Tag Archives: Interview

Meet Team Blake’s Holly Tucker

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The Voice - Season 4

Blake Shelton has his dream team on The Voice this season: a final three loaded completely with country artists. BFTV recently caught up with one of those artists, Baylor marching band star Holly Tucker, to get to know her better.

“I always expected big things because I’ve seen the show on TV and it just looks larger than life,” Holly said of her Voice experience so far. “That’s exactly what I got and more.”

Speaking of big things, America has watched Holly blow the doors off the Voice studio with her powerful performances of LeAnn Rimes’ “How Do I Live” and Martina McBride’s “Broken Wing.” How does she prepare her voice to be able to hit such amazing notes every time she takes the stage? “It takes a lot of warm-up,” she explained. “You just have to sing scales and make your voice be able to hit those notes with ease. And breathing. Breathing is very important.”

Breathing is something that Holly has learned to do over her time on The Voice. Her coach has pointed out to her that she is sometimes too hard on herself, and that he wants to see her have more fun. Now that America has voted her through into the Top 12 and later the Top 10, it’s given her more confidence in herself.

“I feel incredible,” she said. “Just being able to go up there and feel so strong and so confident. I should’ve been feeling this way the whole time. And now I finally feel like I’ve grown into the [belief] that I deserve to be here and it’s a really good feeling.

“Getting that validation from America, as well as my coach, is the best feeling in the world.”

Has that affirmation meant that she’s stopped being so self-critical? “I do feel like I’m getting there,” Holly continued. “When I start to do that, I just think to myself, ‘Holly, back up. You’re fine. It’s okay to be imperfect sometimes. It’s all right.’”

Whereas many artists on The Voice go out and find new identities through the course of competition, she has decided that she’s already found the genre she wants to remain in. “I want to stick to country,” she explained. “Even if I may go out and experiment with some other genres, I’m always going to be country and I love my country fans. That’s just who I am.”

No matter what happens, to her, being on the show has paid off. “I already feel like a winner,” she said, “because I’ve gotten to learn so much throughout this experience and have Blake coach me and teach me everything he knows. Of course I want to move forward, but I will never count this as anything I regret.”

Although she’s now facing the best of the competition, Holly isn’t dwelling too much on if or when she might go home. “No point in worrying. That’s what I say,” she told us. “America is going to vote on what they like, and what happens happens, and it happens for a reason.”

Holly performs for your vote tonight as The Voice continues at 8 PM ET/PT on NBC. You can also watch her and all of Team Blake rocking out on “Play Something Country” with this article.

(c)2013 Brittany Frederick/Big Red Chairs. Excerpts appear at Starpulse and Examiner with permission. All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted. Visit my official website and follow me on Twitter at @bigredchairs.

 

Artist Update: Vicci Martinez

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The VoiceVicci Martinez is still enjoying a newfound career success almost two years after she was a finalist on the first season of The Voice. Though the Seattle native was a talented musician well before the NBC series came into her life, the TV show vaulted her into the national spotlight, and Vicci has made the most of it. Universal Music Group, the record label affiliated with The Voice, offered her a deal after the show. She subsequently released her self-titled album, and now you can see the music video for the album’s first single, “Come Along.”

Big Red Chairs caught up with Vicci the day after she shot the “Come Along” video to look back on her album and talk about the journey she’s taken since we all fell in love with her voice.

The video for “Come Along” arrives ten months after the release of the album on which the song appears, but Vicci believes that the delay actually worked in her favor. “I was supposed to do a video this time last year and I think what happened was, the label was going to give me a chance to develop a little and see how the song and the record were going to go. But I’m really happy that it happened that way,” she explained. “It’s been a really busy year, but with a lot of evolution as far as me and this album, and playing it live and being able to have a relationship with these songs. Normally I write songs and I’ve been playing them for awhile and then I make an album. This is the opposite.”

“We’ve been visiting a lot of radio stations and the song has been going up on the charts the last few months,” she continued. “I’ve been really seeing a lot of success in actually going to stations and making relationships with people. I’m actually hoping I can do more of that. Just kind of having that one-on-one with the stations and the people. It’s kind of them taking a risk on me, adding the song to their playlist, because I’m a developing artist.”

It’s been a longer road for Vicci than many of the Voice artists who have followed her. She was the last finalist from season one to release an album, and of the four performers from that first cycle who were signed to Universal, she’s one of only two still with the label (the other being runner-up Dia Frampton). As so much of the post-reality show business now seems to rest on how quickly an artist can get material out before the next one takes their place in the public eye, Vicci is a breath of fresh air, a true artist whose primary concern is always for her work.

“I’m really happy,” she said about the trajectory of her career. “At first, everything was happening so quickly. I kind of thought, are they just going to drop me and forget about me, knowing that Javier [Colon] wasn’t with the label anymore [and] I think they let go of Xenia. I was like, ‘I haven’t even been released yet and it seems like they’re getting rid of people.’ Then they just kind of slowed it down. They didn’t put [the album] out in stores. I was like, ‘Oh my God, what am I supposed to do?’ I’m supposed to be with this major label [and] that’s why you sign with a label.

“My manager, Beth [Tallman], who’s just so wonderful, said, ‘Let’s go to the radio stations on our own and just go do it.’ And because of that and the song doing well, now the album’s in stores and now I’m doing the video,” she continued. “It’s been very humbling and it’s been very great to go through that process of starting from square one again. Really making the label recognize me as a real artist, it’s made it more rewarding.”

Where other artists might have expected more stardom after being a finalist on a hugely popular show, having been a working musician before TV came calling, Vicci is firmly down to earth. “I even had a line in one of my songs that says ‘Let go of all of your expectations,’ because you never know what’s going to happen,” she said, looking back at her experience on The Voice. “Adam Levine’s manager even took me aside once, and he was like ‘These shows are so unnatural for an artist. This is not how it happens. With Maroon 5, it took us being on the road for two years to get the songs to start charting.’ That’s the way it happens for everybody else. To expect everything to move that quickly, it’s just not natural. To have [the label] slow down and to have all these speed bumps come along the way, I think I needed to go through that. It was good for me to really just plant my feet again.”

While she still cherishes the time she spent as a member of Team Cee Lo Green, Vicci explained that she also wants to continue with a career that stands on its own, too. “I definitely am great friends with the people, the crew and the staff on The Voice, anything they’ve needed from me or anything I’ve needed from them. They’ve been so great. If they ask me to do anything I’m happy to do so,” said Vicci, who returned to the show in season two along with the three other first-season finalists. “But I think I’ve kind of gone through the trenches in the last couple years of kind of proving myself, not only to a new audience but also to my label. I feel like I have become a priority for them because I’ve shown that ‘Hey, you can’t get rid of me. I’m going to do my work here and I’m not going to just lean on The Voice to get any success.’ I’m in it for the long haul.”

“I don’t talk to Cee Lo anymore,” she continued. “I know I can lean on him if I need to talk to him, but he’s busy. It was great [working with him], and he did help get me out there and he sang on the record, but he’s not in this video. This was a song I chose and I invited him to be a part of the song. It wasn’t him pushing me toward doing this. This came from me. It was me choosing the song to be the single and now it’s working in my favor.”

If you see Vicci back on The Voice again, it might be in one of those big red chairs. “I always felt like I could somehow maybe be a coach one day,” she added. “But I think it takes going through the hard knocks to be able to come onto a show like that and really have advice to give and coaching to give. I don’t think I’m there yet.”

Right now, she’s hoping to get on a summer tour and planning to put more time into Vicci, including a potential second music video, before she gives any thought to a next album. When she does finally stop and look back, what’s going to make her think this whole journey from music to reality TV and back again has been worth it? “I think for me it’s just making sure that I continue to have good intention in my music, which has always been to inspire people to do what they love – any kind of art, anything that makes you feel passion and freedom in your work, in your craft, in your life,” she said. “That’s the biggest thing for me. That doesn’t just come through music. It also comes through action and your way of life. I have to make sure I’m living by those words as well. To me, that’s a success story.”

You can watch the video for “Come Along” on VEVO below. You can also keep up with Vicci by visiting her official website and following her on Twitter (@VicciMartinez).

(c)2013 Brittany Frederick/Big Red Chairs. Excerpts appear at Starpulse and Examiner with permission. All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted. Visit my official website and follow me on Twitter at @bigredchairs.

Artist Update: Tim Mahoney

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Tim-Mahoney

While The Voice is going full steam ahead, one of BFTV’s very first favorites from the series is moving forward in his career as well. Tim Mahoney – the season one member of Team Adam that Adam Levine infamously thought was a woman when listening to his blind audition – not only has a new album out, but is broadening his teaching career, too. BFTV recently caught up with Tim to get the dish on everything he has going on.

Tim dropped his newest album, Shine Through, earlier this spring following a handful of individual songs, including his playful TV experience-inspired track, “Hey Adam Levine,” which caused a sensation when it debuted. “Post-The Voice, I have come out with a few singles, [but] as far as a new release of original material, it’s the first time since 2007,” he said. “I did want to do it different this time. I wanted to make it feel like we’re all musicians playing together, so we recorded it mostly live in a few days. The only tracks that are not [live] are ‘Hey Adam Levine’ and a track called ‘Truth Can Hurt.’ Not a lot of overdubs; didn’t want to get crazy with that. I didn’t want to make it seem too shiny.”

That’s because Tim has always been a down-to-earth working musician, traveling throughout his native Minnesota playing his gigs and paying his dues. Aside from The Voice and a previous audition for Rock Star: INXS – the series which fellow Minnesotan and season two Voice artist Jordis Unga placed fifth on – he hasn’t attracted the kind of national attention that other artists from reality competition series have.  He’s just quietly continued making solid pop-rock music.

“There’s a track on there called ‘Shadow’ which, it’s a really mellow, dark song, but I do feel it’s one of the best I’ve ever written,” he said. “I was with a girl for a fair amount of time, and we split up, and that song is about her. There’s some really fun stuff. The song on there I kind of just think is fun is called ‘Put A Line There.’ The single’s actually a song called ‘Shine Through,’ which I wrote for a guy who wanted me to write him a song [as] a surprise for his wife, and I ended up liking the song.”

