Tuesday night’s Knockout Rounds on The Voice featured a powerhouse match-up between Team Adam members Mia Pfirrman and Alessandra Castronovo.
Pfirrman’s rendition of the Christina Perri song “Human” led to high praise from coach Adam Levine and her advancing to the Live Playoffs (Levine told Pfirrman that she has “ice water in her veins” after the performance).
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!I interviewed Pfirrman this morning, and the 19-year-old singer talked about the lessons she’s learned working with Adam Levine, her close friendship with fellow The Voice artist Sugar Joans, and why self-belief is an important part of her life.
First off, Adam Levine seems like the kind of coach who’s going to tell it like it is and not sugar coat thing. Has that been your experience being coached by Adam?
Absolutely. I think that’s why I picked him in the beginning actually because after all the coaches turned around for me in the Blind Audition, something that Adam said really won me over. He knew that there was a lot that I needed to work on. He was the one that wanted to work on them with me, which is really great.
Being a young artist, I need constructive criticism to guide me to where I need to be. And he’s definitely the person to do that.
During one of your early interviews, you talked about having stage fright. Through this experience, has that gone away?
Yeah. I’ve actually overcome stage fright since I’ve come on the show. Just being part of a show like this is enough of a confidence booster to really prove to (myself) that I have what it takes to have confidence and to not be scared. Just to be on stage and do what I love. This has been a really amazing experience to help me get over that stage fright.
A lot of people would think, “Oh that would make me more nervous to be on a show like this in front of millions of people.” That’s another big thanks to Adam for really proving to me that I can be confident in myself.
We only get to see edited coaching sessions and rehearsals during the show. How much work really goes into the performances behind the scenes?
I can’t even explain how much work goes into these performances. We have rehearsals and vocal lessons and weeks of weeks of training just for one song. It’s something I do wish everyone could see and experience with us (on) how hard we work on these songs. Especially at this point in the competition, it’s so important that we work as hard as we can to continue on with these live rounds coming up.
It’s a really fun experience, though it is time consuming – it’s definitely something to be patient with. I’m really proud to say I’m part of this season – it’s definitely the best so far.
On being part of “The Voice” family, for you does that mean making lifelong friends past the show?
Oh absolutely. That’s pretty much the biggest part of it. We all are so close and we create these friendships that are so extremely rare and important to us. Doing what we love, and then having friends to be there with you and support and to tell you to keep fighting and going. I was thinking – is this even a competition?
I think it’s so amazing that The Voice does this. It makes it feel like less of a competition and just more of a family thing. Just us getting together and getting to do what we love.
Since you were raised in California, are you the resident tour guide among your colleagues? Living in California, it’s easy to take a lot of this environment for granted.
Yes, it’s really cool being the Cali girls. Me and Sugar Joans. She is my best friend on the show and since we’re both from California everybody is always asking us like, ‘You’re so lucky that you live here.’
That’s funny – because me and Sugar, we really don’t know how lucky we are to live here, and people are flying out to do these competitions from so far away. The other thing that makes me laugh so hard is when people say that they are so amazed by the mountains around here. I just never really noticed how beautiful they really are. People think it’s the most outrageous thing, and it’s so funny to me.
What is the most practical lesson you’ve learned from The Voice?
Just being yourself and not forgetting who you really are. I think a lot of young artists nowadays get on a show to become something they’re not so they can be successful. I know I’m still young but I’ve learned a lot (the past few) years . I think it’s super important to stick to your guns and hopefully that gets you somewhere. If that doesn’t, hopefully you have a back-up plan.
Having an older sister – she sings as well. She’s been struggling and fighting but never once has she done anything that she didn’t want to do so she can get a little bit of fame. It’s awesome to have that (quality).
That’s the most important part, is to just stay true to yourself and to always believe in yourself. If you have an attitude like that you can literally go anywhere. I know that sounds like a cliche or something you’d find on the internet with cute little quotes, but that’s so true. Eventually the right moment will come along for you.
Something that a lot of people don’t know is I’ve been trying really hard to get out there and have been trying real hard to be a part of The Voice. Along the road, there have been plenty of “no’s” for me, and at this point I’ve been getting so many “yes’es”and it’s been such an amazing experience to finally be where I want to be.
Thank you so much for your time and good luck moving forward.
Awesome. Thank you!