KEVIN OLUSOLA - The Recipe Behind the Rhythm

In this episode of Eating While Broke, host Coline Witt welcomes special guest Kevin Olusola—the multi-talented singer, songwriter, beatboxer, and cellist best known for his role in Pentatonix. Kevin opens up about his early years, the challenges he faced, and how his unique blend of cello and beatboxing came to life.

He shares stories of humble beginnings, financial struggles, and the influence of his immigrant parents on his path to success. Kevin also reveals his meal prep secrets and discusses the importance of financial stewardship and generational wealth in the Black community.

Tune in for Kevin’s inspiring journey, insightful discussions about his music career, and a special live performance.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.
I'm your host, Colleen, and today we have very special guest, singer, songwriter,
beat boxer Sellice Kevin O Lucia.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Yes, there we go.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
You said anything there, that's that's it.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
I mean, I'm a dad, your dad, but you know
that's exactly it.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Okay, okay, So before we get into your story, I
am tempted to do I don't know which one to do. First,
try to get a little beatboxing in, or you know what,
I don't know if this is possible. I'm going to
challenge you to tell me what you're gonna eat today
in an artistic Kevin way. Is that possible?

Speaker 4 (00:59):
You know?

Speaker 2 (01:00):
No, I can't do that.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
You're like, wow, make up a song on the spot
what you're eating today?

Speaker 2 (01:07):
I'm not going to make. This is a Subway sweet
onion chicken teriocky sandwich. And this is something that was,
I mean a staple when I was starting off in Pentatonics.
I ate that, like I said, almost every single day

(01:28):
because they had five dollars foot longs. So I could
take this, cut this in half, have it for lunch,
and I also have it for dinner and it was perfect.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
So this is during your Pentatonics.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Oh yeah, yeah, this is I mean I was just.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
Sure, how far are you going to take me back?
So we're going to go for the bag.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
We'll go for the bag. But I'm just telling you
this is that's this.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
So this was like your Prime Brokes. Oh it's crazy
because Pentatonics is huge. So you were struggling to they
get during and then did you and then you get
to see all the success. So it was like, you know,
after Subway, you got I don't know what you.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
Eat, that's you want to know what I'll eat out.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
So I'm blessed that I can do this. But what
I do is I actually order family meal sized tender
Green boxes. Do you know tender greens? Right? So I'll
get a family sized tender Green box and then I'll
use that as my meal prep through the week, So
do like chicken, vegetables, salmon smart exactly, and then I'll
also cook a little ground turkey. I did this last

(02:31):
night with my daughter Kaya and then I just put
that in for some extra protein and that's my meal
throughout the week.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Wow. So you're still you're you're still like financially conscious.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Yeah, I mean because I don't want to go back there,
YEA one.

Speaker 3 (02:45):
And two just with with resources.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
I want to steward them well, because I want to
teach my kids what it means to steward wealth so
that they don't have to go through that. And then
you know, we talk about it like generational wealth building
in the black family and something that I think is
just super important, and so I want to do that
for my kids.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
Okay, I can respect that. Tender grains.

Speaker 3 (03:04):
Oh yeah, tender family.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
You know what's so funny. I know people that do that,
they'll like order I don't know, they don't use tender greens,
but they'll do like pan express and an order family style.
And then like if you work a nine to five
shout outs, you know, you order the big size and
then you could just keep it in the fridge at
work and just eat it serve yourself all week.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
Yeah, that's exactly, that's exactly it. I mean, I take it,
I box it up, and then as I go to
either my production sessions or for the band, I just
take two of those things. Boom, I got my lunch,
I got my dinner, and it's easy.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Nice, nice, and what's the day in the life right now,
like because it sounds so it sounds like hard work.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
Well it's a lot. I mean. So Sundays is when
I meal prep all that stuff. So Sundays that's usually
when all the food comes in. That's why I take it.
That's when I cook the ground turkey and then make
my boxes. And then during the week, I mean, because
I still have right now these one or like sixteen months,
so that's my son, so we're waking up pretty early
taking care of him. I try to get some music

(04:02):
in when I can, because I really try to do
that in the hours between four and six if he
doesn't wake up and you know, interrupt that. And then
as family time, after family time taking kids to school,
I'm either practicing or doing some of the work on
my own project. And then I get to do the
Pentatonics work, which I like because I get to focus
on me first and what fills my soul so that
my band gets my overflow, which I think is just

(04:23):
super super important, and that.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
It's it's fully cohesive with you having your your outside
project outside of Pentatonics.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
Yeah, I actually think it's best because each member is
so different and so for me to find myself and
reach the community that I want to reach, I think
that just brings more people into the Pentatonics fold because
some of these people, it's been so cool to see
my project kind of have the success that it's had.
Like I found out a few weeks ago that over

(04:57):
two hundred and fifty million views have been on my
project over my whole social media wow, which is crazy.
And a lot of these people go, I've never heard
of Pentatonics, but I love what you do. And then
through that they go, who who is this? I didn't
know about Pentatonics. They're learning about it and now they
want to come see our shows too. So I think
as every member kind of connects with their community, it

(05:17):
also connects them back to.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
The band relate because I only know Pentatonics because I.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
Know you exactly, exactly the exactly.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
Now take me back to well, actually, let's let's try it,
because I'm sure you're hungry and this is kind of cold,
so let's try it.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
Let's try I'm ready man, onion, sweet onion, onion, chicken Teryoki, Yes,
somewhere in the name.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
You like it.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
It's still hits.

