00:00:01
Speaker 1: How do they do it? How does Pentatonix always make an old song sound fresh? Well, let's find out with Kevin Olushala.
00:00:09
Speaker 1: Behind the Christmas hits with Drew Savage. For over a decade, Pentatonix has had one of the most unique careers in music. Mitch Grassy, Scott Hoying, and Kristen Maldonado all went to high school together in Arlington, Texas, and tried to win a radio contest to meet the cast of Glee. They sang Lady Gaga and Beyonce's hit, Telephone. They didn't win, but they did become a hit on YouTube.
00:00:34
Speaker 1: A couple of years later, Scott learned of the NBC competition series, The Sing-Of, and convinced Kristen and Mitch to join him. They were advised though that adding some voices to support the three of theirs might help their chances. Scott met Abby Kaplan through a mutual friend, and then they all loved Kevin Olushala's viral cello boxing videos, so they approached him about rounding out the group. The five didn't meet for the first time until the day before the auditions, and in 2011, they won the whole thing.
00:01:04
Speaker 1: 14 years and 12 albums later, Pentatonix is back with their latest called Christmas in the City. And joining us for this episode is the world's greatest cello boxer, Kevin Olushala. Kevin, thank you and congratulations on the new album.
00:01:17
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. It's been so fun to see.
00:01:21
Speaker 2: The response from all of our fans, from all of our friends, even my wife, I'm on tour right now. She says every single day, they watch the YouTube video and listen to the music just to remind themselves of their dad. So, it's really cool to see the effect that the music's having on.
00:01:38
Speaker 1: It's different too for a Pentatonix album. I, I was listening to it last night, and I'm like, I feel like I am hearing far more instruments on this album than I've heard on some of the previous ones. So, what was the vision for Christmas in the City, uh, and, and how is it different from previous Pentatonix albums?
00:01:54
Speaker 2: Absolutely. Well, you know, we had never felt like we had done a classic Christmas album, you know, a la Bing Crosby, a la Michael Buble, if you will, and we wanted to do something that felt like it got back to our vocal roots in terms of how harmony was birthed in this 1940s style. You're thinking about the, the kind of the, the Andrews Sisters.
00:02:18
Speaker 2: The, the vocalizations, the jazz harmonies that really made vocal music kind of, it was the predecessor of what it is today. We wanted to honor that, that tradition. We wanted to honor that style, and with that comes a good amount of instrumentation that supports what they're doing vocally. So I think that was really the, the, the point of it and it's been so cool to see people go, you know, I'm not really like.
00:02:42
Speaker 2: Like deterred, oh no, are they not a cappella anymore? We're just using our a cappella in a way that I think really enhances this, this world that we're trying to build.
00:02:50
Speaker 1: And that was, it was it different because you are working with, whether it's big bands, big instruments, big sounds beyond your own voices for the first time. Was that, was that a challenge, uh, at all in terms of blending all of these, these new sounds together?
00:03:06
Speaker 2: Absolutely it's so funny you ask that because I remember when we got into the studio with Dave Pierce, our executive producer, brilliant mind
00:03:15
Speaker 1: who actually produced,
00:03:17
Speaker 2: yeah, and Canadian. Hey, hey, he, he, he was killing the game. Let me tell you, Canadians, y'all know music.
00:03:24
Speaker 2: And so, he was executive producing this and he helped us kind of fill out the arrangements that we pre-arranged. We go through a process where we first kind of make arrangements ourselves and then find somebody to fill out the sound.
00:03:37
Speaker 2: And I remember after we got in the studio with him and recorded, we listened through everything and we said, wow, this is really beautiful, but now we have to figure out how to make sure our voice isn't lost. For example, you know, there's a lot of drums and also bass, whether it's bass guitar, whether it's um string bass, and so Matt and I were trying to figure out what's the balance of utilizing these instruments and making sure that the beatboxing and the
00:04:02
Speaker 2: And, and, and our vocal base still remains um at the forefront, but it feels like it's a melding, so it just took a lot of experimentation and we're really proud of where it landed.
00:04:14
Speaker 1: That classic pentatonic sound with the a cappella and the beatboxing, which you excel in, um, how do you, when, when you're taking a song.
00:04:23
Speaker 1: That has been done before. There's a lot of original music on this new album too, which is pretty exciting, but also you're known for putting the classic Pentatonix sound on some classics that people have known for a long time. So whether it's a Jolene, or whether it's a Silver Bells from the new album, how do you approach a song that everybody knows, but you wanna make it fresh and very much your own?
00:04:46
Speaker 2: That's a very, very good question.
00:04:48
Speaker 2: You know, first thing we think about is what is the essence of the feeling of this song? What's the essence that people, regardless of the style of music you do, whether it's a pop song or a country song, what's the essence of the feeling that people are trying to get from this song? OK, great. Now that we understand that essence, how do we make sure that we hit on that vocally, right? If it's something that people want to feel.
00:05:13
Speaker 2: A wave of deep like sadness, for example, are we singing in a way or are we utilizing vowels that really emote that? Is my beatboxing done in a way that helps to emote that sadness as well, done in a way where only vocals can do it, you know, there are some things that, for example, if there are motifs that are in the song that are integral to the song like da da da dum dum dum dum da da da da.
