Idol Chatter & Voice Views

His audition: Justin Johnes, 15, of Massapequa, N.Y., performed a soulful version of Passenger’s “Let Her Go.” What he didn’t know when he took the stage is that only one coach — Blake Shelton — had a spot remaining on his team. And Blake waited until the very last second to turn around, though he had high praise fro Justin. “The fact that he’s 15 and he’s already created his own sound, I love that about him,” Blake said.

His background: In his pre-performance interview, Justin said he comes from “a bit of” a musical family. His mom sang in a choir; his dad was a drummer. When he was young, “we’d all go down in the basement and watch the ‘N Sync live tape and that’s where I got my inspiration to become a singer and picked up some of my moves,” Justin said. The teen says he started singing seriously in sixth grade, making YouTube covers with a friend. He doesn’t perform out anywhere, just in those videos, a mix of covers and originals. Oh, and he wears a chain with a key on it around his neck. The key is engraved with the word “dream,” reflecting his dream of becoming a successful singer.

What the show didn’t show: Even at his young age, Justin has released a pair of singles — “Heartbreak” and “Easier Said Than Done.” Both were released in 2013, and you can check them out below. And, yes, that really was his first performance in front of an audience, Justin confirms in his Voice video interview. “I don’t gig or anything,” he says. “So I’m either in the studio or my basement. It’s not like you’re performing in front of people. The energy is so different.” Justin says two of his musical inspirations are Ed Sheeran and Bruno Mars “for the way they can work their way through a song and make you feel it.” And for a guy so young, he has a pretty big following — to the tune of nearly 42,000 followers on Twitter. Justin admits that he was running out of hope to land a spot on Season 7 as his audition song wound down and none of the coaches had turned around. “I reached that point where my arrangement kind of mellowed out, and I was like, ‘Well, all of my big vocal moments are gone. There’s nothing else that I am prepared to do to really wow them.'” Then he saw Blake’s chair turn around. “And I just felt this sense of fulfillment,” Justin says, adding he’s hoping Blake will help him “mature vocally and straighten out a couple of kinks in my voice.”

Update: Justin was eliminated from The Voice when he lost a battle round match to Tanner Linford. They performed One Direction’s “You and I.”

On iTunes: His audition song, plus the aforementioned singles.

Keeping up with Justin:
Twitter: @Justin_Johnes
Facebook
YouTube
Website

“Best Mistake” (cover)

“Heartbreak” (original)

“Easier Said Than Done”