WHILE Australian Idol winners are notorious for being one-hit-wonders, Damien Leith has remained on the music scene doing the rounds of Australia since his win in 2006.

Now doing his third Australian tour Catch the Wind: Live & Acoustic, Leith is doing his own interpretation of meaningful songs from the 60s and 70s that have been an influence in his own musical journey.

"These are all songs that I first ever played," Leith said.

"Dad always played guitar so these are songs they blasted in our ears from kids."

Leith however, with the reputation of other idols on his shoulders, is adamant that this is not all you will hear from the Irish musician.

"When I got the idea to do the album (Catch the Wind: Songs of a Generation) I really wanted to step in the direction of original music," Leith explained.

"Even while we were recording it we were doing work on the next one."

"Hopefully this album gives people a taste of what the album will sound like."

Catch the Wind: Songs of a Generation is more Leith's style of music than his earlier releases being that all the songs featured on the albums are ones he played at his earlier gigs and listened to when he was younger.

"With every song there's some story from childhood linked to it," he said.

Its been a crazy journey for Leith since becoming an Australian Idol, with his first single Night of My Life reaching gold record status in just 72 hours and then platinum as the number one single for 2006, then his debut CD/DVD release The Winners Journey setting the record for any Australian Idol with five weeks in the number one spot on the Motorola ARIA chart.

To celebrate Damien Leith became an Australian citizen on Australia Day in 2007.

Following this, his second platinum album Where We Land became Australia's number one album and then the star won two ARIA awards for number one releases in 2008.

It's all a bit hard to take in for Leith who secretly still gets extremely nervous before stepping on stage (especially now people are paying to see his gigs) and who was convinced by his mates on the day of auditions to have a go at Australian Idol.

"I told my friends I was too old for it," Leith admitted.

"I honestly didn't see it working out for me; I thought I'd get annihilated."

His big break (winning Australian Idol) he said had been the biggest career highlight for him.

"I never thought it would happen but since then there's definitely been a lot of cool things going on," he said.

"It's definitely been hard work; I've probably worked harder in last few years than I have in my life."

"The last two years have flown by."

Damien Leith will be performing in almost every corner of Australia including Mandurah, Fremantle, Perth and City Beach.

Catch the Wind: Songs of a Generation is now available in stores, but keep an eye out for his original release predicted for release in 2009.

AUTHOR: Nikkita Dixon

2008-05-19