00:05:39
Speaker 2: Always make sure we keep those motifs there, but maybe we do something different around it that feels like only voices could have created something to help enhance this motif. So it's a lot of experimentation, but it's always about keeping the essence that people love and enhancing that essence vocally.
00:05:55
Speaker 1: Have you ever approached a song and you're like, we gotta, we gotta try this one, and as you're working through the process, have you ever come to a point where it's like, I just don't know whether it's gonna work with this song?
00:06:05
Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely. I can give you two examples right now. One, we tried Muse Madness, and oh what an amazing song, but we just couldn't figure out how to give it an arc because that one motif is so, you know, so forward that mad mad, and we're like, so how do we do anything around that, that, that creates arc and, and, and, and, and lets it grow.
00:06:34
Speaker 2: And we just couldn't figure it out. And then another one, honestly, is Taylor Swift's, We will never, ever, ever get back together. We tried so many times. I really mean it. I mean, we worked hard to see if we can make this one work and we just couldn't figure it out. And so, you know, we gave the good old college try, maybe we'll come back to it at some point, but
00:06:57
Speaker 2: You know, sometimes you win, sometimes you don't. On the,
00:07:00
Speaker 1: on
00:07:00
Speaker 1: the, on the flip side, what's an arrangement that you are most proud of?
00:07:06
Speaker 2: Oh, that's a very good question. You know what, I'd say Daft Punk is still one that when I go back to that, I go, I can't believe we created that. I mean, I even think about the processes of us trying to figure out which songs we should use and how do you create an electronic feel with our voices, and I remember at that time, you know, our
00:07:27
Speaker 2: Previous bass Avi when he heard our initial intro, which was very, um, it was weird to be fully honest, but we all liked it and he goes, guys, I just don't feel like this is professional enough. I don't feel like this is creative enough and he really pushed us and we didn't wanna be pushed, but we said, you know, we'll just do it to appease him.
00:07:46
Speaker 2: But it was literally the best thing that could have ever happened because that intro feels so iconic for what we do with a cappella. So that one was a labor of love that I'm really, really proud of how it
00:07:56
Speaker 2: turned out.
00:07:57
Speaker 1: Uh, Kevin, it's so cool to hear the voices of Pentatonix blend with some of the most famous talented voices ever. I mean, you did it with Jolene and Dolly Parton a few albums ago, and on this one, the.
00:08:11
Speaker 1: The new album Christmas in the City. How cool is it to hear you all sing with Frank Sinatra on You've Got My Love to Keep Me warm. I've got my love to keep me warm, man.
00:08:21
Speaker 2: I, I mean, who could have ever thought when we started off that this could even be a possibility for us. I remember, so we, we worked with Dave Pierce obviously on this album, and he had a really great relationship with the estate.
00:08:36
Speaker 2: And so, he talked to them about the possibility of maybe having a Frank vocal on our album and they granted it to us, and it's so cool when you even hear his stem, his vocal stem, cause
00:08:49
Speaker 2: You could hear the rustling of the papers. You could hear the instrumentation in the back cause there was bleed from the orchestra to his voice. It was a never heard before vocal and so it was just so magical to be able to work with one of the most iconic singers of all time and to have.
00:09:09
Speaker 2: His voice on, on, on our album, truly like the greatest honor and we're so thankful to the, the Frank Sinatra estate for that.
00:09:16
Speaker 1: And, uh, and that is a, uh, terribly underrated Christmas song. I mean, I know it's not technically Christmas, it's more of winter and, and stuff like that, but that's, that's a lot of Christmas songs. They're winter songs more than they are Christmas songs, and that's, that's one that.
00:09:30
Speaker 1: I don't think we hear enough of, and I love it when somebody takes it for a fresh spin, and, uh, and you guys, you guys smashed that. That was great. That was great.
00:09:39
Speaker 2: Thank you. That really means the world. We, we had so much fun doing that 11 of
00:09:43
Speaker 1: the other new songs, again, there's a lot of originals on this album, Christmas in the City, the latest from Pentatonix. Uh, there's a song called Christmas Movie.
00:09:51
Speaker 1: On the new album, and last year you actually were in a Christmas movie. Uh, Meet Me Next Christmas on Netflix, that was about a woman who was desperately trying to get to a Pentatonix concert to reconnect with the guy that she thought was the one that got away. Um.
00:10:08
Speaker 1: How fun was it to have a film producer call you up and say, hey, I wanna base the entire plot of my Christmas movie around one of your concerts.
00:10:16
Speaker 2: It was so cool and you know, it was so funny because to be fully honest, this was one that we did not think was gonna get to the finish line. I mean there were so you, you have to think about it. So when we were starting this process, the producer Mark Roberts reached out to us before COVID, and then when COVID happened.
00:10:34
Speaker 2: There were some things happening within the Netflix system that made us say, oh, we may not be able to get this movie done. But then we had a show at the Hollywood Bowl in 2022, and he said, you know what, I'm gonna bring the whole Netflix crew to see what we do. And because they could see us in concert, they could really grasp what we do, and they greenlit the film, and that's how they're able to really, I think in this film, be able to make sure our person.
