Mia Matthews talks ‘American Idol,’ Hawaii -- and that purple guitar

As Mia Matthews takes an early-morning interview call, the noise of birds chirping is a constant in the background. It turns out that she has stepped out onto the back porch of her family’s home, to enjoy the view of a lake and the relative quiet while she talks. The birds aren’t playing along with the “quiet” part.

This is a far cry from the West Coast whirlwind of her time on “American Idol.” And Matthews is just fine with that.

In the most recent season of the show, the 19-year-old from Centre, Ala. was one of eight Alabama singers to make it at least as far as the Hollywood round. Starting as a shy performer who auditioned alongside her sister Jacy, with their mother Tara close at hand, she blossomed into an increasingly confident solo performer who made it all the way to the Top 10 before being cut on April 28. Only one other member of the Alabama contingent made it further: Triston Harper, who made it into the Top 5.

Since then, Matthews’ social media posts have shown how happy she was to get back home and get back in touch with her normal life. She recently took time to talk about facets of the “Idol” experience: What it was like off-camera, why going to Hawaii was so special for her, what comes next – and how that distinctive purple guitar came to be part of her “Idol” persona.

The following has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

It’s been a month since your last round of “Idol” competition. What have you been up to?

Mia Matthews: I hit the ground running as soon as I came home. I’ve already been in the studio and recorded a few songs and I’m really happy to be back home now. I’m writing a lot and just ready to get to work because, I mean, “American Idol” is a lot of work but it’s up to me what I do with the success past the show. So I’ve just been really busy, but at the same time also trying to allow myself some downtime and some rest because the last year of my life literally only consisted of “American Idol.” So I’m trying to kind of remember who Mia is, back home in Alabama, and spending a lot of time on the lake, lots of it. It’s getting my creativity flowing again. It’s really easy whenever you’re in that bubble where you’re working for music, which is like an art and a passion, it’s easy to forget why I love music, why music is fun. Like, whenever it’s a job, it’s easy to forget. And so, I’m just really, really thankful to be able to come back home and find my footing again and be like, “Oh, yeah, this is why I signed up for ‘American Idol.’”

It’s easy for casual viewers to assume that what they see on screen is most of what happens, as if “Idol” is something the competitors spend a few hours on every week. How intense was the experience, off-camera?

They always make Hollywood Week out to be the most stressful part of the show. And not to say that it’s not stressful. Let me tell you, sitting in that room and watching 149 people perform, it was two 16-hour-long days, and it was a lot. But I think the real work is once it gets to the live shows. Because, I mean, I was there for like two months and didn’t have an off day. From the moment that we wake up to the moment that we go to sleep, we are having vocal lessons, we’re having stage rehearsals, camera blocking, wardrobe fittings, filming B-roll. I mean, there’s all kinds of things that go on behind the scenes that people don’t even see. It’s like literally 5% or 10% of the show is actually singing and the rest of it is all work.

It really, I think, prepares you to have the motivation and drive coming off of the show to like work your actual tail off, because you worked your tail off on the show.

So you’ve seen what it takes, at that point?

Yes, for sure.

Some things you and your mother shared on Facebook revealed that getting to go to Hawaii had particular significance for you. Can you go into detail about that?

I’m Hawaiian. My dad, he was Hawaiian and he passed away when I was three. [Matthews said that her father, Halford Kaanohilani Matthews Jr., was born in Hawaii but came to Georgia for cancer treatment and met her mother through their shared Mormon faith.] So we never got the chance to go to Hawaii together. And I have a really big family. I’m in the middle of seven kids. And so growing up, going to Hawaii wasn’t necessarily something we could talk about. I had a single mama and she worked her butt off to just make sure that we were afloat. My goal whenever I signed up for “Idol” was to make it to Hawaii, because that was my dream as a little girl. I thought it would be really cool to knock two of my dreams out with them. You know what I mean? Like two birds, one stone. And so somehow, by the grace of God, I made it.

And so I get to Hawaii, it just so happened to be literally the same place where my papa grew up. And it was a very spiritual experience and something I’ve dreamed about experiencing my entire life, and my mom and my sister were able to come. “American Idol” has a Kahu, which is like a spiritual leader in Hawaii, and she came to the set to do some blessings over the crew and the stage. A group of the contestants got together and we were like, we wanna have a blessing with Auntie Nettie. And so Auntie does a group blessing with us. And then I have an individual blessing.

In my blessing, she plucked at my heart strings. Let me just say that I was talking to her and goodness, what a precious soul. The crew didn’t know this, but she knew my grandfather, who was from Hawaii, and our families came to Hawaii together. It was a really beautiful experience. She brought her family to meet me. Hawaiians are very, very, very close. Like, if you were a Hawaiian, you were family. It doesn’t matter if you technically are family or not. You are. There was such a sense of community and I related to all of them. It was my favorite part of the entire “American Idol” experience.

