Carson Daly on the evolution of music since TRL and the continuous innovation of ‘The Voice'

what's up how how do you say your name say it for me Siri Siri nice to meet you my wife is Siri s i r i i i know this and uh as you can imagine um when we're making dinner reservations I always hear her say yes Siri like the iPhone yes apple apple is not my friend I'm sure you get all sorts of variations of that as well but it's it's Siri you said s yeah yeah so you and I Carson this is actually fun a fun little history fact but you and I share I don't know we go back like 20 something years okay my first job out of high school was working for MTV uh at motel California wow no kidding that's where I started I know I know I used to work all the early morning shifts with you and I remember you so fondly because you were the nicest person to everyone a good for me yeah good for you totally that's C that was such a weird what were you doing I was like interning assisant who did you know to get that job I it was like a random just met somebody and they were like oh you want to work in entertainment sure I mean it was really wild it was like the wild west back in the days and they brought me on it really was yeah yeah brought me on for the summer and then I'm like I feel like in some really wild full circle moment now I could be like that's so cool get to by the way that that was such a weird place I'm from La so I know that was an old like SeaWorld as a kid I used to go there I think it was seaw something like that um and we set up that set there but it was kind of in the middle of nowhere it was was a really random place to work totally it was it was so bizarre but so what did you what did you do after that like what did where did that I totally a different path I went I ended up as a writer I used to write for TV and then kind of fell into entertainment journalism I covered music for a lot of years and then you know did you stay in La yeah I'm like right outside of la oh wow good for you yeah wow what a small well it's nice to see you again too I have to say like the like I said the the the memories of that time were so cool like I have first of all your interview skills back then like I remember you from krock and then watching you interview people I was like wow he's really good and then I have vivid memories you were you were you would play music in between breaks and I have these memories of you playing um blur's song too and I was like wow really good I thought for sure you were gonna drop an album at some point oh my God that is so funny wow what a memory you have um that was CRA I mean I felt like you though I felt like I worked at KCK but like when they they like oh we want to be an MTV I was like MTV VJ like like what do you have to do like oh come down to motel California for the summer and like interview no doubt I'm like these are all my like Adrian Young from no doubt the drummer's like one of my best friends I'm like you're gonna pay me to like you know interview people on television are you me of course I'll do that so but that was such a weird thing I remember meeting Bill Bellamy and I was like I couldn't believe like I would watch Motel California in the morning and I was like I'm gonna go there I'm gonna drive there today like I'm gonna be on I'm gonna go do that it was so weird still is actually it was no surprise to me though when you went on to host TRL because I was like of course he's awesome I mean totally fitting for you oh thank you that's awfully nice yeah I got lucky yeah you it was it was I think also being a kind person like that taught me a lot because you really were oh that's nice that means a lot to hear thanks D appreciate it yeah so one thing that I do remember vividly um your love for music it was so evident and and having a genuine conversation with people like you could tell that you really loved it so this is a rather large question I want to hear from your perspective how you feel about The Evolution of Music since you started and the role The Voice has played in it wow that's the that is I'm on the ther therapy couch now sari for that question I don't know how to answer that in a in a in a um in a concise way um but I can say the role of Music on television has evolved and my best analogy to that is that you know I I got into music because I loved just being around music and I didn't care about making money you know I was 22 and I worked at Live 105 in San Francisco and slept on my sister's couch and made less than $25,000 a year and was ha as happy then as I am right here right now so by staying I was I loved being close to music my thought of Music on television when Idol was happening as it pertains to kind of music on TV I didn't like it I I because I'm 50 I'm of the age where that to me at the time felt like people were cheating because I had I my my understanding of making it in music was my friends who were in Vans you know who are rock bands all over the country who are working radio stations who are you know earning their their stripes and I felt like you can't just go on a TV show and then become a big artist that's not fair that's like taking Cuts so I didn't love it so when the voice opportunity came to me later even after MTV and all of that I was really skeptical about it because I I was like well I don't we're not don't want to be on I don't even watch American Idol so I don't want to do a show like Idol like and then we ended up I end the world changed technology changed perception of how music the Paradigm of the music business changed um you know YouTube the digital democracy The Avenues to success I mean every everything changed and and the voice became a show that really decided to nurture how music was done on TV and we did it with people we did it with with coaches not judges they were relevant music stars not just like you know kind of random people and um and so I'm really proud of of of getting into the sort of Music on television at a network level during the voice I think the voice offered credibility and authenticity and legitimacy for the first time for for for music and how it's handled on television and that's not to say that Idol didn't didn't have authenticity and credibility I mean they they were one of the biggest TV shows of all time and there would be no voice without American Idol so it's not a shoted Idol but it's just the world changed desperately and I love the way that we um handle our artists want them to be their true authentic selves on TV behind the mic um and that we didn't never made fun of people so music has changed a lot on television that way um and I just like the voice has been at the epicenter of that um to help nurture that change in a positive direction yeah I one thing that I really love about it too is you managed to make after 25 Seasons you manag to make every season feel unique so like this season you've got a Duo as coaches and got two country music artists do you go into each season as a producer being like what can we do what what are we going to do now kinda I kind of we didn't we didn't in the beginning because with most TV shows it's like all