00:11:00
Speaker 2: Personality shine. I mean, you get to see us really in concert doing what we do, and it's all because they were able to see us and go, oh, we understand who they are. So we're just super appreciative of Netflix and we had so much fun being in that movie. It's, it was such a good time. Well,
00:11:14
Speaker 1: the Pentatonix concert experience, I mean, it's pretty much an annual tradition now. You're always, I mean, you do other tours, of course, but the Christmas tour is an annual thing. Uh, what do you love most about performing in front of crowds at Christmas time?
00:11:28
Speaker 2: You know what, I, I, obviously, I love to perform, but it really is the connection that we have with the fans and intimate moments that are really special to me. Like, let me give you an example. I remember a few years ago, we came to our VIP experience where we have a very intimate moment with fans and there was a grandmother, a mother, a daughter, and a great-granddaughter, all who came.
00:11:56
Speaker 2: and said this is the only type of music that we all agree on and connects us all together. I mean, those are generations all saying that we love this music and that touched my heart. How rare is that in this day and age to have an experience like that. They can all go to the same concert and all be hooping and hollering and enjoying themselves from all these different decades and being able to bring themselves together.
00:12:24
Speaker 2: I just, I'm appreciative of those moments.
00:12:26
Speaker 1: Uh, speaking of family, you've got two young kids. Uh, your daughter's 4, your son is 1. Did I get the ages right there? That's
00:12:34
Speaker 2: exactly 4.5
00:12:35
Speaker 2: and 1.5.
00:12:36
Speaker 1: Dude, you are in the thick of it. You are in the thick of it. I can imagine Christmas is pretty, uh, thrilling for your 4.5 year old daughter. Son might be still a little early for some of this, but give us a, give us an idea of what Christmas morning is, is like, uh, around your house.
00:12:51
Speaker 2: Oh
00:12:51
Speaker 2: my gosh, it's so.
00:12:52
Speaker 2: So nice. I mean, my wife loves Christmas so much and she really wants to curate the best experience. So I think to be able to just let them know that there are presents under the tree, I mean, Kay, she screams every single time, going, Oh my gosh, there's presents. And she gets down there. She wants to open everything. We have a really beautiful breakfast and my family, uh, my mom, my dad, and my brother and sister, they live close to me now. And so we also do something all together as a family.
00:13:20
Speaker 2: Family as well, it's, it's just amazing. It truly, truly is a fun time.
00:13:25
Speaker 1: Whose music do you have playing in your house at Christmas time? I mean, be on your own, but, uh,
00:13:30
Speaker 2: who, who, what
00:13:30
Speaker 2: else do you want? Some, some of our, I, I'm like, I'm a fan of, I'm a fan of our music. I can't, I can't. It's not even like, you know, I, I just really like it, and it's so funny. Scott, my bandmate, said, you know, if I wasn't even in this band, like I would listen to this all the time. I'm such a fan. I just like, I fully agree.
00:13:49
Speaker 2: Agreed. You know, we also have the classics too, but yeah, I, I really do love
00:13:53
Speaker 2: playing our music. There,
00:13:53
Speaker 1: there's no shame in that. Michael Buble, uh, we talked to last year for, for this show, and he's like, I crank up my album every single year just like everybody else. He loves Frank and Bing and everybody else, but Michael Buble listens to Michael Buble too. So I, uh, that, that makes sense. It's, it's, it's great stuff. Do you, uh, because you're known beatboxing, cello boxing. Just curious, how much of that do you do around the house?
00:14:19
Speaker 1: I like, are you just always?
00:14:21
Speaker 2: She's like, please stop. Like I am just trying to focus on watching tonight's TV show. I don't really want to hear beatboxing in the background, my husband. I love you, but please stop.
00:14:34
Speaker 2: I do it often for sure. But you know what's so cool? It's great to see my kids be really enamored by what I'm doing, or I'll, I'll say one of my kids, Kaya, it's like white noise to her. She's like, OK, I've heard this. Been there, done that. Thanks, Daddy. I'm going to keep moving on. I'm going to play with my dolls. But my son is so enamored by it, and every
00:14:55
Speaker 2: Every single morning, oh, this touches my heart. Every single morning, so I go into practice before everybody wakes up and then I just hear this little knock and he just goes, cello, cello, and he comes in, plays with my cello while I'm practicing. He takes my bow, waves it around. It's just so funny, but he's so enamor.
00:15:16
Speaker 2: Hammered by music and that's just such a cool thing
00:15:17
Speaker 2: to see.
00:15:18
Speaker 1: I love that. I love that. And, and, and just, you know, son mimicking dad, or, you know, daughter mimicking dad or whatever. It's just cool when they start to pick up on the things you do and they want to, they want to give it a try themselves. I can, I can just imagine your wife then if she's telling you to stop, if she winds up with 3 beatboxers in the house.
00:15:40
Speaker 1: Fully, fully, fully. It's gonna be difficult for her to watch anything in peace, uh, in a, uh, in a year or two's time. Uh, when you first started to kind of blend beatboxing and, and cello and stuff like that, I've, I've heard you comment you were a little, I don't know whether shy is the right word to, to do it, but worried that people would kind of take it the wrong, almost the wrong way, that you were being.
