Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The day after his elimination from The Voice, Evan McKeel sounded very much like an artist ready to hit the ground running to capitalize on the exposure offered by the show.

Evan says he already has about two albums worth of material he would “love to go into a studio as soon as possible and record.”

“So I’m going to talk to some of these labels that have reached out and start talking to anyone that I can start sending some of these demos to, because I really feel that I’m industry ready right this minute,” the 20-year-old from Richmond, Va., said. “I really think the show has helped me see that and helped me realize the avenues that I want to take to start releasing music.”

“I have the music ready,” he added. “It’s not like I need someone to start writing music for me or help me figure out my direction. I know exactly what I want to do. I just need to find someone who believes in my direction, believes in my vision and my passion.”

Post-Voice, Evan said he’d like to release lots of different types of music, almost like creating a new genre with each album. But he wants to start with an album that he describes as alternative rock or ambient rock because he thinks it would have the most widespread appeal.

He described the music this way: “It’s got a lot of acoustic work. It’s got a lot of string arrangements. It’s very pretty, but also very driving. I always want to create music that I think it universal and people from all musical backgrounds would enjoy.

“That’s really what I want to create first because it’s finished and I poured my heart into that album for the last couple of years.”

Evan came to The Voice having already released a seven-track EP called “Teal” in 2013. You can check out that music on his website.

He turned four chairs with his blind audition performance of MUTEMATH’s “Typical” and decided to join Team Pharrell. And that’s where he stayed until this week, when he found himself in the bottom two after a performance of “Smile,” even though three singers from the show landed below him on the iTunes Top 200.

Evan was eliminated Tuesday night when viewers saved Korin Bukowski for a second straight week. She performed “She Will Be Loved” for her save-me performance. Evan performed “Let’s Stay Together.”

Evan touched on several other points during a Wednesday conference call with the media.

* He said “Let’s Stay Together,” is one of his “very favorite songs and that he felt great about the performance. Asked about the selection, Evan said “what you want in that situation is a safe song like that. You want something you know very well and ideally something you’ve performed before so that when you do get in that moment you’re not fumbling for words, you’re not going to be doing something new. You want something comfortable where you can sing your best.”

* He said this week’s “Smile” was probably his favorite performance from the show “because that was the most at home for me. That was me doing the kind of performing, the kind of musicianship in a performance that I’m used to doing at home.”

* Evan was going to sing “Gravity” by John Mayer next week. “We were going to do this really cool gospel arrangement and I was going to play electric guitar and we were going to have kind of like a little jam session at the end of the song.”

* He said he didn’t expect to go home this week, but added that now that the contestants’ fate is in the hands of voters, the singers on the show know not to take anything for granted. “Even though you sailed through a bunch of coaches’ (rounds), America could see you differently. They could have someone else they like. They can vote on so many things.”

* Evan left college to participate in The Voice. It sounds like he’s found his direction in life. “The one thing I learned doing the show is how fulfilled I am doing music, singing on stage and performing for people,” he said. “I think I’ve learned now more than ever is this is really what I feel that I was created for and that I feel called to do and I’m really ready to sink my teeth into this even more than I was before. I think the show has showed me that my direction needs to stay where I am right now and that I need to keep pouring my heart into music.”

See also …
iTunes results for the Top 11 from The Voice
Song by song grades for the Top 11 on The Voice
Photo gallery from The Voice Top 11 results show