American Idol Finalist Transitions to Christian Charts
Season 7 American Idol finalist Jason Castro will be releasing a new album, Who I Am, next week to the Christian music market.
Currently on his promotional tour, making stops at various Christian radio stations, the 22-year-old Texan says the tour has put him in a "weird" place.
He performed live Monday on the K-Love morning show in Indianapolis, Ind. There, he told DJ's Lisa and Eric, "It's kind of weird, because I was doing this exact same thing a year ago, just with all the pop stations."
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Castro's self-titled debut album hit the charts in early April as a pop/reggae album. It was during his tour of that album that he started to long to have "more God in the music," he said. It was out of that longing that he wrote more spiritual songs.
"With my first album, I was definitely on the mainstream side of things and trying to have a pop hit. So all my spiritual songs didn't really make the cut. These new songs are just an extension of my album," Castro said in an interview with Christian Music Review last month.
He told the K-Love morning show, "The biggest difference is probably just the topics of conversation. On the pop side, they're just trying to get something out of you, something bad. They want that one little secret. On the other side, I guess it's kind of the same: They want that one little secret, but it's that one little secret about you and God."
The Rockwall, Texas, native was not a worship leader before he went on the immensely popular reality television competition "American Idol" in 2008, he clarified. That's a common misconception, he said. Castro actually grew up playing the drums and started playing the guitar in college. And he describes himself more as a songwriter than a worship leader.
The Who I Am CD consists of five songs from the debut album plus five new songs: "You Are," "What If I Fall," "Changing Colors," "Wait (For a Miracle)" and "Who I Really Am." He calls this album his "love songs to God."
The album will be released under Word Entertainment which represents some of the top names and brands in Christian music, including Point Of Grace, BarlowGirl, and Francesca Battistelli. Also coming out on Nov. 9 is the digital only five song EP entitled Changing Colors: Live From Studio 1290, which features live, full band acoustic versions of the songs "Changing Colors," "If I Were You," "It Matters To Me," "Love Uncompromised" and his version of the Tom Petty tune "Learning To Fly."
