The Voice – Blind Auditions – Night Two – 2018

By starrymag | March 6, 2018

By: Jamie Steinberg

 

 

Q) I was hoping each of you could explain why you made your coaching decision, why you picked the coach that you did and Pryor, if we could start off with you since you had probably the toughest position to make with all four coaches to choose from.

 

Pryor Baird:  It was tough.  I went into it thinking it was going to be Blake.  That’s who I was going to pick no doubt, but once Adam started laying it on pretty thick and telling me everything that he would do, it was pretty tough.  But I went into it fully knowing that I was going to pick Blake because he and I, I mean, we just — I feel like we have a lot in common.

 

Q) Such as what?

 

Pryor Baird:  We both love country music.  We both like to be outside and be outdoors, and hunting, and fishing, and sitting around a campfire and drinking cold beer and having a good time.  He’s somebody I would totally go hang out with.

 

 

Q)  Molly, why did you go with Kelly?

 

Molly Stevens:    I went with Kelly, just the girl power connection I think and she was really familiar with my song and the artist, Patty Griffin, and Blake was not.  They were both great choices, could have been great choices for me but I ultimately went with Kelly.  I think just the emotional connection.

 

 

Q) Davison, how about you?  You wound up picking Adam I believe.

 

Davison:    I picked Adam because, one, I felt like we connected as far as Adam is a versatile artist and you can place Adam in any type of genre of music, whether it be pop, soul, country, R&B and he’s very versatile.  And that’s the type of artist that I would like to be.  Because he represented so many qualities that I saw in myself and that I saw for me, I decided that I wanted to go with Adam.

 

Q)  And then Jaclyn, how about you?

 

Jaclyn Lovey:  I’ve always just admired Alicia.  I think her spirit and her energy is so admirable.  And when she speaks, she just enchants you with everything she says.  And she spoke about honesty and being true to yourself in your music and I think that’s the most important thing in music is to be honest in it. So I had to go with her because I really liked what she was saying for me.

 

Q) And Blake scared you off with unicorns, right? 

 

Jaclyn Lovey:   I have a fear of unicorns.  No, I honestly would have been honored to work with either one of them.  I was really grateful that I had the choice to pick.  I would have been happy with one chair.  So either one I would have been happy with but I ultimately was swayed by Alicia.

 

Q)  This question is for Molly and Pryor.  I was wondering if you both could talk about — now you’ve both been in show business for a while now.  First of all, are you songwriters and second of all, can you talk about the kind of music you’d make outside of The Voice?

 

Molly Stevens:  We’ve been doing music for a long time and outside of The Voice, for me it’s been a similar experience of meeting incredible talent and trying to surround myself with the best of the best.  I am a songwriter and I write with a lot of people and have tried to make a presence in Nashville, Tennessee. And for me, just being on The Voice was just another great platform to be on and get to surround myself with other incredible musicians and artists, and to see where that goes.

 

Pryor Baird:  I’ve done music my entire life.  I started playing guitar when I was 2.5 years old.  So it’s just a part of me.  Outside of The Voice, the music that we play is just — I like it all.  I love bluegrass.  I love the chicken pickin’ country music.  I love the oldies — I love Blues.  Blues is my music — that’s me, if music was a person, that’s what I would be. I’ve been doing this forever so I don’t know any different.  It’s just I’m beyond grateful that I can be on a platform such as The Voice that is going to allow me to put my music out there and be able to do what all of us love to do.  I shouldn’t say just me in general.  Every single person that’s on the voice, we are all extremely grateful that we’re on this platform and we get to do it.  It’s amazing.

 

 

Q) Again, it’s a question for the group.  I was hoping you could tell me whether or not you’ve released music prior to The Voice and if so, talk a little bit about that project and whether it’s reflective of what type of music you’d release today.  And if we could start off with Jaclyn because I think you did release an EP when you were a little bit younger.

 

Jaclyn Lovey:    I made an EP when I was – well, I made it when I was 14 and released it when I was 15.  And the story behind that is pretty crazy.  I actually ended up going all the way to Australia just to record it because my producer was Bill Chambers, and he’s an Australian producer, musician, and I was fortunate enough to know him.  And so I got to work with him and just making that EP was a huge step in just growing and learning about myself musically. And I think taking that knowledge of what I learned in Australia and bringing it to The Voice was really helpful.  And now that The Voice itself is another learning step, just continuing to grow as an artist and I just, I don’t know, it’s really crazy seeing The Voice music and my original music on iTunes for sale.  It’s just really crazy.

 

Q) And those were all originals that you recorded in Australia and you crowd funded that I think.

 

Jaclyn Lovey:  Yes, all four songs were songs that I wrote all by myself when I was ages 13 to 14.  And yes, we had no idea how we were going to get to Australia because that’s an expensive plane ticket.  But our friends, and our family, and our supporters, they all chipped in and they helped us.

 

Q) Molly, I saw at least one single that you’ve released on iTunes.  Can you tell me a little bit about that and have you released anything else?

 

Molly Stevens:      Yes, I did just release that last summer, a single called Roots, and it’s just a really country driven song about me growing up in Macon, Georgia and just kind of where my roots are planted.  I’ve been in two duos before I have done Molly Stevens as a solo career.  And so The Voice was actually really cool because good timing, because it’s been really the first time that I’ve branched out on my own. So I was in a duo called Me and Molly and I was in a duo called Steven Blaine and both of those we’ve released records and had some success of opening for bigger acts and known acts and I just branched off on my own in the past year.

 

Q)  Are you pretty comfortable doing it on your own?

 

Molly Stevens:  I love it.  Yes, totally.  I wish I’d been doing it for a little bit longer but every road gets you here.  So it’s just a part of my journey but yes, I do love being a solo artist.  It’s a lot easier.

 

 

Q) Pryor, I know you’ve been performing music for a long time.  I couldn’t find anything on iTunes at this point but I know you’ve probably been involved in some groups.  Have you released anything previously?

 

Pryor Baird:  I do have two full-length albums that are out there but when I put my first two albums out, there was no such thing as iTunes. So you had to sell them out of your car. So that’s pretty good reason why you couldn’t find them online anywhere and I’m the least tech savvy person you’ll ever meet. So when it comes to put your music on your computer that’s really tough because number one, I don’t own a computer and number two, I don’t know how to do it. So I have CDs, I have all that stuff.  It is online now.  I think somehow you can get it.  Somebody put it on there.  I think it’s on — I don’t know what it is but yes, there’s — I do have (unintelligible) that I’ve recorded before.

 

Q) (NCAP) maybe?  Is it reflective of the music you’d release today? 

 

Pryor Baird:   Yes and no.  The music that I would put out today, I think we all, again, sorry, I shouldn’t speak for everybody, but I think everybody is always searching for their sound.  I don’t think a musician ever really knows their sound.  They just try and develop it and make it better what they want it to be.  But I definitely know that I wouldn’t classify myself into one specific genre.  I like it all.  I like really, really, really good musicians where everybody is like, I’m a bass player and I play bass and I’ve always played bass.  It’s not like, oh, I used to be a guitar player and couldn’t do it, and so now, I play bass.  Like Tedeschi Trucks Band, I love them.  Everybody is phenomenal.  The songs are great.  The musicianship is great.  Everybody has mastered their instruments.  I’m really into that.  I’m into the whole thing, great songs, great lyrics, great melody, great hooks, and great musicians.  I’m into it. I guess if I was going to say the kind of music that I would put out, that’s what it would be.  It would be just amazing music that you can listen to.  You wouldn’t just go to a country music festival or you could go to a music festival or whatever it may be and you would see us because it would be — you could go to a country festival and you could see us.  You could go to a blues festival and see us.  You could go to a world music festival and see us.  That’s what I would want to do.  Not one specific genre.

 

Q)  Davison, have you released anything?

 

Davison:  I haven’t released any original music, but I do have tons of music for whenever I do have the goal to release new music, I’ll be able to.  I’ve done a couple features for people but as far as my own music, no, I haven’t released any yet but I am ready to go.

 

Q) And how would you describe that music? 

 

Davison:  It would be more of like an R&B and soul type music.  I really love soul.  I like the mix between R&B and church and very soulful.  So yes, it would definitely be a mix of R&B and soul music.  I’m just a straight soul singer.  I love to sing hard.  I love to make you feel the music that I’m singing.  I’m all about making music that people can connect with, that people can feel.  I like to make people get those goose bumps on your arms.  That’s my goal in life as far as my music touching music.

 

Q) And why do you only go by one name?

 

Davison:  I decided that I wanted to go by my last name as significant because the fact that my biological father hadn’t been in my life since I was like three years old and I don’t really know any of my family last name Davison.  I decided to go with Davison so that I could put a buzz out there, so that I could know who my family is.  Because I know things like that will bring your family out and that’s unfortunate.  But I would be able to then be with my family, get to know who they are, possibly someone get to find my dad.  Talked to my brother and he hadn’t talked to my dad in years.  So he doesn’t even know. So that’s the reason why I decided that I wanted to use my last name.

 

Q) Jaclyn, you just talked about going to Australia to record a record of your originals and that’s really impressive.  You’re only 16.  And I was wondering if that the style on that record is representative of who you are now as an artist.

 

Jaclyn Lovey:  Well, it’s still me because I’m always going to be me but I’ve definitely grown a lot and my music has matured over the years.  But then again, also, I’m still young.  So in a few more years I’m going to mature more.  So I’m always going to be me but I’m always going to be maturing in my music.  So that’s the most confusing answer possible but I’m still in my Americana folk genre but always open to try new things.

 

Q) Okay.  So that’s how you would describe your sound as sort of a cross between Americana and folk?

 

Jaclyn Lovey:   Yes.

 

Q) You like to sing songs that tell stories.

 

Jaclyn Lovey:  Yes, my favorite thing is just to write and just being able to put music to writing is just the best I think.

 

 

Q) Dylan,  I wanted to ask you a couple of questions that I’d already posed to the other members of the group.  First of all, you didn’t have a choice of coach but you seemed pleased with the matchup of you and Kelly, and why was that?

 

Dylan Hartigan:    Hi everybody. It’s really cool to be on this. I think honestly — it took me by surprise that Kelly turned for me. When I was getting towards the end of it, I was kind of thinking that I wasn’t going to get a turn.  But the reason why I was so excited when Kelly turned is because I knew going into this that she was the only one who’s actually experienced this from my perspective.  And I thought that was an amazing thing.  And not a lot of people get to be coached by someone who went through the exact thing that you’re going through.  And I think that is a huge step up for her in comparison to the other coaches.

 

Q) And I asked everyone else, have you released any music before and if you have, could you tell me a little bit about that project and whether it’s reflective of what you’d release now? 

 

Dylan Hartigan:    I released a couple of songs on my SoundCloud, which is just Dylan Hartigan and that was stuff that I’d made while I was in my studio, which I built with my pops.  And that’s a little reflective of the stuff that I want to make.  The only thing is, I was writing those songs when I was in a really dark place.  So a lot of those songs are pretty sad and reflect the emotions that I was feeling at the time. So I like to think that the albums that I put out, or the EPs that I put out really reflect the way that I’m feeling, the stories that I want to get across to people.  So right now, I’d probably make a pretty happy album.

 

Q) Can you share what you were going through then?  Can you talk at all about that?

 

Dylan Hartigan:    Yes, I ended up moving out of the city when I moved in there just kind of to do the whole solo music gig for the music that I wasn’t really that into.  And I gave that up and I moved back home because I was just going to stop doing music essentially and just go to college and be a normal student in college, play baseball, all that jazz.  But as I was building this storage area we were actually intending to build it at first, it grew into a studio.  And most of the songs that I wrote that never got used when I was in the city, I ended up using them in the studio, and I was able to make them the way that I wanted to make them as opposed to how somebody else wanted me to make them.

 

 

Q) Dylan, Adam said that he didn’t turn for you because of the nostalgia factor and I was wondering how do you plan on showing The Voice viewing audience your contemporary side?

 

Dylan Hartigan:    I think that’s really just going to come with how I end up making my voice come out in the songs that I choose.  Because I actually agree with him.  I sang that song a lot like Loggins and Messina sang that song and it sounded like a lot like their original rendition.  So I don’t disagree but now I just need to, moving forward, work on making sure that I put myself into the songs that I’m doing as opposed to trying to do the artist justice.  You know what I mean?

 

Q) I know that you mentioned you love the classics, but do you have any favorite contemporary folk artists?

 

Dylan Hartigan:    Oh, yes.  There’s a guy named John Moreland who’s a fantastic songwriter.  His lyrics resonate hardcore with me.  There’s Kaleo, who’s not really a contemporary — he’s not really a folk artist.  He’s more of a hard rock artist but he has songs that, like All the Pretty Girls, which is kind of a folky song, lyrically based.  Stephen Day is a really good singer that I enjoy listening to a lot, stuff like that.  But mostly it comes from the classics.

 

Q) So when you finally get to make an album, what can we expect from it?

 

Dylan Hartigan:    So what we can expect from an album that I make is kind of a Citizen Cope, Kaleo, Vampire Weekend vibe.  When it comes to lyrics, it’s going to be resonating stories, things that people can relate to, things that I’ve actually experienced in my life.  They’re not just going to be all love songs.  It’s not just going to be a mushy, mushy kind of thing.  It’s going to be some serious content and hard hitting drums, some pretty guitars so there’s that smoothness to it.  Not all acoustic.  A lot of electric is going to be in it.  So that’s the vibe that I’m going to be building off of for it.

 

 

*CONFERENCE CALL*