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By
Krista

Interview with singers from "The Voice" on
NBC 10/21/15
NBC UNIVERSAL
Moderator: Shauna Wynne
October 21, 2015 1:00 pm CT
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by.
Welcome to the Voice Advancing Artists Press and Media
Conference Call. During the presentation all participants
will be in a listen-only mode. We will conduct a question
and answer session.
At that time, if you have a question, please press the 1
followed by the 4 on your telephone. If at any time during
the conference you need to reach an operator, please press
star 0.
As a reminder, this conference is being recorded Wednesday,
October 21, 2015. I would now like to turn the conference
over to Shauna Wynne. Please go ahead.
Shauna Wynne: Hi everyone. Thanks for joining our call
today. Again, it will be recorded. So if you’d like a
transcript please email me. Joining us
today from Team Adam we have Shelby Brown. From Team Blake
we have Emily Ann Roberts and Nadjah Nicole. From Team
Pharrell we have Amy Vachal, Darius Scott, and Morgan
Frazier. Summer Schappell from Team Gwen is currently not on
the line, however I’ll let you know if she joins.
Out of respect for all journalists queuing up, please only
ask one question at a time and also please designate an
artist to answer your question first if you’re asking to the
general group. I will now turn the call over to the question
and answer section.
Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like
to register a question, please press the 1 followed by the 4
on your telephone. You will hear a three-toned prompt to
acknowledge your request.
If your question has been answered and you would like to
withdraw your registration, please press the 1 followed by
the 3. If you’re using a speakerphone, please lift your
handset before entering your request.
One moment please for the first question.
And our first question comes from the line of (Joshua
Maloney) from Niagara Frontier Publications. Please proceed
with your question.
Joshua Maloney: Thank you. My question is for Amy. Amy,
how are you today?
Amy Vachal: Hi (Joshua). Good. How are you?
Joshua Maloney: Good, thank you. So Pharrell comes up to
you and he tells you I’m putting you up against not one but
two talented singers. I’m wondering what is the thought
process. And it was a really good performance. How did it
come together as well as it did?
Amy Vachal: Well, we went through - my mentality changed
throughout from the start of finding out that I was singing
against not one but two people for this duet - singing a
duet with a duet. At first I was like - I was excited by it
because I’m still getting used to this whole battle
mentality, that there’s a winner and a loser at the end of
each of these rounds.
So at first I was really excited, and then once we started
digging into it I realized just how challenging it actually
was going to be, especially because not only our - there’s
two of them and one of me, but we come from very different
backgrounds and our styles are very different.
But I eventually came to embrace the challenge, and I think
we all realize that this is an opportunity. It was a little
bit weird that we were paired together. It was an
opportunity to make something unique and new. So ultimately
I’m grateful that we had this unique challenge.
Joshua Maloney: Okay, thanks. Good luck to you.
Amy Vachal: Thank you.
Operator: And ladies and gentlemen, just to let you know
that from Team Gwen Summer Schappell has now joined the
conference as well. And our next question comes from the
line of (Mark Franklin) from Voice Views. Please proceed
with your question.
Mark Franklin: Summer got there just in time because I’d
like to hear from the three singers we didn’t get to see
last night. Summer that would be you, Nadjah, and Darius.
Basically I’d like each of you to tell us what we missed --
how you felt about your song, your strategy going into the
battle, and what you think you might have turned the tide in
your favor. And if we could start off with Nadjah, please...
Nadjah Nicole: Hi, Nadjah. So at first we got our songs -
when I found out I was paired with Cole it was pretty cool
because I’ve never really done a duet before. And I had to
first learn how to really connect with my partner and Cole
was such an easygoing guy and so talented that he made it
really easy to work together.
And then the song - it was surprising because not only was
it a Britney Spears song, but then to do the Ed Sheeran
cover of it - it was a little awkward at first because I
didn’t know how to approach it. But because Cole played
guitar, it was a lot easier to work things out vocally with
him and harmonies and everything.
So during the battle you just saw me move around the stage
more. You saw us connect, looking at each other, working
with each other on the stage. Vocally it was such an honor
to work with Cole because he has such a beautiful voice. And
he definitely challenged me because I don’t have a very big
voice. I’m not like in your face and Cole’s voice - when
pushed he has a very strong voice. So I had to make sure
that I was on his level and as well as him blending with me.
He had to make sure that we blended well.
So even though I won, I will say that we both won in a sense
because we both learned something from each other. And I
think the end result was pretty cool. If you listen to the
recorded version on YouTube, I think it sounds beautiful.
And that’s pretty much it.
Mark Franklin: And what do you think actually turned the
tide in your favor?
Nadjah Nicole: I’m sorry? I didn’t hear what you said.
Shauna Wynne: (Mark), can you repeat yourself, please?
