Trevecca graduates turn heads and chairs on NBC’s ‘The Voice’

Michelle Loria Alvarado

Executive Editor

The night before the deadline for The Voice auditions, Dylan John, Emily Clapp, and Kollin Bailey were hanging out. John was scrolling through Instagram when he saw an ad for auditions for The Voice.

“ He [John] was like ‘Hey, here’s an ad for The Voice, this would be fun if we do this as a trio,’” said Clapp. 

Then they grabbed Bailey’s McBook, recorded a 30-second clip, and sent their audition that same night. 

“It was literally the worst sound ever,” said Clapp, “And so we were like, what if we made this, like that would be funny if we made it.”

Approximately 48 hours after they submitted their audition to The Voice, they received an email.

It was a callback. They made it to the next round. 

John, Clapp, and Bailey are 2023 Trevecca alumni. They were good friends while at Trevecca, but never thought of becoming a band.

“Before the group started, Emily and I were in Refuge, the traveling worship team,” said Bailey, “Dylan was in Awaken with Emely’s now husband, Chris. And so we had never thought about doing a trio, even at our time at Trevecca.”

A video of the three singing “What If I never get over you” in the cafeteria is when their story started, but even at that moment, becoming a trio was not in their plans.

“Which is funny because you look at that video and it’s like ‘Wow, we’ve come a long way,’ and you can tell we had never thought about being a group,” said Bailey

After a couple more auditions, the trio made it to the blind auditions.

“Then we found out in February of this year that we would get the chance to fly you and have our blind audition,” said Clapp. 

During the blind audition, their only hope was to get one judge to turn their chair around.

“Before we went, we prayed for one chair,” said Bailey

To their surprise, all four judges, Reba McEntire, Niall Horan, Snoop Dogg, and Michael Bublé, turned their chairs before they reached 30 seconds of their performance. 

“To have all four chairs was surreal, it’s breathtaking,” said Bailey, “If you couldn’t tell, we were so excited.”

Because of their pop country style, judges and viewers expected them to pick Reba as their coach. 

After talking about it as a group for a few seconds, the whole group said loudly, “Team Niall,” sending Reba to the floor and making Niall stand up in celebration.

Their decision was so shocking to the public and judges that NBC wrote an article about it.

“I want to be honest, we’re also shocked by the response of everyone being shocked,” said Bailey.

The trio said that their decision was impacted by two factors. 

First, they expected that Reba would have a large country lineup on her team, meaning they would need to compete with other country singers.

“You compete on that same team as the show progresses, and so man, it would just have been so much country that we would have had to compete with,” said Bailey

Secondly, Niall was in a band before, and he knows how to work with a group.

“He was part of a group, unlike any other coach,” said Bailey, “He knows what it’s like to work with a group and harmonies and letting other people shine at different moments.”

Their participation on The Voice is still going, and their coaching with Nial already started. 

“Niall knows how difficult it truly is to be in a group,” said Clapp, “He knows exactly what it feels like on and offstage dynamics. He’s been super encouraging, and he’s an Irishman, so he loves the bluegrass. He loves the country.”

It wasn’t until April of 2024 that they decided to become DEK of Hearts and start performing. Since their formation, they have played 4-hour gigs around Nashville venues and bars. 
The group has only released one song called “Taillghts,” but is planning to release new singles at the beginning of 2026.

Their next performance will be at the Town and Country Showcase during homecoming, happening tonight, Nov. 8, from 7  p.m. to 9  p.m. at the Boone Convocation Center.

They will also perform and be judges at Trojan Idol, happening on Tuesday, Nov. 18, and Thursday, Nov. 20, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Boone Convocation Center.