Jeremy Bradley- So joining me on the line right now is Trenyce. How are you today?

Trenyce- Hi, I'm great. How are you?

JB- Good. Thanks. We were just talking before hitting the airwaves that you just literally bolted out of the studio to join us on the line today.

T- Yes, it was hilarious. I was about to lay down a chorus that me and my writing partner and I just made up, and I was, like, "Oh, my God! It's one o'clock." He was like, "Well, go." So I just literally ran down the street to my car.

JB- Well, we appreciate you calling in. She's still huffing and puffing in case you can't…

T- I am still trying to catch my breath. I think that's hilarious.

JB- Well, we're going to talk about everything today, and you know, of course, we'll start with music. Music is the main reason that we're talking to you. You said you started singing at an early age. You were performing in pageants when you were young. When did you fall in love with music?

T- I think I fell in love with music at birth. You know, according to my parents I was probably singing in the womb already. My mother and father met in a singing group. My mom was really afraid of the industry at the time. She was really religious and then when I was born we would always clean up around the house, but to make it fun we would sing like old Motown songs, Stevie Wonder songs, the Temptations, and things like that. We actually had an entire room that we called the music room, and nothing was in there. The acoustics were great, and I would go in there with a little play microphone stand and sing all afternoon with my father. It was probably like the highlight of my life. So that's how I got started, so it's always been a part of me.

JB- You were headed down another career path were you not?

T- I was. I was going to take nursing. I think everyone in my family is a nurse. My aunt. . . My uncle's a hematologist. Everyone's pretty much in the medical field, and so my mom of course, understanding the (music) industry, just didn't want me to be hurt, and she didn't want me to be rejected time and time again. So she said, "Maybe you should pick a career path that will allow you to make the type of money you want to make and just forget about music, forget about entertainment. Just do it for fun." But it just wasn't in me.

I was literally sitting in my microbiology class about to take my finals and doing clinicals for nursing and said, "This isn't really what I want to do. I want to help people in another way, and that's through my voice," and so I called my mom and I said, "Mom, I'm not taking the test." And she said, "What?!" She was upset and she said, "Well, here's the thing. I'm going to give you a year, and if you are successful at it in that year then great. But if not, then you're going back to school." And I said, "OK. That works." Then American Idol happened.

JB- How old were you at that time?

T- I was 22.

JB- So Idol happened. You camped out quite a long time to audition for the show. How long were you waiting?

T- Oh, my God. Let's see. I stayed in line for three days in Nashville on a rooftop. It was freezing cold. I remember it being like 30 degrees or below. And I didn't know that it was going to take that long. I thought that you stood in line, they call your number, you go and you sing a little something and they let you know, "Yeah, you made it. No, you didn't." Well, I didn't know it was going to be a three-day event, so my best friend, she went with me and we ended up having to take off two more days from work, and we stayed there in Nashville overnight. Slept in the car.

JB- Now in that time of the waiting, we see a lot of times on television people sit there. They have their headphones on. They're practising. They're picking their songs. Did you know going into the audition what you were going to sing? Like what was that thought process?

T- I did. I picked a song that was kind of my signature song, which was I Will Always Love You, but due to the weather conditions I ended up being hoarse, because I wasn't one of those people that was singing the entire night. There were some people that would sing all day, all night long. I was, like, "I'm not doing that." I was just going to pick my song, pick a key that was comfortable for me, and just let that be it. But because it was raining - it was freezing outside - it did get to my vocals. So I decided to switch the song. It was still a Whitney Houston song, being I Learn From The Best, but because it was a little bit lower I could sing it regardless of whether or not I was hoarse. I was a little nervous about switching my song, because this isn't as [well] known as I Will Always Love You, so I started worrying about that. But they did. They saw the potential. They could tell that I was a little hoarse, but I sang through it and I think that they were impressed with that.