Idol Chatter & Voice Views

His audition: Paul Pfau, 26, of Washington, D.C., auditioned with Frank Sinatra’s “Fly Me to the Moon.” Paul’s delivery prompted chair turns from Blake Shelton and Pharrell Williams. Pharrell called Paul’s performance “flawless.” Paul decided to join Team Pharrell.

His background: Paul told The Voice he started playing guitar at 14. His mom says he didn’t always have a good voice. “Then, one day he said he was going to sing at the senior showcase. We were like, ‘What?'” It was hardly a flawless performance. Paul recalls that he sang the first voice and the chorus, then froze and forgot the words. “But afterwards, everyone was like, ‘Man, your voice is great.’ … So it turned out to be a positive.” He went to college and majored in economics, but says the focus was always on playing music. After graduating, he traveled across the country performing at colleges, making a living that way. Oh, and he says Adam Levine and Maroon 5 were always a big influence. At 17, he had a chance to meet Adam, but chickened out when it came to giving him a demo of his music. Questioned by the coaches after his audition, Paul said he grew up with the blues, but has been playing more pop-rock lately.

What the show didn’t show: The senior showcase performance came at Middletown High School in nearby Frederick County, Md., and Paul visited the school to meet with students and give an improtu performance the same week his audition and battle round match aired. After high school, he attended Shepherd University, about an hour from D.C. and credits the supportive artist community there with helping him develop musically. He’s been performing solo and with a band in the Baltimore-D.C. area recently and released a full-length album called “Happy to Be” in 2013. You can check out the title track and another tune from the album below. Also check out that impressive — and at times humorous — cover of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun,” which tells me Paul could be quite successful on The Voice. His website bio tells us his sound “is often likened to a fusion between John Mayer and Michael Buble because of his crooning voice” and guitar abilities. Not a bad comparison for a guy who admits he doesn’t have an incredible vocal range and who had to take more than a year off from singing a couple of years back because of a nodule on his vocal chord. In a conference call with the media, Paul said that turned out to be a blessing in disguise because he traveled the country playing guitar and made a lot of musical connections during that time.

On picking Pharrell: “There was this point where the coaches finished talking and there was a little awkward silence, so I was like, ‘Is it my turn now?’ And Pharrell did his classic zen hands together thing and said, ‘Not only is it your turn, it’s your time.’ That kind of shot right through me.”

Update: Paul battled Meghan Linsey in a Team Pharrell battle. They sang “Don’t Let Me Down.” Pharrell declared Paul the winner; Meghan was stolen by Blake Shelton. In the knockout round, he found himself engaged in a three-singer tussle with Mia Z. and Sawyer Fredericks when Anthony Riley dropped off the show. Paul sang “I Don’t Need No Doctor,” but was eliminated when Pharrell selected Sawyer and Mia to advance.

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Twitter: @paulpfau

“Happy to Be” (from the 2013 album)

“Send Your Love” (from the 2013 album)

“Girls Just Want to Have Fun”