Pia Toscano

Singer and songwriter Pia Toscano joins us to talk new music, tour & more!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
With Mario Lopez.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
What's up everyone, Mario Lopez. Joining me right now, you
know her from the 10th season of American Idol, the
incredibly talented singer and songwriter, Pia Toscano.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
How you doing, Pia?

Speaker 3 (00:12):
I'm good.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
How are you?

Speaker 3 (00:14):
I'm well.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
We were just talking right before we came on air.
You're in LA at the moment, but you live in Nashville.
How do you like it out there?

Speaker 1 (00:21):
I love it.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
I feel, I mean, I, I, I always love the,
any chance I get to come back to LA because
I called it home for over 10 years, but Nashville
is just very peaceful for me and.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
I, I love it. Yeah. It's very cool.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Very cool people out there.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
I saw you do a Oh, I love her. She's
become such a good friend of mine.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Yeah, she's super cool. Please send her my love next
time you all speak right there. So you've got this
cool new single out called Redirected.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
Tell me about it. So I've been through quite the
journey in my personal life, in my music career.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
And so I developed this mantra. Whenever things like.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
That I've prayed for and opportunities that I really want,
were working towards didn't work out. Lots of things, lots
of music, things that, you know, kind of didn't pan
out the way I had hoped. I would always say
rejection is redirection. Rejection is God's protection. And, um, that
kind of carried me through and like soothe my soul

(01:27):
so I can keep going. And I, you know, I
just felt called to write a song called redirected, you know,
for anybody that's experiencing something.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
Like that in life. It just like, I just, it
just kept coming to me and I kept.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
Saying it and I was like, you know what? I
think I want this next chapter of music to, especially
my album. Like, I think I want to call it redirected.
And then, so I wrote the song redirected with Stacey
Kelleher and it's kind of just been my mantra for
the past couple of years, past like 10 years of
my life.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
That's a great mantra and very relatable. A lot of
people I'm sure it'll connect with. And you mentioned a
possible album. Is that what we're looking for? More singles
and eventually an album?

Speaker 3 (02:08):
Yeah, we're definitely working towards that right now. I have
like Almost 13 songs that are complete. And I think
by next year we'll release a full album. I'll have
another single in the next couple of weeks. Nice.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
All right.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Then we'll talk again then.

Speaker 3 (02:21):
All right.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Has living in Nashville influenced your career as far as
the music scene? You're getting a little more country western?

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Actually, yes.

Speaker 3 (02:32):
I mean, I've always been so drawn to country music
and it's so sad today.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
We just, we lost Dolly Parton today.

Speaker 3 (02:37):
I know, legend. Yes, of course.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
I feel like everybody's a little heart, a lot heartbroken
right now. I know that I am. But I was
always drawn to those big country voices, especially.

Speaker 3 (02:51):
I mean, I was influenced by Celine Whitney and then Shania, Martina,
Leanne Rimes, Dolly Parton. So it's like, It's it's always
been a part of my life, but I.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Always did those like big power ballads and stuff.

Speaker 3 (03:05):
But when I moved out to Nashville, I loved going
to the writers rounds and the songwriting in Nashville is
just it's just a little different. It's so honest and
vulnerable and so storytelling. And you could strip every song
down and hear it. and just its natural raw beauty.
And so that's what really influenced me. I had gotten

(03:27):
a little discouraged for a little while and I hadn't
done a writing session or written any new music since,
you know, I had lived in LA.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
And then when I came out to Nashville, it totally
re-inspired me.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
And now I'm writing with some of the most incredible
writers and producers that.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Create such a safe space for me.

Speaker 3 (03:45):
And I feel like now my music is the most, like,
authentic it's ever been. Um, but yeah, it definitely has
a little bit of a, a Western country influence for sure.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Especially in the production. All right. And I like it.
I like it.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
And please forgive me for not leading with this, but
you're also expecting your first child, right?

