The Voice eliminee Nick Hagelin is revealing the truth about what happened with his former major-label record deal.
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Before auditioning for The Voice, Nick had been signed to Interscope Records and started recording an album in Los Angeles, CA. The show presented Nick's backstory as if he had "walked away from the contract" due to pressure to hide his family image and the desire to spend more time with his wife and disabled son Bash. But according to Nick, those details are a little misleading.
"To be honest, it's kind of been spun a little bit more in that way -- I don't think intentionally -- but that's sort of how it's been phrased, that I 'walked away.' That's not really what happened. It was a great run. We recorded a lot, and then the people I signed to at the label ended up leaving that label and going to other labels," Nick told Reality TV World on Thursday.
"So my A&R and executive producer and everyone who sort of brought me into the building ended up leaving the building after I was there for about a year-and-a-half. And the thing about a major-label deal is no matter what it looks like on paper, if you don't have someone in the building, in the offices advocating for you, pushing for promotions and budget, pushing for sessions to be booked, it's just not going to happen."
Nick said when his support system at the label left, "there really wasn't a home" for him anymore.
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"So things kind of fizzled out slowly and we went our separate ways. Cordially, the interesting thing though, is that I think because of me trying to embody some sort of pop-star image and the music I was trying to make, it just wasn't authentic. I wasn't writing and creating from an authentic place," Nick explained.
"I was trying to be some super-cool guy. I don't know what it was, but it was just not translating into good music. So, that was part of why we could never get behind a single and a song was never released. So, there were kind of a lot of factors. My son was very young at the time too, so we were dealing with a lot. When I was going back and forth from LA, he was about a year old."
The turn of events at the label, however, "worked out serendipitously," according to the humble artist.
"I was able to come home, and it was at that time when I sort of re-evaluated my music career and kept trying things. But everything was just remaining stagnant. It wasn't until The Voice when I sort of 'came out of the closet' as being married and having a kid. My Blind Audition was really the first time I shared that part of my life, and obviously this was the biggest and best opportunity that's ever happened in my career," Nick told Reality TV World.
"So, I don't want to continue to say or poster that I 'walked away on some moral high ground.' It wasn't really all that. But I think it worked out for the best because I learned a ton during that process even though the music wasn't so great. I got to work with some of the best writers and producers alive... I just absorbed so much. It was like going to Rockstar College or something. It was just an amazing period of my life."
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Nick said now is the time to call upon the "wonderful relationships" he had established at the record label and "try to do it again."
"This time, the music is going to be awesome!" Nick insisted.
Also during his post-The Voice interview, Nick explained what's next for him in terms of his career and music.
"I've been a singer/songwriter since I was 12-years-old. So I'm just really excited about getting my new original music out there and continuing to promote it with touring and music videos. That was one of the hardest parts about this process, was having to sort of stop that flow of new music, so now I've got all of this pent-up creative energy, and I'm ready to get into the studio and then get out on the road," Nick revealed to reporters.
"My voice has grown so much. It's been such a wonderful and emotional experience. I've really tapped into a new authentic place in my relationship with myself and my music, and I'm excited about expressing that with some new EPs and hopefully an album soon... My lane, I would say, is soulful pop music. I'm a big R&B fan and my original music will probably have a little bit more of that R&B flavor that what I had gotten a chance to do on the show."
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski