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By Krista

Interview with singers from "The Voice" on NBC 3/1/16

NBC UNIVERSAL
Moderator: Shauna Wynne
March 1, 2016 2:00 pm EST

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Conference Call with Artists Advancing on The Voice. During the presentation all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Afterwards, we’ll 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 Tuesday, March 1, 2016.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Shauna Wynne with The Voice PR team. Please go ahead.

Shauna Wynne: Hi everyone. Thanks for joining today’s conference call with The Voice’s Advancing Artists. Joining us today from Team Adam we have John Gilman and Mike Schiavo. From Team Blake we have Mary Sarah and Paxton Ingram. From Team Christina we have Alisan Porter and Bryan Bautista. From Team Pharell we have Abby Celso and Nick Hagelin. Caity Peters from Team Pharell has not been able to join us but if she dials in I will let you know.

If you’re asking a question to the group at large, please designate one artist to answer first. And, out of respect for all journalists, can we please only ask one question at a time, you will have the option to queue up again for follow up. I will now turn the call over to Q&A.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen if you’d 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’d like to withdraw your registration, please press the 1 followed by the 3. If you’re using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before entering your request. Our first question comes from the line of (Joshua Maloni) with Niagara Frontier Publications. Please go ahead.

Joshua Maloni: Thank you. My question is for Alisan. Alisan congratulations on last night.

Alisan Porter: Thank you.

Joshua Maloni: I’m wondering, you know, I thought you did a great job with that song. And that’s a very hard song to sing. Can you tell us a little bit about why you picked that song? And, also what’s the past 24 hours been like for you? What kinds of reactions? What kinds of responses are you receiving?

Alisan Porter: I chose Blue Bayou because I really wanted to sing a classic. I love songs from that era. I love kind of blending folk, and rock, and country, so I felt like I wanted to sing a classic with all of those elements and that was really something that I thought would work and I love that song.

Also, the past 24 hours have been kind of crazy, amazing. I’ve had just like an amazing outpouring of support. It’s been really incredible and also been really incredible to finally see everybody else’s audition air. And, you know, we’ve been doing this for a while and just kind of the culmination of everything we’ve been working for is happening. And the response has been really positive and amazing.

Joshua Maloni: All right. Looking forward to seeing more of you this season. Thanks.

Alisan Porter: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from the lines of (Nicole Sands) with People Magazine. Please go ahead.

Nicole Sands: Hi Alisan. My question is for you.

Alisan Porter: Hi.

Nicole Sands: Hi. So what does this all mean to you after successfully overcoming addiction, you living your dream now?

Alisan Porter: You know, it’s amazing and, you know, every day I work hard to not, you know, go backwards and keep moving forward and, you know, I just feel very blessed to be here and to be able to be doing what I love.

Nicole Sands: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of (Stephanie Piche) with Mingle Media TV. Please go ahead.

Stephanie Piche: Thank you. Congratulations everyone. My question, you’re welcome, my question I guess can start with Alisan since she’s the picked on person first, and then anyone else who wants to chime in; what have you learned about yourself in this process that surprised you?

Alisan Porter: I think more than anything I learned that I really want to still do this. I was kind of nervous about putting myself back into something so public and going back into a career, especially since I have kids now and I’ve been a stay-at-home mom for 3-1/2 years. You know, I just really enjoy the process and it just kind of fueled the fire again within me.

Any reservations I had just kind of got squashed the second I stepped on the stage to do my blind audition and I just feel super comfortable and excited about going forward.

Stephanie Piche: Great. Thank you. Anyone else?

Mary Sarah: Mary Sarah chiming in; I think the one thing I definitely learned, well there are a couple of things, but the big thing is definitely timing. Like, I couldn’t imagine this happening at any other time in my life, and it’s been such an amazing experience, and also that just hard work if anything it pays off so much and I’ve learned so much about my voice being able to push it past the limits and testing it and seeing how far I can push it and what I am capable of. It’s been such an amazing experience.