00:16:01
Speaker 1: Like disrespectful to one form of the music or another, but this is just like an authentic expression of, of you.
00:16:09
Speaker 2: That's exactly it. Yeah, I was in, um, I was in China, funny enough, of all places studying Chinese, and one of my teachers said, Naomi Oxiang guobalata teaching he biaoyan Koji ronghataichi, which in Mandarin Chinese means, have you ever thought about taking cello and beatboxing and combining the two.
00:16:30
Speaker 2: And honestly, I, I was nervous that I was gonna get judgment from the classical community because this is such a timely, uh, this is such a timeless tradition, right? That has hundreds of years of a certain type of pedagogy. And to tarnish it with beatboxing, to me, I, I didn't know if it was gonna be a huge no, no. But at some point, I kind of said, why am I allowing a preconceived notion, something I'm literally just thinking about in my own mind. Nobody's ever said this to me, but why am I allowed
00:16:58
Speaker 2: Showing that to limit a possible gift that I have. And that's when I said, you know what, let me just experiment and have fun. And it was cool to see the reaction even from that first performance I did in China where I had some of my students just go, Oh my gosh, I've never seen anything. And then I remember one professor said, Hey, you sure sure gabuna, which means, are you a ghost, which I go, I don't know what that means, but I think it just basically meant like this is something I've never ever seen before. So it was just so.
00:17:26
Speaker 2: Cool to get that reaction and really helped me to say, you know what, I'm gonna continue working on this authentic expression I have.
00:17:32
Speaker 1: When you can do something in music that people feel like they've never heard before, I mean, that is, that is, that is pretty unique, but that's, that's pentatonix, like doing unique things. There aren't a lot of other artists that you can look to and say, I'm going to model, we're, we're an a cappella group, and the a cappella super successful, uh, a cappella group that we're gonna follow is.
00:17:56
Speaker 1: There aren't many. Like it's, it's the Manhattan Transfer in terms of commercial success. Pentatonix has always followed their own path, which is so super cool, and you have to be the most successful group that ever came out of one of the, the US singing competition shows. The, the Sing Off, uh, was the one that, that you guys were on. But I, I can't think of another group that's come out of whether it's Idol or The Voice or
00:18:20
Speaker 1: Anything else, I mean, there have been solo stars, but I can't think of another group that has come out of any of these shows that's had the kind of career that, uh, the Pentatonix has had. Congratulations. Well,
00:18:28
Speaker 2: I mean,
00:18:28
Speaker 2: first and foremost, thank you so much. It's so it's such an honor to, to think that we could cement our own place in history like that, and I have to give credit to so many factors that I feel like.
00:18:41
Speaker 2: Had they not been there, I don't think the success would have been possible. I mean, first and foremost, like you said, the Sing-Of, you know, the Sing-Of came out in a time where I think vocal harmony and singing was kind of in the zeitgeist. You think of Pitch Perfect was coming out during that time. You think about Glee, which was massive around that time. So singing and group singing was kind of in the zeitgeist, and then also,
00:19:06
Speaker 2: YouTube was in its early stages and when something went viral, it really, really was significant at that time. So for us to utilize YouTube to gain our own fan base and to really do something in a way that I think people could authentically connect to us and it wasn't through a label, it wasn't through anything except for
00:19:25
Speaker 2: Us just uploading something on YouTube and connecting with people, you know, it, I think if none of those things had happened, I don't know if we'd have the success that we had today. Well,
00:19:34
Speaker 1: you continue to connect. Kevin Alushula from Pentatonix. The brand new album is Christmas in the City. Do you have a favorite bit just before we let you go, uh, do you have a favorite, favorite song on the album?
00:19:45
Speaker 2: Mine is Santa be good to my baby. Oh my gosh, it's just like.
00:19:49
Speaker 2: The perfect Christmas pop song and we really wanted to hone in on that trio harmony, Andrews Sisters type vibe, and I think they just, they nailed it, you know, and we worked with some amazing songwriters, Mark Lowe, Gion Stone, I mean, he's worked with everybody. So to have kind of their stamp and their songwriting prowess on that song, I think really elevated what we do. And so I'm just so grateful that
00:20:16
Speaker 2: I'm so grateful this album's out. I'm grateful to have this conversation with you. Just, it's been a great time.
00:20:21
Speaker 1: I'm grateful that, uh, that you agreed to join us here on Behind the Christmas Hits. Thank you, Kevin, so much. Appreciate it. All the best with the album. Uh, enjoy the rest of the annual holiday tour and to you and your family. Happy holidays. Thanks so much. You too. Happy holidays. I'm Drew Savage. Thank you so much for listening. You can find me on Instagram at Drew.
00:20:39
Speaker 1: Savage on air. If this is the first episode of Behind the Christmas hits you've listened to, thank you. Please consider leaving us a rating and review, and of course hitting that subscribe button. There are all kinds of other fun conversations to enjoy over the holidays. Michael Buble, Brenda Lee, Wham's Andrew Ridgeley, those are just a few, and of course, dozens of other stories behind the Christmas hits.
