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Cassadee Pope Says She’s Moving Away From the Country Music Space

Cassadee Pope’s newest collaboration with Levi Hummon gave her the opportunity to branch away from the country music genre and get back to her roots.

The singer, who originally broke into the scene with the band Hey Monday, has been exploring the industry for some time. This year, she formed a partnership with Hummon—who is also a country singer. And in October, the duo will release a single titled RSVP. The project brought Pope a step closer to her true musical passions. And it gave Hummon a chance to try something completely new.

“I’m moving away from the country space and going more into pop rock where I came from initially,” she shared with PEOPLE. “I’m glad that [RSVP] kind of straddles those lines. It’s a great kind of bridge for me between what I did before and where I’m headed with my next solo project.”

Hummon penned the single’s first draft, and he had been sitting on it for some time. He explained that it didn’t fit into any particular genre mold before Pope added her touches.

“It wasn’t really a country song, it wasn’t really a pop song. It wasn’t really anything but just kind of a story of being alone after the party and wishing that the one person you wanted there was there,” he shared.

The Guts and Glory singer explained that the song gives Pope the “Ross and Rachel” from Friends vibe. So she brought that chemistry into the tune.

“…where they both want to see each other, but it never comes into fruition,” he continued. “That’s what Cassadee really contributed to the song. I mean, she elevated the song to a whole other level.”

Levi Hummon Has Spent Years Dreaming of a Cassadee Pope Duet

For Hummon, the duet was a long-awaited dream come true. Though Cassadee Pope didn’t know, she gave him his first opportunity to perform outside of Nashville when he opened for her at a bar called Bogart’s in Cincinnati.

Because of that experience and his immense respect for her, he has been hoping for years to work with Pope. And even when she agreed to the collaboration, it wasn’t easy to make it happen.

“Even this [writing session] got moved three or four times,” Hummon laughed. “But this time, I was determined to make it work.”

The project proved to be a dream for Pope, as well. While she’s no stranger to collaborations, Hummon gave her more room than ever to leave mark on the single. So, she feels particularly proud of RSVP.

“I love everything I’ve collaborated on with anybody else before,” she noted. “Often, I come in after the song’s been written. And I try and add my spin to it. But this is really the first collaboration that I got to really creatively contribute to and be another writer in the room for.”