THE X FACTOR Eliminated Finalists Conference
December 13th, 2011 | 
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Final Transcript
FBC PUBLICITY: THE X FACTOR Eliminated Finalists Conference
December 2, 2011/1:15 p.m. EST
SPEAKERS
Michael Fabiani – FBC Publicity
Brian “Astro” Bradley – X Factor finalist
Drew Ryniewicz – X Factor finalist
PRESENTATION
Moderator Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to THE X FACTOR Eliminated Finalists Conference Call. At this time all lines are in a listen-only mode. We will conduct a question and answer session. (Instructions given.) We do remind you that today’s call is being recorded. Your hosting speaker, Michael Fabiani, please go ahead.
M. Fabiani Thank you. Hi, everyone. Thanks for joining the call today with THE X FACTOR’s Astro and Drew. Just a reminder that this will be a two-part call; we’re going to begin with Astro for the first 20 minutes and there will be a couple of minutes break and then Drew will join us. I’d now like to turn the call over to the Q&A portion.
Moderator (Instructions given.) The first question is from Jamie Steinberg of Starry Constellation.
J. Steinberg It’s such a pleasure to speak with you. Thank you so much for taking the time.
B. Bradley Thank you for wanting to speak with me.
J. Steinberg I know a couple of weeks ago you had a little bit of an issue with Simon and … and stuff, do you think that you made up for it, though, and this was just a coincidental loss based on your performance?
B. Bradley I apologize to my supporters and stuff like that, and the hip-hop. I don’t want to focus on the past. To be honest, I feel like I got humbled from it, the situation helped me to humble a lot, but I don’t really want to talk about that because that’s the past and that’s negative energy right now.
J. Steinberg What would you like to say to all of the many fans you had? You had a lot of celebrities out there that were rooting for you too.
B. Bradley Yes. I just want to thank everyone that supported me, that’s been down with me since day one, and even people that just found out about me from THE X FACTOR, just thank everybody for supporting me. I appreciate it a lot.
J. Steinberg Great. Thank you so much.
B. Bradley Thank you.
Moderator The next question is from the line of Carla Borders of Parade.
C. Borders Hi, Astro. How are you? You were actually my favorite contestant, I must say.
B. Bradley Thank you.
C. Borders Has either of your idols, I know you mentioned that you looked up to Jay-Z and Kanye West, have they reached out to you in any way?
B. Bradley No, not yet. Not that I know of. But I’m pretty sure …, but not now, no.
C. Borders Okay. Thank you.
Moderator The next question is from the line of Kim Messina of J-14 magazine.
K. Messina Hi, Astro. How are you? When you got eliminated you mentioned about a girlfriend named Molly and kind of stunned everybody. Can you talk a little bit more about her?
B. Bradley I really don’t want to talk about it. It was really corny that I did that. I don’t want to talk about it, though. I have a girlfriend and that’s it. That’s all people need to know right now.
K. Messina I thought it was very sweet.
B. Bradley Thank you. Thank you.
Moderator The next question is from the line of Joshua Maloni of Niagara Frontier.
J. Maloni Hi, Astro. Thanks for your time today. Did you ever in your wildest dreams think that a rap act could make it this far on the X FACTOR?
B. Bradley Yes. … .
J. Maloni Go ahead, yes.
B. Bradley … but it is what it is. I’m glad I made it to the top 7.
J. Maloni Do you feel like the ups and the downs –
J. Maloni Right. You said that the past is the past, but do you feel like the whole process, the ups and the downs, do you feel like it’s all made you a better performer and more capable of handling being in this kind of spotlight?
B. Bradley Yes, it definitely has. I’ve learned a lot from it. It humbles me. It got me mad. It got me happy. It got me sad. It was just a great experience. I wouldn’t change a thing.
J. Maloni Thank you and good luck.
B. Bradley Thank you.
Moderator The next question is from the line of Megan Ward of TVismyPacifier.com.