Stephanie Piche: Great. Anyone else?

Bryan Bautista: This is Bryan Bautista.

Stephanie Piche: Hi Bryan.

Bryan Bautista: Hi. One thing I wanted to say was, the one thing that I learned about myself was, you know, this time around, you know, after auditioning for season nine, it really humbled myself when I didn’t get any chairs. And, yeah coming back for season ten, I’m kind of glad now that I didn’t make it onto season nine because, you know, it just pushed me that much more and it kind of sparked the fire.

And it just made me realize that, you know, hard work and dedication will always persevere no matter what situation you’re in, so you’ve got to learn to roll with the punches and eventually you’ll succeed. So I’m kind of grateful that I’m on season ten now. Yeah everything’s cool.

Stephanie Piche: Great. Congratulations. Thanks.

Bryan Bautista: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question...

Nick Hagelin: This is Nick Hagelin. This is going to give me the opportunity to be my authentic self, which is something that I didn’t think I could be in this industry and really embrace myself for who I am and the lifestyle I live and have it aligned with my music career. So that’s been a huge blessing for me with this opportunity.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of (Jeff Dodge) with BuddyTV.com. Please go ahead.

Jeff Dodge: Yeah my question is for Mike. How are you Mike?

Mike Schiavo: Hi. I’m good. How are you?

Jeff Dodge: Good. So what was it like to perform with Adam on the show? I mean that must have been a dream come true?

Mike Schiavo: Yeah that was very entertaining. I mean everyone asked me like what I was thinking the whole time and I honestly just kind of blacked out and went on autopilot during that moment. So I’m really lucky that I remembered all of the words and everything. But for real a song about (unintelligible) that was 100 percent the first album I ever really owned and it brought me over into modern music as opposed to all of the older stuff I was listening to at the time. And that was my favorite song “She will be loved,” so it was really an unreal experience getting to sing that with him.

Jeff Dodge: Yeah. Well great, you both sounded great on that and great audition, so good luck going forward.

Mike Schiavo: Thank you so much.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of (Chris Jordan) with Asbury Park Press. Please go ahead.

Chris Jordan: Hey guys congratulations on all of the success so far, and I guess this is a question for John but Mike is involved too. Are you guys comparing notes about Elvis Presley right now? I kind of like how Team Adam has a cool like Elvis Presley vibe going on here.

John Gilman: Oh yeah, definitely. I’m obviously like super inspired by Elvis. He’s one of my heroes and so singing a song was just incredible, and experience I’ll never forget. I know Mike is inspired by him as well so it was cool that we had that common bond and we ended up on the same team together.

Mike Schiavo: Yeah, for sure, I mean before (unintelligible) came into my realm of music Elvis was the main thing that really got me into singing and playing guitar. Before that I was 100 percent a baseball player. I thought I was going to be a baseball player for the rest of my life. And I did a random school report on Elvis and I literally just fell in love with the music and it completely changed by life.

Chris Jordan: I just listened to him just before I got on the phone with you guys.

Mike Schiavo: Awesome!

Chris Jordan: Jersey man.

Operator: As a reminder ladies and gentlemen to register for a question, please press the one followed by the four on your telephone. Our next question comes from the line of (Cheryl Makin) with mycentraljersey.com. Please go ahead.

Cheryl Makin: Hi guys. My question is mainly for Mike but John feel free to chime in. I’ve noticed that Team Adam is also Team Jersey. Do you guys compare notes about playing around Jersey or anything like that? Have you, you know, you both come from south central Jersey area?

Mike Schiavo: (Unintelligible). I’m not sure if they have any plans on that for now.

Cheryl Makin: No. No. I mean playing in the past. You both came from...

Mike Schiavo: Actually, as we got to know each other we really like play like the same like core group of kind of like we played in the same area like for the past five, six years and we’ve never crossed paths, which is really weird.