Mark Franklin: Nadjah, I was just asking you to finish
that by telling me what you think turned the tide in your
favor.
Nadjah Nicole: I guess the only thing that I could say would
be experience, vocally. He’s sixteen, seventeen and I’m
twenty-four and I’ve been doing this a lot longer. I think
that - I can’t say that I’m better or he’s better because
we’re both great artists. We’re both great singers. But if
anything, I guess maybe it was that I’m more experienced.
Mark Franklin: Okay. Thank you very much. And then if we
could go to Summer, please.
Summer Schappell: Hi there.
Mark Franklin: Hi.
Summer Schappell: Well, I sang with Hannah Ashbrook. We sang
“Leave the Pieces” by The Records. And I think a lot of
people thought that maybe because it was more of a country
song and it was more in my wheelhouse, yes, that I maybe had
more of an edge. But Hannah actually has this way with
making a song her own and she’s an indie artist. So she made
it sound incredible and I was so nervous singing with her.
And she just brought so much to the table and it really
freaked me out. And I think we really, really kicked some
butt on that song. And I wish you all could have seen it.
But I think, I guess, your question - what was the question
about why - what was your last question about? Why you think
I won or...
Mark Franklin: Yes. What type of feedback you got and why
do you think you were ultimately picked as the singer to
advance?
Summer Schappell: Well, I think - this is really hard
because Hannah and I both were - did really well and she’s
such a great singer. But I think with me I was a little more
confident and I think that showed. And in our rehearsals,
Gwen had both talked to us about how we need to connect more
emotionally to the songs. And I think my confidence showed
more on stage and I think that’s maybe why Gwen had chose
me.
Mark Franklin: Okay, thank you very much. And then if we
could go to Darius, please. Can you tell us about...
Darius Scott: Hi. So I battled against Daria Jasmine and we
had a very simple song, but we all know that sometimes the
simple things can make things really difficult. And we had
the Bill Withers song “Lean on Me,” and while the song
really only has three or four chords, it’s how to sing it
and share it that me and Daria had the most fun figuring
out.
I think Daria’s a consummate performer. I don’t have the -
I’m pretty shy, so I don’t’ have the same confidence level
that Daria has. And that was one of the critiques that you
guys didn’t get to see last night, that Pharrell really
wanted me to dig in and connect more to the song. And it
wasn’t - for me it wasn’t that I had trouble connecting with
the song. It was a little more I was a little shy about it
all.
But to answer your question as to why I - why the tide swung
in my favor, I think I just decided once I got my original
critiques from Pharrell - I decided to dive in from, I guess
-- to echo Nadjah’s point -- from the place of experience.
And I’ve been singing that song for so long that I just had
to remember that it’s just like any other time I sing a
song.
And that’s the way I approached it. You hear in the record I
kind of sang pretty true to the melody except for toward the
end of the song when the band was wrapping up. And I just
decided in that moment to have fun with it and I think
Pharrell was pretty pleased with me being willing to break
out of my little shy shell. And I think that’s one of the
reasons he chose me.
Mark Franklin: Okay, thank you very much. Congratulations
to all three of you and best of luck moving forward.
Darius Scott: Thank you.
Summer Schappell: Thank you.
Operator: And our next question comes from the line of (Earl
Dittman) with Digital Journal. Please proceed with your
question.
Earl Dittman: Hi, this is for Shelby. Just wanted to talk
to you a little bit about the interaction between you, Adam,
and John Fogerty. How much did John contribute to - or what
was the best lesson John - or advice he gave you during your
time with him?
Shelby Brown: I think a lot of what they wanted to work on
with me was my confidence, especially not just with the song
but - I expressed that I was worried about the timing. And
John Fogerty uses a lot of his own personal experiences to
teach. I found that out.
And so he told a couple stories, but made me feel a little
bit better that he’s so successful and he is the legend that
he is. And he’s messed up and he’s dealt with the same
things that I have. So he was very reassuring and I’m really
thankful that I got to learn from him.
Earl Dittman: What would be the most surprising thing - we
know a lot about Adam as a person from the show and as a
performer. What would you think would be the most surprising
thing you’ve learned about him as a person after all the
time you spent with him? Something you would have never
thought about. Like gosh, I never thought he would have been
like that. Or something really quirky he does.
Shelby Brown: He’s definitely a major man child to be
around, but when it comes to music he’s extremely passionate
and he’s extremely serious. And the man’s very smart and he
knows what he’s talking about. And I really appreciate the
opportunity to work with him.
Earl Dittman: Yes, that’s fantastic. Well congratulations
and keep up the great work.
Shelby Brown: Thank you.
Earl Dittman: Thanks so much.
Operator: And our next question comes from the line of (Jeff
Dodge) with Buddytv.com. Please proceed with your question.