M. Ward Hi, Astro. Thanks for taking the time today. I have to say, I think you’re incredibly talented and I won’t even say for your age, because your skills are great for any age. So where do you draw your inspiration from?
B. Bradley I draw my inspiration from my supporters, from things that I see around me. Like I said, … cause me to go home and write a song about … music and living out my dreams. I just draw my inspiration from my surroundings and what I’m going through and how I feel at the moment.
M. Ward What was your favorite performance to date on the show?
B. Bradley What was my favorite performance?
M. Ward Yes.
B. Bradley From anyone, right?
M. Ward Anyone, yes.
B. Bradley I think Josh’s last performance was a really extreme performance. I really enjoyed that. That was very entertaining.
M. Ward And what was your favorite performance for you personally?
B. Bradley Probably “Lose Yourself,” because I feel like “Lose Yourself” I came out there simple and clean and I just basically expected – (having a background conversation with someone). But yes, I like “Lose Yourself” because it was simple and it was just me being me.
M. Ward Okay, great. If you can give any advice to young people out there, what would you say?
B. Bradley I’d truly tell everybody to keep their heads up, everybody just keep your heads up and enjoy yourself, believe in yourself, and as long as you believe in yourself, no one can harm you.
M. Ward Great. Thanks for your time again, and I look forward to seeing more of you in the future.
Moderator The next question is from the line of Reg Seeton of TheDeadbolt.com.
R. Seeton Hi, Astro. How are you doing? Even though you didn’t win, what did you take away from being on THE X FACTOR now that you look back?
B. Bradley I definitely got a taste of what the celebrity life would be like. It was definitely a great experience. It humbled me. I had a lot of fun there.
R. Seeton Can you talk a bit about your song writing process and how you approach song selection each week and how you fit your own material into it?
B. Bradley What did you say?
R. Seeton Can you talk a bit about your song writing process and the challenges of fitting your own material in with others each week?
B. Bradley Oh, yes. I write all my own songs. All my own songs are based off of themes and concepts and stuff like that, and everything I did on THE X FACTOR was basically original, especially in the last shows, except for some of the ensembles. The Michael Jackson ensemble we did I had to wrap his lyrics and switch the flow up, but everything I did was original and I wrote it from the heart.
R. Seeton Thanks, man.
Moderator The next question is from the line of Beth Kwiatkowski of Reality TV World.
B. Kwiatkowski When you were in the bottom two the first time you suggested that you hadn’t really been in the bottom two and that the producers were kind of just punishing you over another incident. Now that you have been eliminated, do you still feel that way and believe you weren’t legitimately in the bottom two that week, or no?
B. Bradley I don’t like to focus on the past, to be honest. It is what it is. It was what it was. The week after that my supporters, they voted me through. So I can’t complain about that. I’m actually not going to speak on that. It is what it is. But that’s the past. That’s ancient times for me.
B. Kwiatkowski All right, well just focusing on the present then, do you think you were legitimately in the bottom two this week?
B. Bradley I wasn’t even in the bottom two. I was in the bottom three. I was voted off. I don’t know. I still don’t understand how I used to have the most followers on the show and get the least amount of votes, the most … viewers and get the least amount of votes. But it is what it is. I’m focused on positive energy and I just want to thank all my Astronauts at Team Astro again. As long as they’re sticking with me I’m straight.
B. Kwiatkowski Thank you.
Moderator The next question is from the line of Jennifer Steel of Digital Spy.
J. Steel Hi, Astro. How are you? The one question that I wanted to … is the fact that a lot has been made about the fact that you were the first hip-hop artist to be featured in a singing competition and … people obviously felt that maybe rapping didn’t have a place in a competition that’s traditionally for singers. What did you say to that kind of criticism and do you think that bringing a new genre on there is probably the reason that you left at this point rather than staying longer?
B. Bradley No, I don’t think that’s it. I don’t think that’s it. I think it’s because people really didn’t understand me for some sort of reason. It is what it is. Like I said, I had a great time on the show and I’m here now and I’m just being positive right now.
