I'm not perfect, I would never say that, I just believe that if I try my hardest to be consistent, show what I believe, and live it, most importantly, then that will hopefully shine through more.
Kevin Olusola
I actually love the challenge of being in a new place where I'm so obviously the foreigner.
Work extremely hard, but as you continue to rise up the ladder, never forget your roots or where you came from or the people that helped you along the way. Humility takes people the farthest.
I am a singer, first and foremost, but the medium happens to be the cello.
We can watch videos of our whole journey - from old tours to doing the AMAs (American Music Awards) in 2013 and through the 'Star Wars' medley or when we sang with Stevie Wonder on the Grammys. I just sit back and say, 'I can't believe we did all this!'
With an arena, it sounds so big and full sometimes it can obstruct the way we sing because we're hearing so much slapback and things like that.
I will say, all the Barden Bellas are hot.
I studied a month in Costa Rica and loved it. I'm not scared to go abroad. I feel like I can figure things out and I know what to do.
Kids bring their mothers and grandmothers to our concerts. You don't see that with a lot of artists today.
Well, my parents live in Cambridge, Maryland.
It's quite difficult to figure out a common thread among us all as we're five very different people who love different types of music.
I loved the idea of playing cello whilst beatboxing, and I ran with it. I didn't realize that it would put me in front of people like Quincy Jones or Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang, or even lead me to my current job, being the beatboxer of Pentatonix.
My parents always wanted me to do music because they thought it was such a great extracurricular activity but we never thought it was going to be something that would be my career.
From my situation as an African American person in the U.S., people may look at me and think a certain thing without getting to know me. I'm of Nigerian and Caribbean heritage. I went to Yale. What you see is not what you think you're getting.
I would have never thought to put cello and beatboxing together. But I did, and it was extremely hard work to make it cohesive and musical, but it worked.
To be able to wake up and know I get to do music every single day - arrange music, compose music, write music and to be with my four best friends in the world, and just to go and do performances and to tour, it's honestly a dream come true.
I never thought that I would pursue a cappella music. I went to Yale College and I was going to go into the medical field.
When you think about choir music, that's a cappella. You have church choir that you would sing without any instrument. I think the popular form that we have now is barbershop in the 20th century, and the collegiate movement.
Of the members of the band, I'm the biggest Michael Jackson fan.
I was actually going to go to a conservatory after I graduated college, now I'm thankful that Pentatonix happened because I'm working with singers in this realm of mainstream music, and to learn about how all that comes together has really helped my cello playing.
For me, it's classical music I started with and I admire Jacqueline du Pre.
We're a microcosm of America and are blessed to live in a country that's so diverse. While it's great for people to see that we can love and respect each other and work together, despite our differences, at the end of the day, we just want to make great music.
The reason immigrants come to America is to provide their kids with opportunities, but when they say 'opportunity,' they mean a prestigious job and career. When I had the epiphany that I could do music and sustain myself, they were like, 'OK, son, we need to talk to you.'
With social media, if you have a viral video people can like what you do and it's homegrown and very organic.
A cappella music has always been around. It's such an old form.
I would say Whitney Houston's 'I Will Always Love You' is up there - it's one of the best.
I finally realized that not only was I passionate about music, but I had a unique way of thinking of music.
I know a lot of people think a cappella is this cutesy, kind of novel thing.
Yeah, I would go to New England Conservatory a lot. My orchestra teacher ran a program for minority students there.
It's really a blessing that our music can reach across generations.
I grew up in Kentucky, and went to boarding school outside Boston at Phillips Academy Andover for two years.
I think being part of Pentatonix has helped my arrangement style a lot, and that's helped me expand myself.
I've always been technically a Christian, my Dad and my Mom, they're both Christians.
The thing about the national anthem is that it's actually a pretty difficult song to sing for anybody.
Doing 'New Rules x Are You That Somebody?' was really, really fun.
Performing the American Music Awards and having Harrison Ford introduce you behind the John Williams orchestra for Star Wars, and then Meghan Trainor is in the front just standing up and like, 'I love you guys!' That was a huge moment.
That's something Pentatonix tries to do in all of our music. We try to keep it clean so that everybody can come to our shows.
Christmas and a cappella - what we learned really, really well is that they go extremely well together.
Uh, I think so many things have happened in the mainstream that definitely brought awareness and attention to a cappella. The 'Pitch Perfect' movies, 'The Sing-Off' - I mean, the college a cappella scene definitely has become really hot, which is definitely wonderful.
My original plan was to be a surgeon.
I went to Yale for undergrad.
I think it'd be weird for us to do hard rock.
Imogen Heap - she was in the baggage claim at the airport and was like, 'You're from Pentatonix, right?' She's like, I love you guys! I'm like, that's awesome.
I want to be what Kenny G. and Carlos Santana were, but for this day and age.
I absolutely love Shirley Temples. I don't know why, but ever since I was young, it's always been my favorite thing to drink!
My dad's from Nigeria and my mom's from Grenada and they both went into medicine. My dad's a psychiatrist and my mom's a nurse so I was going to go into medicine, also.
I did a capella for a year at boarding school and then I stopped because at Yale, I think they really focus more on singing than having a beat behind them. So I just did my cello thing.
If I'm fulfilled mentally, spiritually, and physically by my daily activities and I'm constantly striving to grow by living out of my comfort zone, then I am successful.
I don't even want to say I'm trying to necessarily popularize classical music, I just want to take this thing, this cello, this sound, and make it artistic so people can understand it today.
We want to be considered a band, like Maroon 5 or Coldplay.
