It’s a topic that doesn’t come up much these days, but Crystal Lake native David Radford always will be known as one of “American Idol’s” Top 20 finalists.

As the Fox television show wraps its 15-year run Thursday, Radford is more focused on the Friday release of his sophomore album with The Gray Havens, the critically acclaimed duo he formed with his wife, Licia Radford.

Recorded in Nashville, Tennessee, the album, “Ghost of a King,” features nine of the couple’s most personal songs “with flares of pop and pop/folk,” said Radford, who recently has moved to Nashville with Licia and the couple’s 9-month-old son, Simon.

With a singer/songwriter feel, the album reflects the style of Radford’s favorite storyteller singers, such as Simon and Garfunkel and James Taylor, moreso than the influences of the big band singers, such as Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, he emulated on “American Idol” as “the crooner.”

Only 17 years old at the time, Radford earned a finalist spot in 2006 in the fifth season of the show, auditioning in Chicago – at the urging of a friend who didn’t want to audition alone – with his rendition of “Summer Wind” by Frank Sinatra.

“That’s almost entirely evaporated from conversations, which is fine totally with me,” he said of his “American Idol” days. “I did keep in contact with [‘American Idol’] people via Facebook and things like that and Twitter, but not regular interaction, not frequent, not anything consistent.”

And no, he hasn’t regularly watched the show, including this season’s final run.

“It’s so funny, every time I get asked [about ‘American Idol’], the memories are foggier and foggier,” he said. “I think, on the whole, it was a great experience to be a part of. It opened my eyes to some of the backstage or behind-the-scenes inner workings of the entertainment industry, some good things and some not good things.

“I don’t mean this negatively, but in a good way, it sort of disenchanted me with fame a bit, and it’s so funny because now I’m in a band and obviously we’d like to spread out and not just sing for our families, so there’s a degree of self-promotion that needs to take place, but big fame was certainly exposed a bit as a bit empty.”

After “American Idol,” Radford earned a degree in music education from the University of Illinois School of Music and returned to Crystal Lake, where he taught private voice lessons. He also helped form the dueling piano act Felix and Fingers with Mike Potts, also of Crystal Lake, but left the act in August “on great terms” to focus solely on The Gray Havens.

“It was more this was my passion, kind of chasing the dream of performing and writing original music,” he said.

Since its beginning in 2013, The Gray Havens has developed a following, releasing an EP and, in 2015, the duo’s first full-length album, “Fire and Stone.”

“I think some of the production on this [latest] record is a bit of a departure in some sense from our last two projects,” Radford said of “Ghost of a King.” “We took a lot of chances musically on this record. It feels in a lot of ways very new and fresh and different, but at the same time cohesive and still like us. It felt like a natural step forward.”

The duo goes on tour this month, with performances scheduled throughout the country, including Chicago. The two perform acoustically, each playing various instruments “to incorporate all these parts to create an invisible third person in the room,” Radford said.

They share a base love of musical theater.

“That’s where we both fell in love with music,” Radford said. “[Licia] has a rich kind of background and listened to that music growing up. Her voice, in a lot of ways, is old-school. … She’s got a classic sound, and I love that. She brings that warmth in her voice, just a classic style to the harmonies.”

The two have written songs together, but much of their collaboration involves Radford alone in a room with a guitar and a notebook, coming out 30 minutes later for Licia to give a thumbs up or down to what he’s created.

Radford said the new album reflects various longings, such as the desire to do something important, love well, spend time with friends and family and not get caught up chasing money.

“We’re just excited to be on the brink of things,” he said.