John Gilman: We sat down and talked about shows that we had been at and I was talking about like one of my favorite artists and how I went to see him at this one venue out in Philly, and it turned out that like Mike actually played at that show. I don’t remember seeing him. But he like played at a show that I was at, so had kind of like, in a weird way like crossed paths but never really connected.

Cheryl Makin: All right. And I just wanted to ask for the two of you what has the past 24 hours been like for you?

Mike Schiavo: It’s been crazy. I mean there been like so much support, especially from New Jersey, like I have so many people from home reaching out. Sorry my dog is barking. A lot of them are just people who like seen me really from the beginning of it and know that I’ve been working at it since high school. I used to play for rooms of like five to ten people, so it’s crazy to see and hear everything they’re saying to me and that they’re still really supportive of me after all of this time now that I was on The Voice it’s been crazy.

Cheryl Makin: That’s awesome. John, do you want to chime in?

John Gilman: Yeah, same thing for me the people that have been around and kind of watched me like really just give my all for such a long time with my music and even though I’ve run into problems throughout my musical career, I don’t know, I kept on pushing and so they’re all like excited.

My goal is always to inspire people and remind that anyone can do anything they set their mind to so I see that I’ve kind of communicated that in a way to a lot of my friends and a lot of the people in my area. So that’s awesome for me. I’m really, really glad.

Cheryl Makin: Thank you both very much. Good luck to both of you; break a leg.

Operator: Our next question comes the line of (Carly Baldwin) with Patch. Please go ahead.

Carly Baldwin: Hi. This is a question for Mike. Mike, so I cover the Woodbridge Patch. So back here in colonial Woodbridge, New Jersey...

((Crosstalk))

Carly Baldwin: What? I wanted to know, you said in your little bio that we were given that in high school you did solo gigs around town. So, I just wanted to know what, if you could tell me like the names of those locations? Were they bars, coffee shops? I mean literally just like yeah wherever?

Mike Schiavo: I played a lot in New Jersey. The first time I ever played a solo gig because I was in bands for a long time, was actually at a rec center down in Marlboro. And that became a place that I played a few times. There’s a little coffee house in Edison, which is real close to Woodbridge.

That became another place that I really; I played there dozens of times. And it’s a place where I feel like I really started to grow myself as a solo artist and learned that that was really what I into, performing my own music by myself. Yeah for the most part it was always small venues like coffee houses, bars, small rec centers, rooms and very rarely more than 30 people showing up.

Carly Baldwin: Yeah. What was the name of that coffee shop in Edison?

Mike Schiavo: It closed now. It was called the Backstage Coffee House. It was more actually a church basement than a real coffee house but they called it a coffee house anyway.

Carly Baldwin: Yeah. That’s cool. And now you have like millions of people watching you every night.

Mike Schiavo: Yeah. It’s a drastic change and I’m really grateful for it.

Carly Baldwin: Cool. Okay. Thanks.

Mike Schiavo: Thank you.

Operator: Hi. As a reminder ladies and gentlemen to register for a question, please press the one followed by the star on telephone. We do have a follow-up question from the line of (Carly Baldwin). Please go ahead.

Carly Baldwin: Oh hey, yes. Mike, just one other question for you, how did it feel to have Pharell and Blake Shelton and Adam Levine actually fighting over you after your blind audition, and how did you finally chose Adam?

Mike Schiavo: it was really surreal. I feel like I didn’t even realize how quickly Adam and Pharell had turned around because I was just on autopilot, so in the zone, and I finally feel that I came to when Blake did and I realized all three of them were there.

And everyone thinks it was a really, really easy choice to just go with Adam. And it was definitely hard not to pick him after we sang together but Pharell has become a huge influence in my music over the past couple of years, so it was a really tough decision. And Blake always does such a great job on this show coaching his artists. So it really wasn’t as easy of a decision as it seemed because I’ve always been such a big Maroon 5 fan.

