By Megan Riggs | Posted in
Onstage
WO: Anything else you’d like fans to know?
(Seggie): If people have any questions, they can find us on sncmusic.com. We’re very active with social media—Facebook, Twitter—we reach out to our fans all the time. People think it’s weird we make ourselves so available to the fans but if it weren’t for the fans there would be no us.
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http://www.whats-on.com/onstage/twist-traditional-choir
Edit: The link doesn't work anymore, so the full text of the interview appears below:
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Straight No Chaser, an all-male a capella group, scored a five-record
deal with Atlantic Records after becoming a You Tube sensation with a
quirky version of the “12 Days of Christmas” that quickly went viral.
Now, Straight No Chaser is touring the country, with a stop at Paris Las
Vegas Nov. 7. Formed more than a dozen years ago by students at Indiana
University, the group’s albums have included two holiday releases,
2008’s
Holiday Spirits and 2009’s
Christmas Cheers. So
much more than a really big boy band, the 10 men of Straight No Chaser
show off vocal talent as well as wit and an infectious energy. The
band’s newest album is
With a Twist, which features familiar
standards like “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” and a collaboration with
Barry Manilow on his famous song, “One Voice.” We spoke with baritone
and vocal percussionist Seggie Isho about his experience with the group.
What’s On: How did you get started with Straight No Chaser?
Seggie Isho: Early last year two of the original
members left the group. They had small children so they didn’t want to
be on the road 10, 11 months out of the year. So, the original guys got
together and held auditions in Chicago. I flew out and auditioned. A
couple of weeks later I got a phone call saying, “Hey, would you like to
be a part of Straight No Chaser?” So, obviously, someone calls and asks
if you want a record deal with Atlantic Records and the opportunity to
pursue your true passion, you don’t very often say “no.” I literally
dropped everything and joined Straight No Chaser.
WO: When did you first start singing?
I: It sounds cliché, but I was in the first grade and
my music teacher pulled my parents aside and said, “Listen, your son has
a good ear, he has good pitch and can carry a tune, which is not that
common for first graders.” Ever since then I’ve been working to perfect
this instrument to be able to sing better. I actually went to school for
trumpet performance; I was an instrumental major, classical trumpet. I
joined Straight No Chaser [at Indiana University] because instrumental
and vocal is 50/50 for me…I wanted to be involved with both somehow in
college.
WO: What can you tell us about a Straight No Chaser concert?
I: I like to say that we put on a show, it’s not just a
concert. When audiences come to see us, they feel like they’re part of
the experience. It’s a lot different listening to our albums than seeing
us live. A lot of what we do [comes from] our chemistry onstage. We’re
really just 10 regular guys from the Midwest who got incredibly lucky,
so when we’re onstage we’re always having just the most ridiculous time
because it could all be done tomorrow or it could last forever. So, we
treat it as the greatest thing ever. We get onstage, have a great time,
clown around, make fun of each other—the banter is hilarious. We take
songs that the audience is going to know, but they haven’t heard them
the way we do them. We don’t just cover songs. We take a song and make
it our own, give it our Straight No Chaser twist.
WO: Do you have a favorite song that’s performed during your show?
I: This tour we’ve added a couple new tunes. A couple
of my favorites: we do an awesome mashup of “Billie Jean” and Bel Biv
DeVoe’s “Poison,” which kind of blindsides you as a listener. You hear
the bass line for “Billie Jean” come in, it’s so recognizable and then
the solo comes in and he’s singing “Poison,” so that’s really fun to see
the audience’s reaction on that. And we do a real cool version of
Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” that sounds nothing like the original. Mike
Luginbill sings a solo on it and he absolutely kills it.
WO: Are you featured in a particular song?
I: I sing solo on a couple of tunes, and I do vocal
percussion as well…The first time I tried [vocal percussion], it sounded
awful [laughs]. It’s just something you’re constantly getting better at
it the more you do it.
WO: What is the rehearsal process like with 10 guys?
I: Well, we have a musical director, but he definitely
takes input from all 10 of us. Sometimes there are too many cooks in
the kitchen, but for the most part, we sit down at rehearsals, we
usually get together about two weeks before a tour and in a central
location somewhere since we’re all scattered across the country, and we
start putting together this music. Sometimes we don’t have physical
sheet music to learn songs off of, we just kind of make it up as we go.
If we feel a certain vibe or a certain melody, we’ll build off of that
and it’s really fun to see the creative process within this group
because you’ve got 10 guys with 10 different opinions, 10 different
musical tastes and when we’re able to blend them all together we hit the
jackpot and get just a killer song.
WO: How do you personally prepare for a show?
I: Today [for example], I’m going to go for a three
mile run, then come back, have lunch, shower, then we’ll have sound
check and usually we don’t do a lot of talking on show days to rest the
voice. And then probably about an hour before the show usually have hot
tea with some whiskey in it just to loosen up the vocal cords a bit.
WO: Since you live here, what are some of your favorite things to do in Vegas?
I: I’m a nightlife guy. I was always out in the bars
and clubs in Vegas. I’ve got a lot of friends that work in the industry.
So anytime I’m home, I’m always out. I love going to Vanity and XS—the
hot spots.
WO: What was the experience like meeting and recording with Barry Manilow?
I: It’s funny because we opened for him last fall at
the Hollywood Bowl and we didn’t get a chance to meet him. We were in
and out so quickly and with all the commotion, we didn’t get to meet
him. Then he took a liking to us and reached out to our manager and
said, “Hey, I’ve got this song; it’s my favorite song that I’ve ever
written. I would really love the guys to back me up on it.” So,
obviously, he’s a living legend, we were all ecstatic, like, ”Yeah,
let’s do it.” And the entire process, we recorded our tracks in
Bloomington, Indiana and he recorded his solo track in his studio in
California so we never got to meet him throughout the whole process.
But, this summer we opened for him and did the same track, “One Voice”
with him in Atlantic City, and we got to meet him and spend some time
with him. He’s such a down to earth, humble guy for someone with that
kind of stature.
WO: Anything else you’d like fans to know?
I: If people have any questions, they can find us on
sncmusic.com. We’re very active with social media—Facebook, Twitter—we
reach out to our fans all the time. People think it’s weird we make
ourselves so available to the fans but if it weren’t for the fans there
would be no us.
