Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Season 4 of The Voice begins Monday night at 8 p.m. on NBC. Check back for live blogs during each show and for bios of the contestants who land a spot in the competition.

Meanwhile, it’s time to catch up with some familiar faces who have new music, including a Season 3 Team Adam member, Joe Kirkland.

Before The Voice: Joe, 24 at the time of his audition, joined the pop band Artist Vs. Poet in 2008. He told The Voice the band sold more than 100,000 singles and toured the U.S. and Japan before the lead singer quit to pursue other endeavors. Joe was the band’s guitarist and sang background vocals at the time. He stepped into the role as lead vocalist, but the band lost its record deal. He tried out for The Voice in part to prove he had the voice to front a pop band.

On The Voice: Joe was impressive in his audition, singing “Give Them Hell,” and chose to join Team Adam Levine because Maroon 5’s “Songs About Jane” was one of the first albums he ever purchased. He won a battle round over Samuel Mouton that wasn’t televised, then turned in a splendid version of Taylor Swift’s “Mean” during the knockout round. Unfortunately, he had the misfortune of being paired against Bryan Keith, one of the show’s top male vocalists in Season 3.

Since The Voice: From the get-go, Joe made it clear he was one former band member who intended to return to his band once his run on the show ended. And Artist Vs. Poet wasted no time getting back to business. The band released an eight-track album called “Keep Your Secrets” in January. You can check out the title track and the catchy “Ready to Roll.” You can pick up the album on iTunes. Or on bandcamp.com for just $5. You can listen to the full album on the band’s Facebook page. Artist Vs. Poet is now preparing to re-release its “Remember This” album from a year ago; the anniversary edition should be out in April.

Keeping track of Joe: He has his own Facebook page here. On Twitter, he is @joekavp. The band is simply @ArtistVsPoet. And you can check out their music on YouTube as well. Most of the tracks from the new album are there.

Artist Vs. Poet, “Ready to Roll”

Artist Vs. Poet, “Keep Your Secrets”