Q&A : AYDAN

13 August
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In our latest Q&A, we chat with 17 year old Melbourne performer Aydan Calafiore, who made it all the way to this year’s final of ‘The Voice’.
He’s experienced plenty of success since the competition finished back in June and is about to hit the road for a series of live shows across the country.
In support of those, we threw some questions in Aydan’s direction. Here are his answers.
Q. Congratulations firstly on your placing in ‘The Voice’ this year. How gruelling was the competition for you?
It was definitely a gruelling process but mixed with so much fun. All of the contestants were really talented and we were all really good friends. The way I went about it was just to take one week at a time and strive to do my best in every performance.
Q. What prompted you go to on the show in the first place?
Like so many young singers in Australia I’ve watched ‘The Voice’ for many years and always thought that it would be a great experience and an incredible way to gain performance experience – so when the opportunity came up, I couldn’t pass on it!
Q. How much of the reality TV machine met with your expectations?
There is so many amazing things that go on behind the scenes that no one even knows about, so getting to see that first hand really gave me a good insight into how much work really goes into making these shows incredible. It actually went beyond my expectations – I had the time of my life.
Q. Did you get everything out of the experience that you wanted to?
Definitely. I got to share my love of music with Australia, got to work with so many professional and talented artists, musicians and crew and also met people who will be friends for life. I couldn’t ask for any more than that.
Q. You had some incredibly complex and high-energy performances on the show. How nervous did you get before you went on stage for the live shows?
I was always really nervous. Everyone gets nervous before they perform and I think I felt it even more when I was doing the really tough performances. The hardest thing to do is turning those nerves into adrenaline and using it in your performances. That’s what I tried to do every week.
Q. What lessons did ‘The Voice’ teach you along the way.
‘The Voice’ really showed me just how much you can achieve if you put your mind to it. I auditioned with a Spanish song, a language I don’t speak, and that was the first challenge. By the last week I had sung in the rain, danced my butt off while singing AND jumped off huge platforms mid-song. ‘The Voice’ taught me that there’s nothing you can’t do when you put in the work and believe in yourself.
Q. How have you approached your music career off the back of the TV show?
I’m approaching my own career with a positive attitude and taking every opportunity that comes my way and taking nothing for granted. The end of the show for me in a way was the very beginning of the hard work.
I have a great team of people around me from my family, to my management team and the wonderful people I have started working with at Universal and Universal Publishing and I know that building a team of great people who support you is the best way to approach a career.
Q. How have you adapted to the burst of fame?
I’ve been subject to the fame thing before on TV shows, back in 2012 on ‘Young Talent Time’ and 2013 on ‘Australia’s Got Talent’. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying it but the most important thing is not getting caught up in it. If you don’t work hard while you’re up, it won’t be long before you lose it all and come crashing down. It’s way more important to me that people enjoy my music and my show than whether I have fame!
Q. Where’s the weirdest place you’ve been recognized since coming off the show?
I went to Bounce Inc the other day with my family. After being there for five minutes and talking to a staff member who recognized me from the show, everyone in the whole place knew that I was there and it was funny because I was all sweaty and in my trackies taking photos with people – so sorry to all those people who took the sweaty photos!!
Q. You’ve announced a series of live shows coming up this month. What can audiences expect from them?
A high-energy show with some big performances. All your favorite songs from ‘The Voice’. Dancers, DJ’s, an AWESOME band and a really great night of fun. We wanted to make this run of shows a celebration from ‘The Voice’ but also give people a taste of what you can expect from me moving forward. I love getting the audience dancing so expect to dance!
Q. There’s clearly a lot of support for you, given your VIP meet and greet tickets sold out within 23 minutes of going on sale? How crazy is that?
I definitely wasn’t expecting that. We actually thought there was something wrong with the ticketing link as we started getting messages from people saying they couldn’t buy them. We looked into straight away and realized that they had sold out – which was really humbling. I’m so happy that I can relate to so many people through my music. People who are kind enough to support me on this amazing journey.
Q.What’s your favourite song to perform?
On ‘The Voice’ my favorite performance was ‘Runaway Baby’ (my grand final song) because I got to jump around the stage, slide down fireman poles and just have a good time with Australia but I’m loving performing my new single ‘Something About You; and looking forward to performing that in the show.
Q. What’s the one thing that you want your fans to take away from an Aydan concert?
I want people to walk away with a smile on their faces. If they’re happy it means that as a performer I did my job.
Q. Have you started working on original music at this stage?
Yes! I’ve been doing heaps of writing sessions with great artists and songwriters through Universal Publishing and I’m having so much fun! It is so cool to be in the studio all day with people and work creatively together and we have done some really cool songs already.
Q. If so, when can we expect that to see the light of day?
Were putting in a lot of work at this stage to make some great songs that people will relate to and enjoy listening to. So as soon as we accomplish that, you can expect some great tracks.
For me it’s really important to make music that means something to me and that has a lot of integrity so our team are going to make sure that when we release music we are all really proud of it.
Catch Aydan performing at the following matinee shows;
August 18 : Melbourne (170 Russell)
August 25 : Sydney (Oxford Art Factory)
August 26 : Brisbane (The Triffid)
September 08 : Adelaide (Governor Hindmarsh)
November 02 : Frankston (Arts Centre)
(A Perth date is due to be announced soon)
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