Reality TV music shows didn’t interest Allen Stone. ‘American Song Contest’ caught his ear

Spokane soul singer Allen Stone, whose new music occupation obtained rolling in Seattle, will stand for Washington point out on NBC’s new exhibit “American Track Contest” (8-10 p.m. Mondays) on the episode airing April 11.

Stone’s participation has a great deal to do with his Evergreen Condition roots.

The demonstrate, an Americanized model of the international strike “Eurovision Music Contest,” marks Stone’s very first foray into a actuality Tv music competitors series, while related demonstrates have attempted to recruit the born-and-bred Washingtonian right before.

“‘American Idol’ known as me when I was, like, 22,” said Stone, 35, who lives in Spokane. “I had just started off getting gigs and I try to remember getting like, ‘I don’t want to do that.’ I was younger, possibly ignorant, but I thought, properly, ‘American Idol’ is for persons who really do not have just about anything heading for them, no position in any way in the songs marketplace.”

Stone sees “American Music Contest” as something diverse, additional akin to the NCAA March Insanity than a talent discovery demonstrate. And it served that he got familiar with “Eurovision” throughout the pandemic, portion of which he put in in his spouse Tara Lawson’s indigenous Australia. “For them it was like the Super Bowl,” Stone stated of Australians and “Eurovision.”

“What manufactured me say indeed to this was receiving to represent Washington condition, the state I was born and raised in, my father was born and elevated in, my grandfather. There is lineage of Washingtonians I come from,” he explained. “I get to display screen my authentic track on a Tv set display that hopefully tens of millions of folks are heading to see.”

“American Track Contest” functions artists from 50 states, 5 American territories and Washington, D.C., doing first tracks and competing for viewers’ votes, normally on elaborate stage sets. The performers are a mix of up-and-comers, recognized touring functions like Stone and sector veterans (Michael Bolton signifies Connecticut Macy Grey reps Ohio). Kelly Clarkson and Snoop Dogg host the stay episodes.

In an NBC press conference in advance of the show commenced, Clarkson known as Stone “super-gifted,” and executive producer Audrey Morrissey defined that most of the performers on “Eurovision” are signed to a history label — and execs wanted the American display to reflect that. Stone is with ATO information his self-titled 2011 album peaked at the No. 2 place on iTunes’ R&B/soul charts, and he has unveiled three albums due to the fact, which include November’s acoustic exertion, “Apart.”

“Just by outreach and different discussions, individuals were being fascinated, Allen remaining a single of them,” Morrissey stated, outlining the recruitment course of action. “In talking with him and his group, it’s a huge deal that he’s never ever still left the state.

“I mean, there has been a lot of prospect and a great deal of encouragement for him to leave and come to other sites to be closer to possibly the epicenter of the songs business so to converse, but he’s in no way still left, doesn’t want to, has no strategies on it.”

Stone, who grew up in Chewelah in rural Stevens County northwest of Spokane, would not disclose specifics about how his functionality will seem, but did say his track is called “A Little bit of The two,” co-published with Lakewood artist Tyler Acord, aka Lophiile.

“This tune is about the duality of how individuals effectively have every great and poor, sort and unkind, possess every little thing all at at the time,” Stone mentioned.

“What’s exciting to me is Washington is a incredibly twin condition,” he ongoing. “We occur from loggers and miners and portsmen and fishermen, and still we’ve developed to this place that has Amazon and Microsoft and Boeing and Costco, all these big Fortune 500 corporations, nevertheless we nevertheless have this aspect of hands-in-the-grime style of persons, exclusively on the japanese aspect of the condition I’m residing in.”

Previously this 12 months, Stone filmed his bio/introduction for “American Music Contest” in Seattle.

“I moved to Seattle when I was 21 and my occupation began there and I was able to acquire a countrywide identify in Seattle,” he mentioned. “As considerably as my songs vocation, I’m a Seattleite for confident.”

Stone says he filmed segments at Emerald City Guitars in Pioneer Square (which he identified as “a fantastic guitar shop in town I spent way far too a great deal revenue at in my life”) and at the Edgewater Hotel on Elliott Bay, exactly where Stone experienced one of his initially gigs. And, of program, the output got the beauty shot of the metropolis from Kerry Park on Queen Anne Hill.

Even though the sequence has “contest” in its title, Stone reported he’s not overly invested in the competitors factor of the present.

“I just want to defeat California,” he stated. “I’m absolutely joking, staying facetious.” Stone chuckled in advance of offering his misgivings about competitors in the arts.

“Competition in artwork is a small janky to me. Getting to signify Washington state and engage in a track I wrote, that’s an honor. And if the relaxation of The usa likes it and it purchases some voting and I get to enjoy that music once again in a later on episode, then I’m amped,” he said. “I don’t feel the competition mentality serves you too effectively in art, while it may well in other enterprise tactics or sports activities.”

While the “American Tune Contest” winner does get bragging rights, it doesn’t occur with a prize past that, although Stone experienced a person tongue-in-cheek ask for for the show’s producers.

“If I get to smoke out with Snoop Dogg, then get-acquire, newborn,” he mentioned.

“If I take place to make it to the conclude, that is a prize I would consider to my grave. I would preserve the joint, only smoke a little bit of it, put it in a trophy situation and cling it on my wall next to none of the plaques I have, simply because I do not have any platinum information.”

You can view Stone, Snoop and other songwriters competing on “American Song Contest” April 11 on NBC.