Speaker 1 (05:52):
I have to get like a piece of chicken in it.

Speaker 4 (05:54):
Oh, I never ordered this before, and.

Speaker 2 (06:05):
So the sweet onion sauce, that's the thing that just
makes it for me every single time.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
And then they were asking me a bunch of questions like.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
What vegetables do you want?

Speaker 1 (06:15):
What cheese do you want? And I was like, Kevin
did not send me.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
Oh, I didn't send you those details any directions.

Speaker 1 (06:20):
So I was just like, whatever you make it to
make it classic. What bread do you want? Like, I
don't know, I probably would have this is really good.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
If I had to think back to that time, I
think it was like a whole wheat bread or they
have like the cheese. It was probably some sort of
like Swiss cheese. And they always had their salt and pepper,
always put salt and pepper on it. Oh my gosh. Yeah.
It was so interesting because so we win the TV
show to sing Off as a band, and that was
in twenty eleven, and then twenty twelve we move. I

(06:51):
remember we moved to West Hollywood in this apartment complex
on San Vicente and Howser Boulevard. Across the street was
the subway. So what eleven you know, eleven am before
we start rehearsal. I'd go get that food, come back,

(07:12):
bring it back. And it's just so it's so like
powerfully emotional for me because I remember during that time,
our rent was six hundred and thirty two dollars fifty cents.
I remember that very very specifically each or something, yes,
each and in LA that's.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
You guys have a girl in your group? Though, yes,
how did that work?

Speaker 2 (07:32):
I mean she made it work too. I mean we
six hundred and thirty two dollars fifty cents. We were
all in the same apartment complex, not in the same
apartment like the Basing and I were in one. Churcy
and I think her boyfriend at the time was in one,
and then Scott Mitch were in one. So they always
met at our apartment at the base thing or and
I and I remember my father came to see where

(07:54):
I was living at that time. Now you have to know,
my dad is a Nigerian.

Speaker 1 (07:58):
And that's what makes me laugh exactly right.

Speaker 2 (08:01):
Like he's a Nigerian man who came to the United
States met my mom who's a Grenadian. Both immigrant mentality,
and they wanted me to pursue what I mean, I
would call the immigrant Holy Trinity. Right, Docta Eloya an engineer. Right.
So the fact that I, you know, kind of defected
and decided to go into music was very foreign to them.

(08:22):
So they come see me. You know, these are the
kind of meals that I'm having. They're seeing the kind
of place that I live in. I remember my father
texted me as he was going back to the airport
and he was so sad. He son, I spent all
of my heart earned money to send you to a
school like Yale, and now you're living here doing this

(08:43):
with no guarantee of a future. Please reconsider because this
is heartbreaking for me as a father.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
Right, how do you feel on that moment when you
see that text?

Speaker 2 (08:54):
So I felt sad because I felt like I knew
what I was doing something I was supposed to be doing.
I had no idea what the end goal was. Yeah,
but I also look at it and I remember texting
my father this. I said, I understand everything that you're saying. However,

(09:18):
I haven't lost any of the ideals and the messaging
that you've given me throughout life. I'm just using it
in a completely different way. So everything you've instilled in me,
the values.

Speaker 1 (09:28):
Is all there, but how do you comeback the also
the Yale expenditure.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
Well, so I had finished all of my pre med
requirements while I was at Yale.

Speaker 1 (09:37):
Oh hilarious.

Speaker 3 (09:38):
So I told that, Look, if this doesn't work out,
I got the plan.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
I got the plan. B. We are good. Like we
had that and I always had that in the back
of my mind, honestly.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
So, you did all your pre med and everything.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
Pre med requirements, and if I wanted to take the
m CAT, I think the MCAT would be good for
five years after you take it. So I was like,
I got time. I hadn't taken the m CAT yet,
but I'm like, I got time to make this all work.
And if this doesn't work, that's fine. I actually really
enjoyed the idea of being a medical doctor. It's just
that this started to become successful and I was like, oh,
I guess I'm not going back to medical school.