J. Steel Do you think that your performance, having been on there, will set the precedent for more hip-hop artists to go out for competitions like that?
B. Bradley Yes, I definitely think it does, and I hope that next year a lot of people out there sing because of me, that would be awesome.
J. Steel Great, best of luck. I’m from Brooklyn too, so it was good to see you on there.
B. Bradley Yes, Brooklyn, Brooklyn. Thank you.
M. Fabiani I’m sorry, we’re going to have to cut the Astro call short, but we’ll be right back with Drew everyone, if you can please hold.
Moderator Thank you. Participants please remain on the line. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, please stand by. We will have you on a music hold until the next interview.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome back to THE X FACTOR Eliminated Finalists Conference Call. Your hosting speaker, Michael Fabiani, please go ahead.
M. Fabiani Thank you. Hello. Thanks, everyone for holding. I’m now going to introduce Drew to the call and we can open to the question and answer portion.
Moderator (Instructions given.) The first question is from the line of Kim Messina with J-14.
K. Messina Hi, how are you? I was very sad to see you go. I’m just curious, though, right after you sang for “save me” Steve whispered something in your ear and he gave you a hug. Do you remember what he said to you?
D. Ryniewicz Steve was just telling me how this is a song … can’t believe what the results came out to be.
K. Messina Thank you.
Moderator The next question is from the line of Sydney Bucksbaum of TV Guide.
S. Bucksbaum Simon has been blaming your elimination on his song choice. Do you agree with that?
D. Ryniewicz I’m sorry, can you repeat that?
S. Bucksbaum Simon has been blaming your elimination on his song choice for you, how do you feel about that? Do you agree with him?
D. Ryniewicz I don’t believe that it’s all Simon’s fault. He did want me to do a slow song and he very much didn’t force me to use the chair. But I still had the overall decision and I didn’t fight for exactly what I should have. So it’s not quite all his fault. I could have told him no.
S. Bucksbaum Thank you.
Moderator Our next question is from the line of Carla Borders of Parade.
C. Borders Hi, Drew. I know that you said that you were singing for God, do you think that you will pursue a career in Christian music or stay the pop route? What are your feelings on singing Christian music?
D. Ryniewicz I definitely want to be part of secular music, part of all the different kinds of music. What I stated at the end, that’s why I’m here and that’s what I’m believing, but that doesn’t quite make my music in that genre.
C. Borders Okay. Thank you.
Moderator The next question is from the line of Reg Seeton of TheDeadbolt.com.
R. Seeton Hi, Drew. How are you? Can you talk about how you feel that Simon pushed you in new ways as a mentor?
D. Ryniewicz You know, I don’t feel that Simon pushed me to do anything. We thought that slow music could happen over and over and finally when I didn’t agree anymore it was too late. I got eliminated. But overall I stayed pretty true to myself as an artist. I would like to do something upbeat in the future.
R. Seeton Looking back at your performance of “Skyscraper,” how important was it to voice your opinion to L.A.?
D. Ryniewicz How important was L.A.’s opinion?
R. Seeton No, how important was it for you to voice your opinion to L.A.?
D. Ryniewicz Oh, it was very important to me to be able to get him to understand because I wanted America to also hear the exact reason that I do the things that I do. L.A. knows exactly what I think.
R. Seeton Thank you.
Moderator Our next question is from the line of Joshua Maloni of Niagara Frontier.
J. Maloni Hi, Drew. Thanks for your time. I have to say, I was really impressed with the way you handled yourself last night. I’m especially curious about when you got the news that you were going to be in the “save me” song in the bottom two, obviously you were visibly shaken, how did you go from being that upset to offering what I thought was your best performance of the season really in just the length of a commercial break? From what did you draw upon, and how did you do that?
D. Ryniewicz I felt like it was my best vocal performance, and that’s what I wanted it to be.
J. Maloni Right, but considering your state of mind, how difficult was it? It looked pretty seamless.
D. Ryniewicz It actually was very difficult just because I wasn’t feeling that performance just because I really wanted to move around. It was actually a very difficult performance for me, but I don’t regret anything and I would never turn back anything because there’s always a plan and obviously winning THE X FACTOR isn’t the exact plan for me.
