SOUND OFF Interview: Walter Chase of Straight No Chaser

With over twelve million hits on YouTube for their "Twelve Days of Christmas" alone, the all-male a capella group Straight No Chaser has become something of a global phenomenon following their humble collegiate debut in 1996. As one of the founding members of the group, Walter Chase recently spoke with me about his passion for music, the trials and tribulations - and joys - of a capella singing, touring the world as part of a group, fame, as well as all about the dazzling brand new Straight No Chaser DVD/2-CD box set ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS, which will be released this week, featuring over thirty holiday tracks - and a few surprises, too! Also, you can catch Straight No Chaser live in concert on December 1 as part of the Live From T5 concert series.

Tickets, click here.

Yuletide & YouTube, A Capella

PC: On GLEE last night there was an all-male a capella version of Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream", so today is a perfect time to talk to one of the form's foremost masters.

WC: Yeah, that group who did it was on THE SING-OFF last year. They're good friends with us, so....

PC: What do you think of doing female-oriented songs like that? I mean, you do Judy Garland.

WC: We have a great soloist, along with the way we like to do songs - I mean, the name of our first album is WITH A TWIST, and that sort of embodies how we like to do songs, which is: instead of covering songs straight, we like to kind of put our own little spin on it so that it gives the listener a reason to listen to it. If we're just going to do straight covers, then what's the point, really?

PC: Right. Can you give me a specific example?

WC: For example, we mixed up a Jason Mraz song with "Somewhere Over The Rainbow".

PC: That's my favorite part of the DVD!

WC: Right now, one of the songs that's hitting really well live is the Lady Gaga Medley. It just comes out of left field.

PC: I bet!

WC: You know, it's our goal to not only keep our shows tight, but also keep the audience on their toes and not knowing what's coming next. Covering a female artist is one way we can do that, if we can do it well.

PC: Did the "I'm Yours/Rainbow" medley come about organically or did you set out to make those two songs work together?

WC: Well, Jason Mraz is on our record label, Atlantic.

PC: I know, he's done this column, too!

WC: When his album came out, we were interested in doing one of his tunes. Now, this was before "I'm Yours" really took off. It was out for a little while before it took off.

PC: Like two years!

WC: Yeah. We heard the song and wanted to do it and one of our arrangers said it was quite similar to a specific version of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow".

PC: Right. The Hawaiian one that was on GLEE last year.

WC: It seems like a natural mix, though, those two songs. We played with where to have the "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" come in on the track, in the studio. Obviously, Jason Mraz's version of "I'm Yours" had such a long shelf-life on the charts that we were surprised that people were still interested in hearing the song. It just shows the strength of that song and his songwriting. And, the fact that we're getting attention from it, too!

PC: Spread the love, a very Mraz-ian concept!

WC: I gotta say, it's a fun song to sing. We do a sign-in online after every show and that's generally everyone's favorite. We always ask. And, it's a good tune for us, actually.

PC: Have you done any shows with Jason?

WC: No, we haven't, actually. He did have an a capella group open for him and he came on and sang "I'm Yours" with them. But, our paths haven't crossed yet!

PC: Could you tell me about how the group formed and how you got to where you are now?

WC: Sure. Back in 1996, there was - and still is - an 180-person show choir called the Singing Hoosiers at Indiana University that is one of the university ensembles. Ten of us were in that choir and decided that we wanted to put together a collegiate-style a capella group, which is - in the Midwest and, specifically, in the Northeast at the Ivy League schools - there are dozens of groups that are collegiate-style, meaning they have eight to fourteen people. There was really nothing of that sort in Indiana and some of us had heard of other groups at other colleges so we wanted to bring it to Indiana. We were there basically just singing at sororities to get girls and we eventually did larger music halls and got a little popularity. While we were there, we put out some CDs and filmed a DVD and, come 1999, we all graduated and went our separate ways. But, before we did, we left the group there and if you go to Indiana University today you will find a group called Straight No Chaser who are like our little brothers and we know all of them and we send them arrangements and stuff. They are there doing what we did in college.

PC: Passing on the tradition!

WC: We didn't have any other goals besides leaving a group there when we left Indiana. But, lo and behold, one of the guys - Randy Stine - for our ten year reunion in 2006 put up a bunch of videos from our DVD on YouTube. We thought that was pretty cool because YouTube was just coming around and we were able to see our old footage, which was pretty neat.

PC: You never would guess what would happen next, then?

WC: In December 2007 we got seven million hits in one month. We were signed to a record deal with Atlantic Records just based solely on that clip. So, we were obviously not all performing - though one of us was on Broadway.

PC: Who? What was he in?

WC: Steve Morgan. At the time, he was in the Beach Boys musical GOOD VIBRATIONS. He was also in MAMMA MIA! for quite awhile. Another guy, Jerome Collins, was performing in Tokyo in THE LION KING.

PC: What we were you doing?

WC: I was in finance. A lot of the guys were in pharmaceutical sales or computer sales. A lot of us had put ideas of performing to bed, so when we got the call from Atlantic it kind of came out of nowhere. We were - we still are - spread across the country. So, what we did for our first album - because they wanted a holiday disc based on the success of the "Twelve Days of Christmas" - we met in New York at a rehearsal space on West 48th St. and just sang holiday songs in March, April, May.

PC: Christmas all year round!

WC: We went to the studio in Indiana where we recorded our Cds in college. In July. So, yes, we really were recording a Christmas album in July!

PC: That's hilarious! How apt.

WC: That's how we started recording, really. So, we put out our first disc that December and, ever since then, we have been slowly snowballing into where we are now. We will have done upwards of sixty dates this year. We have three discs on Atlantic and this new Christmas box set which has two Christmas Cds and the concert from PBS in it.

PC: It's a fabulous box set. The two albums work so well together and the DVD is such a great bonus treat. Also, from a purely aesthetic perspective, the new packaging is just gorgeous. Have you seen it yet?

WC: Yeah! It's slick! (Laughs.) We hadn't seen it until our fans started bringing it to shows to be signed.

PC: It was so great you guys had some input.

WC: Yeah, they asked us to send in childhood pictures of us from the holidays. When I first saw the box set, it was really neat to see - you know, just paging through and seeing all of us. Plus, if people are holding it up in the audience you can see them because the light reflects off the metallic covers so they look a little red or green.

PC: It's so great to see Atlantic release multimedia sets like this and Jason's set last year - plus all the internet content. What is your take on the internet and marketing to the internet audience?

WC: We owe everything - our success on YouTube, our success on PBS - to them. You know, initially, when we would ask it would be comical - when we first started, people would only say they knew us from YouTube, and, now, it's almost half-and-half. Our website is everything, though. You know, there's ten of us in the group and we all play different roles, but one of the roles we all take is being as connected with our fans as possible because we realize that without all of those people - including people who are just curious, or just had received the links - if it wasn't for people just checking us out on YouTube, we would not be doing what we are doing today.

PC: So, you credit your success entirely to the internet? What kind of interactions do you have with your fans online?

WC: On a daily basis we will upload pictures - we have a thing where we can e-mail pictures and they automatically get streamed on the front page of the website. One of the guys last night wrote a three-page blog. We all take turns. We don't have designated roles - it's organic. When I go on the website, I see how many people are going on and making a comment on an arrangement or a picture or a video another fan has put up. For us, it's also sometimes a learning tool to see a video shot from the audience: hear how we sound, see how we are looking on stage.

PC: You use it to your advantage at every point - even bootlegs.

WC: We're all mid-twenties to early-thirties so, maybe we're not the tech-savvy generation of the younger bands coming up, but we understand the power of the internet. We understand that it's not just getting up onstage for two hours, meeting people after the show and then just powering down and doing it all again the next day - there is a viral universe that never sleeps and it's international. If we have ambitions of reaching as many people as possible - I mean, to hear people say, "I saw you online and I love your camaraderie in that clip or that blog or that video!" - it's rewarding to meet people and hearing that they love it. "Keep it coming!" I mean, I don't blog as much as some of the other guys, but it's nice to know people are paying attention.

PC: It just keeps getting better - and doing this column is one more notch on Straight No Chaser's internet belt.

WC: We're just blessed. We really appreciate all the attention we are getting online.

PC: Thanks so much, Walter - and send my best to all the other guys!

WC: Will do. This was really, really great. I really appreciate it, Pat. Have a good one.