5 Questions With Pentatonix
The YouTube a cappella sensations tell us their most hated press questions and most memorable moments.
IF there was an award for YouTube’s best kept secret, Pentatonix would probably win hands down.
On the Internet, the a cappella group’s success has been nothing short of phenomenal. They’re one of the top 40 most successful channels on YouTube, and that doesn’t even take into account the thousands of fan- made videos they’ve inspired.
But beyond YouTube and their largely teenage fan base, Scott Hoying, Mitch Grassi, Kirstie Maldonado, Avi Kaplan and Kevin Olusola are hardly household names.
In fact, Hoying told us one of the most annoying questions they get asked during media interviews is — how was the band formed? In the world of YouTube and social media fandoms, the story is almost canonical.
Hoying, Grassi and Maldonado sang together in high school, but they needed another member to enter TV a cappella competition
The Sing- Off, so they reached out to Kaplan and Olusola. They blew away the competition, started uploading videos of their insane performances, and became Internet sensations.
The mainstream media, unfortunately, has largely failed to notice their cult success story.
Star2, on the other hand, made sure we were right there to talk to them when they came to town a few weeks ago to perform at Stadium Negara:
1. how do you come up with these crazy arrangements?
Grassi: It’s very collaborative. What we usu- ally do is we’ll sit down in a circle and just throw out some ideas. We’d start with the bass and the beatboxing, and then add the melody, fine- tune some things and then add the background parts. I don’t know, it’s hard to pin down exactly what we do.
Hoying: Yeah, what’s cool about a cappella is you can go in a million different directions. We could try different chord progressions, different grooves, do a fast song slow, or a slow song fast ... And since we’re arranging it, just the five of us, we can just keep changing it.
2. you’ve been working on some original material — has that been a struggle compared to recording covers?
Hoying: We’ve done originals before, and it’s always harder than covers, but I think now we are definitely fine- tuning what our sound is going to be. But we have a plethora of material ( 30 to 40 songs). We’ve written so many songs, and we’re getting very excited and inspired, so we think our original sound’s really gonna come together.
3. What has been your most memorable moment as a group?
Kaplan: There was this mall show in Japan. We didn’t know how many people were coming, and it was just totally packed. There must’ve been over 5,000 people, and after that we were mobbed. It was just crazy because we had never been to Japan before, and we didn’t know how many fans we had there.
Maldonado: I feel there are little moments every day like when you’re on tour, there will be some shows that are just really special and they make your heart pump faster. And also when people tell us we inspired them to do this, or we helped them in a certain way, that’s always memorable and special.
4. What’s the question you hate being asked the most in interviews?
Grassi: What is it like being the only girl. Hoying: Yeah, that’s a popular one. Also, I don’t mind telling people how the group came together, but I’ve told the story like over a thousand times, so I’m always speeding through it.
5. have you ever lost your voice ahead of an important show, and how to you handle with it?
Maldonado: Yes. All the time. Hoping: We deal with it by moving around the set- list.
Maldonado: We usually drink a lot of water, but sometimes it’s just one of those environmental things, like allergies. But we all know our voices and our bodies now, so we drink lots of water, sleep a lot and take it easy until we get better. It’s always really sad when it happens, because you really just want to go out there and have a fun time and connect with the audience.