Newsletter January 2024 The Voice Experience
With the ten-year anniversary of Season 2 of 'The Voice' coming up, I thought it might be a good time to talk a little bit about the good, the bad, and the ugly of my experience on the show. Being one of the final five on Season 2, I found myself being a most unlikely recipient of some of the real love people showed for music here in Australia, and it was to my pleasant surprise intergenerational—an amazing discovery for me.
I thought about it long and hard before I pulled the trigger to enter the contest, even though I'd heard about it from my family and friends in Holland where the show had taken off two years before it got to Australia. If you’ve ever watched the end credits of any number of reality shows that air here, they are all the brainchild of two Dutch brothers who own the rights to a mega trove of reality TV shows worldwide, second only to Simon Cowell and the 'American Idol' franchise. The concept was shared with me via some of my best friends after I decided to depart from Amsterdam. I used to work for the De Mol brothers in Holland doing corporate gigs, they were always competent and ambitious.
Where Are They Now
As told by my friends, there would be a music singing show where the judges never got to see the face or speak to the artists until after they heard them sing, which I thought was really original. And if you got them to turn their chair in your direction, you were in! Very appealing to a 67-year-old veteran of the funk, jazz, and pop world with decades of touring and loads of energy, but still terrifying! You are really putting yourself on the line. Who knew how that would work out and what sinister executives would be lurking in the background, waiting to trip you up for other people's entertainment—potentially mortifying indeed. I'd seen what they did with 'Idol,' and it wasn't pretty.
Contrary to my expectations, my experience on 'The Voice' was a positive mix of teamwork, some well-meaning good people with the genuine goal of creating a great show, no matter how contrived or what the policies and politics were. I secretly enjoyed watching the younger newcomers to the business fret and complain about the little inconveniences and the long hours. I had already been through 30 years of hardcore on the road bootcamp, crappy hotels and long hours. It was a little vacation for me to have help with wardrobe, good sound, great set design and people actually giving a shit about what you were going to do next. It was very clear who had the grit and determination and talent to make it in the business. At the end of the day, I loved it.
The question in the following months and years is, what happened to some of those artist that did well and had so much promise but evaporated as soon as the show ended. 'Where are they now?' By 'they,' I mean the household names we all knew then and maybe some that we still remember. Let's just take a look at some of the winners and losers and see what happened.
They are here, so check them out!
The winner of my season was none other than The President, Harrison Craig He won Season 2, and rightly so because his early grasp of social media was astounding. He was constantly on his phone in the greenroom, drumming up votes and relentlessly connecting with fans. We all knew he would probably win it. Danny Ross, Mrs. Murphy Simon Mail, Alex Gibson, Mitchell Anderson and Celia Pavey, Vera Blue were all contenders but that season, Harrison had the story, the tweens and the adults as well.
Out of the top four, three are making a living, and one is thriving. Celia was the most professional, easygoing, non-complaining, super talent of all, not to mention her look. Her long red hair was amazing and became a real trademark. She was a star waiting to happen. She rebranded herself as Vera Blue a couple of years after The Voice and the rest is history.
The Battle
"The other standout performers on that season I thought were Josh Kyle, a super talented singer from Melbourne with an independent album that is still on my playlist, and Mitch Anderson, who has promised to do a podcast with me to talk about our collective experience on the show and how we got through our epic battle. I often think back and try to remember what it was like 'battling' my brother. We were trained to sing and support each other as musicians, so the concept of battling was a real unnatural fit. The story of what I had to do to reconcile performing the song together, yet needing to 'win' to stay on the show, was a real paradox for me. I kept wondering, how do you battle your brother, out-sing them? Another foreign concept. Sing with them, yes; out-sing them, no.
We were practicing together to learn the song at the start, but in a few days, we needed to have our own special take on it. I honestly never thought of trying to out-sing Mitch. Mitch was a great singer and had a serious natural volume and grit to his voice that was really unique. I, on the other hand, had a smoother bass baritone that wasn't really 'rock and roll'; it was more smooth soul. So, the question was, how were we going to rock that house together?
