Haleiwa-born singer Thunderstorm Artis blows the coaches away on ‘The Voice’

Hawaii’s Thunderstorm Artis had played for countless audiences in venues ranging from sidewalks to concert stages but this was different. Artis was playing for an audience of four. If one of the four liked him it could be the biggest opportunity in his career.

The venue was NBC’s singing competition show “The Voice” on its third night of “blind auditions,” which aired Monday. The four-person audience was made up of celebrity coaches who choose contestants to mentor through the rounds of competition to follow. The coaches — Kelly Clarkson, Nick Jonas, John Legend and Blake Shelton — were seated in chairs faced away from the stage. The way it works: If a coach wants a performer for their team, they press a button that turns their chair to face the stage.

Artis sang his soulful original arrangement of the Beatles’ 1968 album track classic, “Blackbird.” All four coaches turned their chairs.

“I was not at all expecting to get four chairs,” Artis said Thursday, patched through from Australia by his publicist in Los Angeles. “I was just going up there and trying not to hit a bad note. It was so crazy being so nervous. Your capacity (to perform) is cut in half. I was just thinking, ‘I hope I get one chair turn.’ ”

Clarkson, Jonas and Legend hit their buttons almost simultaneously early in Artis’ performance. Shelton held back long enough to let the suspense build — would he or wouldn’t he? — before making it unanimous.

The coaches’ praise reverberated all across the internet and splashed through social media.

Clarkson: “When a voice like yours comes along, we all turn around very quickly because we’re all very aware of what’s standing on stage right now, which is someone who could win this competition.”

Jonas: “There’s definitely a story there that you can share with the world. And I’m telling you they’re going to be honored to get to hear you sing.”

Legend: “I am notoriously stingy about turning around for anybody. But when I do turn, I usually turn around fast because I can hear in someone’s tone that magic, and Thunderstorm, your tone was magical.”

Shelton: “It sounded like it was pre-recorded to me. It was that in the pocket and that in the zone.”

All four offered him a spot on their teams. Artis chose Legend.

Legend tweeted afterward: “Do you know what happens when a Thunderstorm meets a Legend? MAGIC! Let’s go Thunderstorm!”

WORKING WITH A LEGEND

Artis, 23, describes the show as a learning experience.

“I get to work with John Legend. I get to hear what criticism he has to offer for me to grow more. I’m expecting to put down my guitar and just add a little more stage presence to this performance and let the world see another part of me because I want to show the versatility of what I can do.”

“The Voice” is another big step forward for a young man who grew up in Haleiwa with 10 brothers and sisters. Ron and Victoria Artis introduced their children to music at young age; Thunderstorm and his brothers and sisters grew up entertaining island residents and visitors alike in the family art gallery.

“Music has always been a part of what we do,” family matriarch Victoria Artis said Friday. “God blessed us and ordained us with the name (Artis) and music is the gift. Thunderstorm has such a bright light shining through him.”

Ron Artis died of a heart attack when Thunderstorm was 13. From that point forward his older brother, Ron Artis II, became his mentor. The two brothers performed as Ron Artis II & Thunderstorm across Hawaii and on the mainland.

“Ron has been a huge influence on me. He has taught me a lot,” Artis said. “When I was first getting serious in becoming a singer/songwriter Ron took me under his wing for about seven years and we toured all around. He helped me get started and figure it all out, and although we don’t play together on a regular basis we still play together. We’re going on a little tour together in the Midwest.”

Artis has also done extensive work as a solo artist and with other artists. Reviewing his performance on “The Voice,” he said that his choice of a Beatles song was a little out of character for him.

“I try not to mess with any set-in-stone song like the Beatles,” he said, explaining that a friend had suggested adding “Blackbird” to his repertoire. “‘Dude, have you ever tried to do ‘Blackbird?’ — and I was listening to it. It has such an amazing message about that point of being free — ‘blackbird singing in the dead of night’ — that there’s something about the song that gets me behind it, and I wanted to give it a shot. I tried doing it when I was touring and playing shows — doing it over and over — and I became attached to it. It became a song that I felt like resonated with me on many different levels.”

“When I had the opportunity to play it on the show, I wanted to go out there and give a heartfelt performance of a song that meant a lot to me — but my own personal approach — and see what that would do to the world.”

Now we know.

SWELL OF SUPPORT

Artis’ journey to “The Voice” began one night at home in Haleiwa when he decided that rather than staying in and playing video games, he’d hit the street and test some new songs by playing them for passersby. One of the passersby happened to be Jon M. Chu, director of “Crazy Rich Asians.”

“He was walking by and stopped and listened to me play. Then he asked me to play at his wedding and write a song for their first dance — the song I wrote was ‘Their Story’ — and through it all he connected me to the people on ‘The Voice.’ A couple of weeks later I got an email from ‘The Voice’ that they wanted me to come in and audition. People from Hawaii had been asking me to go on ‘The Voice,” and I’d been really hesitant. I didn’t think I was good enough or anything like that, so Jon Chu is hugely responsible for this.”

Looking forward, Artis thanks Hawaii for the foundation it has provided him.

“I want to give my love out to everyone who made this possible for me. There’s a lot of people in Hawaii who came along with my father, who came along with my family — the people who actually empowered me to go out and do these things. Taking a move (from Hawaii) out to Nashville, Tenn., was a big one, and my church was supporting me, my family was supporting me. (They’re) the people who made it happen.

“When I walked out on stage I felt like I was doing it with the whole island. I had so many people in my corner. There was a big watch party for me in Hawaii and it touched my heart to have that support.”

The Artis family home in Haleiwa was the epicenter for a congregation of family members and friends who were cheering him on and then celebrated his “four chairs” on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Dozens of supporters and fans took to their Instagram stories Monday evening, including surf champion Kelly Slater, who posted footage of Artis’ performance as it aired.

“Everyone was watching, the entire surf community was down here,” Victoria Artis said. “It resonated throughout the night.”

It’s an old Hawaiian custom to give children names that relate in some way to things that were happening at the time of their birth. In response to what is probably an only-in-Hawaii question, Artis said he was not born during a thunderstorm.

“My parents thought they were going to have twins, and if they were boys my dad wanted to name them Thunder and Storm because he wanted them to be crazy and awesome. There was just me, but I was a big baby and so my dad named me Thunderstorm so that I would have power over my life and everything I wanted to do.”

“I’m trying to live it out.”