On November 17, Kris Allen's debut CD will go on sale.

It will go up against other newly-released albums that week from artists such as John Mayer, Shakira, and Leona Lewis. A week later, it's time for Adam Lambert to kick off his post-American Idol career.

But if Allen is afraid of the competition, he isn't showing it. Here are a few excerpts from his recent interview with Entertainment Weekly:

On album collaborators: I worked with Kevin Rudolf the last couple days. Me and Joe King [from The Fray] are getting back together and working on some stuff we already had written, which will be really cool. And I’m working with his producer [Mike Flynn] on that song, as well as one other track.

On working with Chris Daughtry: Chris is great. He reached out to me early on, during the show, I think during top-4 week. He gave me his number and was telling me if I needed anything to just give him a call. He was a really, really nice guy, and he kind of knew what I was going through, and was just kind of rooting for me. And now we have the same manager, so that makes it easy.

On the recording process: The production element of things has been surprising to me. Before this, I’ve always thought: “This song has guitar, piano, and drums in it.” And you almost kind of have to put that element of production into things to make them pop out. So that’s been fun for me, to work with that stuff, to hear it and just love it. For the most part, yes, the album is very guitar-driven and very piano-driven, but you throw in a little sound or effect, and it [enhances everything].

Will you purchase Allen's album?