Speaker 1: How do they do it? How does Pentatonix always make an old song sound fresh? Well, let's find out with Kevin Olushala.
00:00:09
Speaker 1: Behind the Christmas hits with Drew Savage. For over a decade, Pentatonix has had one of the most unique careers in music. Mitch Grassy, Scott Hoying, and Kristen Maldonado all went to high school together in Arlington, Texas, and tried to win a radio contest to meet the cast of Glee. They sang Lady Gaga and Beyonce's hit, Telephone. They didn't win, but they did become a hit on YouTube.
00:00:34
Speaker 1: A couple of years later, Scott learned of the NBC competition series, The Sing-Of, and convinced Kristen and Mitch to join him. They were advised though that adding some voices to support the three of theirs might help their chances. Scott met Abby Kaplan through a mutual friend, and then they all loved Kevin Olushala's viral cello boxing videos, so they approached him about rounding out the group. The five didn't meet for the first time until the day before the auditions, and in 2011, they won the whole thing.
00:01:04
Speaker 1: 14 years and 12 albums later, Pentatonix is back with their latest called Christmas in the City. And joining us for this episode is the world's greatest cello boxer, Kevin Olushala. Kevin, thank you and congratulations on the new album.
00:01:17
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. It's been so fun to see.
00:01:21
Speaker 2: The response from all of our fans, from all of our friends, even my wife, I'm on tour right now. She says every single day, they watch the YouTube video and listen to the music just to remind themselves of their dad. So, it's really cool to see the effect that the music's having on.
00:01:38
Speaker 1: It's different too for a Pentatonix album. I, I was listening to it last night, and I'm like, I feel like I am hearing far more instruments on this album than I've heard on some of the previous ones. So, what was the vision for Christmas in the City, uh, and, and how is it different from previous Pentatonix albums?
00:01:54
Speaker 2: Absolutely. Well, you know, we had never felt like we had done a classic Christmas album, you know, a la Bing Crosby, a la Michael Buble, if you will, and we wanted to do something that felt like it got back to our vocal roots in terms of how harmony was birthed in this 1940s style. You're thinking about the, the kind of the, the Andrews Sisters.
00:02:18
Speaker 2: The, the vocalizations, the jazz harmonies that really made vocal music kind of, it was the predecessor of what it is today. We wanted to honor that, that tradition. We wanted to honor that style, and with that comes a good amount of instrumentation that supports what they're doing vocally. So I think that was really the, the, the point of it and it's been so cool to see people go, you know, I'm not really like.
00:02:42
Speaker 2: Like deterred, oh no, are they not a cappella anymore? We're just using our a cappella in a way that I think really enhances this, this world that we're trying to build.
00:02:50
Speaker 1: And that was, it was it different because you are working with, whether it's big bands, big instruments, big sounds beyond your own voices for the first time. Was that, was that a challenge, uh, at all in terms of blending all of these, these new sounds together?
00:03:06
Speaker 2: Absolutely it's so funny you ask that because I remember when we got into the studio with Dave Pierce, our executive producer, brilliant mind
00:03:15
Speaker 1: who actually produced,
00:03:17
Speaker 2: yeah, and Canadian. Hey, hey, he, he, he was killing the game. Let me tell you, Canadians, y'all know music.
00:03:24
Speaker 2: And so, he was executive producing this and he helped us kind of fill out the arrangements that we pre-arranged. We go through a process where we first kind of make arrangements ourselves and then find somebody to fill out the sound.
00:03:37
Speaker 2: And I remember after we got in the studio with him and recorded, we listened through everything and we said, wow, this is really beautiful, but now we have to figure out how to make sure our voice isn't lost. For example, you know, there's a lot of drums and also bass, whether it's bass guitar, whether it's um string bass, and so Matt and I were trying to figure out what's the balance of utilizing these instruments and making sure that the beatboxing and the
00:04:02
Speaker 2: And, and, and our vocal base still remains um at the forefront, but it feels like it's a melding, so it just took a lot of experimentation and we're really proud of where it landed.
00:04:14
Speaker 1: That classic pentatonic sound with the a cappella and the beatboxing, which you excel in, um, how do you, when, when you're taking a song.
00:04:23
Speaker 1: That has been done before. There's a lot of original music on this new album too, which is pretty exciting, but also you're known for putting the classic Pentatonix sound on some classics that people have known for a long time. So whether it's a Jolene, or whether it's a Silver Bells from the new album, how do you approach a song that everybody knows, but you wanna make it fresh and very much your own?
00:04:46
Speaker 2: That's a very, very good question.
00:04:48
Speaker 2: You know, first thing we think about is what is the essence of the feeling of this song? What's the essence that people, regardless of the style of music you do, whether it's a pop song or a country song, what's the essence of the feeling that people are trying to get from this song? OK, great. Now that we understand that essence, how do we make sure that we hit on that vocally, right? If it's something that people want to feel.
00:05:13
Speaker 2: A wave of deep like sadness, for example, are we singing in a way or are we utilizing vowels that really emote that? Is my beatboxing done in a way that helps to emote that sadness as well, done in a way where only vocals can do it, you know, there are some things that, for example, if there are motifs that are in the song that are integral to the song like da da da dum dum dum dum da da da da.
