Idol Chatter & Voice Views

She was Gina Castanzo on The Voice. She’s now Gina Zo and has released her first single.

She’s now shortened her stage name to the snazzier Gina Zo.

And she recently released her first single, a haunting song called “Lost” that landed on iTunes late last month.

Gina told Voice Views the song “is about knowing you are going to hurt someone in a relationship. You warn that person endlessly and, of course, in the end you end up destroying them. It’s that conflict internally between loving someone and loving them so painfully that you break everything you’ve ever built.”

Though you can download her cover of “Cecilia” from iTunes, we didn’t get to hear much from Gina on The Voice.

Her blind audition was montaged. So was her battle round match against Peyton Parker.

But Gina says Blake’s battle round adviser, Gwen Stefani, made a big impression. Gina said she thought about shortening her stage name before the show, but was uncertain of her musical identity.

“Meeting Gwen Stefani changed that all around for me,” Gina said. “Working with her completely changed my perspective on indie pop music and it made me decide to be the flower child I’ve always wanted to be. Gwen made me feel like I could be myself in this industry.”

As for hearing from Gina … well, that’s about to change. A lyric video will follow the single. Next will come a debut EP called “My Weakness,” which she says will likely be released in late fall or early winter.

Now a freshman at James Madison University, Gina says she wrote all of the songs on the EP. “Lost” wound up being the first song she recorded for that project.

“It’s the kick start of the album to show the high level of emotion I experience in song writing,” she said. “It totally blends my indie background mixed with country story telling.

“The goal of this album is to completely change everyone’s perspective on the life of a gypsy soul,” Gina added. “This album needs to be listened to with an open mind and an understanding for what you never thought you’d hear come out of me.”

The lyric video should land in a few weeks. In the meantime, you can follow Gina through her Facebook page and website. On Twitter, she’s now @gina_zo.