As it’s coming up on two years since the end of Tim’s season of The Voice, does he now officially consider the show part of his past? “I’ve already kind of moved on but people haven’t,” he said. “The show is so big now. I talk about The Voice every single day, and I don’t choose to. I just mean that [it happens], from tweets to somebody mentioning Adam Levine. But hey, if it gets a few more people to a show, who really cares?”

Next month, Tim is turning his reality-show experience into a course to help others who have the same ambition. Entitled “Nailed It: How to Audition for The Voice and Other Vocal Competitions,” the one-day class will be held at Minneapolis’s MacPhail School of Music from 2-4 PM on Sunday, May 5. The cost is $50 and it’s open to hopefuls ages 15 and up. MacPhail voice instructor Andrea Leap will be teaching alongside Tim.

“I had the idea when people were calling and sending me messages asking [about] trying out for The Voice,” he explained. “They would ask, ‘Should I do it?’ One example was Chris Mann from season two. We had a two-hour conversation, and I told him he should try out and stick to his Josh Groban vocal style. He did just that and came in fourth place.”

In his MacPhail class, Tim will cover not only the obvious aspects of reality competition, such as song choice and performance, but also other less-discussed parts, such as the business and legal issues that await should you happen to make it onto TV. Anyone who’s interested in the course can find more information at Tim’s website (timmahoney.com).

While he may not have won The Voice, the longtime working musician has carved out a steady workload for himself. So what will make him consider his career worth it? “I think as you get older, those [things] change a little bit. At least with me they did,” he said. “You start to look at the reality of it. I’ve been living for music for awhile and I’ve done well. I started to realize if you can just touch some people, that’s the success.

“I had a woman who came to me about three months ago and said, ‘I love your music, I wonder if I can get it before it comes out,’ and she said the reason why was ‘Because I probably won’t be alive when the CD comes out.’ She has this extremely rare disease and she was hoping to get my new songs before she died,” he continued. “I went and visited with her. I brought my guitar and an unreleased copy of this new record, played some songs for her. And she still is alive, she didn’t think she would be. But it was kind of surreal. She said that day kind of made part of her life complete. That’s making it.”

Shine Through is now available on iTunes and through other music retailers. For more information on Tim Mahoney, you can visit his official website or follow him on Twitter (@timmahoneymusic).

(c)2013 Brittany Frederick/Big Red Chairs. Excerpts appear at Starpulse and Examiner with permission. All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted. Visit my official website and follow me on Twitter at @bigredchairs.

Artist Interviews: Christian Porter, Jess Kellner, Vedo

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The Voice - Season 4

Did you enjoy last week’s premiere of The Voice? After we watched them make the coaches’ chairs turn on Monday, BFTV spoke with several of the incoming artists from the blind auditions, so that you could get to know them a little better. Here are some words from Team Blake’s Christian Porter, Team Usher’s Jess Kellner, and Team Usher’s Vedo.

“The experience is absolutely amazing, very surprising, but I’m very grateful to be where I’m at,” said bar musician Christian, who can be found on Twitter at @porterchristian. “I never expected it to blow up on Twitter and Facebook and social media the way it has. But at the end of the day, I’m very excited.”

He turned heads – and chairs – with a very different arrangement of the hit “Sexy and I Know It,” and he wants Voice fans to know where the idea for that unique rendition came from. “The version was influenced by a YouTube star by the name of Noah Guthrie. And I didn’t necessarily steal it from him in any way, I took his version and I covered his version,” he explained. “I didn’t cover LMFAO’s ‘Sexy and I Know It,’ I covered Noah Guthrie’s version of ‘Sexy and I Know It.’ That’s where the whole concept of the song came from. But I really took it into my hands in a way, really worked with the band, and definitely made it my own.”

To commemorate his making it onto The Voice, Christian got together with his loved ones at the bar where he’s been performing. “We actually had a nice little viewing party,” he said. “All my family and friends and all my extended family at the bar, they all came out and supported me and we all watched it on the big screen.”

For Jess, whose version of ‘Can’t Help Falling In Love’ earned her a spot on Team Usher, “This experience has far exceeded anything I could have ever even thought up in my head! [It's] so wonderful to have people support me and believe in my dream,” she said. “The last 24 hours have been nuts. Going from 94 twitter friends to over 2000 in a night was just insanity. It’s been wonderful to have people reach out to me and lift me up. And we had a little watch party at my house with some of my closest friends!”

In the video package during her blind audition, she discussed how she’s been balancing her musical aspirations with her hairstyling career, and Jess shed a little more light on just how hard she’s been working to make her dreams come true. “Before The Voice, I worked on average five days a week during the day as a hairdresser, and would have gigs at night throughout the week,” she explained. “It was super tiring to stay out till 3 and wake up [for] work at 7 consecutively!”

You can find Jess on Twitter (@JessicaKellner3), and she also wants to invite Voice fans to check out the website of her band, Jess and the Echoes (jechomusic.com). “I have a single out on my website called ‘Time Traveler Song.’ It relates to my story on The Voice and paints a picture of the struggles I’ve been through,” she said. “It’s a very lovely song and it’s near and dear to my heart.”

What’s going to make Jess feel her time on The Voice has been a success? “I consider this whole experience a success in itself,” she continued. “Just making it to the top 48 out of 60,000 people is an enormous accomplishment. I’m proud [to get] this far and will continue to try and succeed even further.”