J. Maloni Can you wrap your brain around the level of success that you’ve had? Most people your age don’t have anything near this impressive on their resume. Has it sunk in what you’ve been able to accomplish thus far?
D. Ryniewicz This is unbelievable. Getting to be on THE X FACTOR was just an unbelievable journey, and I couldn’t have asked for a better journey to take to go into my singing career because it was so surreal because I got to work with Simon Cowell and we were buddy-buddy. So it’s something that is worth taking, but it feels like a dream now. Now that I’m looking back at it, it feels like totally a dream.
J. Maloni Thank you.
Moderator Our next question is from the line of Brian Cantor of Headline Planet.
B. Cantor Hi, Drew. How are you? I want to start off by asking about your reaction to the “save me” situation, specifically the fact that Marcus, who you went against, had already been in the bottom two, and when we saw that earlier with the Stereo Hogs it seemed like that kind of prevented them from going through, but with Marcus that wasn’t the case. What were your thoughts? Did you think when you saw him standing opposite you that you were definitely going to go through because he had already been in the bottom group the prior week?
D. Ryniewicz I actually didn’t think that. I knew that I wasn’t going through. I could see it. I could see it in the judges’ faces, the way they were looking at me. I knew that my “save me” song wasn’t my best performance and I knew that my performance the night before wasn’t my greatest performance, and I haven’t been showing being versatile, so I didn’t really expect the judges to want to save me after week after week they told me to do something different. And Simon insisted on doing the same thing again and again, and it was okay for a while, but I could see it in the judges, I knew they weren’t going to want to save me, especially off of my “save me” song. It just wasn’t the greatest.
B. Cantor Then also you’ve, especially now, really brought up a lot about wanting to do something more up tempo, wanting to break the monotony, but it certainly seemed that you had a pre-set style, something that was uniquely you and that’s what you tried to take through the competition. When you’re talking about wanting to do up tempo, whether it’s in the future or what you should have done on TGE X FACTOR, how much of a departure from your normal style are we talking? I believe Paula mentioned doing something like Avril Lavigne or Kelly Clarkson, were you going to go that far, or did you just want to maybe move around a little bit more?
D. Ryniewicz No, honestly I was planning on doing an upbeat song … and I’ve been trying to get my songs to be upbeat. Simon wanted them to be slow, and I trusted him in that, he was my mentor. I wanted to do something upbeat for a while, but I also wanted to do my slow songs because I am good at that. I am good at doing the slow songs. But I’ve got to change it up and I didn’t get a chance to do that. So you bet my album is going to have a variety of different tempo songs, upbeat, slow, emotional, and non-emotional.
B. Cantor Thank you, and best of luck.
D. Ryniewicz Thank you.
Moderator Our next question is from the line of Jennifer Steel of Digital Spy.
J. Steel Hi, Drew. I’m sorry to see you go from the competition.
D. Ryniewicz Oh, it’s okay. It’s all right. It’s all good.
J. Steel My question for you is one thing, you got some negative feedback from both Paula and Nicole about doing faster songs, but besides that last night Nicole said that she felt like your voice could use some more maturing. Do you think that there’s any truth of that? Do you think that your voice is just as mature as the other competitors? How would you respond to that sort of criticism?
D. Ryniewicz I know personally that my voice is very mature, and I know exactly what I want to be as an artist. Last week I had no choice in my song, and Simon apologized for that, and I’m so thankful that he did just because I really had another plan and I had the plan to show myself being a teenager and that didn’t quite get to work out. I just don’t think Nicole got to see, and I don’t think America got to see what I’m truly capable of. I’m definitely, definitely going to be going into my album by showing exactly what I’m capable of because I don’t want to let anybody down.
Moderator Our next question comes from the line of Beth Kwiatkowski of Reality TV.
