The Voice – Battle Rounds

By starrymag | October 22, 2015

Q) For Korin, I’m wondering feedback you’ve gotten since last night and how you would describe your own growth over these first couple of episodes that we’ve seen you on

Korin: Yes, I’ve had a lot of growth since the blinds up until the battles. And I was happy they chose that specific song- Gwen chose that song because it showed a lot of versatility to my voice that I was hoping I could show off more. And I always like a song that tells a story and conveys some sort of emotion, so that was good for me. And it was really also great to have a partner because I learned a lot through my partner, Chase Kerby, of how to bring emotion to a song and how to bring your own style to a song. And yes, I just drew a lot from blinds to battles in accordance to style. I just felt I could bring something different to the song because it was a lot softer than my blind audition song.

Q) Blind Joe, are you hearing more people talk about how talented you are?

Blind Joe: I don’t know necessarily that they talk more about how talented I am. It’s just kind of more of what I got from the blind auditions, which was that it’s a raw talent that I have going on. And I really, really appreciate hearing that. I think as far as growth, I was definitely more confident in the battle rounds than I was in the blind audition because I had – we had Blake working with us. That was really awesome. And then of course working with Blaine Mitchell was just such an extremely talented dude. And being able to feed off that solid energy that he has really helped me a lot. And it was just a great experience and we went into it thinking we both — no matter what happens — want to stay and we really poured our heart and soul into that performance. And I think it showed and I’m really happy with it.

Q )Riley, you entered a battle against a contestant who turned more chairs during the blind audition. I was wondering if you felt like an underdog and what strategy you tried to use to overcome that?

Riley: I definitely did feel like an underdog going against a four-chair turn, also going against a four-chair turn with the song that we had because I did go against Evan. And he’s so amazing and he’s been listening to Stevie Wonder for years. So it was a little intimidating. And I think mainly what I tried to do was just find things that I was really good at and just put them in the song like the runs and the belting notes. And I couldn’t perfect Stevie Wonder like Evan did, but I could perfect certain aspects of the song and I think that’s really what I just tried to do.

Q) Riley, what did you think your chances were of getting the save once the verdict was announced?

Riley: I wasn’t really sure. I think when I finished the battle I was pretty content with how I did and I accepted it. And I did kind of see it coming from the beginning. I don’t want to sound like I’m not confident, but I just had a feeling. So at the end of it, I wasn’t like shocked when Evan won and I wasn’t devastated because I was so happy for him. I don’t – I really didn’t think I was going to get stolen. I didn’t expect it, especially because it was such a late steal. I was walking down the stairs. I definitely was caught off guard by it.

Q) Blaine, did you feel like an underdog going into the battle and what sort of strategy you used to try to overcome that?

Blaine: Yes, from just working with Blake and Blind Joe, we set out to just have a good time with that song. I don’t’ know if either Joe or myself felt like underdogs, but he’s a super talented dude. We had times that we had to troubleshoot some things just because – I was like, hey Joe, look at the lyrics. And he’s like, I can’t look at the lyrics. And so just working through some stuff that I had never worked with somebody like that before was difficult. But at the same time, he’s such a cool dude and just fun to be around that we had a lot of laughs and we overcame a lot of stuff. I know that he overcomes a lot of challenges daily. I can’t imagine doing what he does, but he’s a talented dude. And so, me, I just had to go into it saying hey, this guy – he can’t see anything, so he probably has super hearing, superhuman hearing. So I’m just going to have to step up my game and see what I could do. And we – from the beginning we set out to make it a party and a big brawl like Adam Levine said. So we brought a lot of energy to the stage and I think we – mission accomplished. We’re happy with it so I’m happy with it.

Q) Chance, you had the pleasure of going up against Andi and Alex. How did you feel going into that and what strategy did you use?

Chance: For me, I turned one chair and they turned four. And they’re also two people. So at first when I first heard we were going against each other, I thought it’d be tough. But once I started working with them and got to know them, it just became fun the whole time. The harmonies we would do – it was just amazing. And their style of music really complemented mine as pretty much the same thing, and their voices complemented mine well and mine theirs. And they helped me work on some things. In the arrangement of our song, they’re actually a big part in the way we put that together. And for me, it wasn’t – I didn’t really look at it as a battle. It was kind of like a trio. We were singing together for the audience, for the coaches, and for everybody watching. And it was just a lot of fun.

