Idol Chatter & Voice Views

About a month after releasing her first single, former American Idol finalist Erika Van Pelt has launched a KickStarter campaign to help finance her first album.

Her goal: To raise $20,000 by Sept. 27.

Erika Van Pelt is working on her first album, “My Independence.”

Erika, 27, finished 10th on Season 11 of Idol, but failed to snag a record deal. She’s releasing the album from her own label, EVP Records.

“Doing this album independently has been an extremely rewarding and creatively inspiring process,” she says on her KickStarter page. “The only element that has made things difficult is raising enough money to finish what I started.”

One benefit of making the album independently is that she gets to record the music she wants to record, the Rhode Island native told The Rhode Show.

“The entire album is a really eclectic mix,” she said. “I was given a hard time by some producers who said, ‘Erika, you really need to stick to one genre.’ I don’t deal well with authority really, and I just said, ‘Who made the rules?'”

As a result, Erkia said her album will include a mix of pop, soul, rock and roll with some funk elements mixed in for good measure.

That first single, “Listen, Learn, Then Delete,” is available on iTunes and you can watch the video below. More on it in a second.

Erika is preparing to release another single, “Hurricane,” which she describes as “an intimate power ballad, which portrays the struggles of being your own worst enemy.”

If you want to learn more about Erika’s KickStarter campaign and the rewards you can win by donating, head here.

Those rewards include one doozy, inspired by the destruction that takes place at the end of her video.

Check this out. For $750 …

“I’ll come to your house and epically destroy anything you want with a Louisville Slugger, just like in the video. If it’s awesome, I’ll even post it on my YouTube channel. You’ll also get a signed CD and poster. Hopefully, you won’t want me to destroy those though. That would make me a sad panda.”

Now, the video …