Joining her on Team Usher is Vedo, whose take on Justin Bieber’s “Boyfriend” impressed the man credited with discovering Bieber. “My experience on The Voice so far [is] much more than I envisioned. It has been very overwhelming but in a good way,” he said. “When a snippet of my blind audition aired, my Twitter mentions [and] Facebook notifications were being flooded, along with all the calls and texts I was receiving at one time. I loved it.”

“My last 24 hours since the premiere have been wonderful,” explained the R&B singer, who is on Twitter at @VedoTheSinger and also has videos on YouTube under the same username. “Several people have already recognized me from the show. Usher mentioned and followed me on Twitter. Christina Millan sub-tweeted me! My Twitter went up 4,000-plus followers in a matter of 24 hours, Facebook likes went up dramatically, and my Instagram likes as well. So I’ve been a celeb for the last 24 hours. “

Vedo’s biggest supporter is his mother, whom he spoke quite a bit about during blind auditions, and he shared with us some of the lessons he’s learned from her. “My mother has been a major inspiration for me, and some of the most valuable things she has taught me are [to] keep God first, do right by people, never give up, go after your dream and stop at nothing. Don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t do something.”

So what does he hope to learn while being mentored Usher? “A few things I want to learn from my coach [are] how to stay relevant when the industry changes so much, how to stand out, how to convey emotion no matter what kind of song you sing,” he said, “and what is it going take to win the competition?”

Find out who else will join Christian, Jess and Vedo as The Voice continues its blind auditions tonight and Tuesday at 8 PM ET/PT on NBC.

For more on The Voice and its artists, you can visit BFTV’s dedicated The Voice blog, Big Red Chairs.

(c)2013 Brittany Frederick/Big Red Chairs. Excerpts appear at Starpulse and Examiner with permission. All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted. Visit my official website and follow me on Twitter at @bigredchairs.

Artist Update: Team Cee Lo’s Todd Kessler

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The Voice - Season 3

Todd Kessler may not have made it past the battle rounds in Season 3 of NBC’s The Voice, but he left the audience wanting more from the soulful singer. Thankfully, Todd and his band The New Folk are busy in 2013, and Todd recently connected with BFTV to reflect on his time as a member of Team Cee Lo and tell me what’s in store for the future – including whether or not he’ll reunite with Nicholas David.

Todd made a huge impression on Voice fans when he teamed with eventual third-place finisher Nicholas for an outstanding version of the Hall and Oates classic “She’s Gone.” If you need a reminder of Todd’s time on the show – or just want to relive that fantastic duet – you can check out the performance in full below.

How did Todd get to that moment? He earned his degree in Music Theory and Composition in 2005, and immediately got started on his career. “The day after graduation I was in the recording studio starting week on my first album [2006's We Are The Musicmakers],” he explained. “Right after school I really hit the ground running. I had been playing for quite awhile professionally on and off, and then about a year after I graduated, right around the time I finished my album, I went full-time.

“The Voice happened because I had some friends tell me about the show after the first season. I was a little skeptical because I never liked American Idol and never saw myself going down that path,” he continued. Todd was eventually persuaded to try out for the show’s second season, and “I made a couple callbacks but didn’t end up making it to the blind auditions. But then I went out again for Season 3.”

“I went into it really knowing that I had no idea what I was getting myself into,” he said of his experience on the series. “I went into it with a completely open mind and with the mindset that I’m just going to enjoy the ride. That being said, you definitely hear stories from other shows. You hear the nightmares of reality TV. You think ‘I really hope it’s not like that.’ And it wasn’t. Everyone from the PA’s to the casting to the producers, they treat everyone with such respect and treat everyone as artists. I was actually very plwasantly surprised at how well we were treated.”

Although his time on The Voice was relatively short, Todd has benefited from the experience both professionally and personally. When it comes to his career, “I’ve definitely seen a difference,” he said, even though he was also montaged during the blind audition phase. “I had released an album right before I was on The Voice [2012's Sea Fever], so I already had that going for me, but I have noticed a difference – more fans at my shows, definitely a lot more press. What The Voice did, it kind of gave me a story if you will. It gave something for people to latch onto.”

While he says the show’s producers did a “really good job” of getting his personal story out during the battle rounds, there’s one part that he wishes would’ve made it to air. “I’m an identical twin,” he revealed. “I think it would’ve been cool for people to see us together and see our relationship. One day on set during the blind auditions, we were doing some preliminary reality filming and my brother and my wife were kind of waiting around [while] I was over in hair and makeup, and one of the main producers walked by my brother and said,’”Todd, what are you doing?’”

What is Todd doing? He and his band The New Folk are hitting the road, and they’ve launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise the funds to buy themselves a van for their touring. They hit their $3,000 goal yesterday, but fans can still contribute until noon PST on Tuesday, and every pledge helps the band with other expenses. “Whatever money we raise is really going to help us out,” Todd said.

That’s not the only way his fans can support this tremendously underrated performer. “Just as an artist we appreciate so much when people share our posts or our videos. Any support we can get is so huge because there is so much competition out there and so much noise out there on the Internet,” he continued. “Any help we get from our fans is what makes us better artists and gets us out there to more people.”

