'American Idol' Winner Abi Carter on Why She Didn't Sign With a Record Label

Most of the winners of American Idol jump at the chance to sign a record deal following their win, but 2024 winner Abi Carter still hasn’t signed on the dotted line.

The 22-year-old singer/songwriter from Indio, CA, is still releasing her own music because it’s important for her to have control over her songs.

“I’m not signed to a record label,” Abi tells Parade in an exclusive interview for the release of her new single “Some People Need Drugs.” “I am currently independent, and I think that that’s a big reason as to why I’m able to find myself and have complete creative freedom. Someday I hope to be with a record label, but I feel like I need to find the right one.”

So, while American Idol may not have hooked Abi up with a label, what it did do is convince her that she made the right decision when she aspired to a career in music, and today, she feels like a “real” musician who gets to write songs, create demos and work on an album.

“For a long time, I thought of myself as an aspiring musician,” she says. “When you’re playing on the side of a street and just getting tips to be able to shoestring your life, you feel like an aspiring musician, somebody who wants to do it for a living and do it for the rest of their life. I feel like at this point it’s become something that’s a lot more attainable than it was before. I get to travel and do all the things that I never thought that I’d be able to do.”

Related: How Billie Eilish Helped Abi Carter Win American Idol

One of those things is being able to release songs that have meaning for her. Since winning Idol, Abi has released two songs independently. The first was “Peppermint Sky” and the newest, released today, is “Some People Need Drugs,” and the two songs couldn’t be more different.

“Some People Need Drugs” in actuality isn’t about drugs at all, but about an abusive relationship. It could be a romantic partner, it could be a parent, it could be a neighbor, a stranger, a coworker, a boss. It could be anybody in your life that treats you as though you are less than human. And so, the song speaks to both men and women because anyone can be a victim.

“It’s about having a relationship with somebody who is completely removed from reality, completely incapable of maintaining or keeping healthy human relationships,” Abi explains. “Somebody who is just mentally different and they don’t treat you as a human as a response to that. They don’t understand that they’re treating you negatively. So, this song was about me going through the process of deconstructing this idea that there was ever going to be a day where everything was fine.”

Related: American Idol Abi Carter on the Pressure of Being a Platinum Ticket

It also speaks to the idea that when you experience this type of abuse, you tend to think you can fix that person so there’s going to come a day when they treat you right and everything is going to be great.

“When you finally deconstruct that thought process in your head, when you finally come to the conclusion that you cannot fix them, that nobody can fix them, that the only person that can fix them is themselves but when they can’t even recognize it, you just remove yourself from the situation entirely,” Abi continues. “You’re like, ‘You know what? Maybe medical intervention would be the thing that would have to have to change your chemical composition to make you a good person.’”

As previously mentioned, “Peppermint Sky” is starkly different from “Some People Need Drugs” and deals with a more upbeat subject. In fact, it’s more of a love letter to the women who have inspired Abi.

“It’s about all of the female relationships in my life that I thought I was going to have forever,” she explains. “My friends and my sisters and my mom. And then going about life and moving on. People go off to college and they get married and then have kids. At first, you’re like, ‘I’m losing you because of these things.’ But then you realize that that’s happening because they’re pursuing the things that they are passionate about and what they love. All you can do is support that and love that and be thankful for the time that you have together and continue to be friends with these people despite not being as close as you were before.”

Abi will continue to release her music independently until she finds the right record label, one who will allow her creative control over her music, and she’s willing to be patient. After all, her idea of success isn’t necessarily big bucks and arena gigs.

“For me, it’s happiness,” she says. “Getting to do what I love is going to bring me happiness. I get to do this for as long as I’m willing to do it. I think that, for me, that’s what success is, is to be able to share that with other people and for them to be able to enjoy it, hopefully, as much as I do.”

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