Idol Chatter & Voice Views

On the finals: “Adam has believed in me since day one,” says Kat Perkins, of Minneapolis, Minn. “His advice for me that rings true, that I’ve used every single day, is just how to be a strong singer and how stay consistent. Being a rock singer, sometimes we get inconsistent or too loud or not dynamic. He’s really helped me reign that in. I would never rank the 12. We’re all so different. I think I have a really nice niche in the rock singer market for the show.”

Her audition: Kat Perkins, 33 at the time, auditioned for The Voice with Fleetwood Mac’s “Gold Dust Woman.” She was solid from the word go, but the performance really came alive when she went wild on the ending, a la Stevie Nicks. By the time she had finished wailing, Adam Levine, Shakira and Usher were facing her. Adam complimented her on a note that “seared the entire audience.” Kat joined Team Adam.

Since then: She defeated Patrick Thompson in the first battle round; they sang “Whenever I Call You Friend. Patrick was then stolen by Shakira. In the second battle round, she was matched with the duo of Dawn and Hawkes. They performed “Suddenly I See” and Kat was declared the winner. She earned a spot in the finals by singing Journey’s “Open Arms” in the Team Adam playoffs. The song hit number one on the iTunes rock chart and cracked the Top 125 on the overall singles chart.

Her background: Kat says she grew up in a North Dakota town of 300 and can’t remember not singing. As a senior in high school, she auditioned for and became part of a country western revue show. She played a yodeling cowgirl for five years. Then she decided she wanted to sing rock music. In 2004, she formed a band called Scarlet Haze; the drummer was her husband. The band survived her divorce, but the members eventually decided to disband. Kat says it’s at that point that she became a nanny. Now she’s getting back into music as a solo artist.

What the show didn’t show: On her website bio, Kat estimates she’s played more than 1,500 shows during her career, performing “everywhere from the Corn Palace (yep, you read that right) in Mitchell, S.D., to sold out stadium shows performing with Bon Jovi (and just about everything you can imagine in between).” Those dates with Bon Jovi would have been when she was lead singer with Scarlet Haze, which released a self-titled 12-track album back in 2012. More recently, while working as a nanny during the day, she’s been performing with a band called Dirty Word at night. According to the band’s website its “playlist is a virtual library of hits that leaves no genre untouched including top 40 pop, soulful funk grooves, rockin’ country, and classic rock and pop hits that span five decades.” That should have left Kat well prepared for competing on The Voice.

Quote: “I’ve had a ton of experience with bands, and some success with that,” Kat says. “I’ve been taking the journey all these years and figuring out new ways to do it and re-inventing myself. The Voice is just another step of reinvention.”

On iTunes: Her four songs from The Voice plus the Scarlet Haze album. For a real sample of what Kat’s capable of vocally, check out the covers of “Black Horse and a Cherry Tree” and “In the Air Tonight” that are embedded below.

Keeping up with Kat:
Twitter: @katperkinsmusic
Facebook
YouTube
Website

Editor’s Note: For links to profiles of all the Season 6 artists on The Voice, go here.

“Gold Dust Woman” with Dirty Word

“Someone Like You” (sung in Amsterdam airport)

“Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” and “In the Air Tonight” (with Scarlet Haze)