Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Zaxai from The Voice Season 15 recently released the EP he’s been woking on for three years. (NBC Photo)

It landed earlier this month. And you can certainly say it was worth the wait.

The EP is called “Too Far Gone” and features four songs, plus an instrumental intro and exit. The focus is Zaxai’s breakup with an ex-fiance.

“‘Too Far Gone’ were the last words my ex fiancée told me before we split,” Zaxai told Voice Views. “She stated she was ‘too far gone’ and I never knew what it meant. I fell into a deep depression for about two years, still angry and bitter and, of course, sad.

“So the EP, is the journey of me, over the years, trying to find out what ‘Too Far Gone’ meant, but more importantly the journey of me as a man and artist. Over the years I gained revelations of love and its definitions and understood that she loved me and her so much she had to go and we had to end things.

“That depression also allowed me to write new music, which is on the EP and gave me a fresh perspective on life and love.”

Zaxai has no trouble capturing the desperation he was feeling at the time in the title track. Or the wistfulness of “You Were the One,” a song so good we should be hearing it on the radio.

And he does it with the same vocal prowess — and range — that served him so well on The Voice, where he made it to the Top 24 before being eliminated.

Zaxai described “You Were the One” “as one of those songs that kinda just came to me,” though he says that might be partly because some of the lyrics are taken from journal notes he’d made on his phone of his feelings following the breakup.

“In the heat of the depression, I kept hearing, ‘Time heals wounds, but it’s lies,’ ‘you were the one’ and this one melody after it,” he recalls. “The verses came towards the end of my depression, where I began to accept things.”

Zaxai gives part of the credit for the way the song turned out to friend Kay’Vion Sire, a singer, songwriter and studio engineer.

“He knew about the breakup, so he could feel my angst and pain and took my harmonic ideas to another level … Definitely a spiritual, emotional experience.”

Pre-Voice, Zaxai had released a music video for “Find Me Here,” another song on the EP.

Zaxai performs in the New York area as Zaxai and the Date Night Band and celebrated the release of the EP with a show the same night at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York. Though the show didn’t start until 12:30 a.m., he said he was elated that it drew a near capacity crowd.

He’s also tentatively planning a Feb. 23 show at the Highline Ballroom in Manhattan that would feature a bunch of his friends from Season 15 — including Radha, Tyshawn, One Up Duo and Foushee.

And he’s already planning another EP that might wind up being a collaboration with a Season 15 colleague.

“The next EP will showcase some elements of ‘Too Far Gone,’ but also other elements and sides to me that I love. Definitely some R&B, definitely some soul and blues, some folk, a hint of country, definitely alternative,” he said. “I just want to release good music and I finally have friends that share that vision.”

Zaxai was 29 when he auditioned for The Voice and landed a spot on Team Jennifer Hudson. You can follow him through his Instagram and website. On Twitter, he’s @Zaxai_Official.