Playing Scrabble with Kalan Porter
Published in The Calgary Herald on Sept. 2, 2008.
Kalan Porter plays Scrabble with his grandma in the new music video for his upcoming single Hurray!, easily the best tune the young Canadian Idol alumnus has released.
So when we had the chance to sit down with the 21-year-old for lunch, we figured a game of Scrabble would be a great way to get him to open up. Even though the Medicine Hat-born singer claims to have played the board game only a few times before, he was a great sport, agreeing to a "first to 200 points" match.
Here's how the game went:
Turn 1: Kalan draws the letter "B" and gets to start off the game, making "Retro" for 12 points. I follow with "Mate" to match his 12. He orders the first of four cups of coffee he'll be drinking in the next 90 minutes.
I ask him, is it just me or did your voice get deeper?
"I think it might have," he says. "It's just natural, I was 18 when I was on Idol."
Turn 2: Kalan follows that with "pair," which scores him a paltry six points. I use his "P" to make "bicep" for 22 points.
Kalan orders a steak salad and I get a steak sandwich. We begin talking about girlfriends and how they influence what you eat. "When I'm in Toronto and I'm with my girlfriend, she eats a lot of salad, so I do the same," he says. "When I'm on the road, it's a lot worse." I ask him, if he has one of those "Idol romances"? "No, no, no," he says with a laugh. "It's no show-mance."
Turn 5: After Kalan makes the word "bang" (nine points) using the "B" from my "bicep," I make "hinge" with his "g" over the triple word score for 27. The score sits at 95 for me, 53 for Kalan.
Kalan talks about how he's digging the new Alicia Keys single, and this somehow brings us to talking about award shows. So, have you seen the Britney meltdown on the MTV Awards?
"No, I haven't," he says. "I feel kind of bad for her. I'm really small-scale, and I know how it feels to have people say things about you, I can't imagine what it's like for her. And it's really easy to get caught up in stuff, especially if you don't have right people around you."
Turn 6: What's interesting about this isn't the board anymore, but the fact that a sweet, elderly lady walks up to our table, apologizes for interrupting, but wants Kalan to know that she thinks he's a "wonderful young man" for everything he's done for his mother, who was diagnosed with breast cancer which is, thankfully, in remission. Kalan took time off from his music career to spend time with her, and it sounds like it was never a tough decision to make.
I ask him how she's doing and he says "much better, thanks for asking." We talk about it a couple of times in the conversation, but he never says the word "cancer," only referring to it as "the incident." It's completely understandable.
Is it weird, I ask him, to have complete strangers come up to you and talk about intimate details about your life? "It used to be," he says. "But I'm getting used to it. And people have been really nice, really supportive."
Turn 7: Kalan makes the word "pogo" for 11 points, and I manage to use a triple word score to squeeze in "wee" for 24 points.
We begin talking about the novel video for Hurray!, and where the idea came from.
"I met a couple of guys from the Ryerson film program, and we sat down and talked about a bunch of ideas and this seemed the most fun," he says. "I'm doing another video with them pretty soon, probably for the song Destination."
It's too bad MuchMusic and MTV don't play very many videos anymore, I say.
"Because it's hard to make interesting videos anymore," he says. "You've gotta get guys who can think outside the box, who you can riff with back and forth. I'd like to do an OK Go type video, where instead of treadmills, we have the Tony Little Gazelle Freestyle."
Turn 8: Kalan makes the word "tex" for just 10 points, a misuse of the letter "X" (8 points) I tell him. I make "ax" and "an" for 15 over another triple word box.
I ask him if he'd like to remain in the music industry, even if the singing doesn't work out.
"Before Idol, I was always going to play classical music," he says. "And after making this record, I can see wanting to get into the production side of things. I've never had a regular, serious job. Even when the rest of my friends were doing the fast food thing in junior high, I was playing weddings and playing bars, that's all I did. I don't know what I would do if not this. I guess I could always be a squeegee kid, washing windows at traffic lights. I'd need to get some camo, though."
I press him further. Have you considered taking any courses on the side, or going to university just in case?
"I could, yeah," he says. "I thought about that. When I went home, this was when my mom was going through the thing, I enrolled in a few classes and never ended up going. But I don't know what I would take. I really like writing, I'd like to do that, but I think I'd be bad at it."
I press on. When your mom was going through treatment, did it shake you up, make you re-evaluate what you're doing?
"Well, yeah, that's kinda what I was thinking," he says. "What am I doing? I thought I should get a serious job and be home and around family. It did give me a new perspective on the whole thing. I knew going home I might be walking away from music for good. I had been doing it for a while. But I thought, my career could be over in six months or it can go on forever, and the only way to know is to keep doing it."
Your mom's gotta be proud, I tell him.
"Yeah, I think so," he says. "Her and dad came to the David Foster Gala I performed at (last week). They usually come out to all the shows that I play nearby. It's really nice to have that family support. If you don't, this industry can really get to you."
Turn 9: In the midst of a great conversation, we almost lose track of the game. Sitting at 192 points, I need just eight to win. Kalan is at 122. He makes the word "doll," using his "d" to make "queued," scoring 22 points. I make "lazer" for 26 and win.
Final score is 144 for Kalan, 218 for me.
"I've got to practise before I do this again," he says.
nlewis@theherald.canwest.com
