Idol Chatter & Voice Views

I’m pretty sure Benji is the first former Formula race car driver who we’ve met on The Voice.

The 24-year-old from Orlando explains that he’s always had a penchant for going fast.

So when he had a chance to head to California to race after college, he couldn’t pass it up.

The problem: “Racing is something where you have to have a ton of money to really make it. I ran out of money.”

Now, he says, he’s pursuing another of his passions, music, which got him over racing.

Benji auditioned with “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” and judges started spinning around even before he unleashed the first of two screams that served as highlights of his performance.

Said his eventual coach Adam: “You’ve got a scream that should be heard by the entire world.”

What the show didn’t show: The song-ending second scream was born of excitement, not planned, Benji told Christina Milian in a post-audition interview. And, yes, Benji has a last name: Kuriakose. He also fronts an alternative band called Built to Be Broken that released a five-track EP in December 2011. On Twitter, Benji calls himself a “bringer of explosions, manliness and bar b que. no particular order.” And as a singer, of course. One of the band’s songs is embedded below. To hear more, head here.

Editor’s Note: Check back for live blogs when the battle rounds begin on The Voice.

Benji and Built to Be Broken performing “O Hai”