You might even hear that much-requested collaboration between him and Nicholas in the future. “We talk about it every time we speak on the phone which is pretty regularly considering we both have new babies at home,” Todd said. “He’s still kind of working out what his obligations are being a finalist [on The Voice], and what he can and can’t do in terms of playing and recording music. I’m going up to Minneapolis this summer for some gigs and so we’ve been talking about doing something. It’s just a matter of logistics.” Fingers crossed that we’ll be hearing a lot more of Todd’s amazing voice in the future.

Todd and The New Folk are heading out on tour. You can find more information at their official website, follow Todd on Twitter (@toddkessler), and visit his YouTube channel. You can also give the band a listen by checking out the music video below.

(c)2013 Brittany Frederick/Big Red Chairs. Excerpts appear at Starpulse and Examiner with permission. All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted. Visit my official website and follow me on Twitter at @bigredchairs.

Episode Postmortem: Season 3 Finale

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The Voice - Season 3NBC has crowned its third ‘The Voice’ in just over a year – and on Tuesday evening, the winner, the runners-up and the coaches joined Big Red Chairs on the red carpet to give their final thoughts about the junior season of the hit series.

Team Blake’s pop-rocker Cassadee Pope was named the winner of the competition at the end of Tuesday night’s season finale, joining previous winners Javier Colon from Team Adam in Season 1 and Jermaine Paul from Team Blake in Season 2.

Her win was expected by most of America – and also by her fellow finalists, teammate Terry McDermott and Team Cee Lo’s Nicholas David. “Absolutely,” said Terry when asked if he had thought Cassadee would take home the title. “I think the biggest reason we had that feeling was because her songs had been reaching such a large cross-section of the public. Her continually crushing iTunes speaks volumes for itself.”

“She deserves it,” he continued. “The right person’s won.”

Added Nicholas, “I had a feeling i was going to go a long time ago – but I never looked at it like a competition. I’ve always just been blessed to be here.”

Even Cassadee, who previously stated that she tried not to be affected by the buzz, said she felt confident in her chances. “At one point I felt like ‘Okay, this could become a reality,’” she said. “I actually felt that back when ‘Over You; got to number one. I was like, ‘If this keeps happening I might have a shot.’”

It proved to be just one of her many charting iTunes hits that helped deliver her the title – as those iTunes downloads which were in the Top 10 singles chart at the close of each round of voting had their total number of downloads (which then translated directly into votes) multiplied by ten.

Her coach, Blake Shelton, had plenty to say about Cassadee’s victory and how he would continue to support her after the show, as he has done with many of his artists throughout the history of The Voice. “She knows that this doesn’t end with the finale of The Voice, [our] relationship,” he told reporters. “I don’t want to make one dime off of her in my life, but i do want to see her go on to be a superstar and end up in relationships in this business that are the best for her.

“If I’ve got to get in the way of something that she doesn’t like or she doesn’t agree with, then I will because I’m her friend,” he continued. “I’m her friend, I’m Terry’s friend, and I will be until the day I die. I just want to see them do whatever it is they dream of doing because they’re good people and they deserve it.”

His fellow coaches Adam Levine and Christina Aguilera – who celebrated her birthday on Tuesday – also weighed in on Team Blake taking the title for the second straight season. “It’s not about did the right person win,” said Christina. “I just think that she kept improving week by week and I think we all recognized that.”

Agreed Adam, “It was her moment. Cassadee excelled at the best times. We’re really happy, even though it’s not our team, we’re happy for Cassadee.

“We chose Cassadee, too, she just didn’t choose us,” he quipped. “We all chose the winner, damn it.”

The coaches closed the season with one final performance reflecting on their three seasons together. As previously revealed in September, Christina and Cee Lo will not be part of The Voice Season 4. They will be replaced by Shakira and Usher respectively.

However, both Christina and Cee Lo are on record as saying they want to return for Season 5, as the series has been renewed through that fifth cycle, which is expected air in the fall of 2013.

What’s next for each of the three finalists? “I’m going to release something quick,” said Cassadee, who asked her fans to support the new music she’ll put out.. “I have to, and it’s going to be great.” You can keep up with her on Twitter at @CassadeePope.

“I’m going home,” said Minnesota native Nicholas, who has family time and Christmas shopping on his to-do list, as “I haven’t really had time to do anything except the show.” He can be found on Twitter at @thefeelin.

“I’ve always been motivated by new music and being part of it and creating it,” said Terry, who added that he has “an idea and direction” for what he wants to do next. His Twitter handle is @TerryMacMusic.

All three artists reflected on the many accomplishments they’d achieved through being part of The Voice‘s third season. “There’s so many, from the chair turning to meeting all the people,” said Nicholas. “Meeting Cee Lo, to sing with Cee Lo, meeting Bill Withers, to sing with Smokey Robinson. it’s a freaking adventure of a lifetime and that’s the truth.”

“I’ve been lucky enough to meet some wonderful people along this ride and really form relationships with some great people,” concurred Terry. “It’s made it such a pleasurable journey. there’s been nothing negative about this experience.”