Q) And you had to know it would be tough for Adam to cut those two loose. Did you feel like you had a decent chance?

Chance: I thought I did. They didn’t show, but Adam took a long time to decide and I think he really cared about both of us. And I think he was happy that Blake stole me and that Andi and Alex and myself were still on the show. And it just showed that they care about us and it meant a lot.

Q) Blind Joe, you’ve played a lot of venues across the country from Grand Rapids over to Fargo and all over the place. And now you’re with a band. Well, I’m not talking big band with horns and everything, but they could have. But you’re playing with that type of situation where you’ve got professional musicians backing you – best in the business. What’s that like for you?

Blind Joe: Man, it’s a thrill. I mean, and you’re absolutely right. These guys are the best in the business. Not only are they wonderful musicians, but they’re wonderful people and just awesome to hang out with and be around. They let me shoot ideas to them and take them into consideration when we do the arrangements and stuff. It’s really amazing. It makes you really feel like a superstar coming from a dude that just gets up on stage and plays guitar and sings songs to getting the big stage with a full-on band like that. It feels great. It’s an amazing feeling and to have all that music backing up my voice is phenomenal.

Q) Evan, how difficult it is when you’re going up in the battle rounds or now it’ll be the knockouts where you’re up against them, knowing all the time that your goal is to move forward? What’s that like for you to go against somebody that’s now your friend?

Evan: That’s what we have all talked about throughout the process is how this part of the process is competing against people that we really like and really have grown close to and spent all our time with and care about. And we all want to keep going and no one wants to keep going at the expense of someone else’s getting to keep going. So if you do leave or any time we’re not there, we’re missing building those relationships. So that’s absolutely the hardest part of this process is doing things like that. And specifically, battling Riley – she was one of the first people I met at our executive callbacks in March. So we have been friends for the whole process, really. So that was like – that’s why we worked so hard to make that performance one that was going to highlight both of our strengths and our differences. And we were going to have some times to show off a little bit and sometimes to sing together and show a lot of different versatilities because we wanted to do everything we could to set it up so that we both got to continue no matter what happened. And whoever won, that one of us was going to get stolen, that we both would get to keep going. So I think that says a lot about the relationships that we make on this show, that everybody wants everyone to keep having success and we all really care about each other very much.

Q) Blaine, Chance and Riley, I wanted to know if you knew when the coaches stole you if you knew it was their last steal for the battles?

Blaine: Yes, I honestly had no clue how many steals were left or that Adam had one or anybody had one left. Like Evan just got done saying, you make these relationships with all these awesome, amazing, talented people. And you go out and you craft the song the best that you can craft it to cater to both of the artists’ voices so that you can get a steal. But sitting there listening to everyone go before me, you hear – okay, so-and-so got stolen. Your buddy’s going home. All this stuff – I had no clue what was really happening backstage. So as soon as I stepped out there and they said that Joe won, I was like, “Okay. It’s been fun. We’ll see you later.” And as soon as Adam pressed his button, I literally – on film it shows me just falling over. My heart just fell out of my chest. I was freaking out. So no, I had absolutely no clue.

Riley: I didn’t know who had been stolen, really. I didn’t know anything about Team Gwen’s steals. Like Blaine said, you definitely hear the steal go off in the background, so you do know that people are getting stolen. And Regina was the other steal on Team Gwen, and I didn’t find out about her until I got back to the hotel that night. So I had no idea that it was her last steal.

Chance: I didn’t know. I mean, honestly didn’t’ know if there was any steals left and just the thought that myself or Andi and Alex would be going home just broke my heart because you don’t want anybody to go home. And like a few people have said before, you grow so close with these people and they become like family. And you just want the best for everybody. And I think for Andi and Alex to win and me to get stolen, or vice versa, would – that’s the ideal situation for a battle.

Q) Viktor and evan, if there is such a thing in the battle rounds as favorites and underdogs, the two of you were definitely what we thought would be favorites in your battles. I mentioned you guys are probably isolated from that kind of talk, but knowing the chairs that you got in your blind auditions, knowing the way that the judges reacted, how much confidence did you have going into the battle round and how much, I guess, anxiety did you have that you would have to maintain that level that they saw the first time around?

