Lee DeWyze out to show he's so much more than a former 'American Idol' winner

Lee DeWyze may have that he’s the Season 9 winner of “American Idol” on his resume, but it’s not the pinnacle of his career, not by a long shot.

Likening his musical output to a Christmas tree, DeWyze is striving for a diversity of decorations.

”(‘American Idol’ is) a beautiful ornament that I cherish and love and care about, but it’s not the spot on the top of the tree for me,” DeWyze said in a recent call from Los Angeles. “And I don’t know what that is even yet, but I know that with every album and song I write, it’s another ornament in hopes to, when that day comes and I don’t do this anymore, I can sit back and look at that tree and say, ‘You made something good,’ rather than just having a barren tree with this ‘American Idol’ horn at the top. That’s an amazing ornament, but what about the other side of the tree?

“It really is that, and you don’t want all the ornaments to look the same. That’s the other part of it. If you just have a tree with all red bulbs on it, it’s like, cool, I get it. I like to have my tree looking like every ornament holds a story, every ornament you can look at, and it’s complex and there’s more to it. That’s always what I’m trying to do.”

The latest “ornament” for the singer-songwriter would be his new record, “Gone For Days,” which came out in August. In a show Monday at City Winery Pittsburgh, he’ll be playing that album and much more from his career, from his major-label debut “Live It Up” through his ensuing five albums.

“To have all this music is amazing, but this record in particular I’m super (expletive) proud of,” he said. “I’m just really looking forward to playing the songs out loud.”

“Gone For Days” came together earlier this year when DeWyze rented a house in Bristol, Tennessee, for three months, submerging himself in a setting full of natural beauty.

“I just sat with myself,” he said. “It’s kind of the songwriter’s dream.”

DeWyze arrived with two songs written in Los Angeles, but the rest poured out in Tennessee.

“A lot of my songs in general and a lot of my albums have always felt like these beautiful poems from beginning to end that you can kind of get lost in,” he said. “And I think this album feels much more like a book with different chapters, that each song really stands out on its own.”

The three-month experience came with whole-hearted support from his wife, actress Jonna Walsh, after a visit to Johnson City, Tennessee.

“I was like, so I want to talk about something,” he said. “And she’s like I already know what you want to say. She’s like, you want to come make your record here.”

Knowing he had his wife’s backing “within five seconds” allowed him the freedom to “make that record that I’ve always thought I wanted to make.”

“I’m definitely not that guy that’s like ‘the old ball and chain,’ you know what I mean? I always think it’s funny when I hear people talk like that too, and it’s not that I’m holier than thou. It’s just, for me, marriage is a partnership. It’s a support system,” he said. “She’s an actress, I’m a musician. We’ve seen our fair share of missing holidays or this and that. It’s really a mental and internal thing.

“It’s like when you’re doing something and you know you have the support of the most important person in your life, it kind of makes you mentally free. Had it been like ‘(huffs) I guess, if you’re gonna go, like when are you coming home?,’ that kind of puts this weird pressure or stress on you, not because she’s necessarily putting it on you, but you want to be there for that person. But for her, she’s like, ‘I’ve got things here. You go do the thing that you have to do. And I have your back.’”

Growing up listening to Simon & Garfunkel and Cat Stevens, particularly the “Tea for the Tillerman” album, DeWyze aimed for an ageless sound this time.

“The last few records I made, I’ve always said, when am I going to make that record? I don’t mean emulating that album,” he said. “I mean making that record with that, when you hear it, you could just listen to it a million times. And so there was an element of this album that I wanted it to be a classic. I wanted people to hear it and be like, this could have been an album I’ve been listening to for 20 years.”

To DeWyze, the “timeless” sound means it could have been recorded in 1975, now or 2055, with his twist on the songwriter’s role as an “emotional locksmith.”