Cassadee was able to perform with her musical idol, Avril Lavigne, and remarked that “I met her and she just blew my mind with how nice she was and how thankful she was to have me there.”

Still, she added, she’s ready to see what the music world has in store for her next. “I’m absolutely happy to move onto the next chapter,” she added.

The Voice returns in just over three months – Season 4 premieres on March 25, 2013.

For more from Brittany Frederick on The Voice, visit Big Red Chairs and follow me on Twitter (@bigredchairs).

(c)2012 Brittany Frederick/Big Red Chairs. Appears at Starpulse and Examiner with permission. All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted.

Episode Postmortem: Season 3 Performance Finale

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The Voice - Season 3The Voice is less than 24 hours away from crowning a Season 3 winner. As they waited for America’s votes, finalists Terry McDermott, Cassadee Pope and Nicholas David joined Big Red Chairs on the carpet to share their thoughts.

The evening started with a touching tribute to the victims of the recent Newtown, CT school shooting, as the Voice coaches joined their live show finalists, host Carson Daly and social media correspondent Christina Milian for a rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” while holding placards with the names and ages of the victims. If you missed that opening performance, you can view it here.

The tragedy also affected Cassadee later in the evening, during her repeat performance of Blake Shelton’s hit “Over You,” as the artists were asked to reprise their top renditions of the season. “I connected with it even more now because I was thinking about Connecticut and how horrible that is and losing people,” she said afterward. “I was thinking about that.”

The show had to go on, however, and the artists made the most of it with a trio of new performances as well as duets with their coaches. “[The night] started off on a somber note but we’ve got to celebrate life while we have it,” said Nicholas. “I was excited to end [my run on] the show like that. [A] piano was on fire, things were blowing up, people were hanging from trapezes, there’s a mini Cee Lo. It was too cool.”

Going out on a big note was definitely his intention. “After last week’s performance being so stripped down and emotionally raw, I was like ‘Let’s just blow some stuff up,’” he continued. “Let’s go for it.”

Another surprise on Monday night was Adam Levine guesting on Blake Shelton and Terry’s performance of Aerosmith’s “Dude Looks Like A Lady” – with the shirtless Maroon 5 front man channeling Axl Rose. According to Terry, Adam’s wardrobe choice (or lack thereof) wasn’t part of the plan.

“I have no idea,” he said when asked where it came from. “All the way through rehearsals, he had a shirt on. There was no headband. There was nothing. So that was a surprise to us. That’s why when I looked over, Blake is laughing his ass off, and I’m like ‘Really, what the hell’s going on here?’”

“We had great fun with that,” he added. “It was just a nice little touch. we were having great fun in rehearsal but that just finished it off.”

Terry was shocked when Blake revealed that his father, Terry McDermott Sr., had flown to Los Angeles to support his son in the finale. “To have him in the room to feel the atmosphere, to see the action, it was wonderful,” he said, though he added that his heart might be a little weak after all the surprise appearances from his loved ones over the season. “I was like, you could just put me through an assault course or an endurance test, you don’t have to keep wheeling out family members,” he quipped.

With their final performances in the books, all the three artists can do is wait for America to vote and crown a winner. Cassadee is the favorite to win if you listen to Internet buzz, but not necessarily if you ask her. “I try not to let it affect me because I feel like the moment you get comfortable in this situation, the moment it bites you in the ass a little bit,” she explained. “It’s been a great encouragement and it makes me feel good, but I’ve always kind of been my worst critic.”

Never having looked at the series as a competition, Nicholas was just enjoying the experience. “This has been the adventure of a lifetime,” he reflected, “but I’m excited to close the chapter on this adventure and start a new book. I felt this was a good way to end it.”

Teammates Cassadee and Terry are now head-to-head, but Cassadee added that it’s not an uncomfortable experience to compete against her friend. “It’s not weird at all because we’re individuals,” she said. “Our coach makes us feel very special individually. He doesn’t do favoritism or anything like that. There’s never been a weird moment.”

“Frankly, we’ve never really been that competitive,” agreed Terry, who could have summed up the entirety of the Voice season as he said, “We get on so well, and the way we’ve always viewed it is you just leave it on the stage and then other people decide. Nobody’s trying to sabotage or be negative. We want the best for each other and if you win, it’s because you deserve to.”

The season 3 winner will be revealed as The Voice wraps up its two-night Season 3 finale Tuesday at the special time of 9 PM ET/PT on NBC.

For more from Brittany Frederick on The Voice, visit Big Red Chairs and follow me on Twitter (@bigredchairs).

(c)2012 Brittany Frederick/Big Red Chairs. Appears at Starpulse and Examiner with permission. All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted.

Episode Postmortem: Season 3 Live Shows, Night 13

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The Voice - Season 3After a shortened semifinal performance show on Monday, The Voice sent one more contestant home on Tuesday.

Team Cee Lo’s Trevin Hunte – who had been an early favorite to take the title – was the unlucky man out, and both he and Voice host Carson Daly joined Big Red Chairs on the red carpet after his elimination was revealed.

“This has been the best experience for me in my whole entire life,” said Trevin. “I always say that I didn’t expect to make it this far, even past the blind auditions, so to have made it to the top 4 has been a great accomplishment for me.”

