“I THINK OF IT as almost like spinning plates. You want everyone to be interested, so I’m constantly looking in the audience and seeing who’s looking at me and who’s not. If I see someone teetering or checking their cell phone, I will look at them in the eye a little bit harder until they notice me and try to make them laugh. That’s what showbiz is all about, just giving your all for a show,” says Casey Abrams with a chuckle. “And if that doesn’t work, I’ll try making really funny noises. I’ll do a dance. I’ll go into the audience. I have a couple tricks up my sleeve.”
The American Idol star, also known as Casey Bassy, will visit Carmel for Indianapolis Monthly’s intimate dinner series event, Afterglow, at Feinstein’s at Hotel Carmichael on October 21. Abrams is renowned for putting on an exciting and engaging live show. Connecting with people is what he does best—it’s at the core of his calling as an artist.
The singer and upright bass player—who describes his music as “a little something called jazz rock”—is a prolific performer and collaborator, filling his Instagram and YouTube pages with videos of shows, duets, covers, and more that serve as a sample of the fun, lively energy he exudes; he’s the type of guy for whom music, friendship, and good vibes are compulsive.
After growing up in Cook County, Illinois (where he was first introduced to jazz and learned to play the “Song of Jigglypuff” on the piano), and Idyllwild, California, Abrams made it to the finale of American Idol Season 10, where he performed “Fat Bottomed Girls” with his personal hero, Jack Black, and became the season’s fifth runner-up. His tenure on the show put him on the path toward a career that has seen him perform almost nonstop, release a slew of studio and streaming albums, and join the musical collective Postmodern Jukebox, with whom he releases jazzy covers of a range of pop songs, from Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ “Thrift Shop,” to Radiohead’s “Creep,” to “Hey Ya!” by Outkast.
In contrast to his buoyant personality, Abrams’ most recent original track, “Sober,” commemorates a more solemn time in his life, when he underwent a series of surgeries for ulcerative colitis that left him bedridden for a period.
“I had to turn down a lot of gigs,” he says, “I was going to go on tour with Postmodern Jukebox, and I had to cancel because I was just stuck in the hospital. … It was painful, but it was mostly just sad because I felt lonely because all my gigs were going away. Not only was it my job, but it was the thing that I loved. It was really hard. So I’m very grateful for all the music that I have going on today.”
For Abrams, the best part of songwriting and getting on stage is sharing it with others. “Sober” invites his fans into the loneliness of that time in his life, opening the difficult experience up not only to understanding but also to the power of relationships and the bonds that tie us together. This is what’s behind his frequent collaborations and engrossing onstage presence.
“I’ve written songs by myself, and I really like those songs. They come straight from the heart, but I think there’s something about connecting with someone else who has that same experience,” he says.
Those connections are significant, whether Abrams is being silly while getting an audience member to look up from their phone or taking the music to a more serious place. “You know, it’s like, ‘Hey, have you ever been in love? Hey, have you ever eaten a banana?’ …. To get more people and the whole world involved … it’s really special.”
Abrams will be back in town on December 12 with Dave Koz (“The cooler version of Kenny G.,” Abrams says), Postmodern Jukebox, Haley Reinhart, and more at the Payne & Mencias Palladium.
