Tony Lucca expects his upcoming return to “The Voice” to be “interesting” — to say the least.
The second season’s second runner-up is slated to perform on Tuesday’s [December 11] episode and tells Billboard he’s looking forward to being back. “It’s cool to kind of revisit all the crew and the people that you got real close to,” the Michigan-based singer-songwriter says. “I’ve been watching this latest season. I’m excited to meet some of these guys. As a finalist, you know what it’s like; you’ve been all the way through the fire. I think about how much has transpired since (May), then I’ll get back in the ring and feel like, ‘Wow, I was just here…’ “
While Lucca is in California, meanwhile, he’ll also be sitting down with “The Voice” judge and Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine, who signed Lucca to his 222 Records label.
“I’ll be meeting with them for the first time to talk broad stroke strategy and more or less what 2013 is going to look like,” Lucca says. “We probably won’t get to tracking anything until the new year, but we’ll probably move quickly as well” — possibly, he adds, with an EP first, followed by a full album. “It’s obviously going to go big; it’s just a matter of how big and trying to decide if I’m gonna be the kind of artist that’s going to sell better in the Hot AC market or should go straight pop and do something big and super commercial. I don’t see that being the wisest step, but at the same time if (222) think they have the right strategy, I’m all ears. I’m excited to put in the work.”
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Thanks to his success on “The Voice,” Lucca says he was “able to kind of walk through the front door of some (songwriting) opportunities in Nashville and L.A.” and has come up with “a pretty good batch of songs that I’m proud of. I’ve got a couple songs in a more rock, edgier vein. I’ve got some that are more like the singer-songwriter fare I’ve been creating over the years. Once we all kind of agree on which direction we’re going to go, then it’s a matter of finding the right songs that are going to work well at radio and wherever else.”
Lucca isn’t done writing yet, however, and he says he and former “Mickey Mouse Club” mate Justin Timberlake “have been constantly flirting with sitting down and working together. Trying to tie that guy down is like hitting a moving target, but I’d love to hear what we could do if we got together.”
On Lucca’s production wish-list, meanwhile, is Ryan Tedder. “We’ve crossed paths before,” Lucca says. “I think he’s got the Midas touch these days. He makes great records.”
Back at “The Voice,” Lucca demures on predicting a Season 3 winner. “I think the final four here are all well-deserving of it, all really great,” he says. “I’ve been a big fan of Terry McDermott the whole time. I’m stoked to see him still in there. I’d love to see Nicholas David carry on; I think he’s one of the kind, really refreshing. I definitely thought Dev (DeLoera) would have continued on, and I was surprised to see Amanda Brown go. I think she’s a phenomenal singer.”
And Lucca hopes his own appearance will “kind of refresh a lot of people’s memories, and they’ll recall some of the moments form Season 2 and remember the connection I made with Adam and how he was a man of his word by signing me, that I was deserving of that. I think people may recall all of that, and it’ll be a little stoking of the fire, I suppose.”