“American Idol” Winner Lee DeWyze Revisits the Dark Places He Once Hid on New Single 'Devil in the Details' (Exclusive)

The musician tells PEOPLE that opening up creatively led him down some roads he wasn't even expecting

Lee DeWyze had to get the heck out of Los Angeles.

Granted, California has long been good for DeWyze, as it was there that he won American Idol in 2010, where he recorded a tapestry of albums and where he fell in love with and married his wife, Jonna Walsh.

But as good as the City of Angels has been to him, DeWyze says he knew deep down that his next album had to come from a completely different place with a completely different feel than ever before.

So he headed to Virginia.

"I knew I needed to do something different," DeWyze, 38, tells PEOPLE from his home in Los Angeles. "I've made my last few records here, so I went to Classic Recording Studios in Bristol [Virginia] with two songs, I rented one house, and wrote the rest of the record in two and a half months."

And it was here that DeWyze says he created his most vulnerable project to date. "I just let it fly," says DeWyze, whose songwriting talents have been on display in over 70 movies and television shows, including The Walking Dead. "I just wanted to write from a very honest, vulnerable, real place. And I did."

This vulnerable place shines through the sonic cracks of DeWyze’s new single “Devil in the Details,” which will soon live on his forthcoming folk album Gone for Days – hissixth major studio record.

"Sometimes, as a writer, there are just things you know you are not going to write about," the seasoned singer/songwriter explains of the creative beginnings of "Devil in the Details." "Sometimes, you just say to yourself, 'I'm going to leave that in the corner' or whatever. But over time, you end up facing the things that you try to avoid. You end up becoming friends with those things, and you find that rather than hiding from them, you sit at a table and have coffee with them."

DeWyze says that opening up creatively led him down some roads he wasn’t even expecting.

"I really allowed myself to dive into some of those things that I think a lot of people are afraid to talk about,” he says of the lyrical backbone of "Devil in the Details," a stunning song that also includes the talents of musicians such as Union Station’s Barry Bales and Tim Stafford. "The thing I like about this song is that it touches on the experience of what it feels like to not know all the answers."

Related: Carrie Underwood Returns to American Idol 20 Years Later — This Time as a Judge

This feeling of unknowing certainly extends to the intriguing music video for "Devil in the Details," premiering exclusively on PEOPLE. “I immediately brought it to [video director Sarah Wilson Thacker] because I think she has a very unique way of making even dark themes beautiful," DeWyze says. "It really was her creativity and her mind that visualized the concept for the video."

Coincidentally, the video had DeWyze returning to Los Angeles, where he and an enthusiastic creative team created an unforgettable story in a tiny little house filled with its share of mystery.

"Working on this video was the most emotionally provoking experience I've ever had, outside of making records and performing," says DeWyze, who served as producer on the music video. "I've never felt so connected to something that I was in. It was very me, from the color choices to these little bits of choreography to the set. [The music video] felt heavy, but we all walked away just so proud of it."

And no, DeWyze won’t say who he found under the sheet in the clip’s final scene.

"I really think it's special that everyone takes away what [this music video] means to them," says DeWyze, who will embark on a fall tour beginning on Oct. 6 in Georgia. "This song, this video, this life — there's these tough questions. We are all just searching for answers."

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Read the original article on People.