American Idol finalist signs deal with Universal

Home from the American Idols Live! tour for a couple of months, Michael Sarver is anxious to step out from the world of the show and make a name for himself in the music industry. Because Idol is so popular, he said he knows there's not a problem in trying to get people to pay attention to what he did while on the show or on tour. Now, his goal is to carve out a niche for himself in today's music scene. That's why he's excited to announce his record deal and new single.

"I signed with Dream Records/Universal, and we're working on a country album," Sarver said. "I've got a single coming out (at) the end of November, and it's amazing because I got to write it. I've always thought [I would get to write] my first song, and that's exactly what's happening; and then the album will come out next year.

"I've gotten two songs completely recorded and it's just moving on to the selection process. We actually don't have every song for the album picked out, so we're still in the picking world which is fun because you listen to different ideas and I've been writing like crazy."

He said he's currently working on a song for his as-yet-untitled album that is close to his heart.

"Here's a little secret, I wrote a song about the troops a few days ago and I'm probably more passionate about that song than any other one that I've written," he said.

Sarver's first single is called "You Are" and he had the opportunity to sing it in Los Angeles recently to a great response.

"I sang my first single at DreamCenter in LA [a few weeks ago]," he said. "Anyone could have looked on Twitter that night and found out what people thought about it. The response was unbelievable, somebody actually called it 'epic,' so it's pretty incredible. I think the song went over well, not because of how I sang it, because I actually was rough that night, I was really under the weather. We'd been recording so much my voice was tired, but it was amazing because fans saw through that and saw the message and the point of the song and people would tweet me about how that was the story of their life and that's amazing because that's why we write music, that's the whole point of this thing. It's a way to say what other people feel in an avenue that they can't say it so it got a lot of great responses and I think it's going to do well."

Sarver tries to keep his fans in the loop of what he does through various social networking sites and his favorite is Twitter.

"I use Twitter a lot," he said "I try my best to communicate with my fans through that, any type of news that's going on, interviews, anything, I try to keep my fans informed through Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, doing an interview or anything like that. You just try to keep your voice out there. The amazing thing is, the fans are reaching out too. They're the ones asking questions. If you go on Twitter, you'll find [fans asking] question after question. I don't know what the other Idols on other seasons did because Twitter is pretty much 'it' [for communicating with fans] and it's pretty neat."

He used Twitter recently to announce an upcoming Christmas tour he is doing with other former Idol contestants.

"I will be joining David Hernandez from last year, Gina Glocksen from the year before that, and then my good friend Alexis Grace who was on this season and didn't quite make it onto the tour and should have," he said. "That girl, she's destined to travel the world and make music. It's a smaller tour which I'm actually excited about. It's going to be more intimate, performing arts theatre-type situations and it's going to be a whole lot more about the music, not so much about the show. The show is fun, I enjoy it, I can't wait until my next arena tour, but when you get the chance to do something more intimate, like performing arts theatres, it's really cool and I will be performing my single "You Are" every night on that tour. I will be selling an EP release of the song "You Are" and a bonus track of another song on tour. You can only buy it when you come see me on the road. So, go to the tour!"

The tour begins December 2 in Lakeland, Florida. Although it's a smaller- scale tour than the American Idols Live! tour, it will still have merchandise and souvenirs available for purchase.

"[On the tour], we're going to be singing everybody's favorite Christmas songs and then the second half [of the show] we'll be doing some original stuff," Sarver said "You'll be able to buy the CD, t-shirts, pictures, all that good stuff."

Although Sarver and the other top ten Idols wrapped up their summer tour in September, he misses them and is anxious to be reunited with them soon.

"Number one, I miss my friends," he says about the tour. "Every day, you're together, you're on a bus or in a hotel, you're about each other, the whole tour is about the ten of you, and then all of a sudden, overnight, we did our last show, and by the next day at noon, we were all in different cities. It was a hard thing to swallow, for a little bit and I miss them, I miss them like crazy, I miss all of them. I actually went to L.A. and thought I was going to get to see them and I was so busy while I was there, I didn't get to. Second would be the fans. They were amazing. It was an awesome experience to go out every night and meet them, and (it) definitely changed my life forever."

Sarver said his favorite memory of the tour actually has nothing to do with himself.

"Kris Allen, when he went home to Arkansas, (the crowd) cheered at a level of about 110 DB," he said. "That's a fact, that's not an opinion of how it sounded. They measured the sound, and it was at 110 DB for over 4-1/2 minutes. I thought 'it can't get any louder' and he kind of pumped his fist out of just appreciation and excitement and when he did, they turned it up a notch and I'm like 'you can get louder than that?!' First of all, he's one of the coolest people I've ever met. Secondly, he's one of the most deserving people of what he has I've ever met and that night was just some kind of special. We all were sitting off to the side of the stage just watching. It was extremely moving and I'll never forget it."