Christiana Danielle and Jackie Verna – The Voice

By starrymag | May 13, 2018

By: Jamie Steinberg

 

 

Q)  I was hoping you could talk a little bit about what you see in vision for yourself as a musician going forward, what’s next for you and if you plan to release new music?  And if we can start off with Christiana please.

 

Christiana Danielle:    I am planning on just continuing to do music, continuing to do shows and stuff.  This is all very, very new to me, performing was very new to me.  And so I kind of jumped the gun.  I did the show before I did any small gigs or anything like that.  And so I’m definitely going to do my own music.  I definitely have a passion for music and like I said, I hear things differently, so I want to get my music out there, but I want to continue to keep my feet wet.

 

Jackie Verna:    Yes, I’m kind of in the same boat as Christiana.  I was very, very new to performing before coming to the show.  I was only doing, you know, small open mics really and just kind of singing in my bedroom.  So there was not much exposure for me before this. So I’m really just looking forward to getting started when I get home and making music and writing more and getting myself out there for more gigs and just performing and really just giving myself more exposure.  So I’m really excited to get started right away.

 

 

Q)  This question is also for both of you.  Did it feel like being set by your respective coaches during the playoffs?  And Jackie, you can go first.

 

Jackie Verna:    Yes.  For me it was a very humbling experience to have Adam choose me to move on to the live shows, because I was up against so many talented artists and I love each and every one of them.  So for him to believe in me, you know, from the very beginning he chose me in the blind and was the only one who chose me and to be the only one that choose me to go to the Top 12, it was very, very exciting.

 

Q) And Christiana?

 

Christiana Danielle:    And I would have to – yes, I will definitely agree with Jackie.  It was so amazing, so humbling, I loved every single one of my teammates on Team Alicia and literally it could have been anyone.  And so I feel very proud that Alicia, she believed in me enough to choose me to take to the Top 12.

 

Q) Yes and again for both of you.  Now you both said you hope to release music, you hope to record music.  Have you done much writing on your own?  Do you have many originals ready to record?  And what can a fan sort of expect musically from you and again if we can start with Christiana first?

 

Christiana Danielle: I wouldn’t say I’m a songwriter.  I have songs down, but I would like to produce the best quality music out there.  And so I’m definitely going to take my time with this. But for my sound, I feel like my listeners will definitely hear something eclectic, but definitely with a soul influence. I feel like even throughout the show I’ve done multiple different types of songs, but the common factor, well it’s just my spin on it.  And so I’m definitely going to be in the soul jazz inspired, but it will really be kind of a hybrid effect.

 

Q)  And for you Jackie?

 

Jackie Verna:    Yes.  For me you know, I write a little bit, but I’m not quite ready to really release anything that I have.  I definitely want to keep writing and keep collaborating with other song writers and things like that before I really put out anything of my own. And to hear my sound, you know, I definitely would love to produce country music and I have a little bit of a pop soul effect on it and so I think my listeners will definitely expect something like that from me in the future.  And, you know, when that will be, hopefully soon, but I definitely agree with Christiana and want to take my time to get it right, before I really put this thing out.

 

Q) Yes, the question is for both of you and earlier you said that there was a learning curve as far as performing was concerned.  And I was wondering if each of you can talk about what that learning curve was like during the course of your experience on the voice.  And again Jackie, you can go first.

 

Jackie Verna:       Yes.  Before this competition I was never much of a performer.  So like I said I did kind of just open my extra things, I haven’t had much experience in it and getting to this competition where, you know, you’re not only expected to sing, but you’re expected to put on a performance.  It felt like a lot of pressure in the beginning because I wasn’t sure what I was doing. And I luckily had Adam as my coach who is an amazing performer and who really showed me the ropes and taught me what I need to do.  And honestly he was like, the biggest thing you need to do is just connect.  And for me I felt I’ve grown every single week in connection with the audience and just with myself and then the songs that I’m singing.  So really I’m so proud of the growth that I’ve made throughout this entire competition.

 

Q)  Christiana?

