BY BETH VELLIQUETTE

bvelliquette@heraldsun.com; 918-1042

CARRBORO -- When Anoop Desai walked into a coffee shop recently, the other customers, immersed in books, conversations and their laptop computers, didn't blink, ogle, stare or swoon.

Even after one photographer, then another began shooting his picture, still no one paid much attention. A few glanced over in mild curiosity, then went back to their work.

Desai, 22, who grew up in Chapel Hill, graduated from East Chapel Hill High School and UNC, and placed sixth on "American Idol," likes it that way.

While on the show and the summer Idol tour, he gained thousands of fans, many of them women, some of whom might faint dead away if he walked into a coffee shop where they were sitting.

But after a summer of screaming fans waiting at every "Idol" tour stop, standing at the barricades, grabbing at him, hugging him, begging for autographs and photographs, Desai is relieved to be home, where he hopes to maintain some semblance of normalcy in his life.

It's great to have fans, obviously, Desai said, but there's also something delicious about being ignored.

That's why it seemed so strange last Friday when he attended the UNC basketball event "Late Night with Roy." Stuart Scott, a UNC grad and an announcer for SportsCenter on ESPN, introduced him during the event, and Desai stood up and waved, then sat back down to watch the players on the court.

After the event ended, Desai stopped to pose for a photograph with the UNC dance team, then turned to leave.

Yikes!

A whole crowd of people had gathered around him to try to take his picture and get his autograph.

"I always felt support from Chapel Hill but never that level of notoriety," he said. "That was a strange, a very strange, experience for me."

It's been a bit frightening at times, when fans have knocked on the door at his parents' home, called them late at night, pretended to be a family friend and asked for his phone number.

"That's really scary," he said, but added his mother isn't easily fooled.

Although he gained international fame on "American Idol," as far as he's concerned, Desai is just starting his musical career. He's rented an apartment in Los Angeles, and after he performs a concert Thursday night at the N.C. State Fair he'll be moving there permanently to begin working.

"This concert is almost like a farewell to the Triangle," he said. "It's fun for me. I sort of need this for a final hurrah and for my friends."

Desai has enlisted some of those friends to accompany him during the concert, including Pablo Vega as the music director and piano player; David Mikush, a singer/songwriter who plays guitar and lives in Atlanta; Brandon Jackson-Baird, a medical student at Duke who plays synthesizer, Jack Hitchens, a graduate student at UNC who plays drums, and Nick Alwon-Mount, who plays bass and attended Chapel Hill High School.

Vega, Mikush and Jackson-Baird sang with Desai as members of the Clef Hangers when they were students at UNC.

The first chance they'll have to rehearse together will be today when Mikush gets to town.

"The great thing is I trust all those guys," Desai said. "I trust them all. I trust myself. So it will be fine.'

Desai plans to perform 14 or 15 songs.

"The songs that I am singing is stuff that I'm comfortable with and the songs that I love," he said. "It's going to be a good chance to show people what I want to do and give back to the people that supported me."

"One that I'm going to do, and this is one that's not really like the rest of the set, is, 'For All We Know,' by Donny Hathaway," Desai said. "It's my favorite song in the whole world. It has power to it. It's just going to be me and Pablo playing the piano."

He'll also perform some of the songs he performed on "American Idol," including "Caught Up," "Always on My Mind," "True Colors," and "Everything I Do."

Once the concert is over, he'll be packing up to head to L.A. for good. It's important to be there, make contacts, meet people and work on songs, he said.

"Now that I'm out of the spotlight, I still have to do stuff," he said. "It's not just going to be handed to you."

Although he's learned a lot since he tried out for "Idol" last year, Desai said it is sometimes difficult finding his way in the music world.

"I wake up daily thinking, what do I do next?" he said. "You make a list, and you do it."

Desai knows he's just going to be one of thousands trying to make it in the L.A. music scene.

"That's one of the reasons I don't mind being in L.A. It's almost refreshing," he said. "You can go and feel like you have something you still have to prove."

"That's what motivates me."