Speaker 1 (10:11):
But I also think there has something that has to
be said about your character because you still respected your
parents to not flunk out of you, sure not drop
out of you, to say, and I could see from
your father's perspective where he'd almost have to respect your
wishes because you already respected his right.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
Yeah, I finished, I finished my college degree. I did it,
and I did well, and and again I loved it.
I was passionate about all of it. It's just that
I knew I would regret not at least trying music.
I would regret it so much. So that's when I decided,
you know what, I'm going to give it, as they say,
the good old college, try and put my all into it.

(10:52):
And if nothing happened, at least I knew I give
it everything that I could. I can go back into
medicine feeling happy that I did what I could.

Speaker 1 (11:01):
Yeah. And then so you So I'm genuinely curious, like
from that conversation, did your dad kind of bring little
umbrella throughout the rest of your career ups and downs,
kind of like, hey man, this is there what I
wanted for you.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
This, this is what I'll say. So I remember when
the band won our second Grammy. This is twenty sixteen
or seventeen, I believe, and we're about to sing with
Stevie Wonder that's the way of the World for Earth
Wind and Fire, for the whole audience for the Grammys.

(11:38):
And you could see this online. It's on YouTube, and
then we with Stevie Wonder give Ed Sheeran his Grammy
for Thinking out Loud for Song of the Year. Yeah,
and then I sit back down in my seat. My
dad's right next to me, and he goes, hey, congratulations
on your grammy. When are you going back to medical school?

(12:00):
Like freaking out?

Speaker 3 (12:01):
I'm like, Dad, did you not just see what happened?

Speaker 1 (12:03):
Were you really freaking out? I was like, are you
I mean he laughed, Oh, he's why.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
I was like, are you serious? And then he starts
to laugh. He's like, oh, sot, I'm proud of you.
So that was a few years afterwards. So it's so
cool to see him.

Speaker 3 (12:18):
Just say, hey, I see you.

Speaker 2 (12:20):
You could feed yourself now, like it's not you know,
just these sandwiches and stuff, like you're you're doing good
and I'm proud of you for sticking with your guns.

Speaker 1 (12:28):
Now. What was your mom's perspective? Were they in unison
there or was there a little bit of let Kevin do?

Speaker 2 (12:34):
I think she was more understanding, and again she had
the assurance of knowing what she's instilled in me and
to know that I had finished my pre medal quirement.
So I think she was a lot more chill than
my dad. She's always been that way, you know. I've
always appreciated that about her, even when I went to
boarding school. So I went to boarding school for two

(12:54):
years and it was hard, and I for you before Yale. Yeah,
I went to a place called Phillips Academy and mass
and I'd be in andover mass Oh no, no, no,
and andover and so I'd be crying for semester. Oh
my goodness, I can't do it. Everything's so tough, blah
blah blah blah blah. And my dad would be freaking out, like,

(13:14):
oh my god, we made the wrong decision. What would
And Mom's like, chill out, That's why we sent him
there because it's hard.

Speaker 1 (13:23):
Yeah, okay, chill He'll be fine, And so I think
he you would you would think it would be the
other way around, like the mom would be more of
the like softer, like oh, and then your dad would
be like, no, this is why we sent him here.
So it's kind of different to see that your mom
and dad played different roles.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
They do. My mom in a lot of ways. I
think she's the soothing voice and character for the whole
family and that's who she's always been. And then my dad,
I think he just always wants people to be their
best and rise to the occasion, and because he doesn't
want people to be in the place where he has
been throughout his life. And he always reminds me in

(14:06):
any conversations. He reminds me of where he had been
in you know, the small one room house that he
lived in when he was in Nigeria growing up with
five brothers. He reminds me often, and so he I
think there's a bit of a nervous anxiety there because
he doesn't want his children to go back to that place.
But my mom is just that's why they're married. I

(14:30):
feel they compliment each other very very well.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
Yeah. I like that you seem to separate what you
learn in college and what they instilled in you. Why
is that, Like, was there that much of a differentiation
to me?

Speaker 2 (14:43):
Yes, because I think what they instilled in me was
more character building where I think for me, what college
did was give me the tools and the skill set
to be a high performer to an extent. I don't
think I could be doing what I do in my
band and also my solo work without both parts.

Speaker 1 (15:04):
What kind of character did they instill, Like, how did
they go about that?

Speaker 2 (15:08):
Sure, I say, I mean partially hard work, but understanding
and knowing who I am. You know, I'm a Christian,
and so the character of Christ, if you will, and
who he is, and letting that be my guiding light
constantly in the industry. I think that's something that they
gave me because I think it is stilled good things
in me so that I can pursue good things within

(15:29):
the industry. I think those types of things, and then
when it comes to school, you know, it's about being
extremely curious. It's about learning your limits and your resilience
and your tenacity. Those things that I think, combined with
you know, those good characteristics that I learned from my parents,
hopefully creates something that allows me to pursue my career

(15:50):
in a way that I feel like honors myself, honors
my parents, and ultimately honors God.

Speaker 1 (15:55):
I love that. Wow, You're like perfect masterpiece. Now now
now take me back two parent household clearly middle class
upper Yeah, i'd.

Speaker 2 (16:06):
Say middle class. I mean, my dad's a doctor, my
mom's a nurse. But they would say middle class in
the sense that all the money they were using was
to help us, you know, do really amazing experiences or
go to boarding school. So they felt like they were
always underwater because they were always just spending money for our.

Speaker 1 (16:23):
Experience, investing on you guys.

Speaker 2 (16:25):
Yes, exactly.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
And then how many kids did they had?

Speaker 2 (16:28):
Three? Three? Yeah, so myself, my sister who's younger, my
brother who's also younger. Oh, you're the oldest, I'm the oldest. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:34):
Also I'm showing your dad was also nervous because he's,
like you said, the president.

Speaker 2 (16:38):
That's exactly it, Like, I don't know my baby girl
going to do this.

Speaker 1 (16:42):
You're gonna pursue surgery exactly, follow this doctor past exactly.
But I still have to give homage to you guys,
for there's something to be said about a young person
that respects their parents enough to say, I know, I
want to beat the drum this way, but in obedience

(17:05):
to you guys and homage to you guys, I will
respect your wishes because there there is the path where
you could say this is the drum I'm beatn too.

Speaker 4 (17:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:14):
Yeah, But I think that there was a value that
you knew that these two individuals were working really hard
to make sure that you don't have this terrible life
that they had endured or they you know, they they
wanted you guys to avoid. I love that you respected
them enough to say, I did the work. Now let
me go play bus band bucks. Please see this architecture thing.

(17:39):
My daughter has. These they're like the magnet, lego, whatever
you call them. Have you seen.

Speaker 3 (17:44):
Those like the magnet? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (17:49):
Have you? Have you given them to your kids?

Speaker 2 (17:51):
Yeah? We have them at home. That's why I know.
Oh my god. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
My daughter brings these like builds, these masterpieces, and they'll
be up for like weeks, and then she puts a
little prisoner in each little cell block that she has
in her little castle that she's building on. But you know,
just she's so proud of her little masterpiece that it's like, look,
you know, I know it looks messy, but this is
what I'm building. And I feel like when you go

(18:14):
to your sandbox, so you can look at your parents
and say, you know, this is you know, I know
it's crazy, but I got a Grammy over here. I
know it's crazy, but you know I'm making it over here.
You see this little award. But in your case, they
you know, they got obviously bigger and bigger and bigger.
So take me, so you graduate Yale and take me

(18:35):
to where Pentatonics are, where you start to see a
formula forming information, where like music is starting to take lead.

Speaker 2 (18:42):
Hmmm. So kind of like how I figured out that
music was going to be my thing? Yea more okay,
So then I would have to start probably earlier in college.
So in college on pre med knowing that I want
to do medicine, and then my sophomore year of college,
I actually went to a program called the Harvard Bidging

(19:03):
Academy to study Chinese. And while I was there, one
of my Chinese teachers asked me, I'll say it in Chinese, actually,
naomi oshi, which in Chinese means have you ever thought
about combining cello and beatboxing? He just asked me randomly,
and I was like, that's the craziest thing.

Speaker 1 (19:21):
Is that because he heard you play both.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
It was because I would talk about the cello a
lot in class, and then I'd beatbox because I just thought,
you know, my Chinese professors thought that was the most
hilarious thing. They'd never seen people like beatbox before.

Speaker 1 (19:33):
And then why were you taking Chinese?

Speaker 3 (19:36):
Oh well, because at that time.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
So the year before the President of China invited one
hundred Yale students to go meet him his cabinet personally
for ten days, and so I got chosen for that trip.
That was the summer of my after my freshman year
of college, and it completely changed my life. Where I said,
I have got to study Chinese. I don't think there
would ever be another opportunity for me to study such

(19:59):
a difficult language. So I started studying that sophomore year.
And then Yale had a fellowship that allowed you to
study either in the summer or for an academic school
year an East Asian language, called the Light Fellowship. So
I did that for the summer after my sophomore year.
So that's why I was in China studying.

Speaker 1 (20:18):
Okay, that's impressive.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
I mean I just loved the labor built different I'm sorry,
I just loved laboring almost.

Speaker 1 (20:26):
Twenty years old, acquiring a whole new language.

Speaker 3 (20:31):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (20:34):
Do you think that a part of it is like
the environment you grew up in. Do you there was
no intimidation when it came to school work or was
schoolwork just very easy for you?

Speaker 2 (20:45):
I think again? Talking about character, I think my parents
really helped foster curiosity. I think there's something about the
immigrant mentality where they just wanted their kids to be
the best that they could, and because they knew they
were immigrants and especially black in the country, they were like, look,
you have to be the best so that somebody will

(21:05):
even look at you as the same.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
And I always kept that in the back of my
mind because they're like, we don't want anybody to look
at you and think that you were just because you're black.
You can't do this or do that. And so my
mom always had this phrase saying, be extraordinary and uncommon
in everything you do. Don't just do what's ordinary, do
what's extra. If you're gonna do something common, do it uncommon.
Do the thing that people don't expect you to do,

(21:29):
because that helps the whole black diaspora look different to
the rest of the world. And I always I just
I guess I just always.

Speaker 1 (21:35):
Kind of kept that ordinary and uncommon.

Speaker 2 (21:38):
Be extraordinary and uncommon.

Speaker 1 (21:40):
Yes, it's so funny because if you look at your career,
you really took that to her a Jello beatbox and
Gello like exactly, it was completely exactly. You know, if
she ever were to say, you don't listen to me.
You'd be like, I'm a yellow beatbox. What are you talking?
Extraordinary and uncommon?

Speaker 2 (21:58):
I mean, look, I'm a I'm a part Nigerian, part Grenadian,
Chinese speaking cello playing Kentucky boy, Like where do I
fit it? Yeah? You know what I mean? But I
think I have learned, especially as you know when we
talk about Donovan missing my album, I finally realized what
made me so different and also teased. Don't get me wrong,

(22:19):
like I got made.

Speaker 1 (22:20):
Fun of all the time, and not in Yale, obviously
in Kentucky.

Speaker 2 (22:24):
Yeah, when I was in Kentucky. Oh my gosh, what
did you get teased for? I'm black playing playing playing
cello first and foremost, Like I remember kids being like,
you're not supposed to be in this. They're not supposed
to be an orchestra with us, Like what the world
made you pick? So my mom and my dad they
were sending my sister to violin lessons with the string teacher.

(22:45):
The string teacher, funny enough, was actually a cellist, but
she knew how to teach violin and be over for
some reason, so my sister was taking from her. And
they asked me, would you want to play cello? And
I go, I'm good, I don't need to. But I
didn't know what a cello was. So then they put
this wooden box in front of me, and she just
started teaching me things and I'm like, I don't know

(23:05):
what I'm doing. I'm just kind of having fun with
this wooden box. And then they put a cello in
front of me, and then it was just a wooden box,
just a wooden box, just for me to get used
to the feel of a cello and what the chello
feels like in me to my my knees. So they
just gave you a box, literally, a wooden box. It
wasn't the cello. It's just like this box exactly, and

(23:27):
like just trying a couple of things out to like
feel what a cello's like.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
But there was no strings.

Speaker 2 (23:31):
But there were no strings. It just was just to
get used to the feeling of it. And again, I
don't know what this is. I'm just living my life
were then six.

Speaker 1 (23:41):
Oh, So like if I walk over to my six
year old and say, hey, put this box, that's exactly
That's exactly it. Okay, So then sounds crazy. You're sitting there.
I could imagine my daughter going okay, exactly americanized child
child's like whatever you say.

Speaker 2 (23:59):
I'm just what you said. And so. But then they
put a cello in front of me and my mom,
and my mom like, you know, she kind of said
at any point, if you don't want to do this,
like you don't have to yeah, But I just kept going. Literally,
there wasn't any time I was like this sucks, like wait,
this is no.

Speaker 1 (24:17):
They replaced the box.

Speaker 3 (24:18):
With they replaced the box with a cello.

Speaker 1 (24:20):
Eventually you like the sound or something.

Speaker 2 (24:23):
I liked the sound. I was progressing really fast, it
was it just was kind of fun. Like, if I
will say this today, it still feels like an instrument
that I can't.

Speaker 1 (24:34):
Master really after how many years have you been there?

Speaker 2 (24:37):
After what so about six so thirty one years now, Jesus,
it feels like I still can't master it. But I'm
saying that in a way where it keeps me pursuing
and seeking and trying to find new ways because it's
just so much more that whether it's for singing or beatboxing,
like I just I want to pursue more and see
what more I have to to.

Speaker 1 (24:54):
Offer now as six. I mean, I've watched some stuff.
I try not to school up too much because I
like to be president in the interviews. But at six,
were you making the beat boxing type sounds?

Speaker 2 (25:05):
Oh gosh, I was making sound Okay, so you were?

Speaker 1 (25:09):
You were doing it then? And then did you have
any there was a period where I was I remember
I was playing music one year, and I, for whatever reason,
I inherited like an ear for music, like where I
could imitate sounds okay, no no, no, piano, like you know,
you can hear a sound, and like you know, sure,
And I don't know how that happened. It was like
a brief year and then it went away. But did

(25:32):
you when you were playing the cello, did you have
that moment of realizing that your ear and your I
don't know, your music were aligned.

Speaker 2 (25:42):
I definitely knew that I could hear music and replay it, okay,
ear so playing music by ear? I knew that.

Speaker 1 (25:50):
I knew at around that age and.

Speaker 2 (25:53):
Earlier I knew that that was just kind of within me.
And sometimes the professors or teachers would be angry because
like play was on the music, like play was on
the on the on the sheet music. But I'm like,
but I'm having so much fun, like listening to all
this stuff, like and just imitating what I'm hearing, right,
But yeah, anyway, I started playing cello that way from
that string teacher. And then again the beat boxing comes

(26:15):
whenever I'm in college in terms of bringing cello and
beatboxing together, and I go, you know, I thought it
was a crazy idea for my Chinese teacher to tell
me that, because actually, in my head, I thought I
was going to get judged by the classical community, because
how are you going to take hundreds of years of
this of this classical music that's supposed to be in

(26:35):
a box and so so sacred and tarnish it with
you know what they would probably call street music?

Speaker 1 (26:42):
Yeah, right, hip hop. But now going back, because we
were kind of talking about the bullying. So going back,
you're black. Yeah, you're playing the cello. You you're you're
honoring this classical you know, which, for lack of better word,
we don't see it as a black people music, and
especially back then. You know, maybe now it's like oh okay,

(27:04):
you know, but back then, no, how did you not
end up with some type of impostor syndrome?

Speaker 2 (27:11):
You know, it's so funny. I don't think I realized
like I was black playing classical music until other kids
told me. I was like, I remember I was in
an all state orchestra. I was second chairs my ninth grade,
and some kids back behind me were like, you know,
you're not supposed to be here, and I'm like, what
do you mean I'm not supposed to be here? I
didn't like even register until one of my friends, like,

(27:33):
they're saying that because you're black, and I go, wait,
since when was that ever? A Like, I didn't even
think about it. So for me, it was more like
I just knew that I loved it. The sound, the
sound of my cello wasn't black or white to me,
it was just music. It just hit me in my soul.
So that's the first time when I realized what in
the world, like I wasn't It didn't It didn't exactly

(27:56):
make sense to me until then, But then I didn't.
I don't think I hadn't pop that's or syndrome, just
because like I loved it, and my teachers continue to
just like foster a love of it, and I kind
of just found like my own friends too, who like
just loved me.

Speaker 1 (28:08):
For me, but the bullying didn't have any negative impacts,
like there was no come home with some kind of no.

Speaker 2 (28:15):
I would definitely say it that it would have some
negative impacts. Like when I say negative, I think it
was more trying to figure out if who I actually
am is who I believe I say I am because
what they're saying I'm supposed to be, which is, oh,
black head, you're not supposed to be in these academic
classes or black head, you're not supposed to be playing

(28:37):
this kind of instrument. But I love it. So am
I who I think I actually am? Somebody who just
loves this music and can just do this music, not
because of my color, but because of how I love this.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (28:49):
And I think again that's when I I the teachers
that I had who really loved Metri for me, Yeah,
and making the music that I made. I just kind
of continued focusing on that. And like also, I think
meeting other black string players was really helpful. Like I
remember ninth grade, I went to Ihga College for a
Suzuki cello camp and I met this guy, one of

(29:11):
my best friends to date, Ruben Harris, and I was like,
I've never met another black cellis before and so he
and I. I mean we played at church together at
the Ithaca Camp. He's now off doing he's as a
startup that's really really successful. But like those to see
somebody else doing what I loved and just enjoying it unapologetically,

(29:32):
I mean that that changed so much of it for me.
And that's what you see today. I mean a Zenma,
she's an amazing violinist, black doing crazy things. She was
just on tour with Beyonce as a violinist. Like that
is what I wish I saw growing up, very regularly
and frequently that I think would have made me feel
less alone. So I think I think that's why I'm

(29:58):
so passionate about the music I'm making now with Donova Misfit,
because I want kids to know, especially kids that look
like me, that the things that you're probably being counted
out for, the things that you're being teased for as
weird or unique or as different or as weird as
people may say that is that actually might be the
superpower that you have been given to change your world. Yeah,

(30:21):
and you need to hone in on that thing, no
matter what anybody says, because you don't want to lose
out on your superpower just because somebody says you can't.

Speaker 1 (30:30):
Yeah, damn. So the Donava Misfit is out. What is
your favorite What is your favorite track on the record?

Speaker 4 (30:41):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (30:42):
Man, so there's this track called Hallelujah, I Don't Think
about You.

Speaker 1 (30:46):
And the breakup anthem.

Speaker 2 (30:47):
Yes, my breakup anthem.

Speaker 1 (30:49):
That's the one I wish that when I go through
a breakup.

Speaker 2 (30:54):
I don't know, I don't think about it.

Speaker 3 (30:56):
I get a step what'd you say, Well, i'd want
to step in down?

Speaker 1 (31:00):
You want to stepping down the street? What did you love?
If you go to a breakup? And that's how the
breakup really is, though, I mean, it gets there, but
they don't get there right away or sure right. So
but I listened to it and I'm like, I'm gonna
be there one day.

Speaker 2 (31:16):
It takes time. It really takes that.

Speaker 1 (31:18):
I mean, I don't know how guys are with breakups
or different people are, but I know as a female,
Oh no, there's like a period of morning.

Speaker 2 (31:26):
That's the same thing with guys. Okay, at least for me.

Speaker 1 (31:29):
Not the way you made it sound. You was like
I said, oh he happy.

Speaker 2 (31:33):
Well, so it's funny. This was this song I wrote
because of somebody I had worked with. Funny enough, it's
not a it wasn't a romantic thing. It was actually
somebody I worked with who they left our lives and
it was kind of a toxic working relationship and it
was years after where I go, wait a second, I
didn't realize how toxic this was. So I actually worked
with you see, one of my bandmates was on that

(31:55):
song because this person knew that person as well, and
I was like, bro, you're the only one that knows
the story. We should write this and it We wrote
it in like two hours, and it was so therapeutic.
We were able to to be like, oh wait, that's
what I would want to say now, like where I
can just have joy about it and like, hey, I
thank you for everything it was, but now I'm gonna

(32:15):
let you leave my life and I'm going to live
life unapologetically and thank you in a joyous way, like hey,
thank you, but I'm not thinking about you no more. Yeah,
Like I gotta keep it moving and keep my joy.
So that's that's where I wrote it. And honestly, I
remember coming home from the demo session with my bandmate
Scott and also a girl named Rozzy Crane, one of
our best friends, and I drove home and I said,

(32:39):
listening to the demo, I go, this is the sound
I had been looking for my whole life. I knew it, Okay,
That's why I'm so excited that even this is the
song that people know me the best for because I
remember it to me when I think about cello and beatboxing, right,
if that's the most simple version of what I'm doing now.

(33:01):
If you take the cello and expand that out, that's
classical music. If you say beat boxing, spend that out,
that's hip hop, that's modern genre. So it's me fusing
modern genre and and and and and classical music in
a way that feels so seamless but has so much joy,
which I think I bring when I play cello and
beatboxing together. So it just it's my favorite song. It

(33:21):
makes me feel like me the most. And it's also
a little petty, which I also like.

Speaker 1 (33:26):
To especially if it's a work situation. But I ain't
gonna lie. You listen to it and you're like, I
want to even if you're going through a breakup or
anything relatable. You know, it's nice to hear a song
that's kind of like, yeah, you know, it kind of
reminds me of the big songs like f You or

(33:48):
something like. It's like but it's it's just like it's
a very empowering outside of that song. Is there another song?
First of all? Is there a song where there's a
morning period.

Speaker 2 (34:04):
On this album?

Speaker 3 (34:05):
No, I don't think so a beat.

Speaker 2 (34:07):
I mean, well, I'm not gonna say it's all a beat,
but it's definitely I didn't really write a lot of
relationship songs, and I'll tell you why. Honestly, when I
was first trying to understand my artistic journey, I didn't
feel like I could have a lot of like love
romantic morning songs because I just was like, I feel
like everything that's ever written about that has been written,

(34:29):
Like what can I add to the conversation that I
think would make what I do different? I really thought that,
and only now because I think I'm coming from the
perspective of a first generation like person or like from
immigrant culture, I feel like there are definitely things that
I now see where I go, Oh, I don't know
if people understand this experience, Like, for example, I love you,

(34:53):
but my parents don't like you because you don't respect
like what they're coming from, A like those type of
things right, or you know, for example, like thinking about
I didn't try to fall in love in the beginning
because what my parents had told me was that, like,
love is not good for your health, love is not
good for for your school work. Yeah, They're like, love's

(35:14):
not good for your your school work. It's not good
for you to like I just like that's that was
the mentality. So I was like, I'm not going to
date because this is gonna mess up my ability to
get into college. It's what they implied. As we kept
thinking about school work and things like that, like if
I like the girl, like okay, cool, but can you
actually balance that with your with what you're trying to
do here, Like this is important what we're trying to

(35:35):
You can do this later, And I was like, oh, yeah,
that makes so much sense, Like I could, I could
date later.

Speaker 1 (35:40):
But like so you were able to logically say they
had they had instilled enough structure where you could be
like I like this girl, but your parents were like, Okay,
that's cute and all, but this is the track we're on,
and you were able to to say, you know what
you're right and put aside your feelings.