“I would have to say that I prepared myself for something like this,” he continued, adding that he wasn’t brokenhearted about leaving the competition. “I’m definitely super, super excited. I have an opportunity to relax and to see how things go on the other side as far as watching my fellow team member Nicholas [David] perform. I can’t complain. I’ll be here for the week and I’ll get to see Cassadee [Pope], Terry [McDermott] and Nicholas perform at the finale.”

He also had some parting words for his fans. “I just want to thank my fans so much,” he said. “Words can’t even begin to thank them. They’ve been so strong and they’ve been so passionate about me. I definitely thank them and I appreciate everything they’ve done for me.”

You can keep up with Trevin Hunte on Twitter (@Tamor_11).

Was Carson Daly surprised by Trevin’s dismissal? “A little bit,” the host admitted. “I didn’t know how it was going to all come down. I might have thought that Trevin was going to get saved, if I’m being completely honest with you. I’m not surprised that Nicholas is in the top three because he’s awesome, but just thinking about the fact that an R&B artist won these last few years, I was kind of thinking that maybe Trevin would have it.”

As far as what he enjoys most about being the master of ceremonies for the show, he said that “Just to be with regular folks is nice – people who I can relate to who love music like I do. I was a radio DJ not that long ago and made $18,000 when I was 24. I still can relate to the common person so I think for me to do the blind auditions where I’m in there with the families and grabbing the moms’ arms is what I love about the show the most. The journey of being with them, making them feel comfortable on a red carpet and a fake environment in Hollywood is something that I actually really enjoy about the job.”

In addition to being the host of The Voice, Daly is also known for using his radio show and late-night NBC talk show to help artists who have appeared on the series, no matter how far they advance in the competition. “I just had Jamar Rogers on my show to try and give him a little help with his promotion. He’s doing really great. He lives in LA now. It’s great to have Juliet [Simms] and RaeLynn and those guys are obviously doing well. Chris Mann is doing well,” he explained.

“At this point with Fallon and Kimmel and Leno and Letterman, there are so many places in late night where all the arrived celebrities can go and chitchat,” he added. “I really like my show to be about trying to help people still make that pursuit. My door is always wide open.”

He also pointed out something that stood out to him about The Voice‘s Final 4. “We’re not talking about somebody that stood in line at the Staples Center because they wanted to be on a singing competition to become famous,” he said. “We’re talking about people that care about music.”

Cassadee Pope, Terry McDermott and Nicholas David remain in the running to be named ‘The Voice’ for Season 3. The final performance show airs next Monday at 8 PM ET/PT on NBC.

For more from Brittany Frederick on The Voice, visit Big Red Chairs and follow me on Twitter (@bigredchairs).

(c)2012 Brittany Frederick/Big Red Chairs. Appears at Starpulse and Examiner with permission. All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted.

Episode Postmortem: Season 3 Live Shows, Night 11

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The Voice - Season 3

The Voice may have only one coach standing by the time the show reaches its December 17-18 finale.

Tuesday night, Big Red Chairs talked with the two artists who were eliminated from the NBC singing competition, and with their dismissal another coach was also knocked out of contention. Adam Levine saw both his remaining artists – Melanie Martinez and Amanda Brown – sent home after the results of America’s vote were revealed.

Coaches Blake Shelton and Cee Lo Green each have two artists still up for The Voice grand prize, but with two more singers being eliminated next week, it’s possible that either of them could also be left without anyone in the race.

For his part, although he has half the competing field on his team, Shelton isn’t taking it easy. “Even though two coaches are eliminated, I’m not changing anything,” he said Tuesday night. “It’s listening that got Team Blake here and that’s what’s going to keep us here hopefully, is communicating with each other and being sure that when we do pick a song, it’s for a really good reason. It needs to be something that they’re passionate about every time they go on that stage.”

Melanie Martinez said afterward that she wasn’t surprised by her elimination. “Me and Amanda are really close, so we kind of felt it today. We felt that we were both leaving, and we felt really bad because we’re like ‘we’re both on Team Adam and he’s got nobody left,’” she said with a laugh, but added, “I think it’s not really about that. I think it’s just genuinely about being yourself and just showing who you are as an artist on the show.”

She added that she benefited from having The Voice come along at such an early point in her career. “I think that this is an amazing opportunity and I’ve grown as an artist because of the people like Amanda who’ve been through so much,” she said. “They’ve definitely taught me a lot.”

You can continue to keep up with Melanie via Twitter (@MelanieLBBH).

“I don’t feel any kind of negativity in regards to this entire experience,” reflected Amanda Brown. “I made it to the Top 6 and I feel like it was just a tremendous accomplishment for me. There’s nothing but love and positivity and hope for the future.”

“I feel really proud of those performances and really proud of the decisions that I made. I really left my all on the stage last night and so I don’t think I would have changed anything,” she continued. “I’ve definitely learned a lot about myself along this entire journey and I feel like the lessons that I’ve learned I most definitely will take with me.”

What will she take away personally from The Voice? “Definitely being able to work with Cee Lo and Adam was an amazing opportunity,” she said, “and just to be in the company of such talented young artists. I feel both honored and excited for their journey and excited for mine.”