 

Christiana Danielle:    Yes.  And yes, I definitely agree.  I had to really grow in the comfort that I felt being on stage and I’m being very transparent when it comes to singing.  Singing was always something very personal to me, that’s why I really never shared much of it.  And what I learned about being on stage – because the voice is personally a huge stage, we have a huge set and you really have to work and you really have to draw the audience into this so much more to us understanding their thinking.  So I have some wonderful takeaways.  But I still want to do more.

 

 

Q) Yes, for both of you again.  I was wondering if each of you could tell us what’s your favorite performance of your own was on the show and why that was your favorite performance?  And Christiana, if we can start with you.

 

Christiana Danielle:    Yes.  Definitely Monday night performance, you know, Sunshine, that was completely me up there, I felt very free, I felt very confident and it was a great feeling and I accepted myself up there on stage before I looked for anybody else’s approval.  And I think I’m very proud of that.

 

Q)  And Jackie?

 

Jackie Verna:     Yes.  For me, I would say “Strawberry Wine” was my favorite and really because that was the first week that I came into my own as an artist and the sounds that I wanted to be. So that was the time that I really found myself, because I feel like my fans were also very intuitive with me and that song, doing that, it just made me realize where I want to be sound wise. I don’t want to be really a crazy belter or anything like that and I was always wondering where I fell with my range and what I should do with it.  And I’ve really found the sweet spot in my sound where I want to stay.  So that was a very, very important and eye opening week for me.

 

Q) Jackie, could you talk a little bit about the relationship with Adam.  First of all, how did you feel when Adam handed you a pop song right out of the gate in the final instead of a country song and did you see that as a challenge?

 

Jackie Verna:    Yes.  You know what, well my relationship with Adam is really special. He is someone who really has your back and is really looking out for you and what’s best for you and just – you know, he is not caught up in the glitz and glam of things and really just wants to focus on my voice.   And he is the one who really helped me find where I want to be sound wise. He was just so encouraging and he really, really, really built my confidence in myself as a performer and as a singer and just as a person overall and I’ll always be thankful to him for that.  And this act that he gave me, I’m with you for the top 12.  It was actually a song that I listened to a lot when I was younger I loved Avril Lavigne.  So I wasn’t very disappointed at all with the songs right now.  It was a pop song, but we did want to add a little bit of things to it and I think I added my own choices. I was really, really, really proud of that performance and definitely excited to do it.  So I was really happy that he chose that for me and it’s a collaboration. So if I really didn’t want to do it, I could have said no.  But he came to me with good suggestions and I think it worked out in my favor.

 

Q)  And also I was wondering if you were surprised to land in the bottom two this week, how you felt about that?

 

Jackie Verna:  I wouldn’t necessarily be surprised.  I think that all of us kind of prepared for that moment, because everybody is so great in this competition.  There is not one person left here or that’s been here, you know, over the course of this season that is not a phenomenal vocalist performer. So I wouldn’t say I’m surprised that I was there.  It was more so that I was just prepared to be there every week and we all feel like that. And, the fact that, you know, I was one of the people who ended up going home, is better sweet.  I’ll give you that.  You’re sad, because you want to stay, but at the same time I’ve gained so much from this entire experience and grown both as a person and an artist. So just being able to move forward with everything I’ve learned from Mitchell, from Adam, from my fellow contestants, I’m just humbled to even have had the experience.  So I’m very excited to move forward and get started on some new things.

 

MJ Santilli:            Yes.  And how did you arrive at your decision to sing?  You know, how did you choose your save me song?

 

Jackie Verna:   That is actually a song “I Told You So” by Randy Travis.  I sung the Carrie Underwood version, but that song to me, I’ve always just adored and loved it and it’s just a very emotional song.  And I’m a storyteller first and the story in that song, I think it’s so beautiful and one that I’m glad that I got to tell.  So yes, it was a very emotional song.

 

 

Q) Christiana, how did you feel about your chances going into the results showed Tuesday night and were you surprised to be in the bottom two?  And how did you choose your save me song and how did you think that went for you?