“My job as a songwriter is to get up on stage and perform these songs and put out records and allow people a safe place to feel. And it’s kind of been amazing,” he said. “I played these songs a few times. I’ve had these burly dudes come up to me and be like, ‘Man, I haven’t cried in 10 years listening to a song.’ That to me is so special. It’s the closest thing you can come to magic.

“Honestly, my opinion is like music, to be there and make someone feel something without physically touching them or changing the environment by just speaking and performing and having them feel something, it’s a very special connection to people. And so that’s kind of my job. That’s my goal. I go out there and I perform. And people walk away being like, I don’t know what the (expletive) just happened, but I really felt something during that show or listening to that song.”

• JVK singer discusses Boston band's tour, 'Body Double' single, more ahead of Pittsburgh show

• Jelly Roll offers inspiration in sold-out Pittsburgh concert

• 2024 Pittsburgh area concert calendar

Even 14 years after his appearance on “American Idol,” the TV show still casts a shadow over his career.

“It’s such a (expletive) up thing. The truth is, on the surface, so you tell somebody like, oh, you won ‘American Idol,’ right? And at face value, that’s a (expletive) amazing thing, to say that at that time, I was only one of a handful of people that could be like, I won ‘American Idol.’ That’s an amazing thing to be proud of. But it also has its downsides.”

Going from a job unloading trucks at a paint store to national TV, DeWyze said he wasn’t chasing fame … he just wanted to make music.

“So the downside to ‘American Idol’ is that ‘American Idol’ is not your mom or your dad,” he said. “They’re not going to hold your hand through it. Once you go on the show, you win, you’re done with that. I remember when I won, it was like in the back, I heard them say, tune in next month for auditions. Like, oh, there’s going to be another one? So it’s like, well, how do I sustain in this industry as a singer-songwriter?”

A big part of DeWyze’s career post-“American Idol” has been placing his songs in movies, commercials and TV shows, including his “Blackbird Song,” which has more than 15 million views on YouTube after appearing in “The Walking Dead.”

“It just so happens that I tend to write in a way that is very emotional and when we pitch the music, sometimes it’s really a case of if there’s an emotional scene, it’s very easy to drop my music in because what they’re really looking for when it comes to licensing, it’s elevating the scene visually,” he said. “Take any great movie, ‘2001: A Space Odyssey,’ honestly which some people consider the best movie of all time. ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ ‘The Lego Movie,’ it doesn’t matter. Take the music out, and we miss out on so much of the emotion and feeling. So my music kind of brings that to the table — at least I hope or imagine — and so it’s really allowed my style of writing and the way I produce the songs to work in that way.”

As he moved through his career, DeWyze intentionally made sure each of his albums didn’t sound like its predecessors.

“I think a lot of times people when they go on a show like that can get trapped in, ‘Well, this is what everyone loved me for. So I guess I have to keep making this,’” he said. “And I kind of said (expletive) you to that whole thing.”

After his first album released through his “American Idol” deal, which he called “fine,” he said he went full-blown folk Americana and then more singer-songwriter, before the darker, more experimental “Paranoia” and “Ghost Stories,” which he described as more orchestral and poetic. All of which led to “Gone For Days.”

“I feel this record is kind of an amalgamation or a concentrated version of all of those things about songwriting and music that I love put into this record,” he said. “It’s all the things that I used to lean away from.”

DeWyze can look back at the time spent on this album with no regrets, as he’s excited for the next stage of his career, with this album potentially setting the tone for what happens next.

“At the end of the day, I’m glad that I’m not sitting back, saying I coulda, woulda, shoulda. I’m proud that I did. And I’m just kind of enjoying it, and I’m excited to get out there and play,” he said. “Sorry to give you these long (expletive) answers. It’s honestly just an indicator of how much I believe in the record.

“It’s really interesting at 38 to get to a point where you’re like, I don’t know anymore, you know? I’ve been doing this a long time. I genuinely feel like I’m 25 again, creatively. And it almost feels like my first album. It really does. I have that same energy about it.”