You can continue to keep up with Amanda via Twitter (@Amanda__Brown).

Their coach was philosophical about Tuesday’s results. “You know, you win things and you lose things. If you win everything all the time, then you wouldn’t be human. It’s kind of how you respond to the losing and tweak things and change things and come back that much stronger for understanding the dynamics of whatever failures you make,” Levine said.

“No one failed. That’s what’s really crazy,” he continued. “So they didn’t get the $53,000 after taxes and the really crazy weird record deal that they are already going to get anyway. Those six people are winners and every single one of them should be proud for however much further they make it in the competition.

“I think actually, there are so many amazing allegiances that have been formed on the show that are so great that, that is the saddest thing to see end – the camaraderie amongst artists.

“It’s on to a new chapter for these guys,” he added. “Listen, the winner has to go home too. People don’t realize that. The winner probably experiences the biggest culture shock when they say to themselves, ‘Now what?’ The winner still has to go home. Don’t forget that.”

Cassadee Pope, Terry McDermott, Nicholas David and Trevin Hunte remain.

The Voice continues next Monday at 8 PM ET/PT on NBC.

For more from Brittany Frederick on The Voice, visit Big Red Chairs and follow me on Twitter (@bigredchairs).

(c)2012 Brittany Frederick/Big Red Chairs. Appears at Starpulse and Examiner with permission. All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted.

Episode Postmortem: Season 3 Live Shows, Night 7

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The Voice Season 3 is now down to eight.

The NBC competition series narrowed down its field by cutting another two vocalists on Tuesday night. Those two were Team Adam’s Bryan Keith and Team Christina’s Sylvia Yacoub, who joined Big Red Chairs on the red carpet afterward to discuss their eliminations.

An emotional Sylvia, who put off attending law school for music, said she had no doubt it was the right decision for her. “It’s scary to put a stop on school to achieve your dreams and I’m really happy. I love music so much that I couldn’t let it go. I don’t regret anything. I’m so happy with everything I’ve done and gone through and how much I’ve grown,” she explained.

“There’s so many things I learned about myself that I never would’ve learned without this show, without meeting these people, without working with my coach. I realize that I can go out there and I have a voice and I can make a difference and I can use music to do that.”

Looking past the show, “I’m really excited to kind of go out now and put out my own music. I write music and I’m really lyric-loving and I love analyzing lyrics. You still want to go out and be an artist and create your own stuff,” she said, adding that fans should keep an eye on YouTube for more from her.

Even though it wasn’t enough to save her, Sylvia doesn’t regret a thing about her performance from Monday night: “I left it all out there and it was the first time I went on stage and didn’t let the nerves get to me,” she said.

You can continue to support Sylvia by following her on Twitter (@sylvsyacoub) and visiting her Facebook page (Facebook.com/SylvsYacoub).

Sylvia’s departure means that Team Christina has only one artist remaining in the competition: Dez Duron.

Team Adam lost its first member of the Top 12 this week, as America sent home Bryan Keith, who turned four chairs during his blind audition and had been a consistently strong performer throughout Season 3.

Like Sylvia, he had no regrets about the way in which he exited the show. “I went out doing something that I love. Singing a Billy Joel song was an honor,” he said. “I’m just happy. I’m going to go home and watch all the videos over again and just enjoy the memories of being here.”

What are some of those memories he’ll treasure from his time on The Voice? “Just everything behind the scenes with my friends, the people that I met,” he continued. “Everyone’s so talented. People that didn’t get to move on in the competition, they had way more to offer than they got to. Those are the things I hold onto the most.”

As for Bryan’s next moves, he told fans to “Just look out for any music I’m going to be putting out, the shows I’m going to be doing.”

You can continue to support Bryan by following him on Twitter (@BryanPeeps) and visiting his Facebook page (Facebook.com/BryanKeithNYC).

The results show featured a performance by Team Christina with their coach – which you can view using the media player attached to this article – as well as a performance by Team Adam with coach Adam Levine, a fan-selected number by Teams Blake and Christina, and a special appearance by country hitmakers Rascal Flatts, who also popped by the red carpet after the show.

What’s next for them? “Sleep’s going to be great,” said lead singer Gary LeVox. Added his bandmate Jay DeMarcus, “We’re actually going to do the CMT Artist of the Year Awards with Hayden Panettiere, and that’s going to be fun co-hosting with her, and then we’re coming back out here to Los Angeles to film our own Christmas special called Home for the Holidays with Rascal Flatts.” The special will air on CBS (specific airdate and time TBA).

The trio are also releasing a new DVD, All Access and Uncovered, that will give fans insight into what makes the long-running group tick. “It’s tough to be in a band. When you have three different guys with three different distinct points of view and opinions, it can be very, very tough,” continued Jay. “Part of what our DVD deals with is how we work out those conflicts and how we keep the band together and how we try to approach everything with mutual love and respect for each other.”

Rascal Flatts’ new CD, Changed, is now available.

The Voice continues Monday at 8 PM ET/PT on NBC.

For more from Brittany Frederick on The Voice, visit Big Red Chairs and follow me on Twitter (@bigredchairs).

(c)2012 Brittany Frederick/Big Red Chairs. Appears at Starpulse and Examiner with permission. All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted.