The Voice fans may remember Jacquie Lee as a clear fan favorite, acting as a runner-up only to the impeccable Tessanne Chin during the show’s fifth season. Since her run on the show just about a year ago, the young chanteuse has been hard at-work on her debut EP, which was just recently released. Entitled Broken Ones after her debut single of the same name, Jacquie and I spoke over the phone about her first-ever traversal into original music, as well as her run on The Voice and how it has prepared her for the situations she’d gotten into throughout the recording process, even though she had acknowledged that reality show stars have a hard time finding legitimate careers after the fact.

Broken Ones is currently available on iTunes for just $3.99, so if the track below is your cup of tea, just remember that you can take a full sip by giving it a purchase over yonder.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBDHnPg1qh4

Jonathan Frahm:

What was it like walking into the studio for the first time, knowing that you were recording for the Broken Ones EP?

Jacquie Lee:

It was a lot of focus and a lot of concentration. As a singer, it’s pretty easy to execute all of the notes, but as an artist, it takes a lot of thought trying to put meaning behind the song. You need to give people a perspective of what the song is about, so it was a lot of thought and focus.

JF:

And this is your first time recording original songs, right?

JL:

Yeah, and it’s really cool, after The Voice, being my own artist.

JF:

Definitely. The Voice is pretty much all cover songs, so this EP will be the first time that your fans get a real look at what’s going to really be on the table. What was it like recording originals for the first time, and how was it different for you from recording covers?

JL:

It’s awesome recording my own music! It lets me be more of an artist, and more of who I am. On the show, singing cover songs is a lot of fun, but people already know them from the original artist. So, you’re just trying to put your own spin on a song that everyone already knows this one way. Introducing your own lyrics and your own melodies, you get to really show who you are to the world and put out your own message.

It was a whole new level recording originals. It’s very enjoyable, but honestly, it’s a whole lot more scary too! [laughs] You never know what people will think.

JF:

What do you regard as some of the biggest changes, for you, yourself, as an artist and as a person, that you have gone through during and since your time on The Voice? How have these experiences contributed to the process of recording the EP?

JL:

Well, it’s very different on some levels because The Voice is a reality TV show and I’m 100% in the music world right now. So, it was a bit of a change to jump from one world to the other. It was a good change, too, because music is what I primarily want to do. I’d say The Voice was pretty much boot camp and prepared me for everything and all of the chaos that I had to go through after it was. Every possible situation where I’d feel stressed, I’d say “I know how to handle this, because I remember going through this on the show.”

JF:

How do you feel about where your career has taken you so far, and where do you hope to be in, say, two years from now?

JL:

I’m thrilled with what’s happening right now. I mean, coming off a show like that, it’s hard to pave your own way and make people see you as a legitimate artist. I think right now I’ve been working really hard and I like the place I’m at, but in two years, I hope to be on a world tour with my own music. That’s the goal.

JF:

You do have one cover song on the EP, though – “Girls Just Want To Have Fun”, and it’s very different from what people would traditionally think of when thinking of that song. What had you deciding to place this cover on the EP?

JL:

Well, it’s a classic song and everyone knows it. It’s a giant pop, dance song and totally flip it and change everyone’s view on what they thought was the only way this song could be interpreted. You say the words and everyone goes, “Oh my god, I know that song!”, and I just wanted to surprise them by showing them how I would interpret it.

JF:

Finally—I don’t like to end my interviews on a traditional note—so, if you have time for one more question, we can wrap things up with something interesting.

JL:

Sure!

JF:

Name one of your favorite foods.

JL:

Oh, food! My favorite subject. [laughs] Chocolate croissants.

JF:

If you were a chocolate croissant, what would set you apart from the other chocolate croissants?

JL:

I’d be the best chocolate croissant— No, [laughs] but I’d be very rich with a lot of chocolate, but not too much chocolate.

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