Speaker 1 (04:03):
Yes. And she's, she's probably, she's very excited right now
because she keeps kicking me.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
Congratulations. I have that effect on women. They want to
kick me.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
I love their videos with your kids. Oh, thank you.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
I appreciate it. It gets so much fun. So you're
having a little girl, obviously. That's awesome.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
That's awesome.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
And even though you're pregnant, you're going to still be
performing live, right? As a matter of fact, with Andre
Bocelli this fall?

Speaker 1 (04:29):
Yes.

Speaker 3 (04:29):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
I go out on tour. I think it's next week.
It's September 7th. I leave. We do the Holly, we
do two days at the Hollywood bowl. We go to
red rocks.

Speaker 3 (04:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
We're all over.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Oh, those are great venues. Oh, that's going to be
one of the Hollywood bowl too. Do you have a
particular favorite song or a couple of favorite songs you
love to perform live?

Speaker 3 (04:49):
I mean, I always love performing. So I work with
David Foster as well. And he's always been such like
a huge supporter. And like, since I was a little girl,
I always dreamed of working with him. Um, but there's
a song that he re-imagined called All By Myself that
Eric Carman wrote. And then Celine Dion made huge like

(05:11):
it was just became huge.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
That's a tough song to sing what that i said
that's a tough song to sing well for me it
is not for you i'm sure oh.

Speaker 3 (05:18):
Gosh no no it's still tough for me but i've
been working on it since i was a kid i'm
like that was like the pinnacle for me i'm like
i need to hit that note and so i i
did it on american idol and then it became kind
of this thing um performed it on, on David's tour.
And I'll be performing that with Andrea, um, on, on
Andrea's tour. I have like a solo song and then

(05:38):
I do some of Andrea's duets, but I love those
big challenging songs, um, that scare.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
Me a little bit. And all by myself is definitely
one of those songs. You gotta, you gotta be locked in.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
You just mentioned American Idol.

Speaker 3 (05:52):
And I remember.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
Watching in, in your, uh, your elimination is probably one
of the most shocking moments in the show. in their history,
I remember the judges being like visibly upset and stuff.
Looking back, because it's one of those things that you're like,
it shouldn't happen really, right? But then you just don't
know how people, sometimes they think that, okay, they've got
enough votes or maybe they're kind of pulling for this

(06:14):
other person because, oh, I feel sorry for them, whatever
the case may be.

Speaker 3 (06:17):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (06:17):
But how did that end up sort of shaping you
as a person after that moment?

Speaker 1 (06:22):
You know, that was.

Speaker 3 (06:25):
First of all, that was like a total life changing
experience for me. But I had started auditioning for that
show when I was 16 years old. And I kept
getting rejected. Simon Cowell wasn't like a huge fan of mine.
And then they switched the judging panel to Jennifer Lopez,
Steven Tyler and Randy Jackson. And so it took me
five times before I actually made it. And in that moment,

(06:48):
I remember thinking, oh, my God, like my career, like
I finally got a taste of it.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
And now it's it's over.

Speaker 3 (06:55):
But it happened like in the opposite way where it
was like the best thing that could.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
Have happened to me. And, you know, I got signed
with Interscope. And then I went through a whole other journey.

Speaker 3 (07:06):
Roller coaster of life, but, um, it was, you know,
so many blessings, so many doors opened and, you know,
I was able to put out new music and, and
finally live out my dreams, but it really, really grew
me and strengthened me because I did not have thick
skin at all.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
And, um, you know, it made my dreams come.

Speaker 3 (07:25):
True and taught me so much about myself, but yeah,
it was, it was a great experience, but it came
with a lot of learning and a lot of growth.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
Yeah, no, that's awesome. And listen, I want everyone to
be sure to check out Pia's new single, Redirected. You
can get it wherever you stream music, and you can
keep up to date with everything going on by following
her on IG, at Pia Toscano. Pia, again, congratulations.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
Thank you so much, Mario. Okay, you got it. Hope
to see you soon, sweetie. Thanks for checking in. Bye.
On with Mario Lopez.