“[In the last two years], I went through a breakup [and] I got into a new relationship, so the songs kind of just wrote themselves,” the 24-year-old Orange County native exclusively told Us Weekly. “I wrote about 15 for the project and then I just narrowed it down to six.”

The music video for “Dreaming,” the first single off the EP of the same name, doubled as confirmation that he and 26-year-old Randolph, who appeared on season 23 of The Bachelor, were officially dating. The twosome kept their romance, which began in August 2020, for nearly a year.

“For a while, we wanted to keep things pretty low-key just with, you know, life and everything that was going on at the time. We wanted to just kind of stay under the radar and enjoy time alone with each other,” he explained. “And then the music video, we always joked around about, like, ‘When am I going to be in a video?’ And then I was always asking her, like, ‘Do you would you want to do one?’ The song is really special to both of us, so it kind of just made sense to do it. Filming [the video] was really fun. We were both kind of nervous and we filmed for about two or three days all up and down the coast of Orange County. And we had the best time filming, it was so much fun.”

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He added that Randolph “made it really easy to write all the love songs,” explaining, “They kind of just happened, which usually I have a harder time writing love songs. But for this project, I didn’t want to show her the songs right away. So I went to a studio, got them to the point where I was like, ‘OK, this is it.’ And then showed her and I was like, ‘Here you go. Listen, I’ll be back in like 20 minutes.’ … She loved it.”

Brighton noted he met Randolph five or six years ago and the twosome stuck up a friendship. She left to film The Bachelor season 23 during the fall of 2018. (The show aired in 2019.)

“She kind of disappeared for a few months when they were filming. And everyone was like, ‘Where did Cassie go?’ Because they don’t have phones,” he told Us. “And then when I found out — I had never watched The Bachelor before — I was like, ‘I gotta do my due diligence as a friend here and watch at least one episode.’ So I watched one or two.”

When asked whether he would be down to film a reality show with Randolph in the future, Brighton told Us, “There’s been some talks about some things. It’s just [figuring out] what kind of road we want to go down. And if it’s down the dating show type-thing, or a whole new lane, we’re trying to figure it out.”

While four of the six tracks are clearly love songs for Randolph, two of the songs were inspired by an unnamed ex who was unfaithful.

“I found out through Daily Mail on Snapchat. I never really go on Snapchat anymore,” he explained. “[One day], I woke up saw somebody was somebody else and it was a big shock, but I got two of my favorite songs out of it so whatever.”

Overall, Brighton describes the EP as “blend of pop, rock and electronic.” For more, watch the video above.

This story originally appeared on: US Magazine - Author:Sarah Hearon