Idol Chatter & Voice Views

She starred in the TV show “Smash,” of course. And she’s now playing waitress Paige Dineen on the CBS show “Scorpion.”

But she hasn’t thrown in the towel on music.

In fact, she released a new single called “Lick My Lips” on Tuesday, has an accompanying video (at right) and plans for a new album.

That album is called “Hysteria” and is due out July 24.

It’ll be her first non-Christmas album since she released “Unbroken” in early 2010, and Katharine told Billboard everything she’s been through in the last three to four years provided her with more confidence and more material as a songwriter.

On earlier albums, “I found it difficult to find inspiration of things i wanted to sing about,” she said in an interview published Tuesday. “I think, finally, for the first time, I felt motivated to find stories within my own life to write about.”

That said, the new single is a feel-good summer song that comes courtesy of Isa Summers of Florence and the Machine. Katharine calls it the “most summer-y, carefree” tune on the upcoming album.