right you're just do more of like what made you successful last time but with the voice we had a built-in change because we knew our coaches had to go tour so we knew we were gonna have have to get new coaches and so we had to make that work and that was great we ended up getting now we've had like a laundry list of these a-level great people who are mentors or coaches or advisers um and then it was like we noticed early on that like hey great singers are leaving like they're getting voted off for whatever reason like how do we keep singers around and that was like you know let's have a comeback or like just a reason in the format to bring somebody back or how about the steal like what if this guy gets on this team but really should be on this team and we could Steals and blocks and playoff pass and so all those things we do sort of like right now season 25 we're thinking about season 26 we've got Snoop and Michael bé and we're already thinking about maybe changing one of our rounds The Knockout round has sort of bothered me for a little while now and I'm trying to figure out what what's another round idea we can do but you you have to be really careful because you don't want to mess with the show you know you don't want to jump the shark two two coaches in a chair could have been gimmicky but like it works with Dan and Shay we got lucky because they're so great they're like great dudes they're great coaches and the chair was fun it was different so you have to be careful you want to do something that we can promote and get people excited about voice oh and it's different it's got so and so oh and they're trying this thing like Carson has a buzzer and he can save somebody or you know just something that might be a little bit different do you when when you're hosting do you ever want to jump in and yes yes all the time all the time but see you have to remember I know too much you know I know from being a producer I know all about the people that we invite to the blind auditions I know their backstories I know who's like really good so if they're having if they have a shitty audition in 90 seconds I'm like oh man that was just they just that up like that they're much better than that but the coaches don't know anything and they're not supposed to that's part of the show so I can't have a button I can't do anything because I know tooo much but um it does drive me crazy yeah see maybe that should be the addition to the next season what me I can't I can't do anything oh wow I know but yeah we do try and tweak it a little bit without you know ruining the show yeah yeah so you're you're watching these artists their progression right in your opinion what would you say makes an artist a superstar you know there really is that it factor that it's hard to put your finger on um and it's not always our winner it's not always somebody in our top 10 I see it you know in our top 25 I sometimes I don't know what how to describe it it's obviously somebody who has incredible voice but it's not necessarily like a a belting Kelly Clarkson voice sometimes it's just a voice inside you know when someone sings a song and they connect so deeply to the lyrics um and they sell you on it it's like you watch a two-minute performance and it feels like it's 10 seconds yeah I mean there's just magic and you can see it I can see it when I when I know it when I see it but it's not something I could tell an artist hey go out there and do this cry or you know you can't tell them to to be special you only know it when you see it and I think when people are authentic they're authentic selves and they go out there and they just get lost in the song and they mean what they say um and just it's it's the stuff that makes it that it factor that gives them that status but I don't know how to describe it absolutely I think you're totally right yeah let's talk Emy because you have four you have four of them not bad not bad not yeah not too bad first thing I want to know is where do you keep them well I have them in um I have had them in a few and I had them in my office for a little while like a home office office like a man cave kind of office I had him there but now we have in our I live in New York where basement living in Long Island in the suburbs of New York and basement living is is is is a real thing on the East Coast it's I'm from La where we didn't have a basement we had an attic but nothing was in the Attic So to say I my Emmys are in my basement can sound like they're like locked with they're not we have like a great basement I have a a bar I built called Patterson's Pub an Irish bar we built during covid um so we could not go crazy and so they're in like my basement um in our like bar uh on display and it's great and um look the I mean the em and nominations and stuff like that is is cool but it's really nice because there's like hundreds of men and women that like work so hard on our show that you know No One Ever Knows about and that's what makes the show great I mean Blake makes the made the show great but like there's no Blake Shelton without the person that put a mic on him or who Who's Who lit him nicely or who made him up or who you know I mean there's so many people it's like the offensive line of the voice those so we get an Emy nomination that's why we that the producers get so excited and go big that night and share because we're really excited that there's going to be a light shined on everybody else the the the crew you know who it's crazy what happens on a Monday night it's like a Grammys a war like during commercial break you see like 100 people coming out moving stuff unplugging stuff sweating on their W you know it's like this this Factory those are the people that make show possible and I'm out there like hey welcome back and like it's a perfect new set you have to acknowledge those people or or Paul movich and our band like they know like 5,000 songs they're like the best band ever can't do we can't do the voice doesn't win an Emmy or get Nom doesn't do the voice doesn't do without these people like it literally just doesn't exist so anyway it's fun all this sort of talk about the show being you know getting Awards it's it's fun because it's for them the awards should go to them not me see the humblest guy I have ever met but that's not humility though Siri that's just true like that's literally true right it's just true it's like you go to a restaurant like whoever made this food like whoever mashed these damn po whoever did this they're the Superstar may not be you know who you think it is it takes it takes a team it is it does it does it takes yeah yeah the voice is a monster monster team of people to pull off what we do they make it look easy I am glad you are at the center of it and so happy we got to reconnect today this yeah Sarah thank you it was awesome I'm happy for you and you you too and thank you for your time and for talking about us and that's fantastic what a small world I know that's great memories I've got Motel California seriously what a what a time to be alive yeah that was nuts well thank you I appreciate it oh thanks Carson good to see you