Geoff Castellucci, the bass singer for Voice Play, has always loved vocal harmony. He even started a barbershop quarter when he was in middle school.
“That was our first foray into a cappella music as geeky as that sounds,” said Castellucci, who studied music throughout grade school, high school and college.
“But we quickly figured out that barbershop was not the potential money maker we thought it was going to be,” he said.
So he and his songster friends created Voice Play, an a cappella group that not only sings, but also entertains and creates interesting percussion and instrumental sounds only with their voices, and no accompaniment.
A recent finalist on NBC’s “The Sing-Off,” Voice Play is coming to CLC on Tuesday.
“Three of the five current cast members went to middle school and high school together,” Castellucci said.
Voice Play consists of Castellucci, Earl Elkins Jr., Layne Stein, Tony Wakim and Eliezer ‘Eli’ Jacobson.
Together they have a range of more than five octaves. They create skits around familiar popular music harmonized specifically for their voices.
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One skit called “Road Trip” features the group driving in a car, arguing pantomime style about which music station to play, and then breaking into various songs such as “Tiptoe through the Tulips” by Tiny Tim and “Sail Away” by Enya.
“Bobby McFerrin meets KISS — that’s how I describe our sound,” Castellucci said.
While he was in high school and college, “the collegiate contemporary a cappella scene was pretty hot,” Castellucci said.
It’s even hotter now with shows like “Glee” and “Pitch Perfect,” he said.
“We discovered an underbelly of a cappella music that was percussion-driven and bass-driven. We modeled ourselves after a couple of groups doing ground-breaking things with their voices. About the year 2000 we got our first official paying show.”
Over the years, they’ve honed their craft, worked hard and persisted. They auditioned for NBC’s “The Sing-Off” the first season, just missing the top eight, but returned again until they made it into the fourth season and then joined “The Sing-Off” tour twice.
“We learned a lot,” Castellucci said. “It was a ton of work. We made a lot of great friends. The promotional side was great. We’ve had slam-packed schedules.”
To create musical numbers and skits, ensemble members come up with ideas, flesh them out and bring them to the group.
Then they notate every vocal part through a computer program, record each part on tape, practice parts individually and then rehearse together.
“Everything is finessed. Nothing is done accidentally, it’s all done on purpose,” Castellucci said.
Though they love to entertain, they never lose sight of perfecting their voices and harmonies, he said.
The group plans to wow the CLC audience with an opening number that shows off their singing skills, he said.
“We do ‘Don’t Stop Me Now,’ by Queen. It’s slamming. It starts just with voices — three or four part harmony. Then the (vocal) drum kicks in The bass line is ridiculous, and our high tenor is one of the best high tenors ever.”
The audience also can expect to participate. For example, Voice Play chooses a difficult piece, gives the lyrics to the audience along with some marshmallows, then allow them to throw marshmallows if someone gets the words wrong.
Castellucci said he’s happy right where he’s at now performing nationwide, but the group is open to anything, he said.
“Everything is possible. We’re doing a lot of collaboration with Disney right now. We’re trying to do more things on YouTube. We’re open to doing all kinds of stuff. We just need the time and the energy.”
Sheryl DeVore is a freelance writer.
Voice Play
When: 7:30 p.m. Jan. 26
Where: James Lumber Center for the Performing Arts, Mainstage Theatre, CLC, 19351 Washington St., Grayslake
Tickets: $8-$23
Information: jlc.clcillinois.edu/