Idol Chatter & Voice Views

James Durbin with his wife Heidi at the American Idol series finale earlier this year. (AP Photo)

He’s teamed up with Quiet Riot guitarist Alex Grossi to form Hollywood Scars.

And they’ll be releasing an EP called “Maps To The Hollywood Scars” – Volume 1 in February.

In a press release announcing the project, Grossi said the two met in Las Vegas last fall and started bouncing musical ideas off one another.

Says James: “It’s not very often that a project like this goes from nothing to something in such a short amount of time, without a slough of industry BS.

“Alex started sending me instrumental demos and gave me free range to just write. We started churning out songs one after the other & they weren’t losing their quality, they were getting better.

“I think that we stumbled upon a winning team and its only fair that we let our collective fans hear what we’ve been having so much fun making.”

The project is being billed as showcasing “the darker side of Hollywood and the music industry – as experienced by two people that have taken two different paths, yet ultimately found many common themes throughout their respective journeys.”

James has released three solo albums since finishing fourth on Season 10 of American Idol. The most recent, the 12-track “Riot on Sunset,” came out in July.

You can follow progress on the new music on the Hollywood Scars Facebook page.