“I Broke My Own Heart” – An Interview with Canadian Idol 2’s Shane Wiebe

I have to tell you, Shane Wiebe was a lot of fun to chat with. He's an incredibly animated and wonderful person. We spoke for about an hour about his time on the show, where he may go from here, and what he thought of playing an instrument on the Idol stage (among many other things).

One of the first things I asked him was about the Gordon Lightfoot tribute. I wondered whether Shane played very much because, to me, he seemed a little uncomfortable with the bass. I was right. Shane told me that piano is his main instrument. He added, "That was the first time I played bass. I had to learn that bass line. I got the music on Monday, and I'd never played bass before." He also said there were a few nights he was up until 2:00 a.m. practicing. They didn't want two keyboard players, so Theresa shouted out that he could play bass, and Shane agreed. I thought he was pretty impressive in that number, considering the facts.

I asked him if he thinks the Idols should be allowed to play their instruments on stage? He does not, and told me, "You alone need to prove to Canada that you are this great Canadian role model. For me, to hide behind a piano could be a really huge advantage. So, no. It was me, and only me. I had the opportunity to show Canada who I was. At first I was really mad that we couldn't use our instruments." But once it got to the point that he understood the idea behind the show, he changed his mind. He does think that instruments would be great on the Thursday shows, though, and would show that they are all musicians as well as singers.

I asked Shane how he felt about his elimination. He thinks that, "In the long run, it might work out better for me. It was early enough that maybe I'll have a harder time. I'll have to fight my own way into the industry, and maybe have a better opportunity in the long run."

Shane is from Abbostford, BC as is Top 3 finisher Jacob Hoggard. I wondered if Shane thought it was a disadvantage to have two Top 10 finalists from the same city. While he loved having Jacob in the competition with him, it did have an affect. It was hard for people to throw rallies because the town was "almost cut down the middle." On the other hand, the city was extremely excited to have two finalists!

I asked about the music programs there because there have been three Canadian Idol finalists from that one city. He said that most kids grow up singing in church, and that Abbotsford is a "very artistic city." I may start calling it "Idol City" if we have another contestant from there next year!

During the competition, Shane always sang with such clarity and with such a pure voice, that we all assumed he'd been doused in vocal training. That's not the case. Shane told me he's had, "maybe six or seven hours of training." He added, "I've sang in a lot of choirs. I find myself to be a bit of an imitator at times. That's kinda how I learned. It took me a while to come into my own style. I was singing in choirs, and listened to those around me and kind of imitated what a classical sound sounded like to me. That way when I did do some classical training, it came easy to me."

We spoke a bit about his performances on the show. His favourite was "The Way I Feel" from Gordon Lightfoot night. He also really liked "Angel," but said that "there were some iffy spots at the beginning." He also didn't feel that his Glass Tiger song "redefined terrible," as judge Zack Werner stated. I rather liked the Glass Tiger song.

The one song I didn't like was The Darkness song. I asked Shane what the heck that was all about! He laughed and said, "I took a big risk with that song. I knew I had the vocally mature audience. I thought that probably wouldn't be enough to carry me further, so what I did was I took the big risk of going out and trying to catch the attention of the younger people, and of the people that are more into just fun, crazy music. And, hopefully not lose the other people's attention, and then bring them back the next week... but I wasn't surprised I was in the Bottom 2 that week." He also wanted everyone to know that he "can be crazy too!"

Speaking a bit more about his performances, I asked Shane how horrible it was to forget his words during his Top 5 performance of "Can't Take My Eyes Off You." He said, "Oh, wow... it's an unequivocal experience. I relive that moment a lot. I was looking into that camera going, ‘I've got nothing to give you, Canada.’ It's unique in every sense of the word. There's the gross feeling when your stomach drops like when you're in church or in a little concert, but you've got a whole concert to make it up for yourself. You get to talk to people afterwards and say ‘Oh, yeah, you know I was tired or whatever.’ But... there it was. I didn't deliver and that's all there was to it. I broke my own heart."

On the other hand, he added, "It gives me confidence in the whole voting system that I was voted off. Because I had fumbled up. At this level of competition, you have to be able to deliver every night consistently. We're all under the same pressure, we all have the same sleep deprivation going on, and the first one to break goes. I think that's the way it should go."

I also talked to Shane about song selection. How exactly did he (and the rest of Idols) pick songs? He told me that they first have a listening party where they listen to about 150 songs. The Idols then choose their favourite five songs. They then choose their favourite from those five. These listening parties are held weeks in advance. Once they have chosen that song, they workshop it. At that point, it's sent to the musical production company, and they make a track for it.

Shane told me that he got better at choosing songs as time went on. “I tended to steer away from slower songs," he said. He wanted to choose songs that had a tempo, and could get "people nodding their heads and tapping their feet." He also looked at the lyrics. The song may have been a great song, but it may not have been something that he wanted to sing about.

He told me that the judges, as well as Debra Byrd, have absolutely no say in which song the Idol chooses for himself or herself. "They're allowed to have no input. They can say it sounds good, but they can't say any one sounds better. Your song is specifically your responsibility."

As for learning their songs and practicing, the Idols spend anywhere between a half an hour and forty-five minutes a day with Byrd. But Shane said, "Quite often, on the Wednesday night, it's only the third or fourth time we've actually belted it out." While on the topic of vocal coach, Debra Byrd, he said, "Wow, she's awesome. You know a lot of people talk about the differences between last year and this year, and I think she has a big chunk of the responsibility of that happening."

I asked Shane what the best part of being on Canadian Idol has been for him. He said, without a doubt the people. He added, "I value relationships first and foremost. My relationship with Christ, my relationship with my wife. And I was given the opportunity to meet so many fantastic people that are the best of the best in Canada. It's (the people) been the highlight for me."

The worst? Not knowing when he would be able to see his wife, Angela. They've been married for only eight months and it was hard for him only seeing her for a few minutes here and there. I asked how she was doing with his elimination. He said that after the show was over, she came up on stage and said, "I'm okay because I know you're okay." In his profile, Shane lists his biggest accomplishment in life as, "Finding the perfect woman, actually getting her to fall in love with me, and marrying her." These two really are the cutest couple. You can tell they love each other very much.

As for what Shane expected out of Canadian Idol? Well, nothing. He had no expectations and was shocked every time he went through another level. I asked him if he would be doing an album. He said, "I don't know. I would think that I would do some album at some point in time. I've now been the in the music industry for three months. Canadian Idol marks the beginning of whatever journey there is for me. So, umm, I'm gonna feel it out a little bit. It's exciting to me!" He added, "I hope that in this journey I've portrayed myself well to Canada and they like what they've seen." I'm sure they have.

I want to thank Shane for taking the time to talk to us here. It was a ton of fun!

You can send Paris fan mail, hate mail, or junk mail at pariscosby@hotmail.com.

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