Jeff Dodge: Yes. My question is for Emily Ann Roberts. How
are you?
Emily Ann Roberts: Hi, I’m good. How are you?
Jeff Dodge: I’m doing good. ON the show last night it was
mentioned -- I don’t’ know if it was Adam or someone else --
that your battle pairing was about youth versus experience.
So how do you think that factored into everything?
Emily Ann Roberts: Well, I think definitely that was a major
factor. Morgan is absolutely incredible and she is so much
more experienced than I am. And just because she’s been
doing this for so much longer and - but I think that it
honestly helped me. I learned so much from Morgan throughout
the whole experience too and I think it made me go at it
even harder just because it was a challenge, if that makes
sense.
Jeff Dodge: Yes. Great. Well you sounded great last night,
so good luck going forward.
Emily Ann Roberts: Thank you so much.
Jeff Dodge: Thank you.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, to register
for a question please press the one followed by the four on
your telephone. And our next question comes from the line of
Krista Chain from The TV MegaSite. Please proceed with your
question.
Krista Chain: Yes. My question is for Amy. Going - you’ve
already spoken about it some, but how a challenge it was to
work with Jubal and Amanda. But can you talk a little bit
about how you felt going into the battle as far as - did you
feel like your voice would be overshadowed by theirs? Or how
did you feel going into the battles?
Amy Vachal: Well, throughout the process of preparing for
the battles there’s a lot of changes that you want to make
for your own performance. And on their end, there were
constantly changes that they wanted to make too. So trying
to screw those together to make a cohesive performance was -
added an extra difficulty. And how were we going to make
this cohesive? How were we going to make this sound good?
And in the process of that at times I felt like it was extra
hard for someone like me who tends to want to attack a song
like this from a more stripped down, soulful kind of way.
And so in trying to create this hybrid between our two
styles, the arrangement of this song really required me to
step up in volume, particularly.
So going into the actual battle day I had put in the work. I
had sweat over this song like you wouldn’t believe. I was as
ready as I was going to be. So I knew that whatever the
outcome would be - I knew that I had given it all I had.
So yes, that’s basically what was going through my head
right before I stepped up.
Krista Chain: Well congratulations and good luck.
Shelby Brown: Thank you so much.
Operator: And our next question comes from the line of
(Regina Frega) from Jar Radio. Please proceed with your
question.
Regina Frega: Yes. My question is for Darius Scott. First
of all, congratulations to all of you all and thank you for
allowing us to be on this call today. Darius -- okay. You
being a Texas native and you being on the same team with
Madi Davis, how does it feel to know that you’re going to
have to be going up against her soon?
Darius Scott: Well, I want to correct it. I’m not exactly
from Texas. I live there now. I’m from Atlanta.
Regina Frega: You’re considered a Texan now.
Darius Scott: I know. I’ve been there for a year, but my
parents - they get on me all the time. Make sure you tell
them you’re from Atlanta. But Madi and I are very close. We
- her parents I know just look out for me because they
picked me out of the crowd as the shy one. So they - so when
I was afraid to talk to people, Madi and her mom would just
make me talk, even on days when I was just really nervous to
talk to people.
So it’s nerve-wracking. Like you never want to go against
someone if you care about - and throughout this process,
she’s not the only one. There were several people that I was
terrified about going against. So it’s a little bit crazy
knowing that potential is there and I don’t really know to
say it. We’re very close and we never wanted to
(unintelligible) when you get close.
Regina Frega: So whenever - so has Pharrell given you all
any tips on how to work through those times when you’re
battling against someone you’re so close to? Like has he
helped you all and what tips has he given you all?
Darius Scott: I’m going to be honest. There haven’t really
been any tips on how to deal with the whole battling thing.
At the end of the day we all recognize that it’s a
competition. So it’s - as hard as that may sound, it’s still
a competition and at some point someone’s going to go home
that you really care about.
And I’m sure there are other artists in the competition that
can attest to that fact. Mark and Celeste had to go against
each other. It’s just you hate to see that, but at the end
of the day this is the game we signed up to play. So I would
be super sad if I went up against Madi, but I think we both
understand that it’s a competition. And while I don’t even
want to think about that because it’s really sad, it’s
something that we’ve thought about and something that we’ve
talked about. So yes, I (unintelligible) answer for it.
Regina Frega: Awesome. Thank you so much.
Darius Scott: No, thank you.
Regina Frega: And good luck.
Darius Scott: Thank you.
Operator: And our next question comes from the line of (Mark
Franklin) from Voice Views. Please proceed with your
question.
Mark Franklin: Yes, my question was for Morgan and Emily.
I was wondering if the two of you were surprised at all to
be paired together and how each of you tried to stand out
from the other. And if we could start with you, Emily.