You were a competitor who showed a lot of growth during the course of the show. And it’s not just that you got better at stagecraft, it’s that you seemed to be enjoying it. What’s your take on it as an artist development experience?

Whenever I signed up for “American Idol,” it was kind of out of like, “I wonder what can happen,” you know what I mean? I’ve sang in a trio [Worth the Wait] with my mom and my sister for years and years and years and the music that I would write was never exactly what the trio would sing. Mia knew that Mia, as an artist, needed to do something. And whenever the casting producer reached out, I was like, “Let’s just try it, let’s just see.”

So I went into it with no experience as a solo artist. In the trio, I mean, we’ve performed in stadiums, but I’ve never done anything alone and it’s a whole different ball game. I was absolutely shaking in my boots, so terrified, so freaking terrified. I think, truthfully, throughout my experience, it was almost like a comfortability thing. The more that I was on the stage alone and the more it was just me and my guitar and a microphone, the more comfortable I got playing with the cameras, playing with the crowd. It’s “practice makes perfect” -- until it doesn’t, I guess. I mean, I discovered a lot about my artistry as Mia Matthews in my time on “American Idol.” And I’m just really, really thankful for that.

About that guitar, with its “Purple Iris Burst” finish: It was such a big part of your stage presence, at times, that I had to look it up, and I was surprised to see it’s something that sells for $400. On the one hand, I was surprised the “Idol” producers didn’t snatch it away and say you needed to be holding a $4,000 instrument. On the other, I kind of feel like Ibanez should give you an endorsement deal. You might have sold a few of those things. I want to hear a little about it. How long have you had it?

So my mama had a black matte Martin. It was beautiful and I played it for all of our shows because I just had cheap Guitar Center brand guitar. She would let me play it for all of our shows and loved it so much. We went to the Guitar Center one day and I saw the purple guitar and I just fell in love with it. The color, I was like, “Oh, my gosh, I need this one.” And so we left, I didn’t get it. I was like, “I’m not gonna spend $400 on a guitar that I don’t really need.”

The night before my audition, my mama went and traded her guitar in, got the purple guitar and she came in at like 9 p.m. We were leaving at 3 a.m. for my “American Idol” audition. She walked in with the guitar and was like, “Surprise!” And so the first time I ever played it was for Katie, Luke and Lionel.

There’s a lot of really personal stories that kind of loop in the color purple. Genuinely, it’s just been my favorite color my entire life. My grandma passed away, she had her house just decorated in purple because me, as a little girl, loved purple so much. My dad bought me a purple stuffed monkey when I was little and I used to always have it wrapped around my neck and I mean, there’s just a lot with the color purple. And so I fell in love with it and then Mama surprised me with it and it was just yet another sacrifice that that woman has made for me.

We get these little glimpses of the relationships formed among a class of “American Idol” contenders. You recently posted a photo of yourself with Kaibrienne and McKenna Faith Breinholt. Some of the Alabama contenders have mentioned keeping up with each other. Tell us a little about the bonds that form during the show.

One of the things that you don’t see on “American Idol” is the fact that us contestants live in a hotel together for months and months. I genuinely feel like they are all family. We all became very tight knit and very close. It’s such an unusual experience and thing to go through that nobody really understands except for the people that have done it. So there’s no way to not connect with these people whenever you all have such a mutual shared dream and end goal and passion. I got close to a lot of people. I got close to Kennedy Reid, the mortician from Indiana. She was one of my best friends. We were roommates.

And then Triston, Triston Harper is like my little brother. I love that kid so much. Me and him would just sit there and crack jokes that not everybody would get because they just, they ain’t redneck. I got what he was saying, 90% of the time. ... I love him so much. He and his family are such blessings. They’re so cool. They’re so fun. We would sit out by the pool together and just laugh and eat chicken tacos and talk about how we can’t wait to get back home because California is not the place for these two Alabama kids.

It sounds as if, since the show, you haven’t just been rushing into things. You’ve been spending time at home, sorting it all out. But do you have a sense of what might be next for you professionally, or what we might hear from you next?

I’ve been in the studio, I’ve been going up to Nashville just about every week since I’ve been back. I’ve recorded three songs. We’re hoping to put them out soon, and there’s some really cool things in the works, stuff I can’t really share quite yet, but there’s a lot of blessings and a lot of really cool experiences and opportunities that are coming my way. I’m going to be at CMA Fest [a major industry convention that takes place June 6-9] all week with different people. I can’t even really name the names. But I’m really excited. I’m really excited to share these experiences with Alabama because this is my home and I’m just, my heart is full and I’m very thankful.