American Idol Season 15, Featured posts

New Idol champ Trent Harmon plans to head down a country-soul path

0
Trent Harmon is mobbed by Season 15 colleagues after being named the winner of American Idol. (AP Photo)

Trent Harmon is mobbed by Season 15 colleagues after being named the winner of American Idol. (AP Photo)

 

Get read for some country-soul, Trent Harmon style.

In a Friday conference call with the media, Trent confirmed what Scott Borchetta had hinted at earlier in the week. Post-Idol, the Season 15 winner will be releasing a country-flavored album.

“I sing blue-eyed soul,” Trent said. “I talked it over with Scott, and he said Justin Timberlake is thinking about putting out a country album. So define country in 2016? I think it can be whatever you want it to be.

“So we’re going to try to make an album that country supporters would pick up. County supporters — they go to shows, they go to festivals, they buy CDs. If you can make it in country, you can have a career.”

Trent Harmon poses for photos after being named the winner of American Idol Season 15. (AP Photo)

Trent Harmon poses for photos after being named the winner of American Idol Season 15. (AP Photo)

And Trent pointed out that it’s not that big of a stretch for him. On the rare occasions during his Idol run when he could select a song entirely on his own, he opted to sing a couple of Chris Stapleton tunes.

“I love Conway Twitty,” he added. “I love Elvis Presley. Elvis did country. I’m a big Ray Charles fan. Ray Charles did a country album.

“I feel like with being able to sing multiple genres is going to help me make a country album that will be palatable to a lot of different people.”

Of course, the song he has out right now is his coronation single, “Falling.” Following Thursday’s victory, the song soared from 14 to number three on the iTunes singles chart.

Trent, 25, credited hard work for his Idol success. He said he believes he could have made it pretty far on Idol just on the basis of a pretty voice, but wasn’t satisfied with that.

If I had two minutes to myself, I was rehearsing,” he said. “I was in go mode all the time, but it paid off.”

And he figures to have plenty of support now that he’s off the show. After his victory, Trent said he got to meet a who’s who of former Idol success stories, including “bucket list” contestants like Jordin Sparks, Ruben Studdard, David Archuleta, David Cook and James Durbin.

“I was lucky enough to exchange numbers with lot of people I never thought I’d have in my phone book,” Trent said. “It was surreal for them to reach out, like, ‘You’re last one (Idol champ). We want to help you any way you can.’ I think they meant it.”

As for being the final American Idol — well, Trent said that hasn’t sunk it yet.

“This morning, when I jumped out of bed, I hopped in the shower, then started doing (vocal) warmups and practicing my song when I realized, ‘Today, I don’t have to do that anymore.

“I’ve kind of realized I can decompress a little. I don’t know how long it will take. It may take a week or a month before I really come down out of — I hate to say PSTD, but I’m still kind of in that mode where I feel like at any moment I could get cut.”

“I told La’Porsha, ‘No matter what names comes out of Ryan’s mouth, we’re going to hug until they separate us. I don’t care whose names gets called, La’Porsha, we just won a car. You don’t win a car everyday, so we’re going to be okay.'”

Related Posts

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *