The Voice – Knockouts Night Two

Q) Korin I’m wondering, before each of your three performances you’ve talked about the challenges of being different and the challenges of trying to fit in. And now you’ve come and you’ve become part of a show that really celebrates those differences and those sort of quirky things about you. And certainly Gwen has been championing those things throughout the course of your three performances. How has the show and how has Gwen helped you to think differently about yourself, about your talent, about, sort of your career as a musician? Obviously there is nobody on the show doing what you’re doing. I think it’s really fantastic. But how have they helped you to sort of think differently about yourself and how sort of easy has it been for you to sort of come to the place where we see you be at?

Korin: Well this whole journey has definitely been a confidence booster for sure. But Gwen is someone who built her career on being different and not caring what other people said and she has been very successful with that. And just embracing who she is and embracing all the quirks she has and she has been crazy successful with that. So it has helped me to just kind of accept some of the little differences that I have that I haven’t fully accepted or embraced yet. So she has been very helpful, very encouraging and very celebratory of everything I have been doing.

Q) Has it been easy for you to sort of look at yourself the way she looks at you?

Korin: Oh not at all. I’ve never been the kind of person that could look at myself in like a very like great light. I don’t know, I’m just very self-deprecating. But it’s definitely – I’ve definitely gotten better. Like I’m very more – I’m more confident in myself and I mean, I’ve always been okay with who I was, I’m just I don’t know, it has been challenging but it’s definitely getting better.

Q) Morgan, you poured your heart out on that stage and then Darius was announced as the winner. I was wondering what was going through your mind at that point?

Morgan: Well I have always loved Darius like from the first time that I met him. Like I said, I instantly thought when I first met him and I was like holy crap, like this guy is probably going to win the whole dang competition. Like I just remember. And then walking out seeing that was who I was going up against, I was freaking out a little bit. And then I watched him sing and I’m like I don’t know, it just really pumped me up. Well I have always loved Darius like from the first time that I met him. Like I said, I instantly thought when I first met him and I was like holy crap, like this guy is probably going to win the whole dang competition. Like I just remember. And then walking out seeing that was who I was going up against, I was freaking out a little bit. And then I watched him sing and I’m like I don’t know, it just really pumped me up.

Q) So the thought of being stolen by Blake had crossed your mind. How did you react to that?

Morgan: I was just oh my gosh, my heart just basically blew up. I was like thank goodness. Like I love Pharrell and I loved all the time that I had with him and I learned so much in a very short time about me and who I am and like I wouldn’t trade that time for nothing. But I did miss being on Team Blake and I was just so happy when he pressed that button.

Q) Keith, on the show last night when we saw during the rehearsals, you got some very good and specific advice from Rihanna. How much do you think that advice from her helped you with your performance?

Keith: It definitely helped. I mean, it was nice to have somebody else in a similar sort of situation as me in the sense that with Rihanna having a foreign accent as well to some degree she has to deal with that problem that I do too where I am actually consciously deciding which syllable to use when I’m singing words. It’s hard because the Northern Irish accent is just so harsh and horrible. It’s like I don’t want to sing the syllables the way I would normally say them so I have to consciously think. So a song like Foreigner is unfortunately one of those tough ones because it’s got a lot of words like “is” in it which is a very “e” sounding thing and I wanted to try and get away from that. So when she brought that up it was kind of nice to hear somebody else, especially somebody who is so successful have the same thought and the same, you know, problems of having to think about that at all times. It definitely made a big difference to how I did it on the night.

Q) Korin, I know previously you had said that you had pretty much not performed much at all as a solo artist prior to The Voice. How do you explain the success you’ve had on the show so far? I mean, you’re headed to the live playoffs for crying out loud.

Korin: I have no idea. I mean, I took some like theater classes in college may have helped but I really have no idea. I think I just go on auto pilot when I go up there. So the song just kind of comes out and I try and put emotion into it as much as I can. But yes it has definitely been a struggle and something I have worked on presentation wise. I’ve just been focusing on that when I’m practicing my songs. So it has definitely been something I’m working on so I’m glad it has been paying off to this degree. I didn’t expect it.

Q) When we saw during the rehearsals one of the pieces of advice that you got was about taking off your glasses, you know, not wearing them during the performance. And it’s kind of a simple piece of advice but do you think that made a big difference in your performance, something like that?

Korin: I don’t know if it made a difference in me performing the song but I have gotten reaction saying oh I could see you more, like I could see you performing the lyrics more. I could feel the emotion behind the song a little more intensely. So those are the reactions I have gotten. I don’t know if it helped me perform more but the only thing I could probably say is that when you wear glasses it’s kind of like framing your eyes so you can’t really see all around you so maybe it helped me to feel more open and more relaxed during the song. But that’s about it I could probably think of. They have always been pretty much a comfort blanket this whole time so it was different.

Q) For Darius, I was wondering if you could elaborate on the song choice a little bit because you certainly got rave reviews. Is that a song you are familiar with?

Darius: Yes, On Broadway is something that I’ve been singing for years. Never like this, never in front of an audience that big but it’s a song that has been in my wheelhouse for a long time. It’s actually one of my favorite songs. It’s a song that played in the house and in my parents’ car all the time. So I was very familiar with it, I am able to play it on various instruments. So it was cool to have something I was a little more comfortable with given the circumstances of the battle rounds. That’s already enough pressure having to sing against anyone in general but let alone someone that you really like and respect as a performer. So having a comfortable song was a great, great thing for me during this round.

Q) Morgan, you talked earlier about getting stolen by Blake. And kind of during the course of the season you’ve kind of been going back and forth from Blake’s team to Pharrell and now back to Blake. What was that kind of like going back and forth between those teams? And how do their coaching styles differ to you?

Morgan: For me it was like so scary. I felt like I was like just hanging in the competition by a thread. And but I mean, like I said like I wouldn’t trade my time with Pharrell for anything because he was just so – I don’t know, he has a way of talking to you where you just feel like he’s talking to your soul. He’s like looking into your soul and pulling out these things that you would never expect someone the first time you’re meeting them to know about you. And he really like helped me as an artist. And Blake, I mean, he is so fun and hilarious and just so easy to be around. And he’s like crazy. I’m like he’s like what you need to do as an artist and like who you are. It’s crazy like how he just kind of knows you kind of better than you know yourself which is amazing. And yes so I’d say it’s a huge thing to be able to work with two artists of their caliber and learn from both of them and so I would say that I’m very lucky.

*CONFERENCE CALL*