00:05:39
Speaker 2: Always make sure we keep those motifs there, but maybe we do something different around it that feels like only voices could have created something to help enhance this motif. So it's a lot of experimentation, but it's always about keeping the essence that people love and enhancing that essence vocally.
00:05:55
Speaker 1: Have you ever approached a song and you're like, we gotta, we gotta try this one, and as you're working through the process, have you ever come to a point where it's like, I just don't know whether it's gonna work with this song?
00:06:05
Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely. I can give you two examples right now. One, we tried Muse Madness, and oh what an amazing song, but we just couldn't figure out how to give it an arc because that one motif is so, you know, so forward that mad mad, and we're like, so how do we do anything around that, that, that creates arc and, and, and, and, and lets it grow.
00:06:34
Speaker 2: And we just couldn't figure it out. And then another one, honestly, is Taylor Swift's, We will never, ever, ever get back together. We tried so many times. I really mean it. I mean, we worked hard to see if we can make this one work and we just couldn't figure it out. And so, you know, we gave the good old college try, maybe we'll come back to it at some point, but
00:06:57
Speaker 2: You know, sometimes you win, sometimes you don't. On the,
00:07:00
Speaker 1: on
00:07:00
Speaker 1: the, on the flip side, what's an arrangement that you are most proud of?
00:07:06
Speaker 2: Oh, that's a very good question. You know what, I'd say Daft Punk is still one that when I go back to that, I go, I can't believe we created that. I mean, I even think about the processes of us trying to figure out which songs we should use and how do you create an electronic feel with our voices, and I remember at that time, you know, our
00:07:27
Speaker 2: Previous bass Avi when he heard our initial intro, which was very, um, it was weird to be fully honest, but we all liked it and he goes, guys, I just don't feel like this is professional enough. I don't feel like this is creative enough and he really pushed us and we didn't wanna be pushed, but we said, you know, we'll just do it to appease him.
00:07:46
Speaker 2: But it was literally the best thing that could have ever happened because that intro feels so iconic for what we do with a cappella. So that one was a labor of love that I'm really, really proud of how it
00:07:56
Speaker 2: turned out.
00:07:57
Speaker 1: Uh, Kevin, it's so cool to hear the voices of Pentatonix blend with some of the most famous talented voices ever. I mean, you did it with Jolene and Dolly Parton a few albums ago, and on this one, the.
00:08:11
Speaker 1: The new album Christmas in the City. How cool is it to hear you all sing with Frank Sinatra on You've Got My Love to Keep Me warm. I've got my love to keep me warm, man.
00:08:21
Speaker 2: I, I mean, who could have ever thought when we started off that this could even be a possibility for us. I remember, so we, we worked with Dave Pierce obviously on this album, and he had a really great relationship with the estate.
00:08:36
Speaker 2: And so, he talked to them about the possibility of maybe having a Frank vocal on our album and they granted it to us, and it's so cool when you even hear his stem, his vocal stem, cause
00:08:49
Speaker 2: You could hear the rustling of the papers. You could hear the instrumentation in the back cause there was bleed from the orchestra to his voice. It was a never heard before vocal and so it was just so magical to be able to work with one of the most iconic singers of all time and to have.
00:09:09
Speaker 2: His voice on, on, on our album, truly like the greatest honor and we're so thankful to the, the Frank Sinatra estate for that.
00:09:16
Speaker 1: And, uh, and that is a, uh, terribly underrated Christmas song. I mean, I know it's not technically Christmas, it's more of winter and, and stuff like that, but that's, that's a lot of Christmas songs. They're winter songs more than they are Christmas songs, and that's, that's one that.
00:09:30
Speaker 1: I don't think we hear enough of, and I love it when somebody takes it for a fresh spin, and, uh, and you guys, you guys smashed that. That was great. That was great.
00:09:39
Speaker 2: Thank you. That really means the world. We, we had so much fun doing that 11 of
00:09:43
Speaker 1: the other new songs, again, there's a lot of originals on this album, Christmas in the City, the latest from Pentatonix. Uh, there's a song called Christmas Movie.
00:09:51
Speaker 1: On the new album, and last year you actually were in a Christmas movie. Uh, Meet Me Next Christmas on Netflix, that was about a woman who was desperately trying to get to a Pentatonix concert to reconnect with the guy that she thought was the one that got away. Um.
00:10:08
Speaker 1: How fun was it to have a film producer call you up and say, hey, I wanna base the entire plot of my Christmas movie around one of your concerts.
00:10:16
Speaker 2: It was so cool and you know, it was so funny because to be fully honest, this was one that we did not think was gonna get to the finish line. I mean there were so you, you have to think about it. So when we were starting this process, the producer Mark Roberts reached out to us before COVID, and then when COVID happened.
00:10:34
Speaker 2: There were some things happening within the Netflix system that made us say, oh, we may not be able to get this movie done. But then we had a show at the Hollywood Bowl in 2022, and he said, you know what, I'm gonna bring the whole Netflix crew to see what we do. And because they could see us in concert, they could really grasp what we do, and they greenlit the film, and that's how they're able to really, I think in this film, be able to make sure our person.
