Paige Miles was the next contestant to be eliminated from “American Idol” and the second finalist to be cut from the Top 12. The 24-year-old from Houston, TX, shared her thoughts in a recent conference call. Excerpts are below.

Q: A lot of people felt that Miley Cyrus was too young to be a mentor.  How did you feel she did?

Miles: I felt Miley did a great job, actually.  She has tons of experience in the business as far as touring, making albums, doing things that a lot of us in the competition are trying to do, so you know in that aspect she was pretty good ... I’m 24, so I’m older than her, but talking with her, her age didn’t come across at all.  I was just speaking to her as someone else with experience, doing exactly what I would like to do, so she was great.

Q: What do you think is next for you?

Miles: To continue moving forward with my singing and wherever else it may lead me.  I love to perform, and this is obviously something I want to make a career out of, so definitely just continue to move forward and possibly to move out here to L.A.

Q: The judges were a little critical of you this week.  How much power over the voting audience do you believe the judges have?

Miles: The judges, obviously they have a certain amount of power over the voting public, but it also comes down to the performer delivering a good, solid performance.  Tuesday night definitely wasn’t my best, and they ripped me for it.  So, it really can go both ways because sometimes they’ll back up the person that the judges ripped apart if they feel that that person really delivered, but you never really know how America is going to vote.

Q: Paige, your voice sounds a lot worse today.  Kind of tell us the transition of when did this start and did it get worse at certain points, and are you able to (sing) with laryngitis still? 

Miles: Yes.  It was bad last night.  It wasn’t as bad as it is now of course.  I’ve been struggling with laryngitis for over three weeks now.  I have swollen vocal cords, and there’s a lot of inflammation and with us singing and rehearsing as much as we do, I had very little time for it to heal.  So, it would basically get a little bit better, then I would have to sing again, and it would get worse again. 

So it’s tough when you’re in a singing competition and you have no voice, so that was a bummer.  And, that affected my song choice at times because I would kind of stay away from what I would typically do like big … tunes like “Alright Now,” which I love and I am super comfortable at, and I would kind of shy away and try to do something smaller in efforts to not like overtax my cords or do something where I could possibly damage them.

Q: You chose a song, “Against All Odds” that has been done a lot in the past by Idols.  I was wondering if you realized how many times it’s been sung or if that had any effect on your decision to sing it?

Miles: Actually, I hadn’t realized how many times it had been done.  Actually, I was in rehearsals last week and was just trying to find a slower song that I wouldn’t have to stress vocally too much over because my vocal cords were pretty much trashed, and I didn’t want to do anything too up tempo and crazy.  I was just trying to really take care of my vocal cords if I were to keep going, but I probably should have just picked something I was super comfortable with, which is something like “Alright Now” and just gone for it.  But you live and you learn, and I was trying to make a decision for me and my health.

Q: What your plans are going forward as far as continuing your music career?

Miles: I would definitely like to continue pursuing music and to continue following my dreams and see what happens.  Idol is a big learning experience, and it’s a major platform and I’d just like to continue growing and learning as an artist and see where it takes me.

Q: Are there any artists who either inspire you or you kind of like would mold your career after or you would like to collaborate with, or anything like that?

Miles: I wouldn’t necessarily say mold my career after because I think what makes an artist great and individual is like how their career has kind of molded itself and formed its own shape, which makes them stand out, but I really admire  Christina Aguilera.  She’s an amazing woman, and she has an amazing voice, and she’s kind of followed her own drum, which I also really like.  She doesn’t throw out an album every year.  She takes her time, and she makes artwork out of her albums, and I really admire that about her, but yes, she’s great.  I mean if anybody who is out current right now, it would be her for sure.