicon valley and the dudes that make Twitter and Facebook , they're changing the world."

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Three minutes with William Shatner

Even at the age of 82 William Shatner is still working hard. Source: Supplied

LIVING legend William Shatner talks about seven-year-old critics, Star Trek throwbacks and what he's up to now.

1. HE'S DOWN WITH SEVEN-YEAR-OLDS

Shatner took his granddaughter to dinner before his animated movie Escape From Planet Earth, in which he voices the baddie. "I said, 'How'd you like the meal?' She said, 'It's a medium yum'. After the movie I said, 'How'd you like the movie?' 'It was a big yum!' It was a great critique from somebody who knows."

2. IMPRESSIVE? 'I THOUGHT SO'

Seth MacFarlane had to "argue" to get Shatner back into his Star Trek gear for their Oscars sketch. "But I got into the suit and the belt buckled in the same hole as it did 15-20 years ago." As for the sketch: "It needed work when it was presented to me. They did the work and it turned out to be really amusing."

3. SHATNER TURNED 82 LAST WEEK

And he's still blindingly busy. "I'm writing an album, I'm working on a new book, trying to sell a series and a movie, two new puppies are coming ... and that's an adventure when you have two dogs already ... "

SEE Escape From Planet Earth, opens today

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