'American Idol': Teen classic-rocker Casey Bishop goes pop-rock on new EP

Were you expecting a straight-up rock record from “American Idol’s” Casey Bishop?

Well, think again.

For her new EP, the Estero teenager drops the expected Mötley Crüe and Soundgarden vibes and takes a hard turn into modern, danceable pop-rock.

Yeah, it’s a big change from what people saw her do on “American Idol” last year, Bishop admits — although she did also cover pop-punkers Paramore, in addition to more classic-rock songs by Bon Jovi, The Animals, Soundgarden and more.

Fans might not expect this new sound, but Bishop says she loves it — even if that took some convincing.

“I started to figure it out along the way,” she says about the songwriting and recording process. “I feel like going into writing sessions and recording and stuff, I was super closed-minded and like, ‘No, I want to make only classic-rock songs that sound like the ‘90s and ‘80s.’”

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But Bishop says she eventually came around to pop-rock — a genre that continues to rack up hits by musical acts such as Machine Gun Kelly, Avril Lavigne, Måneskin, Demi Lovato and Willow (who co-wrote two of the songs on the EP).

“I definitely opened my mind,” Bishop says, “and I actually like the music I make (laughs)!”

The result: Her self-titled EP coming out Sept. 28 on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon and elsewhere. It follows the first two singles from the EP, both co-written with Willow (aka Willow Smith): The paranoia-packed “Bad Dream” and the playful “Don’t Talk.”

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The songs on Casey Bishop's new EP

Bishop started working on the six-song EP after leaving “American Idol” in May 2021. She made it to fourth place on the TV singing competition.

She spent the next year flying back and forth to Los Angeles to producer/singer-songwriter Chris Greatti’s home studio, where they worked on the EP for a week at a time.  Greatti is best known for his work with Yungblud, Blink-182, Poppy, Grimes and Willow.

“We worked hard,” she says. “The weeks I was there, we just nonstop worked on songs.”

It was her second time in a recording studio, but her first doing writing sessions with other songwriters.

That was thrilling, she says — especially after she and Greatti wrote their first song together, the hard-rocking “Kerosene,” in their very first session.

“I’m just in love with that song,” Bishop says. “That’s been my number one. I love that it came from my first writing session. That makes it so special to me.”

Other songs soon followed, including the vulnerable “Denied” (which she wrote entirely by herself), the cautionary tale “The Warning,” the bouncy-but-jaded “Blurry Vision” and the frisky “Don’t Talk.”

That last song started out as a joke with Willow. They were in a song-writing session and talking about how you can meet a good-looking guy — but then he opens his mouth and says something awful or dumb.

“But it’s like, ‘OK, if you keep your mouth shut we can hang out for tonight,'” Bishop says. “'We can do this one night, maybe two.' … Yeah, that’s a funny little song.”

Her first single, “Bad Dream,” could be interpreted as being about the paparazzi or possibly a stalker, but Bishop has declined to say much about the song’s inspiration, preferring to keep it ambiguous.

“I don’t want to say, specifically, what it’s about,” she said in April when the song was released. “But something happened that led to me struggling with paranoia, basically.”

Most of the EP’s songs are about relationships, break-ups and heartbreak. “Oh yeah,” Bishop says. “I mean totally sadness, anger from a past situation.”

Bishop, 17, declines to talk about the specific relationship that inspired some of the songs — or whether it’s even accurate to call it that word.

“It wasn’t a label kind of thing. I’d say a situation-ship,” she says and laughs. “I was seeing somebody.”

Overall, Bishop says she’s happy with the new EP and her new pop-rock sound. And she can’t wait for people to finally hear what she’s been working on for the last year.

“I’m more than ready for this to come out,” she says. “More than ready for everyone to hear it, finally. I’m really excited.”

It might not sound like Mötley Crüe or Bon Jovi, she says, but it's who she is now.

“I’m really happy,” she says. “I’m really happy that this is my first EP, my first project that’s coming out, because it feels pretty true to me.”

The EP is being released on 19 Recordings/BMG.

Here's what else Casey Bishop had to say about:

Her song “Blurry Vision”

“‘Blurry Vision’ is pretty much just about — I remember I was feeling super numb during that time,” she says. “I wasn’t happy or sad or anything. But I was like, ‘Literally nothing excites me. This is really frustrating.’

“I was reminiscing on my childhood and then times before (when) I felt, like, boring. Luckily, that was a short phase. I felt like it was gonna last forever. I was like, ‘What is wrong with me? Nothing is exciting (laughs)!’”

What’s next

Right now, she’s back home with her family in Estero, writing more songs in her bedroom. She declined to give more details about her upcoming plans, including a tour and other appearances.

“I’d love to tour,” she says.  “But I’m not super sure.”

Her last year of high school

The former Cypress Lake High student now home-schools. That gives her more time to work on her music career, she says.

It’s not been easy, though.

“I just started, and I already had a mental breakdown about it,’ she says and laughs. “I hate it! I can’t stand it.

“It’s really hard. Especially since I haven’t been to school since freshman year. And then COVID hit, and then ‘Idol.’ I literally feel like I haven’t done school in two or three years.”

She’s in her senior year now, she says, but it doesn’t feel like it. “Coming from ‘Idol,’ it was like coming out of fairyland and then taking a step back. It was so weird. So weird.”

Sometimes she misses actually attending school and doing typical things like signing yearbooks or meeting friends in the lunchroom. But then she remembers all the cool things that have been happening with her music career.

“Sometimes I’m like, ‘Damn, I’m not getting the high school experience,’” she says. “But I’m also getting an experience that a lot of other people are not getting. So that’s what I have to remind myself.”

Connect with this reporter: Charles Runnells is an arts and entertainment reporter for The News-Press and the Naples Daily News. Email him at crunnells@gannett.com or connect on Facebook (facebook.com/charles.runnells.7), Twitter (@charlesrunnells) and Instagram (@crunnells1).

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: 'American Idol': Casey Bishop talks EP, songs Bad Dream, Don't Talk