Idol Chatter & Voice Views

His audition: Matt McAndrew, 23, of Philadelphia, Pa., auditioned with “A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri. He showed off a nice soft tone as the song opened and got Adam Levine to turn around quickly. Blake Shelton and Pharrell Williams joined him when Matt hit the chorus. Adam said he felt like he was listening to a “really accomplished, unique artist up there.” Matt joined Team Adam.

His background: Matt told viewers he got his first guitar when he was 11 and played it until his fingers bled. Eventually, he started singing, too, but he was a “class clown” growing up and didn’t take singing seriously until he was well into high school. He wound up earning a partial scholarship to the University of Music in Philly. He’s graduated now, but money is tight, so he shares an apartment with his mom and sister. He also works two jobs — one in a grocery store and one at Bach to Rock, a music school where he teaches vocal lessons, guitar and coaches student bands. Oh, and the first of his many tattoos was a small box on his left arm. He plans to put a check in that open box when he lands a record deal.

What the show didn’t show: Matt released an impressive album, “View of the Pines,” earlier this year. Check out two of the standout tracks below; “Burning Bridges” is especially good. He’s also offering two acoustic singles as a free download from his website, including “Pins and Needles” (also embedded below). And if you still want to hear more, you can listen to 24 Matt McAndrew performances here. His Facebook bio tells us he grew up in Barnegat Light, N.J., and performed in bands before starting writing solo acoustic material in 2010. He considers himself a singer-songwriter of acoustic rock, pop / rock and folk rock music/ And though he’s already a vocal teacher, he also considers himself “an eager student” on The Voice. In spite of his experience, the blind audition was a bit daunting, he admits in his Voice video interview. Going into it “I thought I was calm. I thought I was composed. The doors open. I see the steps, and my knees are just locking. I’m pretty much terrified.” But, of course, not too terrified to entice three coaches to turn their chairs. Why Team Adam? “I picked Adam because he said he really liked my tone, which is important to me,” Matt explained. “And he said that my performance was raw and genuine and it kind of snapped him out of the format of the show for a second and he was just listening.”

Update:
Blind audition: He sang “A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri and enticed three judges to turn their chairs.
Battle round: Defeated Ethan Bulter; they performed Coldplay’s “Yellow.”
Knockout round: Defeated Rebekah Samarin with a performance of Train’s “Drops of Jupiter,” but only a snippet of the match aired.
Live playoffs: He sang the Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows.” The song was the best received from night one of the live playoffs, hitting number 31 on iTunes’ singles chart and number 18 on its pop chart. Matt was voted into the finals.
Top 12: He sang Hozier’s “Take Me to Church.” The song was the best performing of the night on iTunes, hitting number 5 on the overall iTunes singles chart and number 2 on the site’s alternative chart. He was voted into the Top 10.
Top 10: He sang Coldplay’s “Fix You” and was voted into the Top 8. The song landed at nubmer 27 on the iTunes overall chart and at number three on the site’s alternative chart.
Top 8: He sang “The Blower’s Daughter” and it turned out to be the most successful song of the week on iTunes. It landed at number two on the overall singles chart, bested only by Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space.” That earned Matt bonus points. It also landed at number two on the pop chart.
Top 5: He scored his third Top 10 iTunes hit since the live shows began with his take on Ed Sheeran’s “Make It Rain,” which hit number five. He hit number 15 with his other songs, a cover of U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.”
The Finals: He became the first Season 7 singer to hit number one on iTunes overall chart with his new single, “Wasted Love.” His performance of “Lost Stars” with Adam Levine landed at number 10, and his version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” wound up at number 14. He finished second to Craig Wayne Boyd.

On iTunes: The aforementioned album and his Voice performances.

Keeping up with Matt:
Twitter: @MattMcAndrew
Facebook
YouTube
Website

Pre-Voice

“My Enemy” (original)

“Pins and Needles” (original)

“Burning Bridges” (original)