By combining an impressive range of vocals with sultry stage presence and enough emotion to force even the most stoic fan to tears, Sonos turns the mainstream a cappella sound on its head.
This Los Angeles-based vocal group is composed of three men, Paul Peglar, Ben McLain and Chris Harrison, and three women, Rachel Bearer, Katharine Hoye and Jessica Freedman. It compels us to throw away the gross exaggerations that broadcasts such as “Glee” have embedded into our minds at the Bootleg Theater on Wednesday night.
Sonos strays from the pack by completely remodeling popular indie hits through its arrangements. Its adaptations of arguably groundbreaking songs from our generation such as “Everything in Its Right Place” by Radiohead and “Re: Stacks” by Bon Iver are interesting enough to appeal to audiences outside of the a cappella fanbase.
“You don’t have to be a fan of a cappella to like a Sonos show or CD, for that matter,” Peglar said. “You also don’t have to be a fan of Bjork, or Imogen Heap or Radiohead or any of the artists that we cover because what we do is reinterpret their songs. We use it as source material and use the human voice as our palate and from there, we go anywhere that we want to.”
Their hyper-alternative and contemporary repertoire, consisting of artists such as Bjork, Fleet Foxes and the Bird and the Bee, serve as insight into what the members of Sonos have tucked away in their iPods.
“We’ve taken a more personal look in terms of picking songs that really, truly speak to us,” Freedman said.
But introspective indie tracks don’t compose the entire album’s song listings.
Sonos also spins recordings that proved to be well ahead of their time such as Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence” and the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back,” a track that is redone so drastically that it is almost unrecognizable.
“The Jackson 5’s “˜I Want You Back’ turned out to be very serendipitous and became one of our favorite songs on the album,” McLain said.
“I sang it in Awaken 100 times, but it was that sort of corny, jangitty-jangitty version. So, it really did come full circle, and it’s cool for us to reprocess it for ourselves because when I sing our version, I don’t even connect it with that mainstream interpretation because it’s so redone,” Freedman said.
Their style is rooted in the collegiate a cappella scene, which is now flourishing across campuses nationwide.
Three members of the sextet, Peglar, Harrison and Freedman were all members of UCLA’s oldest co-ed group, Awaken A Cappella, at one point or another during their college careers.
Awaken also served as a starting point for chart-topping artist Sara Bareilles who collaborates with the group on the track “Gravity,” which appears on their debut album “SonoSings.”
By extracting the basis of their style from the family-like fortress of collegiate a cappella, the group has adopted the necessary tools to build upon their innovative vocal wall of sound.
“One of our main goals is to depart from that stereotype of the a cappella world and forge and pioneer a new vision of what a cappella music can do for art and music,” McLain said.
What Sonos is doing is not playing a part or mimicking an instrument but interpreting an idea that someone has created in their head.
“Arranging songs for Sonos is a two-step process,” Hoye said. “First, we start with a song that we love. Secondly, we create a whole new concept for that song. Almost all of our arrangements are sort of their own little compositions because there is a lot in those specific arrangements that aren’t in the original songs. We like to reinvent everything that we do ““ we don’t like to cover things for the sake of covering them.”
They prove their mission statement tenfold on their debut album “Sonosings.”
Soon after its release back in September on Verve Forecast, the CD climbed to No. 4 on the iTunes Vocal Chart and held its ground against artists including Frank Sinatra and Andrea Bocelli.
The group also received airtime back in January on the radio station KCRW and soon thereafter, on KROQ.
The members are currently touring the nation to promote their album that is quickly gaining popularity.
Sonos has also more recently employed innovative sound equipment during recording sessions.
What main arranger Harrison strayed from, however, was polishing and auto tuning the sound to death ““ which seems to be a popular move in mainstream music today.
“We intentionally used some effects in the studio to give the different songs the multiple moods or vibes that we wanted to create,” Hoye said. “Throughout this past year, we have added more effects pedals on stage with us that make performances more exciting not only for the listener but also create a bigger and more epic sound.”
Fans can expect to hear the authentic sounds from “SonosSings” closely replicated at a live performance.
They have worked to master the task of intricately blending voices, in the hopes that listeners will soon forget that instruments are absent, or even necessary.
“It may sound kind of simple, but the coolest thing especially for all of us is to have people who come to those shows who just say, “˜I heard you on the radio and I just had to come,'” Hoye said.