Category: Music

If you haven’t been keeping tabs on singer-songwriter Tim Halperin since he appeared on season 10 of American Idol this year, allow me bring you up to speed.

Halperin released his first single, “The Last Song,” in less than a week after not advancing to the Top 13 on Idol. He was recognized by a nationally syndicated radio host, “DJ Kidd Kraddick,” and took part in a Kidd Kraddick in the Morning segment called “Idol Got It Wrong,” where fans could vote on whether his version of an Idol performance was better than the contestant’s version each week. Add in raising $8,000 to make a video for “The Last Song,” a mini-tour and his ongoing work for Komen For the Cure, you could say that Halperin’s managed to keep himself pretty busy so far during his post-Idol career.

On September 26, Halperin spent the final 24 hours of his American Idol contract in “Idol jail” outside a shopping center in Texas, while entertaining 50,000 viewers on USTREAM with live performances of songs from his debut full-length album, Rise and Fall. On September 27, the day after his contract with Idol was up, Rise and Fall was digitally released to iTunes at midnight.

Later that week, Halperin graciously took the time to talk with me about where the idea to go to “Idol jail” came from, his fantastic new album, and what’s coming up next for him.

How was your caged existence on Monday?

[laughs] You know, I see why it’s not fun to be in jail. I did have some fun, though, because my jail wasn’t your typical jail. I had people bringing me Starbucks and coming and hanging out with me and dancing around. I had a piano in jail and for me, that’s not jail at all. It was good. It was long, though. It was very exhausting. I only slept probably 30 minutes during the 26 hours that I was in prison. I really enjoyed it, though.

I had tuned in for an hour or so during the afternoon, and then I tuned back in after your album was released, which was like 9:30-10:00 my time (PST), and you looked so tired by then.

Yeah, the interesting aspect of it is that it was live the whole time. And whenever I have people watching me, I love entertaining people and interacting with people. I felt like I had to entertain and interact with everyone the whole time. Because I’d look and there’d be like 276 people watching, 500 people watching, 400 people watching right now. I’m like, “Oh my gosh!” You know, I thought, This would be like a really good show, like a really good gig to have 500 people sitting there watching me. I can’t waste this time, I can’t waste this opportunity to share my music with people and hang out with people, and talk with people.

Continue reading Tim Halperin Talks About His Debut Album, ‘Rise and Fall’