Viktor: To be totally honest with you, I have – usually what I do is I go to a level. So for example, I passed blind auditions with four chairs, which was absolutely amazing. But then I quickly try to forget that fact so it doesn’t bother me in the future. I try to go back to zero and work myself up again. And this is exactly what I did when I started battle rehearsals with Cassandra. And also to be totally honest, when I heard – I think battle rounds was the first time I actually heard Cassandra really sing and I got a little bit scared, to be honest, because she’s absolutely amazing. She’s a super talented singer and I was a little bit afraid because I didn’t know if I could stand up to her standards of singing. But I did everything I could in my power to make the best out of the situation and it seems like my hard work paid off.

Evan: I don’t’ ever treat any performance with something like this like anything is a given or take anything for granted. I was very blessed to have four chairs in my blind audition, but it was also four chairs at the very last second. So even in my blind auditions – my blind audition didn’t feel like a huge victory thing. It felt like for the majority of that blind audition performance I was fighting to get the first chair that didn’t even come until near the very end of the performance. I felt lie the underdog in my blind audition. I was just fighting. I saw for the first two-thirds of that song I was fighting to even get on someone’s team. For my battle round with Riley it was a song that I’ve known for a long time and it was something that I was definitely comfortable with. So I definitely had confidence in what I could do. I definitely felt comfortable and I had confidence that I was going to perform to the best of my ability. And more than anything, I just trust that God’s plan for whatever is going to happen is going to be perfect and I don’t have to worry about what’s going to happen. My job is to go out there and sing and perform the best that I could and whatever the outcome was was whatever the outcome was. You just accept and react to it when that comes, but I don’t try and think about what I think the outcome’s going to be. I just focus on doing the music because that’s all you really have control over.

Q) What was it like to get stolen from Blake?

Chance: Getting stolen – well first, whenever you’re not picked to win your battle, it’s just a down like its like man, it’s over. And then I was talking to Adam and Blake hit his button, and that’s like the best feeling ever. You think you’re going home and all of a sudden you’re back in it again. And you can see it on camera I just look at Blake and I’m just like, thank you. It’s amazing.

Q) For Blind Joe, how long have you had the nickname Blind Joe? How old were you when you got that tag? And second of all, your blindness is obviously a part of your makeup. It makes you who you are and I know you don’t want any of that to change, but do you find yourself wishing that folks would stop or maybe downplay the blindness aspect of it and start honing in on your pure unmitigated talent?

Blind Joe: I’ve been called Blind Joe pretty much all my life since school. We had a few different Joes in class and they asked how we were going to distinguish. And I said, well, I’m Blind Joe. And that pretty much was it, man. As far as the whole blindness thing, no. it doesn’t bother me. I don’t – it’s like you said. It is who I am and it’s part of me, and it’s something that sets me apart from other musicians. I’m – I don’t think there hasn’t been a lot of people that have really dwelled on it or made it a big, huge issue. With a question about blindness always comes a comment about the raw talent that I have and it doesn’t bother me. It’s something that I guess in the past – I think with all blind people we can get down and throw pity parties from time to time. But in my case, and especially with the business that I’m in, it definitely helps. You need something to set you apart in this business and the blindness part of it helps me with that and so does the fact that I can sing a little bit. So no, I don’t – there’s never been a time where I’ve thought I wish they’d stop focusing on the blindness and start focusing on my talent because it’s usually – it just comes with the territory.

Q) Korin, you have to be one of the least experienced contestants on the show. I was wondering if there was anything special you did to prepare between the time the blind auditions and the battle rounds were filmed?

Korin: Oh, you know. Cry and shake. NO, I’m kidding. I just tried to prepare myself emotionally, most of all, because the good thing for me is I am like a seasoned musician more than performer. So I’m classically trained. I’m theatrically trained. But when it comes to performance I’m not so great. So luckily for me, the song was really subdued and really soft, and I could focus more on bringing emotion to the song. So what I did was I worked a lot with Chase and we practiced with each other a lot. It helped a lot. We connected with each other and we just hung out a lot. And it helped bring more intimacy and emotion to the song. So I just tried to prepare myself mentally and emotionally for the battle.

Q) Joe, uniquely, I’ve heard your music and you’ve got a unique guitar sound, a rhythm-based song. What’s it like to transition- like if you have an idea for a song and all of a sudden you have these professional musicians saying “no” or “what would you like to change?”

