Kenton Chen from Season 2 Sing-Off finalists, The Backbeats
Those who watched season two of The Sing-Off will undoubtedly remember Kenton Chen. A series of video montages recounted the way in which Kenton dreamed of developing an a cappella super group, plied every connection from his collegiate years, and ultimately assembled a collection of superb talent--The Backbeats--that made it all the way to the finals of last season’s show, performing in front of an audience of over 8 million people along the way.
Though much of the story portrayed on screen was true, when I spoke to Kenton last Sunday afternoon, he volunteered that there was another driving force behind the formation of the group--The Sing-Off production staff.
Kenton called the experience “serendipitous.” Kenton attended several tapings of the first season of The Sing-Off, and while the judges deliberated, audience members had the opportunity to sing. Kenton was quick to take his shot. “The executive producers talked to me afterward about putting together a group ... I didn’t expect to go to the show and get an offer to do something myself.”
Kenton recruited close friends Rachel Saltzman and Kelly Jakle, both of whom he had sung with as part of the collegiate USC SoCal VoCals (Kelly had also been a part of season one Sing-Off contestants, The SoCals). From there, the three “played the five degrees game to pull on people we knew.” Kenton described the group that appeared on TV to be about 50 percent the same as the group when they first started planning for the show, which, he pointed out, wasn’t so different from other groups that were subject to a lot of switching around as members dropped out and others filled spaces. The big difference between The Backbeats and other groups, though, was that “we met in the a cappella world.” Kenton went on to describe how members had collaborated or even competed on opposite sides in the past. While he rejected the moniker of “a cappella all stars,” he did underscore the importance of the organic connections between the people who took part in the group.
An interesting tidbit about the group selection process—every new member to join the group had to be unanimously agreed upon by everyone already on the roster. The approach was similar to that applied by The SoCal VoCals, and created a powerful bond and trust between the group members. “If you’re in, you know everyone in the group voted for you.”
Although most of each Sing-Off season has been taped well in advance of it airing on TV, Kenton did emphasize that the show did progress at the same pace as what viewers see on TV with “a five or six day turn around between episodes.” Kenton went on to explain, “on television, it looks clean cut, but you have the group number each week, in addition to one or two other numbers you do. It’s a competition, but the producers and everyone on the show are working on things to make the best show for everyone … It’s difficult. You don’t get to whip out a song you’ve done before and just do it; you literally arrange the first day you’re given a song, stay up all night working on the song, then the next day you rehearse.”
Like other alumni of the show, Kenton was quick to point out how rich the community aspect of the show was, calling the competitors and show staff “the SO2 Family.” He noted that he still keeps in touch with plenty of people from the show, and that over the course of taping they “had our inside jokes we cracked with each other, had our own culture, phrases we talk around and repeat all the time.”
Kenton has been in the audience for tapings of season three of The Sing-Off, which will premiere on NBC next Monday. His frank assessment? “This season is going to blow everyone away.”
Season two of The Sing-Off opened plenty of opportunities to Kenton and the group, which have included performances at the NBA All Star Game and Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Sci-Tech Awards ceremony. In addition, Kenton has personally been on the road for two legs of Ben Folds’s 2011 concert tour this past April and July, performing as the opening act. Kenton described that Ben “pushed me into it; originally he wanted me to sing by myself with no backing. Then I got the idea of using a loop pedal to back myself up, and started developing this new system where I’ll do some things live, some things pre-recorded, for an a cappella set.” Kenton described his performances as similar to releases from one man a cappella recording artist Peter Hollens, but “in a different light because it’s simpler and a lot of it is live.” Kenton credited these experiences with allowing him to cross the country to perform on the east and west coasts and many points in between.
