Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Her audition: Alex Kandel, 22, of Nashville, Tenn., auditioned with Echosmith’s “Bright.” Gwen Stefani turned around after the first line of Alex’s performance. Adam Levine later joined her. Gwen praised the character in her voice. Alex opted to join Team Gwen.

Her background: She grew up in Kentucky, moved to Nashville a few months ago and has been working as a nanny. But while she loves working with children, she says music is her passion. She recalls her first show at age 15, opening for another local band called Sleeper Agent. A year later, she joined that band as lead singer. She calls her stint with that band “an all-around amazing experience. But we hit this plateau, so we all decided to part ways and pursue other things.” Now she’s trying to embark on a solo career. She indicated The Voice audition was her first time performing without her band.

What the show didn’t show: Alex first joined Sleeper Agent as a bassist, then quickly switched over to lead vocals, according to her bio on The Voice website. And the six-member alternative rock band enjoyed a great deal of success, eventually being signed to a record label.

Sleeper Agent released a pair of albums, including “About Last Night” in March of 2014. You can check out three tracks from their albums below. And they were still together as of early December, playing shows in Florida with Fall Out Boy and Weezer.

Alex indicated on The Voice that the blind audition was one of her first performances without the band, and she described it as “nerve-wracking” in a conference call with the media.

“It’s very different because, I mean, for me I was never going on, you know, Letterman or Fallon as Alex Kandel. I was going on there as Sleeper Agent because we were promoting an album or a single. I never felt like I was just going there as myself.

“So this experience has been insane because it’s me completely. It’s me being myself very honestly. And that was like really, really nerve-wracking to know that like I wasn’t behind this like bigger thing.” But she also said the audition led to another new experience — the flood of support she received after her audition aired.

“The Voice fans are so crazy in like the best way,” she said. “Like they’re so awesome and supportive that like last night (the night her audition aired) was just so overwhelming.”

I’ll be posting profile blogs on every singer who lands a spot on Season 9 of The Voice. For links to the others, head here. Keep checking back. There are many more to come.

On iTunes: Sleeper Agent released an album called “Celabrasion” in 2011 and “About Last Night” in 2014. Both are full-length and full of excellent music.

Update:
Battle round: Lost to Kota Wade, singing “It’s My Life,” and was eliminated.

Keeping up with Alex:
Facebook
YouTube
YouTube (Sleeper Agent)
Twitter: @AlexKandelMusic

Be Brave *from 2014 “About Last Night” album)

“Waves” (from 2014 “About Last Night” album)

Get It Daddy (from 2011 “Celabrasion” album)

Blind audition — “Bright”