I thought long and hard about my mental approach and, to this day, I don't even think Mitch knows this, but he will now. The last two days before the battle, we separated, and I would see him walking slow on the other side of the Fox Studio space, and we mostly kept to ourselves, learning and relearning the lyrics. The song initially was Seal's suggestion, and I honestly thought he was nuts for choosing this song, but out of all the songs Universal owned, he chose this one: 'Walking in Memphis.' We were never going to complain, but I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get something a little more up our alley. He topped off this suggestion, cameras rolling, with, 'Hey guys, you both play piano, right?' I reluctantly said yes, and Mitch the same, so it was done. We were going to play and sing a song about Elvis Presley on national TV. I had the same reaction when they told me what my original blind audition song was going to be. Of course, they gave me Barry White. Not that I have anything against Barry, it’s just the guys in my original band, American Gypsy, used to play for Barry before we left for Europe. We would laugh at him because we thought he would never “make it” so they would take the session fee and we would go eat like pigs, not knowing that in a matter of two years, he was going to be the biggest thing on the planet. That was 1969.
The night before the Voice battle, I was trying to work out a mental strategy. I didn't want to battle, I didn’t want to beat Mitch; I just wanted to be good, BUT I wanted to stay on the show and to do that I would have to win! What a dilemma. Then I got an idea. What was the right mental attitude? Two words exploded in my head. Venus and Serena. How did they do it and on the world stage? They had to battle each other and there could only be one winner, and then they had to go back home together, and live together and stay mentally healthy to compete again the following year. They had to do it over and over again over the years, I only had to do it once!
All I knew was that I had to be the best I could be. If I didn't win, it wouldn't be because I blew it myself. When the night finally arrived, we were both ready. I had no idea what Mitch had been thinking or what his process was, but the whole thing was super exciting. When we finally hit the stage, we were both sitting at two electric grand pianos, and then lift-off. To my relief, I knew my parts and didn’t blow any notes. There was a point where we both finished the first and second verses at the piano and then had to jump up and go to the front of the stage for the chorus. All the songs are cut down to 1:20 secs, so no time for screw-ups. At a certain point, we both realised this wasn't a competition anymore; it was a concert, and we were going to blow the roof off the mother, who cares who wins. The music took over, as it has so many times before in my life. There’s a point where nothing else matters and you just go for it. We took the crowd with us and then it was over. We were both exhausted and relieved, now we had to get ready to be judged.
As soon as it was over, I had a sinking feeling, not because we did a bad job—I thought it was awesome. We brought the house down. Not one judge could decide or had one negative thing to say. They were all respectful and complimentary. I knew I had done the hard yards. One of the Maddens was visibly shaken and knew where we had just taken them. Ricky was a true pro and I could see the respect, but he also suggested that we put a duo together and go on the road. Delta (I eventually called her the preacher, and to this day I’m sure she never knew) was getting a lot of social media backlash regarding her dialogs on the show, but after really getting to know her, I never questioned her motives. She was talented, sincere, and had worked for years as a child star, so I know she was moved, but our fate was resting in Seal's hands. And when this dude said something to the effect that he didn’t really have anything to teach me (what the heck does that mean?), at that point, I knew where we were headed. I was headed home. I was prepared, and just having made national TV was something I was going to have to settle for.
There had been rumours in the green room that Delta had one last save to steal another contestant and bring them over to her team. I was honestly not sure about this to this day. Was it a setup, or was it real? The countdown started and in the last couple of seconds, she slams the buzzer and I was now, much to my relief, on Team Delta. From that point on, my life was never the same.
Magic “Live”
With this snippet, I just wanted to remind my fans and friends that supporting the live music community here in Australia is what keeps us going, keeps us inspired, and anxious to get out there and perform. Some of the people I’ve mentioned above have Instagram accounts, Spotify feeds (which pay very little), and an online presence. I encourage you to engage with them, which really helps in this algorithm driven world we live in. This is one way to help the people who have the desire to go out there and entertain you. Please show them a little love by visiting their platforms and dropping a like or a comment. I will endeavour to list as many of the Unheard community as I can in future Newsletters.
If you want to know what happened to any of these artists or want to share a name that we may have forgotten, please comment and let me know. I’ll find them and post some of their music here.
One last footnote, The Steve Clisby Band will be playing at Foundry 616 on Friday Feb 9th 2024. FOR TICKETS CLICK»» Foundry 616 Some of my music will be free for all paid subscribers to Unheard so here’s a free sample of what to expect. Help support live music in Australia and around the world. Soul Story
As always, thanks for taking the time to check this out, and I hope you are thoroughly entertained. Until next time, trust the process, the universe always has your back.
Peace
PS, Just a little note to say you’ve opted in for some exclusives from Unheard. Performance discounts and stories from the road. Let me know in the comments what you're hoping to find more of. See you soon!
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Nice one - great to read the story behind your experience on The Voice.