 

Christiana Danielle:    Yes.  I wouldn’t say surprised after like every week.  But last week I knew for a fact that I was going to be in the bottom.  But this week, you know, everybody is so good and things get really close and get down to the votes and iTunes isn’t always as reflective as you think it is.  And so we just come ready and prepared.  And I think I’m trying my heart and I don’t know if you guys have been following.  But the story is my senior year of high school I had throat surgery and I thought I wasn’t going to be able to sing again.  And I was in jazz choir my senior year and when I got my voice back that was the song that I got to lead that song solo.  So that was very significant to me and I feel like that moment on stage came full circle and I felt very assured and affirmed that this is where I was supposed to be and this is what I was supposed to be doing.  And so I felt very confident and I had a lot of fun out there honestly.  I feel like I have more fun, but I don’t know, I had a lot of fun up there.  So yes, those are moments for me up there.

 

Q) Christiana, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about your collaboration with Alicia.  I mean you two seem to have a pretty close relationship.  I mean she had a lot of lease in you with an artist.  And I was wondering that you had those really unique arrangements to your songs and I was wondering how you – how much help Alicia gave you?  How you collaborated on those to come up with those arrangements?

 

Christiana Danielle:    Yes.  For the songs Alicia is a phenomenal producer and I pretty much come up with a vocal roadmap, and I don’t know a lot of instruments.  So I’m like hey Alicia, what’s that instrument in Etta James record that goes (musical sounds) and then feel like oh okay, you want to sing, or you want this, you want that.  So she really helped kind of paint. So I feel like vocally I have like a sketch down and then metaphorically speaking she’ll come in with the colors and that’s the music. And so I feel like together we come up with this beautiful piece that I’m very proud of and she gets all of my instincts, all of the things that I hear in my head that I can’t necessarily articulate, because I don’t know how to tell the band.  She understands it.  So the vocal roadmap, I pretty much have them, but she also really empowered me to go there. So she’ll sing a note it’s not necessarily the note that I’ll choose, but it will spark a note there – from there, you take it another place. And so I love working with her. It’s the best and it’s so easy and I just feel so understood when I’m working with her and I can’t wait to work with her in the future.

 

Q)   Yes.  Well, has she said anything about the two of you working together?

 

Christiana Danielle:    Yes.  We did talk we are going to exchange information and I’m honestly just lucky for any kind of advice that she’ll be willing to hand me for after the show.

 

Q)  Yes.  I guess you two seemed particularly close.  How did it make you feel the way she was constantly calling you an artist and really just boosting your confidence?

 

Christiana Danielle:    Oh yes that’s exactly what it did and it really affirmed me in what I was doing and I felt so privileged and so blessed, because I know that she appreciates the type of music that I appreciate and so compliments, you know, are wonderful for anybody to give them to you. But for somebody to know exactly where you’re coming from and know exactly what you’re trying to do and to acknowledge that, I think it makes all the more different.  And so the fact that she appreciates exactly what I appreciate and she can see what I’m trying to do and she can mean that.  It blows my mind.  I can’t wait to look back on those episodes.  And hear them again when I’m feeling down some time.

 

Q)  And this is for both of you again.  I was hoping you could look back at the voice experience and tell me what you think is going to be the biggest benefit you’ve gained from that musically moving forward?  And if we can talk start off with Christiana again.

 

Christiana Danielle:    I will say it’s a tie between the experience that I have with my coach and the people that I’ve met.  These are connections that I hope that will last for a lifetime for me and so I think this is going to be the gift that keeps on giving.

 

Q) Okay, thank you and then Jackie?

 

Jackie Verna:    Okay.  Yes, the biggest thing musically that I’ve learned is really just – I will say it’s more so vocally I’ve learned where I want to be in my range and because going in I knew I had a little bit of a bigger range that I could do things with, but I never felt like I had to because I can do it.  So now I really found who I want to be and the sound that I want to have and it’s really more that I want to tell stories.  So I don’t necessarily want to use the upper end of my voice that much.  And I think that’s kind of the biggest thing musically that I’ve learned being here on the shelf.

 

 

*CONFERENCE CALL*