Idol Chatter & Voice Views

His audition: Jarred Matthew, 31, of San Diego, performed Al Green’s “Tired of Being Alone.” His vocals prompted an almost immediate chair turn from Adam Levine. Blake later turns as well. As impressed as he was with the audition, Adam said Jarred needs help with his falsetto and said he can assist with that. Jarred decided to join Team Adam.

His background: Jarred holds a PhD in astrophysics and does experiments that involved NASA telescopes but that not everyone understands. But his audition song stems from his relationship with his wife, Cristina. They met in middle school band. But their work kept them apart for seven years. Music helped him get through that period, Jarred said. He added that he’s trying The Voice because “when you talk about things that make you happy, music has always been that for me.”

On picking Team Adam: “He turned right away, so I thought that was pretty flattering. But not only that, when we were talking afterwards, Adam was mentioning that he thought my falsetto could use some work. He was basically already coaching me. I thought that was really cool. He was already assuming the position of my coach. And, to me, that meant a lot.”

What the show didn’t show:

* As part of his work toward his doctorate, Jarred worked on the NASA-funded high energy particle observatory called the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA). And, yep, that required travels to McMurdo Station, Antarctica, during the experimental phase; data analysis was done back in Hawaii.

* These days, Jarred introduces himself on Facebook as Dr Jarred Matthew Roberts, “an experimental astrophysicist who works on a NASA funded gamma ray telescope!” His Voice bio indicates he’s now working on a NASA project at the University of California, San Diego.

* Jarred says his interest in music stems from the fact that he grew up in a family of gospel singers, but admits that he never expected to play music in public as a solo artist.

* That changed when he started performing his own music at restaurants and bars. He says the reception his music received while he was in Hawaii was especially encouraging.

* He’s been performing for more than 10 years and credits the soulful tone in his voice to the bluegrass and gospel songs he grew up singing and the soul music he grew into as an adult.

* He performs as Wood&Stone, which began as a blues, soul and folk project based in southern California, according to Jarred’s website. Once he moved to Hawaii, he began collaborating with artists there, again as Wood&Stone.

* You can check out a host of Wood&Stone originals on Soundcloud and on Jarred’s website. To date, he appears to have released just one single to iTunes — “Take My Hand” in 2016. Check it out below.

* Jarred says his music is inspired by the soul greats from the 1950s through 1970s and that his music is commonly associated with artists like Ray Lamontagne, Ed Sheeran, James and Van Morrison, John Mayer, and Otis Redding.

* And, for a while, Jarred admits, he was afraid to showcase his music for fear of being taken less seriously in the science community. That, he said, turned out not to be an issue at all. “Everybody on campus in the Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences has been super excited and cheering me on and sending me texts about how excited they are for me,” he said during a conference call with the media.

* He said one person instrumental in convincing him to audition was friend Daniel Rosa, a contestant on Season 1 and Season 2 of The Voice. “He couldn’t say enough good things about the show,” Jarred told Media Hub.

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Twitter: @jarredmatthew
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