Idol Chatter & Voice Views

His audition: Blaine Mitchell, 24, of Fort Worth, Texas, auditioned with Train’s “Drops of Jupiter.” His powerful vocals prompted chair turns from Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani. Adam Levine’s team was already full at the time. Blaine decided to join Team Blake.

His background: Blaine says he comes from an area where country music rules and says he enjoys the genre. But he and his brother prefer playing alternative rock. Growing up, Blaine says baseball was his first passion. When he was a junior in high school, he says the St. Louis Cardinals were scouting him. Until a knee injury ended those hopes. That became the moment he and his brother formed a band, called Treeside. But it’s difficult to make a living from that alone, so Blaine also sang at Cowboys Dancehall, which he describes as a honky-tonk bar where he would play three sets of country songs every night.

What the show didn’t show: Blaine says he and younger brother Brady began playing music together long before he gave up on the dream of a baseball career. Music was a great outlet for them as well as an opportunity to bond, he said. After the knee injury, “from then on there was no Plan B,” Blaine said in a conference call with the media. “It was just, you know, if it’s going to fail then we’re going to fail big. So we’re just going to go all out, man.” He no longer sings at Cowboys Dancehall so he can focus on his own music.

Blaine provides lead vocals, plays guitar and writes songs for Treeside; his brother plays drums. The band released a four-track EP in 2013; check out top tracks “Spin Around” and “Goodbye” below. And their website directs fans to a new single called “Hepburn” that you can listen to on Soundcloud.

According to the band’s website bio, Blaine credits Switchfoot for inspiring him to start writing music way back when he was 9 years old. Blaine told the media other influences include The Black Keys and Young the Giant. “We love the brother bands, (like) Kings of Leon,” he added. “It’s cool when you get to see a family up on stage just because there’s the different kind of magic that happens in studio and on stage when you just have blood up there with you.”

He describes The Voice as a great opportunity for him to “show my skills as a front man” and says Brady is 100 percent supportive of his stint on The Voice. If he does well, it won’t be the first time. At one point, Blaine won a competition for the opportunity to sing on stage with Toby Keith in front of 20,000 fans, according to the Treeside website.

As for his choice of coach, Blaine said he loves the music of all the coaches, but went into the audition thinking he’d pick Adam or Blake if he had the opportunity.

For links to profile blogs on every singer who has landed a spot on Season 9 of The Voice, head here.

On iTunes: Treeside released a a five-track EP called “XIII” in 2013

Update:
Battle round: Lost to Blind Joe, singing “Old Time Rock and Roll.” But Blaine was stolen by Adam Levine.
Knockout round: He performed “Hold Back the River” by James Bay and defeated Andi & Alex. His song hit #105 on the iTunes’ Top 200.
Top 24: He sang “Never Tear Us Apart.” The song hit number 1 on the iTunes rock chart and 75 on the iTunes Top 200. He was eliminated when Amy Vachal and Jordan Smith were voted into the finals and Shelby Brown got the Team Adam save.

Keeping up with Blaine:
Website (Treeside)
Facebook
YouTube
Twitter: @blaine_mitchell

Blind audition — “Drops of Jupiter”

Battle Round — “Old Time Rock and Roll”

Knockout Round — “Hold Back the River”

Spin Around (with Treeside)

Goodbye (original)

Yellow (cover)