Taylor Phelan – The Voice

Q) How would you describe your sound?

A) On the show, I was labeled an indie-rock guy and I think that was pretty accurate. I would say my old band, The Canes, were as typical as an indie-rock band can get. The genre of indie-rock is kind of ambiguous and I actually appreciate that ambiguity a bit because it allows so much room. I feel like I have a lot of influences and it gives me a lot of room to lean on all of those influences.

Q) Who are some of your musical influences?

A) There is a really wide list of influences. Without having to explain too many of them, my favorite band and the band I primarily use as an influence is The Killers. I think Bob Dylan has had a huge influence on me from a lyrical sense. I always kind of reference him when I am writing lyrics or someone asks who I am directly influenced by. I like how he likes to abstractly tell stories, which is a really interesting way of writing to me. Coldplay and U2 are also musical influences of mine.

Q) When did you realize you had a talent for singing?

A) Music is something that I have always been around. I have a pretty musical family. It’s something that I have just always being aware of. I don’t remember a time in my life not thinking about music. It was always just there, but I didn’t really start my musical journey until I was like sixteen years old or something around there. I kind of discovered that I could sing a little bit by accident. It wasn’t until I was a teenager that I figured out that I had some sort of knack for music.

Q) What made you try out for “The Voice?”

A) After my band broke up, I had a daughter. And after we couldn’t really do it anymore, I was pretty discouraged. I think I probably made doing music a little more difficult for myself. My wife encouraged me and tried to get me back into playing. Maybe I was making excused about not doing it. Over the course of a year and a half, she was trying to motivate me to get back to writing. I think she was running out of options of ways to encourage me to get me back in it. Ever since the beginning of these singing competitions, if you could sing remotely well all your friends and family say you should audition for it. So, it’s always been there. People have always said, “You should go audition for ‘American Idol.'” or “You should go audition for this or that.” But I think that this was Nikki’s last effort really get me back into playing music. She convinced me to make an audition video. She said, “We don’t even have to leave the house. We can just do it in the living room and send it in. If someone responds, then they respond. If no one responds, then it’s okay because we didn’t put that much effort into it.” So, she kind of talked me into it and then it went as far as it did!

Q) You originally chose Pharrell [Williams] as your coach. What made you want him as your mentor?

A) I kept telling myself before my blind audition….I wanted to make sure that I went out there and I wanted them to view me as a peer in this whole thing. With Pharrell, it just felt like the right decision at the right time. He is a producer and, obviously, the most notable producer on the panel. I just think that at the time I felt like he would have the most to offer from the role as a producer. And there were some references made to Ryan Tedder in my blind audition. I just know the story behind Ryan a little bit. I know Timbaland mentored him and he was a ghost writer for him for a while. When that comparison was made and Pharrell started explaining why he thought that was an accurate comparison, I just had that story in my mind. I kind of thought that Pharrell and I could sort of have that same relationship where he could be my Timbaland.

Q) We saw you eventually stolen by Adam [Levine]. What was going through your mind when he chose you?

A) I kind of felt like that was a big possibility. He had wanted me and had been fighting for me pretty hard every other round. In the Knockouts, I wanted to make sure that I got all my risky songs and variety up front while I had the security blanket of steals. I knew that going into Knockouts that I was doing a risky, kind of polarizing song. So, I knew that not winning the round and being stolen was a real possibility. When all three of the coaches wanted to steal me, it was such a cool humbling moment. I think that Adam made the right decision at the right time and I think that Adam and I have the most in common. We are very similar from a musical standpoint and from a performing standpoint we are very similar. We are both band guys. I just thought it made the most sense to go with Adam.

Q) How did you choose the songs you performed?

A) Choosing the songs every round is a pretty collaborative process between you, the coaches and producers. It’s never really any one person’s decision. It is brainstorming and collaborating until everyone feels like you have the right song. I knew that I was in an indie-rock category so I wanted to stay true to that as much as I could while picking songs that were popular. If I had my way, I probably would have picked songs that no one knew. There is definitely some parameters that you have stay in. You have to pick a popular enough song that fans can relate to and are familiar with it. I wanted to pick songs though that were within my genre. I think that “Sweater Weather” went over well. I got a great response every round and the fans have been so supportive. It’s been awesome! Any time you have one majorly successful song or performance on a show like this or in the real music world people have a hard time disconnecting from that and hearing anything new or different that you do. It was interesting seeing people’s reactions because they wanted me to keep playing “Sweater Weather” over, but you can’t do that. I don’t really know how to describe the song selection process other than to say that it was a collaborative process. In the end, I was trying to bring it back around and at the end I would have brought it a little bit more back around to in the vein of “Sweater Weather.” I think “Break Even” was a little bit of a deviation and a little more pop and “Rather Be” was a little more 80’s dance pop. So, I was just kind of bringing it back to the indie rock realm.