00:11:00
Speaker 2: Personality shine. I mean, you get to see us really in concert doing what we do, and it's all because they were able to see us and go, oh, we understand who they are. So we're just super appreciative of Netflix and we had so much fun being in that movie. It's, it was such a good time. Well,
00:11:14
Speaker 1: the Pentatonix concert experience, I mean, it's pretty much an annual tradition now. You're always, I mean, you do other tours, of course, but the Christmas tour is an annual thing. Uh, what do you love most about performing in front of crowds at Christmas time?
00:11:28
Speaker 2: You know what, I, I, obviously, I love to perform, but it really is the connection that we have with the fans and intimate moments that are really special to me. Like, let me give you an example. I remember a few years ago, we came to our VIP experience where we have a very intimate moment with fans and there was a grandmother, a mother, a daughter, and a great-granddaughter, all who came.
00:11:56
Speaker 2: and said this is the only type of music that we all agree on and connects us all together. I mean, those are generations all saying that we love this music and that touched my heart. How rare is that in this day and age to have an experience like that. They can all go to the same concert and all be hooping and hollering and enjoying themselves from all these different decades and being able to bring themselves together.
00:12:24
Speaker 2: I just, I'm appreciative of those moments.
00:12:26
Speaker 1: Uh, speaking of family, you've got two young kids. Uh, your daughter's 4, your son is 1. Did I get the ages right there? That's
00:12:34
Speaker 2: exactly 4.5
00:12:35
Speaker 2: and 1.5.
00:12:36
Speaker 1: Dude, you are in the thick of it. You are in the thick of it. I can imagine Christmas is pretty, uh, thrilling for your 4.5 year old daughter. Son might be still a little early for some of this, but give us a, give us an idea of what Christmas morning is, is like, uh, around your house.
00:12:51
Speaker 2: Oh
00:12:51
Speaker 2: my gosh, it's so.
00:12:52
Speaker 2: So nice. I mean, my wife loves Christmas so much and she really wants to curate the best experience. So I think to be able to just let them know that there are presents under the tree, I mean, Kay, she screams every single time, going, Oh my gosh, there's presents. And she gets down there. She wants to open everything. We have a really beautiful breakfast and my family, uh, my mom, my dad, and my brother and sister, they live close to me now. And so we also do something all together as a family.
00:13:20
Speaker 2: Family as well, it's, it's just amazing. It truly, truly is a fun time.
00:13:25
Speaker 1: Whose music do you have playing in your house at Christmas time? I mean, be on your own, but, uh,
00:13:30
Speaker 2: who, who, what
00:13:30
Speaker 2: else do you want? Some, some of our, I, I'm like, I'm a fan of, I'm a fan of our music. I can't, I can't. It's not even like, you know, I, I just really like it, and it's so funny. Scott, my bandmate, said, you know, if I wasn't even in this band, like I would listen to this all the time. I'm such a fan. I just like, I fully agree.
00:13:49
Speaker 2: Agreed. You know, we also have the classics too, but yeah, I, I really do love
00:13:53
Speaker 2: playing our music. There,
00:13:53
Speaker 1: there's no shame in that. Michael Buble, uh, we talked to last year for, for this show, and he's like, I crank up my album every single year just like everybody else. He loves Frank and Bing and everybody else, but Michael Buble listens to Michael Buble too. So I, uh, that, that makes sense. It's, it's, it's great stuff. Do you, uh, because you're known beatboxing, cello boxing. Just curious, how much of that do you do around the house?
00:14:19
Speaker 1: I like, are you just always?
00:14:21
Speaker 2: She's like, please stop. Like I am just trying to focus on watching tonight's TV show. I don't really want to hear beatboxing in the background, my husband. I love you, but please stop.
00:14:34
Speaker 2: I do it often for sure. But you know what's so cool? It's great to see my kids be really enamored by what I'm doing, or I'll, I'll say one of my kids, Kaya, it's like white noise to her. She's like, OK, I've heard this. Been there, done that. Thanks, Daddy. I'm going to keep moving on. I'm going to play with my dolls. But my son is so enamored by it, and every
00:14:55
Speaker 2: Every single morning, oh, this touches my heart. Every single morning, so I go into practice before everybody wakes up and then I just hear this little knock and he just goes, cello, cello, and he comes in, plays with my cello while I'm practicing. He takes my bow, waves it around. It's just so funny, but he's so enamor.
00:15:16
Speaker 2: Hammered by music and that's just such a cool thing
00:15:17
Speaker 2: to see.
00:15:18
Speaker 1: I love that. I love that. And, and, and just, you know, son mimicking dad, or, you know, daughter mimicking dad or whatever. It's just cool when they start to pick up on the things you do and they want to, they want to give it a try themselves. I can, I can just imagine your wife then if she's telling you to stop, if she winds up with 3 beatboxers in the house.
00:15:40
Speaker 1: Fully, fully, fully. It's gonna be difficult for her to watch anything in peace, uh, in a, uh, in a year or two's time. Uh, when you first started to kind of blend beatboxing and, and cello and stuff like that, I've, I've heard you comment you were a little, I don't know whether shy is the right word to, to do it, but worried that people would kind of take it the wrong, almost the wrong way, that you were being.