Besides live performance, Kenton has remained busy with one of his truest passions—writing original music. “It’s the core of who I am,” Kenton said. “Even more than a performer, I’m an avid song writer … songwriting is my dialogue with the world around me. It’s how I communicate and how I understand things.” Kenton released his first CD, Something About Love while he was an undergraduate at USC, and notes that the recordings are largely informed by the vocal jazz training he received at the time. Don’t let Kenton’s sunny disposition from TV fool you, though. Since his that original recording, Kenton “is writing a lot of material that is a lot darker … I’m growing up, so I’m writing about different things.” His new EP, Fierce Tears pulled material from his own personal life, for example writing the title track about a friend diagnosed with a terminal illness, as well as “Take Me Home” about club culture and the drive for physical intimacy. While he described Something About Love as “idealistic and hopeful” he also notes that he “painted a picture of things I didn’t quite understand.” In his newer work, Kenton tries “to be as real as possible.”
Kenton tried to distill his passion about writing music, and the transformation he has enjoyed in how he shares it with the world. He explained, “When I was younger, I was that annoying kid who would write a song, then call all my friends and play it for them. Having other people listen to my music now and purchase it is incredible. I’m very grateful for it.”
Looking back at Kenton’s days at USC, it may surprise some readers to know that The Backbeats’ most recognizable face, and the man whose solo anchored an ICCA International Championship-winning set didn’t get into The SoCal VoCals the first time he auditioned. As referenced earlier, the stringent selection process means that many people audition multiple times before getting into the group. “Sometimes it’s not about the talent, but what the group needs at the time,” he explained. And so, Kenton started his collegiate a cappella career with the USC Troy Tones—a group that had a profound influence on his musical stylings, introducing him to wealth of 80s and 90s pop rock and, perhaps prophetically, exposing him to his first taste of the music of Ben Folds.
Kenton was a part of the SoCal VoCals that debuted at the ICCA Finals in 2008 with a set that I still maintain is the closest I’ve heard to flawless ICCA set. “Things started changing with the SoCal VoCals when it came to ideas bout art and performance … We were surrounded by people who take their art seriously—who have a lot of fun and don’t take themselves too seriously, but take their art seriously,” Kenton said. “It’s like living like a commune or a co-op of people doing the same thing, who are very charged about what they want to do.”
Kenton called the 2008 ICCA run “a formative experience” and “the biggest thrill ride.” The 2010 return to the Finals (and, ultimately, to a second championship) may have carried a bit less pressure. "The entire group was there,” Kenton said. “The alumni were so supportive, some had flown out just to see us, and it was like ‘Hey, you got here, we are so glad, and no matter what happens tonight, we’re going to party.’” Indeed, Kenton went on to discuss the close knit nature of the group, and it’s attitude toward performance: “It was always about the group, not about the soloist. For television and The Sing Off, you’re always going to connect to a soloist, to a specific face, but what a lot of people don’t realize, and what the a cappella community can be very supportive of is that without the backing, it’s nothing. That’s what The SoCal VoCals taught me—we fight as a group so hard.”
I asked Kenton what advice he would give to today’s college musicians who are just starting their undergraduate careers this fall, and perhaps auditioning for collegiate a cappella groups. Kenton recommended young people “do as much as you can.” While he observed that students need to know their limits, he recalled how tired he felt for much of college, and what he has seen from people like Sara Bareilles and Ben Folds: “they don’t stop working ever.”
“You’re going to have multiple repetitive nights, wondering ‘why am I doing this?’” Kenton said. “If you’re asking those questions, that’s healthy. If you can’t come up with an answer, maybe you should do something else. You’re going to have to face a lot of sacrifice, but, at the end of the day, you have to answer that question for yourself and really question why you do what you do.”
Kenton discovered his own “Why” at an India.Arie concert. “Instead of watching her the whole time, I watched the audience watch her—how she affected them, how it melted them, how it affected their lives. That’s when I realized I do music because it makes me happy, it’s meaningful to me; it’s the only thing in my life that makes sense.”
On the topic of a cappella in general, Kenton noted, “We’re at a strange time where we [a cappella] nerds are very lucky and this nerddom is very popular … It’s incredible to be celebrated for something we would have done anyway.”
All photos are courtesy of Kenton Chen. You can learn more about Kenton at his website and more about his Sing-Off group at The Backbeats website.