Pierre Lewis

Listening to 23 year old Pierre Lewis, you soon realise that he has quite an old (and possibly, very wise) head on his young shoulders. When he talks about his musical heroes there’s the odd Kanye West or P Diddy reference, but mostly he enthuses about idols from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. From Elvis Presley to Whitney Houston, Burt Bacharach to Michael Bolton he is inspired by them all. But, Michael Bolton? ‘Yeah, he’s cool’, Pierre declares. “You know when I was at school all my mates were listening to drum ‘n’ bass and I’d have ol’ Burt blaring out. They used to try and steal my cd’s and break them up, but it didn’t worry me. I’ve never conformed and I don’t think I ever will”. From the outset Pierre loved to lark around. A popular kid at school, he did, at times drive his teachers to distraction. “I hated structure and routine” he admits. But the Lewis charm kept him out of trouble. “I have dyslexia and there were times when I just struggled with my work in a lesson, so I’d start joking around and amusing the class. It sounds mad, but out of something as frustrating as dyslexia a big positive came, I realised I loved the reaction I got from being the joker, the entertainer.” At 18 his friends made a mass exodus to University but Pierre, with the Lewis charm as back up decided to venture into ‘the university of life’. “I took a string of jobs at executive sales level. I have no idea why those companies’ took me on. I had no experience, just bags of confidence. At one point I landed a job as an Internet Security Consultant. The company flew me all around the world going on training and team building exercises, but I didn’t know the first thing about computers. I’d have people ringing me up for help saying things like ‘I’ve plugged in to the gateway but…’ I’d sit there thinking what’s a gateway? I used to sit at my desk in a cold sweat wondering when they would realise I had no idea what I was doing! That particular role lasted 3 months,” he admits slightly ashamed. At 21, Pierre decided to fly the nest from the family home in Reading and move to London. “It was a strange time for me. I met a whole new set of friends and was clubbing 24/7. I became a stalwart of the London party set and met some amazing people from the celebrity and film worlds. But I never really felt comfortable in that scene. I was suddenly catapulted in to a surreal world and knew I had to get out,” he reveals. It was at this moment Pierre realised that music was the key and decided to knuckle down to his career. “I was looking for answers, I was looking for my path and there it was the whole time. I’ve struggled with anything written with a structure, but through lyrics and creative writing all the rules are thrown out of the window. When I began to write songs I finally found a way of expressing myself. I love the fact that people can listen to my music, I love the connection they make with my lyrics. When people say they can relate to what I’ve written, I get a real kick out of it.” Pierre’s first musical outing has been co-written by Pierre and produced by American, Aaron Accetta, best known for his work with NSync, Aaron Carter and Debbie Gibson. The single has been lifted from Pierre’s debut album, ‘Letter on the Door’, which will be released in early 2009. For further information: Jody Dunleavy jody@dminc.eu +44(0) 778631764