But really in the moment when I was on stage with singing to them, they all delivered but Adam, everything Adam was saying was exactly what I feel that I needed from that moment. And ultimately that’s definitely what pushed me to choose him.

Carly Baldwin: Okay. Cool. Thanks.

Mike Schiavo: Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of (Debbie Meehan) with Colonia Corner Newspaper. Please go ahead.

Debbie Meehan: Hi. Congratulations to everyone. My question is for Mike since he is from our hometown. Hi Mike.

Mike Schiavo: Hi (Debbie).

Debbie Meehan: We were so proud. We were with your family last night and it was so exciting. So my question is if there’s one thing you could tell the kids here from Colonia and your hometown about following their dreams, what would you tell them.

Mike Schiavo: I would just say don’t give up. It’s all about persistence and that’s something I’ve learned through this experience because I’ve been following this path for years and I’ve never really gotten an opportunity like this even though I feel like I’ve been close at times, it’s always something that falls through. And it’s either you stop trying at that point, or you just keep going.

And even though it’s been really hard a lot of times when I feel like it’s almost time to stop trying to do this, I just learned that it’s time for me to be persistent and just keep going and keep going. And finally this year it’s been paying off. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t just stay persistent.

Debbie Meehan: Great. Thanks. And we’re cheering you on from here.

Mike Schiavo: Thank you (Debbie).

Debbie Meehan: Good luck Mike. Good luck to everybody.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of (Chris Jordan) with Asbury Park Press. Please go ahead.

Chris Jordan: Hey. This is for John. Hey John can you tell me which places that you kind of came up through here at the Jersey Shore? I know you’ve been through Langosta Lounge but were there any spots that you kind of settled into here at the Shore?

John Gilman: Yeah well I spent a couple of years playing in a band called Bird Bath. And, we were like a rock, like a garage rock band influenced by early rock and roll stuff, and we played all over Asbury. We played the Saint. We played the Stone Pony. We played some other little places. I don’t remember exactly. And then recently like playing by myself I played at the Saint. I also played at Langouste at the Lounge, and that’s mostly it.

Chris Jordan: What’s your takeaway from playing in Asbury Park as far as kind of learning your craft and kind of, you know, learning the things that you need to kind of be on the national stage now?

John Gilman: It’s awesome. There’s a great music scene in Asbury and there’s a lot of really talented musicians and very supportive people that are always kind of there to lend a hand and help you kind of get on your way. You know, I spent a lot of time away from music in the past few years and coming back to New Jersey and going back to Asbury I had a lot of people kind of reach out to me and help me out and try to help me get things going again. And it’s a really great place.

Chris Jordan: Cool.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of (Jeff Dodge) with BuddyTV.com. Please go ahead.

Jeff Dodge: Yeah. I have a question for Paxton. How are you?

Paxton Ingram: How’s it going?

Jeff Dodge: Good. Now, you’re a former back-up dancer. So what was it like working with some of these big stars and now kind of heading out on your own as your own singer?

Paxton Ingram: It’s a great feeling because after dancing, you know, it’s fun being, you know, a part of the background and being, you know, a part of the whole production side of it and being part of the show. But to actually be the center of attention, to be, you know, the focus is like the ultimate feeling because for myself when I was dancing I would always crave that feeling to be, you know, the center of attention and be the artist, that like dancing I wanted more. So to actually end up in the shoes of where I wanted to be is kind of awesome. It’s rewarding. It’s great.

Jeff Dodge: Yeah. Great. Well good luck going forward. And you had a great audition.

Paxton Ingram: Oh, thank you, thank you so much.

Jeff Dodge: Yep.

Operator: As a reminder ladies and gentlemen to register for a question, please press one/four. There are no further questions registered at this time.

Shauna Wynne: Thanks everyone for joining. Thanks everyone. Enjoy the rest of your day.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen that does conclude the conference call for today. We thank you for your participation and ask that you please disconnect your lines.

END

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