INTERVIEW: Committed remains committed to the beauty of a cappella
Photo: Committed, an a-cappella group that won NBC’s The Sing-Off, will play the State Theatre in New Jersey. Photo courtesy of the band / Provided by Columbia Artists press site with permission.
The national tour, entitled A Cappella Live!, features the musical talents of Committed, The Filharmonic, Blake Lewis and Women of the World. The four musical acts will bring their a-cappella talents to the State Theatre in New Brunswick, Saturday, March 7.
Committed, featuring singers Robbie Pressley, Theron “Therry” Thomas, Maurice Staple, Dennis “DJ’ Baptiste Jr. and Geston Pierre, should be well known to TV audiences because the group won the second season of NBC’s The Sing-Off, and they continue to tour the world, bringing their unique musical renditions to dedicated audience members.
The singing group began in 2003 when the members were students at Forest Lake Academy in Florida. They continued their success while attending Oakwood University in Huntsville, Alabama, according to their official website. In their unique music, they celebrate their shared “creativity, music and God,” and hope audiences will be enthralled by their powerful selections.
At the State Theatre show, Pierre promises a concert that the entire family can enjoy. “They can expect to experience a family-friendly show that is comprised of the most talented a-cappella groups from all over the nation,” Pierre said in a recent phone interview. “They can expect to hear different genres of music. They can expect basically to experience a-cappella heaven.”
The concert will find each of the four musical acts coming together for a shared set list at the beginning and end of the program. In between, each group has a chance to shine over the course of approximately 20 minutes.
“So it’s a very powerful experience because we’re not just competing or anything,” he said. “We’re actually collaborating to put on a masterful show. It’s kind of like the Motown setup where there were several artists who were putting on one show together.”
The story of Committed begins when some of the members attended the same high school 17 years ago. They used to hang out together, and they were always singing and practicing, dreaming of making it big one day.
“Long before we had a gig, we were just rehearsing for the love of the game and learning songs and working on arrangements, and when we got to college we kept it going,” Pierre said. “Although [in college] our lineup changed, and we added a few new members. But we kept it going, and literally in the year 2009, we had the wonderful opportunity of being recruited to be a part of The Sing-Off on NBC. Literally the running joke is after 10 years we became an overnight success when we got the exposure on The Sing-Off on NBC, and we emerged as the season-two champions of that show. So it was a wonderful experience. From that moment, we kind of pivoted from being amateurs to professional touring recording artists. It was pretty cool.”
The experience of appearing on that NBC reality series, which also helped launch the careers of Pentatonix, Nota, Home Free and The Dartmouth Aires, was a special time in Pierre’s life. He remembers the taping of the episodes as intense and highly competitive.
“We all would never have imagined being a part of that show or let alone winning that show, but it was lots of pressure also because we’re performing in front of millions of people on TV,” he said. “It was actually a competition, and so we had limited time to get everything together. It was a learning experience, and it was a growing experience for us. Prior to that, we only sang in church, and so having to learn choreography and do other things while singing, it literally stretched us to new levels. We’re grateful for that opportunity to grow and to try new things, so The Sing-Off will always have a special place in our heart and always be a pivotal moment in our journey.”
Throughout their lives, the members of Committed have been “committed” to choir singing. They have loved church music ever since they were young, so they have a common thread and shared history that keeps them close together.
Pierre provides an essential part to the Committed sound. “I actually am responsible for the lowest part of the group, so I sing the bassline in Committed,” he said. “So I call myself the Chief Foundation Officer, the CFO, so I’m responsible for the bassline. … Whenever you’re singing a cappella, it’s important to have a foundation because it helps complete the chord. I’m also singing a percussive role, not just a musical role, but I have a percussive role. I believe I play a very important part in our a-cappella team.”
The future looks bright for Committed. After the State Theatre, they head out across the United States, stopping in New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Virginia and Ohio, among other states.
“We’ve always said that until we can’t do it anymore, we’re going to keep singing,” Pierre said. “We’re going to keep putting out music. We’re so grateful to be a part of this tour. We just released an album entitled Unreleased, and so we have some songs that we recorded in the past that we didn’t put out. We literally are releasing them and putting out something so that our fans can enjoy us and hear our new sound and new songs. Aside from that, we’re just literally going to continue to travel and do master classes to inspire the next generation of artists and creatives. That’s literally what we’ve always done, so we plan to keep on doing it. In the future, we hope to also venture out into other opportunities, like do commercials or movies.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
A Cappella Live!, featuring Committed, will play Saturday, March 7 at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Click here for more information and tickets.
