Chris Sebastian On His 'Crappy' Experience On 'The Voice'

"I just bought a little V8, so we wanted to take it for a spin," Chris Sebastian laughs as he struggles to find a park. The whole family is in the back and there's a resounding "HELLO!" from the Sebastian clan. Family is everything for Chris - but the Sebastian name comes with a price. As a budding solo musician, Chris is hoping to step out from his brother Guy's legacy as an artist in his own right with his debut EP, Runaway.

UPDATE: 'I'm Not Going To Take That Back' - 'The Voice' Winner Chris Sebastian Reflects On Calling Show 'Crappy'

But this is a task easier said that done - during his stint on The Voice Season One in 2012, Chris found himself haunted by his brother's own musical discovery. "I really didn't want to [do the show]... They did a lot of things that they weren't meant to, like after my performance they played my brother's song. And the whole point was for me to have my own identity... So it was a bit of a crappy experience," he laments. "It was a real slap in the face, and when I asked them about that they were just like, almost smug about it, like they kinda [knew] it all along, it was just really rude... real dishonest." 

"It was a real slap in the face, and when I asked them about that they were just like, almost smug about it, like they kinda [knew] it all along, it was just really rude... real dishonest." 

Though being batted against his older brother is understandably something Sebastian wants to avoid, it doesn't affect their relationship, and you can hear the roots of shared influence in their soulful R&B vocals and impressive embellishments. It all began with Brian McKnight: "He was the reason I started singing," Sebastian rhapsodises. "Honestly, I remember Guy bringing home a Brian McKnight CD and it was thrashed around the house. Because Guy's seven years older than me I got all the stuff that he was listening to... I got to a point where I would literally be able to tell you every lyric, every track number, what album it was on, what year it came out - anything Brian McKnight I would have been able to tell ya," he chuckles. "I was obsessed. I would sneak out of my room and I knew the volume of the stereo system to not wake anyone up. I just wanted to be Brian McKnight."

Following in the footsteps of the records from his youth — Stevie Wonder, Boyz II Men, Otis Redding — Runaway is an introduction to a personal style that he's only cultivated in the past two years. "My old manager had me doing the whole dance/R&B/David Guetta stuff and look, it was fun, but I didn't enjoy it. I would never play those songs at gigs... Obviously as an artist you want to enjoy playing your songs live and I didn't... I changed the way that I wrote - it's a lot more acoustic, I guess if Ed Sheeran met Ne-Yo, that's kinda the sound I'm going for.

"Trying to fit a piece in the industry where there are six X Factor contestants doing deals at the end of it, there's a couple from The Voice, and we're in an industry - especially in Australia where it's so populated with TV show contestants - that you kinda gotta do what's, air quote, 'current'... But people want to hear real music again, and I think we've now got the freedom to just be ourselves a little bit more."