The Voice – Blind Auditions Night Two

Q) I have a question for the singers who were included in the montage last night. We’ll start with Katherine. So can you talk more about your audition and kind of what we didn’t see last night on the show?

Katherine Ho: Yes. So for my audition I sang “Wildest Dreams” by Taylor Swift. And yes. It was a really cool experience. Like just like having them turn around – Adam turned first and then Blake turned towards the end. And yes it just all kind of went by in a haze and it was like so cool. I’ve never performed for like such a like a huge crowd before. And yes. I thought it was good. Like of course I’m kind of sad I got montaged but like all the artists who were shown full length like they totally deserved it and I’m just happy for everyone and it was an incredible experience.

Jonathan Bach: So yes it was absolutely mind blowing to go up there and sing in front of four superstars. I sang a really cool acoustic, I mean, in my own opinion a very cool version of “Born This Way.” It was like acoustic, very like clean and like kind of a more emotional take on the song. But when Pharrell first turns around I’m like visibly shocked because like being on the show and just even auditioning in general has been like a whole process that I never thought I would ever be a part of. Music was never something that my family wanted for me. It was never something that they supported. Both of my parents are immigrants. They came here from Iraq. And so for me to even be there and for a superstar like that to believe in me and think that he wants me on my team absolutely just blew my mind. And I fell to my knees by the end of my performance because I was just so in awe that he saw something in me that I was doubting I even saw in myself. And it was absolutely amazing. So definitely one of those highlights of my life for sure. But that’s – yes. That’s pretty much what – how it went down.

Q) You guys are going to be getting a brand new overwhelming fan base based on your performances last night on The Voice but you’re also going to be getting some celebrity love as well and last night and every night actually so far there’s been a lot of celebrities tweeting about the show. How does it make you guys feel, starting with Caroline, about gaining this new fan base on social media as well as having celebrity fans?

Caroline Burns: It’s really crazy. I don’t know. It really shocked me like how many new followers I got and how many tweets I got just – and everyone has been pretty much really supportive and nice. And yes it was crazy and shocking when right after my audition everyone was like I got so many notifications and it was really nice and yes. It’s crazy.

Q) Katherine and Jonathan from – since we didn’t get to really hear much of your story last night. I was hoping each of you could tell us a little bit about your own music. What type of music you prefer to sing, how you picked your audition songs, some of the biggest things you’ve done to date as a solo artist?

Katherine Ho: Yes so I like self-identify as a pop singer. Like I have – like my biggest musical influence are people like Taylor Swift and Sara Bareilles and I love Tori Kelly and Pentatonix. So definitely like kind of young pop I guess you could say. And so I thought it was really fitting to choose “Wildest Dreams” for my blind audition because it’s one of my favorite songs by Taylor Swift and it has so many like different dimensions to it and I just thought it would be a great song. It was like a little bit of a challenge for me. So I think I like grew as like a singer by doing – by choosing like a harder blind audition song and yes. That’s pretty much like my – like what type of music I do.

Jonathan Bach: For my song, “Born This Way” – just like as an artist I’m really into pop, radio. I kind of identify as pop soul recently. I feel like a two-genre name artist thing. It makes me really hipster so I was into that. But when I was looking through songs and how I wanted to represent myself my music always really came from a place of trying to prove myself. So I was always trying to do a whole bunch of crazy (riffy) like crazy stuff to show people that I can do it. But when I took on “Born This Way” what – my goal is that I just gave justice to the song and the message that it represents, that nobody is meant to be exiled or judged or anything like that. The message of the song is that you are perfect exactly the way you are. And growing up I was bullied a lot through high school and I always made it a mission to kind of inspire other people that just because other people might not like you, other people might not be on the same page as you doesn’t mean that you’re any less of a person. It doesn’t mean that you should be down. It means that you can just pick yourself up and you don’t really need everybody else’s permission to be a badass. So – I’m sorry. I don’t know if we’re allowed to say “badass.” But that was my story and that’s the reason that I did the song that I did.

Q) Angie, you mentioned on the show that you have been a cruise ship singer. So kind of – can you tell us about that? Kind of what do you like best about it and what’s your least favorite part, things like that.

Angie Keilhauer: Oh yes. Cruise ships is probably an incredible environment to really hone your chops as a musician and as a performer because the sheer volume that you have to play, like you’re – can start out being incredibly challenging. And I came into it really feeling like an amateur like I didn’t know what I was doing. And then I remember on the plane ride home after six months of playing four hours every day, six days a week I was sitting on a plane ride next to somebody who asked what do I do for a living. And I was like oh I just finished playing (guitar) on a contract for Carnival Cruise Lines. And they were like oh you’re a professional musician. And I was like uh yes. That’s exactly what I am. And it was probably one of the most significant moments in my career, probably one of the biggest breaks I’ve ever had because I was able to build a significant fan base for touring on land without a big capital cost and I was able to save money to get my car and my B.A., all of the things that I needed to tour on land. So I would say that playing on cruise ships is probably the single biggest thing that’s happened in my career besides of course, you know, making it here on the show. But is there something specifically you wanted to ask about life on a cruise ship? It’s pretty amazing because you’re stuck on a ship with about 1000 other employees and you’re – it’s not like you can go home and see your other friends. So like the people that you work with, your coworkers are your only source of social activity. So like we end up becoming really close. And being on the show like a lot of my closest friends on ships are reaching out and saying oh gosh I’m so happy to see you. And these are friends that I’ve made all over the world, from Romania to the Ukraine to, I mean, you name the country I probably know somebody there. And it’s just been an amazing learning experience to learn so many different cultures and being able to share some of those beautiful places on Earth with them.

Q) For Katherine, why Adam over Blake?

Katherine Ho: That’s a good question. Actually before the blind auditions I thought I was going to – like Blake was actually like one of my top choices. But I don’t know. I think Adam just like – he was pretty good at talking and I don’t know. I just like got caught up in the moment. And like now that I like look back on it I think Adam because he’s like more similar to my genre. And I feel like he could really help like mold me better as an artist because I’m still at the stage where like I’m not 100% sure like what my like artist identity is. Like I know like generally what I want to do but I was hoping Adam could just like help me really hone in on what I wanted to do. So I guess Adam over Blake for that reason but honestly I don’t’ think there was a wrong choice.

*CONFERENCE CALL*