Creativity struck, DeGarmo says, after performing at Pride events in New York a number of years ago and feeling surrounded by the artistic energy that she’d needed to get into album mode. She reached out to her friend in the city, composer and lyricist Dylan Glatthorn, about working together on her new album, which had become a family affair: DeGarmo asked her husband—fellow Idol alum Ace Young—to produce the project himself. “I wanted to do something that was inspired by the music I love,” she says, pointing to country icons like Dolly Parton and Reba McEntire as a few of the influences on GEMINI. She knew that a big backing band with real instruments was crucial to creating the sounds that she wanted, telling Glatthorn “I want to combine all these things because these are the people and the world that I’ve grown up loving and been so inspired by.”