Emily Ann Roberts: Honestly I...
Shauna Wynne: You know what? Emily, I’m so sorry. Would it
be okay if we started with Morgan? Because I know she
actually has to jump off the call fairly soon.
Emily Ann Roberts: Oh yes, that’s fine.
Shauna Wynne: Is that alright? Okay, thanks.
Emily Ann Roberts: Yes, that’s fine.
Mark Franklin: Okay, who are we talking to then?
Shauna Wynne: We’ll start with Morgan.
Mark Franklin: Okay. Alright, fine. Morgan?
Morgan Frazier: I definitely think - sorry, this is Morgan.
I definitely think that whenever - gosh. Me and Emily didn’t
meet until I guess the blinds - after the blinds. I’d always
seen her around the hotel but I hadn’t truly talked to her
and stuff like that. So once I met her after the blinds and
we were both on Team Blake, I was like - I actually told
her, “What do you want to bet that we get - we’re going to
get battled together?”
And she’s like oh, yes, totally. I’m like yes, I foresee it.
And so when we were all sitting in the room and they were
telling us who we were going against, it was no surprise to
me and I think Emily.
Mark Franklin: Then (unintelligible) battle to stand apart
and how were you feeling once she was announced the winner?
Emily Ann Roberts: This is Emily. Was that question for me
or Morgan?
Mark Franklin: That was for Morgan. I wanted to know what
- it was part of the original question, what she tried to do
to stand apart.
Morgan Frazier: I think that I just wanted to really go up
there and just be myself, and make the performance the best
that it could be. And that was my strategy for it because I
wanted me and Emily to go through so bad. And so I really
wasn’t like thinking like what am I going to do to win this
battle? I was thinking let’s make this the best performance
that it could possibly be.
Mark Franklin: Okay, thank you very much and
congratulations on moving forward. And then if we could go
to Emily, please.
Emily Ann Roberts: Hey, this is Emily. I’m here.
Mark Franklin: Okay. So first of all, were you surprised
to be paired with her - with Morgan? And then what did you
do to try to stand out during the performance?
Emily Ann Roberts: I don’t think it was a huge shock to be
paired with Morgan just because we both sing country music
and we’re two blonde country singers. I thought it wasn’t
that big of a surprise that we would be together. And we had
actually talked about it.
So it wasn’t a huge shock to me, but I think definitely like
she said, we were mainly focused on putting on the best
performance that we could do and making that song the best
it could be just because if we had fun and we were content
with our performance, we were going to be happy for whoever
won. Me and Morgan have become so close over this whole
experience.
So I think the main focus was just putting on the best
performance we could.
Mark Franklin: Okay, thank you very much. Congratulations
to both of you.
Emily Ann Roberts: Thank you.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, to register
for a question please press the 1 followed by the 4 on your
telephone.
And we have another question from the line of (Jeff Dodge)
from Buddytv.com. Please proceed with your question.
Jeff Dodge: Yes. Is Morgan still on the call?
Operator: She just dropped off.
Jeff Dodge: Oh, okay.
Shauna Wynne: (Jeff), if you want you can email me and I’ll
get your questions to her.
Jeff Dodge: Okay, thank you.
Operator: And our next question comes from the lien of (Mark
Franklin) from Voice Views. Please proceed with your
question.
Mark Franklin: Okay. This question is for Shelby. Are you
there, Shelby?
Shelby Brown: Hi.
Mark Franklin: Hi. So you wound up singing a rock song
against a rock singer who had fronted a band for a long
time. So I’m wondering how you went about that and what you
did to counter that, and how you think you improved over the
course of the battle.
Shelby Brown: I think my mindset the entire time was - yes,
this is a rock song and yes, Amanda’s a rock singer. But I’m
a country singer and I sing the way I sing. And I’m just
going to sing this song how I would sing this song on any
other day. And I just went out there and I stayed true to
myself, and I worked on my confidence. That’s the biggest
improvement I think I made because I just knew before that -
I was like I don’t know how this is going to end up. I just
know one thing at that stage. I just shut all the negativity
out of my brain and I just stayed true to myself and I was
Shelby on stage. And I think that was evident to Adam.
Mark Franklin: Okay. Well it turned out very well.
Congratulations and best of luck moving forward.
Shelby Brown: Thank you.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, to register
for a question please press the 1 followed by the 4.
And Ms. Wynne there are no further questions.
Shauna Wynne: Alright everyone. Thanks for joining. Again,
if you’d like a transcript, you can email me. Thanks everyone. Enjoy the rest of your
day.
Darius Scott: Thank you.
Woman: Bye-bye. Love you. Thank you.
Woman: Bye.
Woman: Bye.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude the call
for today. We thank you for your participation and ask that
you please disconnect your lines. Have a great day.
END
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