Vicci Martinez Talks Her Best Moments With Cee Lo Green on The Voice

Reverb was rooting for local singer/songwriter Vicci Martinez throughout the first season of The Voice; now that it's over, Martinez is spending some time in L.A. prepping a new album, but she did take the time to speak with me about the show and how her life's changed since then. You'll have to wait 'til next week's issue of SW to read the full interview, but here are some tidbits:

SW: What was your favorite moment with Cee Lo?

Martinez: I think it was when we did the Pat Benatar "Love Is a Battlefield." It was wild, and we both were so excited about it. It was really nice to see him as excited for a performance, because during the show he's kind of taking a seat, watching me, giving me advice, but then with this performance he was asking me advice, as far as what should we do with the dancers, do you think I look OK? I was like, "OK, Cee Lo, you don't have to ask me, but I appreciate it."

Did he pick out his own outfit? That red thing?

Yeah, he did. He contacted the stylist, who's worked with him for Gnarls Barkley, and he told her what he had, and he told her to call me and convince me, because he thought that it would be hard for him to convince me. And so she called me and was just like, "How do you feel about wearing a corset? How do you feel like wearing feathers?" And she told me what Cee Lo was wearing. I was like, "Absolutely. If he's doing it, I'm doing it."

What's the best professional advice he gave you?

He talked to me about understanding that it might be weird for us to be doing cover songs on the show. He's like, "I'm a songwriter too, I get it." But he also sings other people's songs and co-writes, and he was like, "Don't ever forget to be a fan of music. Don't think that you always have to sing your own stuff. You can like other things, and perform them, and put your heart into them." He told me to pay homage to, you know, like Pat Benatar. He was explaining to me, "This is a woman who paved the way for music that you're doing now." So for him to say that was really great to hear.

Other than the Benatar, what was your favorite song you performed on the show?

"Jolene," definitely. I already have been performing that in my set back at home. Actually, a band from Seattle, Goldfinch, Aaron Stevens [from that band] asked me to come do an a cappella thing with him, just him and I, and he was singing "Jolene." I knew the song but I'd never really learned it and knew the whole story and everything, and that's what got me to start singing that song.

Can you give me details about what The Voice tour is going to be like?

I know we've talked about all of us being a part of each others' performances, not just one by one going out there and performing a song. We've talked about playing instruments with other people and kind of making it a group thing, as opposed to just a performance with just one person.

What are you doing in L.A. right now?

I'm going to meet with booking agents, I'm doing songwriting while I'm here for a few days. And then I'm going to Sweden on Friday for writing and production. There's a group of people I'm working with in Sweden, Peter Svensson, Shellback. We're putting a new album together with Universal.

Vicci Martinez is playing two shows at the Triple Door on Saturday, July 23--8 p.m., which is all-ages, and 11 p.m., which is 21+. Tickets are $18 in advance and $21 at the door.

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