Dave Moisan: My 'The Voice' battle was like stepping into the ring with Mohammed Ali, I'm elated to be on Adam Levine's team

Dave Moisan ended up on The Voice coach Adam Levine's team following the "Battle Round," where many fans feel he belonged in the first place.


Dave, a medical device salesman and former competitive swimmer from Louisville, KY, auditioned for The Voice having been a huge fan of Adam's for years. Dave never took a vocal lesson in his life yet managed to turn all four chairs around during his Blind Audition.

Much to everyone's surprise, Dave chose to join Alicia Keys' team, later telling Reality TV World that he wanted to grow as an artist and push himself out of his comfort zone. The other coaches on the show had also urged Dave to "break the mold" and give someone else a chance to guide him.

In one of last week's Battles, Dave and Michael Sanchez performed "Valerie." Although Alicia chose to keep Michael on her team, Adam stole Dave in order to keep him in the competition.

Without the "Knockout Round" just around the corner, Dave talked to reporters during a recent conference call about his experience on the show thus far. Below is what he had to say.


When Alicia came up with the idea of yourself and Michael switching off and on the piano, what did the both of you think of that and then how did you feel after performing it?

Dave Moisan: So from my standpoint, when Alicia suggested that, that totally took me off guard and I about peed myself on national TV. My face turned bright red because, think about it this way, Michael is like the most incredible pianist you've ever heard.

And so for me, it's like being asked to step into the ring with Mohammed Ali when its like, "Hey, I sparred a little bit with my brother -- I can maybe take Mohammed Ali, maybe."

But with a lot of work and a lot of practice, I had an absolute blast because I love Michael Sanchez. That guy is amazing and it was so fun to get to play this song with him in that kind of way, [but] I [had to get] past like the, "Oh my gosh I don't know, I'm not prepared for this, I don't know what I'm doing."

Because there's that fear, instinct, that automatically arises whenever you're not ready for something and that definitely arose in me. But once I was able to get past that, I had so much fun. It was an incredible experience and we really, really enjoyed performing together.


You played up your connection with Adam in the "Blind Auditions" round, so it was a little surprising you didn't join his team to begin with. How do you feel about ending up with Adam after your Battle?

Dave Moisan: Oh, I'm pumped. I'm elated. I think that for me it's the best of both worlds because I got to work with Alicia Keys, who has 15 Grammys and is an amazing songwriter and an amazing person.

She was able to kind of push me outside of my comfort level, and now I get to work with Adam Levine, who I do think aligns with me musically or aligns most similar to me musically, and I'm thrilled to work with him.

And it's kind of full circle now because I did get to hang out with him and Songs About Jane was such an influential album in my musical formation. Getting to stand onstage with him and experience that before I even played music, it was a big part of my musical formation, like I said, and now I'm excited that I get to work with him and excited to see what we do.

Is there anything specific you learned in the Battle that you carried with you to the "Knockout Round?"


Dave Moisan: So one of the big things that I learned from the "Battle Round" -- and one of the big things that Alicia helped me with -- is really pushing me outside of my box enough so that I have to rehearse and rehearse and rehearse a ton.

Because for our Battle, for "Valerie" with Michael and I, you know, it was a lot of fun but it was a lot of work. And the interesting thing about that song -- and this is another area where she helped me -- with Michael and I singing it, is we both have a little bit of a different flavor when it comes to our artistic sensibilities.

And the fun thing about a Battle is trying to find your own unique voice and be able to present a true representation of yourself artistically while also being true to the song and also not being overbearing or too juxtaposed to your battle partner.

And so that's a fine balance, trying to maintain identity but also present a song as a collected whole in a really -- in an artistic way together. And so that was a big thing that I learned from the Battle, was how do I find my voice in every song that I sing?

Because, honestly for me, I don't usually sing cover songs. I find it way easier to write a song and sing that because that's exactly what I want to express. Those are my lyrics, those are my cords, those are my melodies.


And so how do I express myself through someone else's song? That's a hard thing to do for me anyways. And that's one of the biggest areas where I grew through the Battle and that I'm taking into the knockouts with me.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski