The second week of The Voice blind auditions began Monday night and the coaches turned their chairs and battle each other for new singers on their teams. Team Adam got Barry Minniefield, Bren'nae DeBarge, James McNeiece, Michael Leier, and Nicolette Mare. Team Black scored Jacob Rummell, Kelsie May and Matt Snook. Clinton Washington, Gabriel Wolfchiled and Sonic joined Team Christina, and on Team Pharrell, Kimberly Nichol and Travis Ewing.

 

Q: Bren'nae can you tell us more about your family name. DeBarge is pretty legendary in the music business.

 

Bren'nae DeBarge: My connection with the DeBarge family - I'm actually married to Andrew DeBarge who is the son of Tommy DeBarge. Yes. So I'm related by marriage.

 

Q: [Bren'nae] Have you been doing music all your life with the family, or is this your first attempt at doing music on your own?

 

Bren'nae DeBarge: I've been doing music all my life and just recently started with the family, maybe about four or five years ago.

 

Q: What's the best advice you've learned from your experience on The Voice so far?

 

James McNeiece: I think the biggest advice that I got was I guess just to kind of make sure that you're being yourself, and make sure that you're kind of just being as comfortable as you can be on stage.

 

India Carney: One thing I took away from the experience so far has been to always push yourself musically. Because you never know what you're capable of until you do. And you could be really surprised with the outcome.

 

Barry Minniefield: And I agree with India. And what I've taken from this, I mean, being 53 years old - that you're never too old to keep learning in this process, and to get the best of what you can be. I mean, that's what I got from it. And I'm still growing as a musician, as a singer, as an entertainer.

 

Q: You've been a chef for a long time, how did you decide to go on The Voice and were you looking to change your career to sing full-time?

 

Barry Minniefield: What made me change, you know, I was a chef at the Improve for many years. And, you know, to pacify me - we were one of the first places to do karaoke. So I came out of the kitchen and I'd go into the dining room. We'd start singing and having fun. So it was hard to keep me out of singing. I mean, that's where it kind of all started for me.

 

There are more interviews with the advancing singers from The Voice as the blind auditions continue.

 

Photo credit: NBC