Barrett Baber may have become a household name after his run on NBC’s The Voice; however, he has been playing music and releasing songs for over a decade. Participating in weekly worship each Sunday, this son of a minister can’t remember a time when he wasn’t singing. “I think the moment I thought that maybe being a musician might be something I wanted to pursue is when I learned how to play guitar when I was nineteen,” he says. “I started writing really bad songs for many years but taking gigs at frat houses and dive bars for a hundred dollars here and there. It was a long process for me to getting to a point where I could realize the dream of being an artist.”
Baber took a different route than most musicians, settling down and accepting that becoming a high school music teacher may be his only career path. “It wasn’t until I was a grown man with a wife and children living a very full and fruitful life,” he says. “I really finally started to believe that I needed that fifteen years of development to finally get to a place to feel like I deserved success.” He struggled with and still struggles with the ghost of self doubt that many musicians feel. “I didn’t want to believe that something this good could happen to someone like me.”
Baber tells us that faith and his spiritual connection are what lead him along this musical journey. “I was comfortable with my dream to be an artist never actually happening and that’s when doors started to open that led me to that moment when I was on that stage singing at the blind auditions at The Voice.”
Getting all four judges to turn their chairs, Baber’s life as he knew it changed. Getting the opportunity to be mentored by Blake Shelton, who is operating at the top of the game in country music right now, has helped Baber better his craft. “My number one goal being on that show wasn’t to win or even to make it to the finale,” he says, “it was to become a better artist and songwriter. It didn’t matter where my journey ended and fortunately for me it was the very end.” Although receiving a third place win, Baber’s real life career in music was ready to begin after the finale on December 15th. “A lot of people think that being on the show and getting as far as I did guarantees success and that’s not necessarily true,” he says. “Being the winner or the third place runner up, there is still a lot of work to be done and the finally of the show was a celebration of making it to that starting line.”
Since The Voice ended, Baber tells us about his hectic life, recording new music, playing gigs around town, and working really hard every minute of the day. Powerhouse vocals and phenomenal stage presence only get you so far, and he understands you have to pay your dues and put the work in in order to be successful in the industry. Putting the time and energy into his music career has been tough for him because he is such a family man, and how much missing his family plays into his career. “Immensely,” he says. “I think that was one of the reasons that people connected with me and liked me on the show, I am a family man and I recognize that part of who I am. I can’t separate myself from my children and my wife as part of my identity and even though sometimes I have to separate myself from them to go do my job but at the end of the day the audience saw a guy who was really working hard towards a dream that is not just my dream but it is my family’s dream, our dream together.”
He most recently debuted a new single on Valentine’s Day, “Kiss Me Hello,” a smooth love song featuring Baber’s irresistible charm and powerful vocal ability. Due to his incredible talent, Baber landed the opening gig for Rascal Flatts’ Rhythm & Roots Residency at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. “I think that people can expect to see high energy and it will be very similar to what they saw from me on The Voice as far as the energy and emotion goes,” he shares. “If I am on the stage an inner switch flips inside of me and I lose myself in those moments.” The residency runs from Wednesday February 17th-March 5th 2016.
Ready to make his mark on the country music industry, Barrett Baber is prepared to work hard to remain a sincere, country artist. “All I can do is take what I have been given, which is a third place finish on the voice and do my very best to turn that into something special.”
You can buy Barrett’s new single “Kiss Me Hello” on iTunes. Be sure to follow the rest of his musical journey on Instagram and Twitter.