Courtesy of Nine Network
When the seventh season of The Voice Australia premieres tonight, DNCE frontman Joe Jonas will make his debut as a coach alongside returning stars Boy George, Kelly Rowland, and two-time consecutive winner Delta Goodrem. “I like getting new people as part of the family,” Jonas, 28, tells WHO about his fellow red-chair-turners and the singers who will join his team. “There’s something so rewarding about working with artists that are wanting to work hard and are willing to soak up any knowledge that you might throw at them,” he adds, “and it also is encouraging, because I’ve gone through so much in my career and I’m happy to kind of advise them on things not to do, things to do, what to work on.”
Q: Did you think much ahead of time of what kind of team you wanted?
Joe: You have the idea of what you want, but not until you hear the voice and you get so excited because you realise like, “Oh, wow. I never thought I would hear somebody like this.” You hit that button and you’ve really got to pitch yourself. I’ve worked with all different kinds of artists, from some amazing female vocalists to some of my favourite icons, and now I have this opportunity to pass this along this knowledge to somebody. Whether if it’s on the show or it’s afterwards, if it’s on their own journey, I hope that in some way I can help out their future.
Q: Are you happy with your picks?
Joe: I’ve got a really strong team. I feel really confident and I feel like these are relationships that you continue down the road, that you want to work with these artists, you want to work hard for them, and you want to see them succeed.
Q: How do you approach the blind auditions?
Joe: There’s times that you have to kind of hold back because you want to see if they can win you over. There’s always performances that, understandably, some people are very nervous. The lights, the audience, the chairs are turned, and you go up there and you’re singing a really beautiful soft song and nerves are going to take over. But all that said, there have been moments I hit it right away. There’s moments I sit there and I wait for a moment. Ultimately, we’re not looking at or listening to every single note. We’re looking for the full package, and getting the idea that they can really present themselves in the best way, especially if we’re just only hearing their voices. Then we can hear things to work on. There’s artists that I have on my team that they didn’t do the perfect audition, but ultimately I heard something in them that could be worked with or trained to potentially take it home.
Q: Delta dated your brother Nick in 2012. Was it helpful having her sit beside you?
Joe: It was very helpful. Delta’s a good friend at this point, and I felt like we had this brother-sister, fun, playful kind of game that we were doing while we’re here, and we can poke at each other and you don’t feel like they’re getting too offended or whatever. I think that’s been nice, and especially kind of helping me with the run of show, because I know The Voice from the States, but I never knew how much of a game it is. That’s what I love. I was playing Monopoly last night, so these kind of things, being competitive, in family of brothers, comes naturally.
Q: You have been on the road for most of your career. Do you ever feel settled?
Joe: This is the most settled I’ve been in probably years. And that’s just because, by choice, I love playing, travelling and seeing new cities. The band, DNCE, that I’m in now, we tour a lot, more than I ever did even with my brothers, so it keeps us quite busy.
Q: Does all that experience starting at a young age with the Jonas Brothers and then transitioning to DNCE make you an ideal coach?
Joe: I think every coach has had that in their life thus far, that they’ve been able to start really young, and for some, that’s a disadvantage, but I’ve learned a lot and I was kind of a kid in an adult world, and I was forced to figure it all out. I had my brothers, luckily, but when you’re an artist alone, it can be very scary. There’s a few artists that are young, and they were my age when I started, so I feel like I have that experience and it’s still pretty fresh, and I can explain how to make sure you don’t lose yourself and how to balance family and work and your dreams, and if you’re really ready, if you need more time in your life. So it’s like, it becomes almost like, in a weird way, a therapy session sometimes with my artists, but it is beautiful. The coaching is a really special thing, and lights on, lights off, whatever it may be with the cameras, there can be moments when it’s really intimate and you can really help them. I think that’s important.
Q: Congratulations on your engagement to Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner.
Joe: Thank you very much.
Q: Are you looking forward to marriage, and is it easy to plan for a wedding while you are here?
Joe: I’m looking forward, yes. You know, we’re taking our sweet time, and it’s difficult to plan anything, really, for me, so I have a lot of people’s help. But she’s going to try to come out here when we get to the live shows. She’s busy, obviously, working. She’s very jealous via FaceTime of what the lifestyle’s like, and she’s always with an eye roll like, “What are you doing now?” [Laughs] Because she knows it’s got to be something epic!
Q: Like surfing a big wave?
Joe: I did once! It was the day after the cyclone in Fiji, so the waves were huge. I thought that was normal, so really all I was doing was trying to stay up with my neck not underneath the water. So I got up, like, once and luckily, I got a photo of that, so I can say that I got up!
To hear more from Joe about his friendship with Delta, his fitness secrets and who he considers his mentor, pick up the latest issue of WHO on newsstands today.
‘The Voice Australia’ premieres tonight at 7 PM on Nine.
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