{"id":4971,"date":"2012-08-24T09:21:41","date_gmt":"2012-08-24T15:21:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=4971"},"modified":"2012-08-24T09:21:41","modified_gmt":"2012-08-24T15:21:41","slug":"those-guys-bring-the-a-capella-party-to-winnipeg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2012\/08\/24\/those-guys-bring-the-a-capella-party-to-winnipeg\/","title":{"rendered":"Those Guys Bring the a capella party to Winnipeg"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
\nby Patrick Michalishyn<\/strong><\/p>\n

Those Guys are an a cappella group that have been together since 2009. Eight guys, eight voices, that\u2019s it. Their live show always turns into a party where people dance and sing along, each show eclipsing the last in terms of quality and spectacle. And they\u2019re only getting better! Recently, Those Guys celebrated the release of their debut,<\/em> That Album, over the course of two nights at the Park Theatre<\/em>. Stylus sat down with Bernie \u201cRing Leader\u201d Pastorin, Mike \u201cThe Heartthrob\u201d Engstrom, and James \u201cThe Human Bassline\u201d Campbell during a rare instance of downtime.<\/em><\/p>\n

Stylus: You just released That Album<\/em> a couple of months back. It\u2019s ten songs long, yet your repertoire is five times that. What are some songs that you wanted to record, but couldn\u2019t for whatever reason?
\nBernie Pastorin: <\/strong>I think, the biggest one for me was \u201cI’m Yours\u201d by Jason Mraz. It was the first song that Those Guys learned and put together themselves, and when we couldn\u2019t get the mechanical license for it… it\u2019s kind of heartbreaking… It sucked because that was my pick for the lead-in track for That Album.<\/em>
\nJames Campbell:<\/strong> There were a few others we couldn\u2019t get. We couldn\u2019t get \u201cBrown Eyed Girl\u201d…
\nBP:<\/strong> Well, we could\u2019ve got \u201cBrown Eyed Girl,\u201d but we decided against it because that arrangement had already been recorded. So, you\u2019re wrong on that one! [laughs] But I\u2019ll let you go on.
\nJC:<\/strong> So I\u2019m wrong on that one. Another one we couldn\u2019t get was \u201cWith Or Without You\u201d because Bono\u2019s… Bono.<\/p>\n

Stylus: For the album you picked ten great cover songs, but at the show you unveiled an original composition, \u201cMr. Goodbar.\u201d Are any of you writing originals to bring to the group?
\nMike Engstrom:<\/strong> I\u2019m only speaking for myself here. I hum and haw and I\u2019ll write a few lines that could go into a song, but I\u2019m not really an expert at putting a song together. I\u2019ve got ideas for themes and arrangements… We definitely have strong writers in the group and it\u2019s something we\u2019re definitely going to pursue. Singing something that came from within the group felt amazing. On the other hand, we love picking out covers we love, songs that people recognize and really get into.
\nBP:<\/strong> We can\u2019t argue that[\u2018s not] some of the biggest appeal for an a cappella group. People love hearing a different take on a song they know well.
\nME:<\/strong> It\u2019s all in the arrangement. Take the group Pentatonix<\/a>; you hear a song, you know it\u2019s a cover, but it makes you hyper and excited because it sounds so fresh. It sounds like a new song.
\nBP: <\/strong>And I don\u2019t know who said this, but it\u2019s taking a song down a different path. A new journey. I have a book of songs at home. Just lyrics and ideas… but no melodies! [laughs]<\/em> But we\u2019ve been talking about it, about bringing our ideas forward to the group, seeing what works and seeing what doesn\u2019t. \u201cMr. Goodbar\u201d was a huge success…
\nME:<\/strong> It was a hit!
\nBP:<\/strong> I guess you could say it was a #1. It was received very well by our audience, and I\u2019d like to eventually work out a balance of covers to originals.<\/p>\n

Stylus: Have all the best songs already been written?
\nJC:<\/strong> [laughs]<\/em> I don\u2019t think so; I think there\u2019s some room to hack something together. There\u2019s a lot of cool stuff coming out lately and it\u2019s just a matter of finding that cool stuff and trying to… \u201ca cappella-ize\u201d that cool stuff and even throw out some cool stuff of our own.<\/p>\n

Stylus: I\u2019m sure you just love being asked the question of \u201cWhy a cappella?\u201d Lately, the genre seems to be getting more exposure.
\nBP:<\/strong> The a cappella community, not just in Winnipeg but in Canada, is so small. I think there\u2019s a ton of potential, and people need to just call up their friends and just start a group. I\u2019d like to encourage this. I mean, we\u2019re not alone; there are groups like Interchord and Tiffany… all doing great things, but I wish that there was more of a community out there that supported a cappella. Some friendly competition would be nice. We\u2019re getting a lot of support from our friends and family and they\u2019re bringing new people into the fold. My goal right now is to push this local scene. We have Flo<\/a> play with us, we\u2019ve rolled with \u00a0M-Caps, the Xanadudes have played a show with us… the Melissa Pletts out there… We\u2019re putting out a call to all the artists out there that we need to help each other out. I’m calling you out, J.P. Hoe<\/a>! Put us on your show, let us open for your crowd, let\u2019s help each other out.
\nME:<\/strong> That\u2019s the point I was going to make! There\u2019s nothing wrong with being small and not exploding \u201cHollywood-style.\u201d Having a strong local community of musician friends helping each other out to reach new people and having a strong local following is great. It would be such an accomplishment to just be played on the CBC!<\/p>\n

Stylus: I have to talk about the live show. You guys are a party band. You play with the crowd, you\u2019re out in the audience… Mike, you are a ladies\u2019 man! [laughter] At the CD release show there was that lady who almost stuck her tongue down your throat!<\/strong>
\nME:<\/strong> [laughs]<\/em> Oh, I knew her…<\/p>\n

Stylus: There\u2019s theatricality, the energy is palpable, but I don\u2019t think that many people would associate that with a cappella.
\nBP:<\/strong> Well the studio and the stage are two completely different beasts. We have a lighting guy, stage director, everything. When you\u2019ve got people in front of you, you feed off of it. It is a spectacle, that\u2019s what we want. People left happy. We achieved our goal. And that\u2019s something that we’re going to keep doing.<\/p>\n

You can find out when the next party is at <\/em>thoseguysacappella.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Patrick Michalishyn Those Guys are an a cappella group that have been together since 2009. Eight guys, eight voices, that\u2019s it. Their live show always turns into a party where people dance and sing along, each show eclipsing the last in terms of quality and spectacle. And they\u2019re only getting better! Recently, Those Guys […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[16,563,1006],"class_list":["post-4971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-a-capella","tag-local","tag-those-guys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4971\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}