You never know what can happen when you embark on a project.
“I’m living proof of that,” Scott Hoying said. “When you start working on something, who knows where it can lead to?”
When Hoying joined the school vocal group, the SoCal VoCals, while attending the University of Southern California in 2010, it was just a fun extracurricular activity.
“I had no big dreams of making it as an a cappella singer,” Hoying said while calling from Los Angeles. “I joined that group just for a good time. I just wanted to be part of something, like a lot of college kids. I always loved to sing. I joined the group and was pretty casual about it.”
But one thing led to another for Hoying. He persuaded his pals Kirstie Maldonado and Mitch Grassi to join him to record a song for NBC’s “The Sing-Off,” a singing competition, featuring a cappella groups.
The three friends added Avi Kaplan and Kevin Olusola. The quintet delivered a winning version of Survivor’s ‘Eye of the Tiger.’ The group won the third season of “The Sing-Off,” as well as $200,000 and a recording contract with Sony in 2011.
“This has all been completely surreal,” Hoying said. “We didn’t expect to win. It was mind-blowing. It’s been a whirlwind and it still is just crazy.”
School has been put on ice while the group Pentatonix tries its luck in the music business. The Grammy Award winners, which scored hardware for Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella for its inventive “Daft Punk,” last month, is touring behind “PTX, Vol. 3,” the act’s fourth EP.
The leadoff track is a provocative rearranged version of Ariana Grande’s “Problem.”
Expect “Problem” and a bunch of other familiar covers when Pentatonix performs Sunday, March 15, at the Oakdale Theatre. Lady Gaga’s “Telephone,” Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” and fun’s ‘We Are Young” are typically part of the Pentatonix set list
“We always pick songs that we can sing well,” Hoying said. “The covers have to be popular. For instance, “We Are Young’ is the most overplayed song but everyone loves that song.”
Pentatonix is wise enough to rearrange the songs without changing the essence of what made the tunes a hit.
“That is so essential,” Hoying said. “We don’t want to take what’s special out of the song. The melody in the chorus of “We Are Young” is so strong. You can’t change that. What you can do is change and add in a subtle manner.”
The success of a cappella act Straight No Chaser is encouraging for Pentatonix. “They’re doing great and that proves that there is room for a cappella groups,” Hoying said. ‘Straight No Chaser is playing bigger and bigger places. Rockapella also had some success. We think there is room for us and we just love doing this. It helped winning the television show. That was great for starters but now we’re taking it to another level. We’re in this for the long haul.”
The group could always go back to school. “That’s an option but that’s not something I would like to do right now,” Hoying said. “School is on hiatus for us. We’re all going for it with our group. There’s nothing we would rather do. And it all started with us, taking a chance on a group that we weren’t serious about but we ended up getting serious and it turned into this great big thing none of us could have imagined taking off like it did. I”m glad I worked hard at this and believed. We have so much ahead of us.”
Kelly Clarkson has tabbed Pentatonix for support for her fall tour. “Things just keep getting better and better for us,” Hoying said. “We’re thrilled with how things are going.”
PENTATONIX appears Sunday, March 15, at the Toyota Oakdale Theatre, 95 South Turnpike Road, Wallingford. Tickets are $29.50, $39.50 and $49.50. Show time is 7 p.m. For more information, call 203-265-1501, oakdale.com.