00:16:01
Speaker 1: Like disrespectful to one form of the music or another, but this is just like an authentic expression of, of you.
00:16:09
Speaker 2: That's exactly it. Yeah, I was in, um, I was in China, funny enough, of all places studying Chinese, and one of my teachers said, Naomi Oxiang guobalata teaching he biaoyan Koji ronghataichi, which in Mandarin Chinese means, have you ever thought about taking cello and beatboxing and combining the two.
00:16:30
Speaker 2: And honestly, I, I was nervous that I was gonna get judgment from the classical community because this is such a timely, uh, this is such a timeless tradition, right? That has hundreds of years of a certain type of pedagogy. And to tarnish it with beatboxing, to me, I, I didn't know if it was gonna be a huge no, no. But at some point, I kind of said, why am I allowing a preconceived notion, something I'm literally just thinking about in my own mind. Nobody's ever said this to me, but why am I allowed
00:16:58
Speaker 2: Showing that to limit a possible gift that I have. And that's when I said, you know what, let me just experiment and have fun. And it was cool to see the reaction even from that first performance I did in China where I had some of my students just go, Oh my gosh, I've never seen anything. And then I remember one professor said, Hey, you sure sure gabuna, which means, are you a ghost, which I go, I don't know what that means, but I think it just basically meant like this is something I've never ever seen before. So it was just so.
00:17:26
Speaker 2: Cool to get that reaction and really helped me to say, you know what, I'm gonna continue working on this authentic expression I have.
00:17:32
Speaker 1: When you can do something in music that people feel like they've never heard before, I mean, that is, that is, that is pretty unique, but that's, that's pentatonix, like doing unique things. There aren't a lot of other artists that you can look to and say, I'm going to model, we're, we're an a cappella group, and the a cappella super successful, uh, a cappella group that we're gonna follow is.
00:17:56
Speaker 1: There aren't many. Like it's, it's the Manhattan Transfer in terms of commercial success. Pentatonix has always followed their own path, which is so super cool, and you have to be the most successful group that ever came out of one of the, the US singing competition shows. The, the Sing Off, uh, was the one that, that you guys were on. But I, I can't think of another group that's come out of whether it's Idol or The Voice or
00:18:20
Speaker 1: Anything else, I mean, there have been solo stars, but I can't think of another group that has come out of any of these shows that's had the kind of career that, uh, the Pentatonix has had. Congratulations. Well,
00:18:28
Speaker 2: I mean,
00:18:28
Speaker 2: first and foremost, thank you so much. It's so it's such an honor to, to think that we could cement our own place in history like that, and I have to give credit to so many factors that I feel like.
00:18:41
Speaker 2: Had they not been there, I don't think the success would have been possible. I mean, first and foremost, like you said, the Sing-Of, you know, the Sing-Of came out in a time where I think vocal harmony and singing was kind of in the zeitgeist. You think of Pitch Perfect was coming out during that time. You think about Glee, which was massive around that time. So singing and group singing was kind of in the zeitgeist, and then also,
00:19:06
Speaker 2: YouTube was in its early stages and when something went viral, it really, really was significant at that time. So for us to utilize YouTube to gain our own fan base and to really do something in a way that I think people could authentically connect to us and it wasn't through a label, it wasn't through anything except for
00:19:25
Speaker 2: Us just uploading something on YouTube and connecting with people, you know, it, I think if none of those things had happened, I don't know if we'd have the success that we had today. Well,
00:19:34
Speaker 1: you continue to connect. Kevin Alushula from Pentatonix. The brand new album is Christmas in the City. Do you have a favorite bit just before we let you go, uh, do you have a favorite, favorite song on the album?
00:19:45
Speaker 2: Mine is Santa be good to my baby. Oh my gosh, it's just like.
00:19:49
Speaker 2: The perfect Christmas pop song and we really wanted to hone in on that trio harmony, Andrews Sisters type vibe, and I think they just, they nailed it, you know, and we worked with some amazing songwriters, Mark Lowe, Gion Stone, I mean, he's worked with everybody. So to have kind of their stamp and their songwriting prowess on that song, I think really elevated what we do. And so I'm just so grateful that
00:20:16
Speaker 2: I'm so grateful this album's out. I'm grateful to have this conversation with you. Just, it's been a great time.
00:20:21
Speaker 1: I'm grateful that, uh, that you agreed to join us here on Behind the Christmas Hits. Thank you, Kevin, so much. Appreciate it. All the best with the album. Uh, enjoy the rest of the annual holiday tour and to you and your family. Happy holidays. Thanks so much. You too. Happy holidays. I'm Drew Savage. Thank you so much for listening. You can find me on Instagram at Drew.
00:20:39
Speaker 1: Savage on air. If this is the first episode of Behind the Christmas hits you've listened to, thank you. Please consider leaving us a rating and review, and of course hitting that subscribe button. There are all kinds of other fun conversations to enjoy over the holidays. Michael Buble, Brenda Lee, Wham's Andrew Ridgeley, those are just a few, and of course, dozens of other stories behind the Christmas hits.
