The Voice – Battle Round

By starrymag | March 23, 2016

Q)  Alisan, what we saw last night obviously was that you had improved from what was already a very good blind audition.  Obviously this is a very different, very unique sort of introduction to the music industry. I’m wondering, how would you say that this show and Christina and the advisors, how have they helped you improve and how have they helped you prepare to make a go of this?

 

Alisan Porter:  I think just week to week you really get to, you know, decide where you’re going to go next. And you have to start somewhere and end somewhere else. And, hopefully, it’s like a steady climb. You don’t want to bore your audience and the whole point is to just take as much advice and critique from your coach and from everyone around you and just try to kind of outdo yourself every single time. I think that’s the goal. And last night I just felt like, you know, Blue Bayou is very sort of soft and gentle and I wanted to show another side so I kind of let loose a little bit more.

 

Q)  What did you think at the end about Adam’s comment that you’re this season’s Jordan?

 

Alisan Porter:  I mean, that’s amazing. It’s a lot of pressure, I guess. Jordan is incredible. I don’t think anybody can really come close to him. He’s such a phenomenal singer. But I appreciate that sentiment very much and, you know, I hope I can be as consistent as he was.

 

Q)  Brian, I just really want to know how your faith has guided you thus far in the competition, and how your experience as a worship leader is guiding you?

 

Brian Nhira:  Thanks for asking the question. I’ve been asked that question a lot and my response to everybody is always the same. My faith is who I am. And so everything that I do flows from that place. And so even through this whole process, it hasn’t been hard for me at all. My faith has been the lens through which I see everything, the lens through which – and motivation and the driving force behind everything that I do in life, on this show. And so I hope that was the answer to your question.

 

Q) How you respond to songs that you might not necessarily want to sing?

 

Brian Nhira:  There hasn’t been a song that I haven’t wanted to sing on this show yet, so when that time comes up, I’ll text him and tell him.

 

Q) I wanted to know why did you choose Adam to go with? And what did you think of the song choice?

 

Brian Nhira:  I absolutely loved the song choice. I thought it was really cool that we had the opportunity to switch it up just a little bit because, you know, the song is sung by one person, Adam. And so we wanted — me and Abby — wanted to do something special to make it a duet. And I think that we did a good job of that. But I picked Adam because at the end of my blind audition, after I had sung Jesus Loves Me, I remember him really regretting not turning around. And so that picture of him pressing his button over and over again popped up in my mind. And I knew that if I had the opportunity to work with someone like Adam who’s had such longevity as a lead singer in one of the biggest bands we’ve seen in the music industry, would be an amazing opportunity.

 

Q)  I wanted to ask you about that moment because it seemed like there was a little bit of a strategy in Pharrell’s mind at play. But I wanted to ask you about that moment where he decided to go with Abby and to kind of put you up for a steal. Was that something that you guys – we saw a short clip of you guys discussing that. Was that something that you guys have discussed any more than that? And sort of what was going through your mind when he kind of put you out there up for grabs, so to speak?

 

Brian Nhira:  I want to say that it was absolutely amazing working with Pharrell. Pharrell is exactly the guy that you see on TV. He’s so genuine and he loves the people who he works with. And he wants to see every single artist who he works with on the show stay on the show. And so it was a really special moment honestly when he did do that. And I kind of knew in my heart in that moment that we saw on TV, I kind of knew when he said what he said, that I might be kind of – I might lose the battle. And so I came to grips with it in my heart. And I was cool with everything that went down. And honestly, I’m excited to work with Adam. To have the opportunity to work with both of them is very rare for a lot of people on the show. And so to have it is just amazing.

 

Q) Adam, did you feel that you had an advantage going into the battle due to you having more experience? And did you feel that you would win the battle or were you unsure?

 

Adam Wakefield:  I got three years on, you know, most of the other contestants for sure except for maybe Alisan and some other people. So, you know, I’ve been doing it a long time. I mean, I felt confident going into it. But I mean, Jared sounded great, you know, in all the rehearsals and on stage too. So I don’t know, man. For me, when you go out there, I don’t know. I just try and – I’m kind of always in the same mindset where I’m just going to go out there and have a good time.

 

Q) Brian, I just want to know what the Holy Spirit has taught you thus far in the competition?

 

Brian Nhira:  That’s a good question. Let me think for a second.  Because there’s so many things, you know? I think first and foremost it’s this — it’s that like God is calling us into every place, every place in the world, you know? I think oftentimes people in the church get a little stuck in just the circle and the bubble of the church. In corresponding with people who are of the same belief but like I’ve had the most beautiful time getting to know so many people who believe a bunch of things that I may not believe in but are so beautiful and I mean, they’re amazing people. I mean, I think the biggest thing is that if you don’t love people, then you’re completely missing the point of even being a Christian. And so I think that’s the biggest thing I’ve learned, is to always love even if you don’t agree with somebody.

 

Q) I think I talked to you a week or so ago and I had asked you about singing Happy and having Pharrell pick you. What was it like for that to happen and the singing Sugar and having Adam steal?

 

Brian Nhira:   Yes, it was, first of all it was awesome to sing Happy for Pharrell and getting to be on his team. And then to sing Sugar as well because as everybody knows, Sugar was a hit. I think it has over a billion hits on YouTube. And so both Abby and I going into it knew that we had a tall task singing Adam’s song. And our thought — both Abby and I — were like either he’s going to love what we do or he’s going to hate what we do. And so thankfully he liked what we did with the song. But, it was super cool. To me I kind did an honor to be able to sing another coach’s song. And for Pharrell to pick that song for us. My thought now is like maybe for my knockout I should sing Sangria by Blake Sheldon.

 

Q) Alisan, you’ve been in the limelight before. What has been the most shocking experience for you being on The Voice?

 

Alisan Porter:   The most shocking I think that, you know, for me – geez that’s a hard one. I don’t know if anything’s been shocking. I mean, I think that, you know, maybe something that I didn’t realize was that it was going to be so different from anything I have ever done. It’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of rehearsals and there’s a lot that precedes what we do on stage. And I think just for me, you know, it’s just really getting back into that zone of working. And I’m so used to being a stay at home mom and kind of doing my own thing and this is definitely not that. And yes, I think – I don’t know. It’s not really shocking I guess, but just that I – yes, that’s a tough question for me. Sorry.

 

Q) Brian, you spoke so kindly about ORU and your experiences there the last time we got a chance to talk. I wanted to ask you a little bit about the support that you’ve gotten out of ORU. I think they had a watch party for you last night. And I just wanted to ask you how much feedback you’ve gotten from them and how that helped you through the competition?

 

Brian Nhira:  It’s been crazy, the amount of support that I’ve received from ORU. I actually today I woke up and one of the guys from like the technology department was like, “Hey Brian. We’re creating your own like portion, your own page on our website.” And so they’re going above and beyond everything. The president of the university was at my blind audition watch party, and his support has been amazing. Yesterday we had – actually all of our watch parties are at the student center for ORU, which has one of the largest TVs in Oklahoma. And so we had about 350 people there yesterday just supporting everything. And the photography department from the university, they usually have class during the time that The Voice is going on. So the photography professor decided that he’d have all of this photography students come and take pictures of the watch party. I mean, it’s just been amazing. There’s alumni from ORU all over the world who have been reaching out to me, including Ryan Tedder from OneRepublic. He reached out to me on Twitter and just congratulating me, which was amazing because he’s one of my like music heroes. And so just the support has really pushed me forward through this whole process and I’m grateful.

 

*CONFERENCE CALL*