From Deseret News archives:
Utah's 'American Idol' Carmen Rasmusen finds her own beat
"There were a lot of people telling me what I should sing, what I should look like; and I decided to take a year off," Rasmusen said during an interview in the Deseret Morning News offices. "I went to BYU and took some classes."
However, Rasmusen realized that being cooped up in a classroom and dormitory wasn't what she really wanted to be doing. "I was constantly writing songs on the piano on the lower level of my dorm," the 19-year-old said with a laugh. "And I knew I wanted to be living my dream, singing."
One of the songs that came from those piano sessions was a little number called "Photograph," which is featured on the singer's self-titled debut CD, which will be released nationally on Tuesday. (The CD is already available on her Web site, www.carmenrasmusen.com, and in local CD stores and can also be ordered at www.amazon.com.)
For Rasmusen, recording the album was a learning process, aprocess in which she felt she had to prove herself. "At first I was trying to do what everyone else told me to do. In fact, 'Photograph' had been changed so much from suggestions that it didn't say what I originally wanted it to say."
So when it came time to lay the track down, the Woods Cross High graduate did some revisions of her own. "I totally rewrote the song the morning I was going to record it. And I also told them that I wanted to help produce."
It was rewarding for the "American Idol" finalist to see her CD come to life. "One of the things that was good in the process was seeing my ideas work. There were a lot of older people telling me that my ideas wouldn't work. But I worked with them, and they let me do what I thought sounded right, and it was gratifying to hear them change their minds and tell me that my ideas worked."
One of the songs that came easily to Rasmusen for the album was her rendition of the Beatles' "The One After 909." "We did it in four takes. I just said to the recording staff that I wanted to just go through the song from start to finish. I didn't want them to stop me or stop the music. I just wanted to sing it all the way through. We did it in four takes, and they said, 'We got it.' I was very happy with how that song turned out."
Rasmusen grew up listening to Celine Dion and Shania Twain. "I used to turn up Celine's songs and try to sound like her. She was the singer that made me want to sing. But it was Shania that made me want to perform and do country."
Rasmusen also likes LeAnn Rimes. "It was her song 'Blue' that got me onto 'American Idol,' " said the Bountiful native. "But after seeing Shania in concert, I knew what I wanted to do."
