Idol Chatter & Voice Views

His audition: Michael Leier, 20, of Fargo, N.D., auditioned with Wayne Cochran’s 1960s song “Last Kiss.” He immediately displayed a very nice voice. Adam Levine turned around, followed by Blake Shelton. Adam complimented Michael for putting his own twist on the song. Michael opted to joined Team Adam.

His background: Michael told The Voice he taught himself to pay guitar when he was 12 by listening to music and trying to get his performance as close to the recording as possible. At 16, he started a high school band with a couple of buddies. A couple of weeks later, they were playing downtown Fargo. Pretty soon, they were also playing rock and roll in area bars. When high school ended, so did the band. Michael became a pre-med student, but a year later realized he wasn’t nearly as passionate about that pursuit as he was about music. Oh, and he notes The Voice is a great opportunity because there aren’t a ton of musical opportunities in North Dakota.

What the show didn’t show: Michael says he’s got “pretty much the only musical bone” among his family. And when he decided he wanted to play guitar as a teenager, he said “my parents thought it was just going to be another toy that I wanted.” But they borrowed one, Michael wound up in a band and he discovered he could make money performing while still in high school. He was in the second semester of his freshman year in college when he auditioned for the show. Michael said he’s been dubbed a powerhouse vocalist by the show and is hoping Adam can help him learn how to better control his vocals. “Being able to harness that power and use it to the best of my ability rather than just shouting … I’m hoping he can help me get control of that.” Michael says he grew up listening to Shania Twain and John Mellencamp. These days, his major musical influences are John Mayer, Ray LaMontagne and Sara Bareilles. On his website, he describes his music as “soft rock with folk pop.” And he jokes that The Voice isn’t a bad place to be since there are only 750,000 people in all of North Dakota compared to the 15 million viewers who watch the show.

On picking Adam: “I’ve listened to his music since ‘Songs About Jane.’ He’s still playing music with real instruments, and I really admire that rather than just sitting at a computer. It’s really admirable to me.”

On iTunes: Just his audition song.

Update: He was matched with Blaze Johnson in the Team Adam battle round. They sang “Rude” by Magic. Adam declared Blaze the winner; Michael was eliminated.

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Twitter: @MichaelLeier

“Jolene” (Ray LaMontagne cover)

“Let Her Go” (Passenger cover)