B. Kwiatkowski Hi, Drew. How are you doing? So there is clearly a rivalry amongst the judges and how they most likely want to see someone on their own team win the competition. Did you think their rivalry played any role in your elimination, in that maybe the other judges felt justified in sending you home because at that point Simon was the only judge left who still had all three members of his team?
D. Ryniewicz Honestly, that could be a possibility, just because Simon week after week wanted to go against L.A. and wanted to go against Nicole and Paula, and so I learned to accept that because I like doing slow songs. Don’t get me wrong, I loved all the songs that I did. It’s just that if I’m going not going to show being versatile people aren’t going to want to vote for me because they won’t see everything that I’m capable of. I felt like the judges had enough of maybe seeing me do slow songs and they didn’t think it was worth a shot with Simon. And Simon apologized and they knew that it wasn’t me. They told me, they said, I know that that last performance definitely wasn’t your choice, and I think they just really wanted Simon to realize that he can’t let somebody just do one thing, because I have so much more that I can show, and Simon knows that.
B. Kwiatkowski Absolutely. If the judges had voted in a 2-2 tie deadlock, do you think you still would have been eliminated for having the least amount of votes? Have you heard anything about the voting results and whether Marcus or yourself was the low vote getter?
D. Ryniewicz I don’t know exactly what America was thinking, but I know that I have the greatest fan base and they’re just the sweetest things, and I believe that they voted, and I believe that they voted enough to make him get me passed. But it wasn’t quite about what America thought at that point, it was about the judges, and I still am going to always believe that my fans wanted me in the competition to make sure that I was going to stay.
B. Kwiatkowski Thank you, Drew. Good luck with everything.
D. Ryniewicz Thank you.
Moderator The next question is from the line of Natt Chisling with Reality TV.
N. Chisling Hi, Drew. Drew, I just wanted to know, what was your proudest moment on the show?
D. Ryniewicz My proudest moment on the show was, honestly I think my proudest moment was when I did “Just a Dream” by Nelly. I felt so comfortable with that song because it wasn’t super fast, but it wasn’t super slow. And I got to move around and I got to be Drew, and that was the type of music that I wanted to do in the first place. That was the most exciting week for me and the most comfortable week for me and I was proud of that performance. I felt like a lot went into it and I gave a lot to it.
Moderator The next question is from the line of Kristyn Clarke of PopCultureMadness.com.
K. Clarke Hi, Drew. Thanks so much for taking our calls. I’m curious to know, what is one of the most surprising things that you’ve learned about yourself by taking part in the show?
D. Ryniewicz One of the most surprising things I’ve learned about myself would probably be that I’ve actually learned, you know, I’ve learned so much. I have to think about that for a minute. I feel like I’ve learned that I can do more, and I didn’t quite get to show all of that on the show. But after last night and after everything that I’ve been through in this competition, it started to build up to really help me to realize that if I don’t believe in myself people aren’t going to believe in me. So I have to believe that I can do things, … strong, and I can do things like dancing and then I can be able to accomplish that.
K. Clarke Absolutely. What is the next step for you?
D. Ryniewicz I’m really excited to see what I can go into as an artist, because I cannot wait to get an album and start writing with people. I haven’t gotten a lot of chances to write. I’m just not that great at it. I am more than excited to have my first album. That is going to be like my first child, and I can’t wait.
Moderator Thank you. Mr. Fabiani, back to you.
M. Fabiani Great, thank you. I just wanted to thank Drew and everyone for joining the call today. We appreciate everyone’s time, and just a reminder that the top 5 X FACTOR finalists will perform live on Wednesday, December 7th from 8:00 to 9:30 p.m. Eastern time live and tape delay Pacific Time. Tune in to the results show on Thursday December 8th from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. Eastern live and tape delay Pacific Time, as another finalist is sent home and Mary J. Blige and Lenny Kravitz perform. Thanks, again, everyone. Have a good weekend. Thank you, Drew.
D. Ryniewicz Thank you.
Moderator Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude your conference. We do thank you for joining while using AT&T Executive TeleConference. You may now disconnect. Have a good day.