Blind Joe: Actually, in that regard I’ve been pretty fortunate that nobody has been like, no, we’re not doing that. I think I have a pretty decent ear for music and so especially like with the blind audition I added in the steel guitar and we did some stuff with the drums and all that. And they were totally on board with it. Old time rock and roll – we didn’t really arrange too much of it and me playing the Telecaster rather than my acoustic – and that was – I had asked (Justin) the guitarist if I could do that and he said yes, no problem. He let me use his axe and it gave it that, I think, more dirty, just rocking, rowdy sound. And it was a lot of fun. So people really – people have never really said, oh, I don’t like this idea or I don’t like that idea. And I try to really – as far as arranging, just work the music around the vocals so that it sounds good to me. And I’ve been fortunate that other people think it sounds good too.

Q) So all of you get to get your own flavor into what you want to do. Your input is taken in.

Blind Joe :Yes, for the most part. I guess I can’t speak for everyone else, but yes. We – especially for the blind audition, yes, I definitely was able to instill some ideas and they were all for it. And then with “Old Time Rock and Roll,” like I said, with the guitar and the electric guitar. So yes, I think if they’re good ideas and the band is cool with it, then for the most part you can run – shoot ideas at them and they’re totally down.

Q) Riley, how is it to go from losing the battle round to hoping that you’ll be stolen, and then getting almost off the stage and having Gwen hit her button?

Riley: It was pretty intense. I wasn’t really on stage when Evan was announced as the winner. I really wasn’t devastated or like mad or anything. I was totally okay with it and I was like this has been great. Thank you. And I just wanted to hug Evan. I was so happy for Evan. And then I said what I had to say to Pharrell and it was very – it caught me off guard. I think you can tell by my reaction. I was just really like, oh God. I have to go back up the stairs now. And it was very chaotic and at first I really didn’t even know who it was. And then I turned around and it was Gwen, and from the beginning going into the blind auditions you always have which coach you would pick first and second and third. They all turned around and she was definitely either my first or second choice in the beginning. So it was really cool that I got to work with Pharrell and now I’m going to get to work with the second person who I just really wanted to work with on the show.

Q) Braiden, you had the luck of going up against a four-chair turn, and I was wondering what your strategy was going into that and what you think – you hoped to pull it out for you?

Braiden: Well, that one was kind of scary to go into originally because Lindsey is just – she’s just absolutely amazing. There’s no other words for it. She’s an amazing vocalist and being put up against her was scary. So I guess to prepare for that I just had to work really hard. We got together every day if not every other day, and sang through the song. And I guess what I did was just decided to do whatever I could out on the stage and leave – what just happened? I guess to prepare for it I just practiced a lot and decided whatever happens on stage happens, but I’m going to leave my best out there.

Q) Did you feel like the song was a very good fit for you?

Braiden: Neither of us had ever heard it and it isn’t something that I would normally do, but I did like it. I did like the song. It’s got its own thing to it. I like it a lot.

Q) Evan, what did you think when you walked in the room and you saw Missy Elliott in there with Pharrell? You’ve got two powerhouses from Virginia sitting in the room with you.

Evan: That was so cool and that was really, really awesome thing to see a couple of people that are from where I’m from and grew up around the same music that I did, and understand what kind of culture I came from and what kind of environment I grew up in, and everything. So it’s just an instant connection you have with anyone that’s from the same place you are. And to have two artists who are not only prolific in music and incredibly successful, but they also have that connection with me with where I’m from — I was so excited to get to be a sponge in that situation and just ask questions and let them give me honest feedback and critique. And from two of the biggest artists in their genres and in music over the last fifteen to twenty years. And to have that kind of musical knowledge, that musical diversity right there was – the musical diversity is so much of what I’m aiming for and to have people that have done that so much and understand how I want to do it and where I come from was very exciting for me.

Q) Were they consistent in their comments to you? Or did you find that you got different type of comments from both of them?

Evan: I would say pretty consistent. They were encouraging and we talked about – Missy and I talked a little bit about growing up with gospel music in church and stuff, and this really high energy music like that. And that was really cool. I felt like talking about those things and the music we grew up on helped her understand how it got to be singing the way that I sing. And that was – that made it more possible for them to help guide me in the right direction.

 

 

*CONFERENCE CALL*