'Idol' Lynche maps next course

1/2/2011

Michael Lynche, 27, returned to his hometown to perform at First Night, St. Petersburg's annual New Year's Eve party. He spent the holidays with family in St. Petersburg, enjoying some well-deserved time off after a busy year. Here's what the fourth-place Idol finisher had to say about First Night parties, New Year's resolutions, and his plans for 2011.

Q: What are you up to these days?

A: I've been working on my album the last three months, and I'm close to being done with it so I'm very excited to start the promotion process and perform some of the new songs. For First Night, [I plan to do] some of my new songs from the album.

Q: Was the record deal through Idol?

A: No, it's my own deal. When you leave the show and leave the tour, you're on your own. People don't know that. It's not that Idol sets it up for you. You've got to keep working and keep moving, and that is what I've been doing.

Q: What do you typically do on New Year's Eve?

A: Usually we sit at home in New York. When we were in college, me and my wife drove up to New York just to go stand in Times Square with a couple of friends. It was like the coldest thing you can ever imagine. We just drove up from Florida, straight through the night, straight through the day. We got there, took a nap for about an hour at my brother's place and went and stood in Times Square for like six hours. This was in 2001 and Sept. 11 had just happened, and the city had a certain buzz to it. Once we did it, we said we'd never do it again.

Q: Any New Year's resolutions?

A: I don't really believe in resolutions. You've just got to do it now. I don't believe in procrastinating, now anyway. I used to all the time. I'm really looking forward to 2011 being really big, and I want it to be even more successful than 2010. It was a really successful year for me career-wise and family-wise. We're really looking forward to capitalizing on all that.