Q) What songs were you then hoping to perform in the future on the s how?

A) On my dream list, I had “The Wire” by Haim. Any One Republic song would have been fun to do. I had a hard time considering One Republic songs because I think I would have performed it so closely it would have been hard to separate from the original just because we have a similar performance style. I wanted to do a Bon Iver song and I wanted to do “Chocolate” by The 1975. I would have hoped to get them, not that they were scheduled.

Q) What did you learn from your experiences on “The Voice?”

A) I learned so much! I don’t have a negative thing to say about the show or the process. Somebody has to go home at some point. For the Top 20, on my team, it just happened to be me. I learned so much. It was such an amazing experience. I have no vocal training so working with vocal coaches, choreographers and staging experts was such a cool learning experience. It changed my vocal game, for sure. It changed the way I approach my voice. It changed the way I approach the stage, as far as blocking is concerned. It was cool to see behind the scenes production. It was cool to see a production that large with people that are so encouraging, humble, insightful and friendly. The whole crew and staff on the production team are all so encouraging. They are not trying to make you look like a fool. They are trying to stay as accurate and true to you as possible. I think that I learned that not all of Hollywood is made up of a bunch of jerks just trying to make money. There are some good people in the industry as well. I learned a bunch about myself as an artist and a bunch about my abilities, really. I’m excited to take what I have learned and this new set of tools that I have and put them to use in the real music world.

Q) Who did you grow the closest with while you were on the show?

A) You do spend more time with the people that you don’t see on camera. You spend more time with the production assistants and the vocal coaches because there is more of them. Honestly, I probably grew closest to the crew and the PA’s and my vocal coach was awesome. From a TV standpoint, I was probably closest with Adam because we had an immediate connection and hit it off right away. Our personalities and our humor was in line so it was really easy to get along. I think that we would be friends outside of it. Contestant wise, my buddies were Matt McAndrew because we have a bromance that is pretty publicized. Chris [Jamison] is a good friend and Luke [Wade]. It’s interesting because as it gets weeded down, you get so close ot the other contestants that everybody is really good friends. My main circle were Luke, Matt, Chris and Damien [Lawson]. Ricky Manning, who also went out, was a really good buddy. It was definitely sad to have to leave them and a bittersweet thing. I was really excited for them to continue on, but I didn’t want to have to go.

Q) Where can fans go online to learn more about you?

A) I have just a landing page at http://www.taylorphelan.com and you can find all my social media links there. I’m on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and iTunes. You can search for me on iTunes and I have music from my old band up there. You can keep up with me and follow me as I go along. I’m working on new music and figuring out a new plan to take all of this stuff and move forward.

Q) You are a part of social media. Why is that such an important way for you to connect with your fans?

A) I think social media is huge and it is free. It is a free advertisement platform. It’s a great way to interact with a really large number of people. As we have seen, I recently hit 23,000 Twitter followers. There is really no other platform that I could use to interact with that many fans on a daily basis. It’s just a really great, efficient way to just kind of share your life with people.  My wife has a blog and that is one platform. We have Twitter and share little snippets. We’re big on Instagram. We get to share our life, our family and adventures with everybody. We just really enjoy social media and interacting with people through that platform.

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and your work?

A) First, I would like to say a huge thanks to everyone who has supported me. I really do have such a generous and cool fanbase. The term “fanbase” is always weird to me. I say “friends” a lot and if you look at my post I do say “friends.” I say that in real life. I refer to people as “friends.” I think all of these fans who have followed me, encouraged me and supported me I feel connected with them. I don’t feel like they are just fans. I feel like I have developed a friendship with my fans and I appreciate their friendship. I’m working on some new things and exploring some new opportunities I can’t quite talk about just yet, but I’m hoping they’ll pan out! Just look out for what I’m doing and as soon as I have some new stuff going on I will let you know. We’ll go from there!