Speaker 2 (35:58):
Yeah, I think I think it wasn't so direct like that,
but it was more of the environment I lived in
and what let's say we collectively were trying to do
as a family, which was to succeed in the United States.
There were just certain things where I was like, this
is going to mess up my shot, just straight up,
like I can't. I can't. I'm not trying to think
about girls. I'm not trying to like, yeah you cute, Yeah,

(36:20):
I see you on the Dance World, Let's dance wool.
But like other than that, like I'm about business right now.
Like it just kind of was what it was, and
I think that was just instilled in me because of
where they came from, what they told me. So I
remember those stories, but like, yeah, well, I mean obviously
when I joined Panatonics started to become adult, like that
was a different story because like now I had done
all that stuff. But yeah, man, I think, like, so

(36:43):
those are the kind of stories though, I go, oh,
I can write about that love from that perspective, And
that's why it's funny. I've been writing for this next
album and I'm like, I want to make an album
about love and relationships, like thinking about those things because
I know that there are other like immigrant kids, where
there's kids that you know they're Indian kids who comes
to United States. I know they go through similar similar things,

(37:03):
or like Chinese kids that go through similar things. I
know they do because I've had the conversations with them.
So I'm like, I want to I want to add
those stories because I always go like and music, like
who speaks for them? Like when I think about bernow, boy,
what I love about bern I is like he speaks
for black people, he speaks for African people. He's like, look,
I want the whole world to know that I am
here for you and that you are more powerful than

(37:26):
you believe. Yeah, that's that's all. He's only empowering. Like,
and I'm like, who empowers like the immigrants in a
way that it's not like, well, my mom is from
not that, it's just the stories that they all know.
Like honestly, I got that from it. And this is
so funny to say this. I feel like I got
that mentality from Taylor Swift. What yes, I know, let

(37:48):
me tell you why. So I my wife is nobody
expects like Taylor Swift of all people.

Speaker 1 (37:55):
Let me tell you something though, just to sign note
I my production here today. The guy and the girl
are actually really good Taylor Swift fanshifties. They're Swifties. Well,
the girl for sure. And the guy is like, if
Taylor Swift comes on, he's not changing it, you know
what I'm saying, Like, like it will come on. Him

(38:16):
and his boys could be working out, and everyone's just
kind of like they let it ride out, which I
think is funny. I'm like, yeah, we should make a
skit of just Taylor Swift coming on and nobody touching
to change it. But the truth of the matter is
I do have a respect for Taylor and her womanly strength,
and I have a respect for Taylor and her writing
ability and all that or whatever. But I do think

(38:37):
it's interesting that Taylor Swift is coming up in this conversation.

Speaker 2 (38:40):
Oh for sure. No, I'll tell you why. So, as
I was making my album, one of the things that
my label and or asked me is like, who are
you writing this for? And I think I, like, intuitively knew,
but I couldn't figure out the way to pinpoint it
and just write it down so clearly. So my wife
is a massive Swifty, massive massive message Swifts, and so

(39:04):
she wanted to go to see her in concert at
Santa Clara the Levi Stadium. So I was like, okay, cool,
I'm not a swiftie, but I love my wife and
I'm trying to stay married, so I'm gonna go and
support my wife. So I go. I meet her friends.
So we're at this hotel where there's I mean, it's
decked out in all this Taylor Swift stuff. And so

(39:25):
we go to breakfast and I meet these two young girls,
they're probably fifteen and thirteen, and they're with their parents,
and they're talking about Taylor Swift, talking about how excited
they are, and this breakfast space is crowded, so we're
all together eating breakfast. So I just happened to be
sitting right across from them with their parents. So I
asked the parents, like, do you mind if I ask
your kids a couple of questions about Taylor Swift because

(39:46):
I am new to this and I'm trying to understand
why people love her so much, because I don't understand,
So I asked them, like, what is it about Taylor Swift?
As people who are a generation removed, what is it
about her that you guys love so much?

Speaker 3 (40:00):
And they said, it's as if.

Speaker 2 (40:02):
She opened up our journals and wrote everything I ever
thought about love as a girl.

Speaker 4 (40:08):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (40:09):
And when they said that, I go, oh, that's interesting.
It's not that she's just making good music. She's connecting
to these girls and the lexicon she is using is
speaking to the way girls think about this stuff.

Speaker 1 (40:23):
See, Okay, I get what you're saying. I think I
love hip hop. I love hip hop. I grew up
on jay Z. Hip hop is like my first I
would say it's my first love. And Joiner Lucas, I think.

Speaker 2 (40:37):
He is the most incredible rapper. Let me tell you
right now, join Lucas point blank.

Speaker 1 (40:41):
By far. I can listen to Joiner Lucas and is
not much. He says that I just can't be like
damn does he? You know Wall's hearing, you know, totally relate.
And there's Eminem and there's Jay and there's all these
people that you can relate to. I think when you
get to like the Joiner in them, and they're less
metaphoric than the J's and the Nas and those guys.

(41:04):
But I don't I don't think and I don't know.
I'm just an outsider, but like when I hear an
artist get that vulnerable, I almost feel like I create
platforms because I want people to know that we all
have goal through the same issues and sold struggles. We
just don't know it.

Speaker 2 (41:25):
You know.

Speaker 1 (41:25):
I can look at you and be like, oh, his
life must be amazing, and then we sit down and
you're like and you're like, oh, okay, we're the same.
And I think when an artist breaks that vulnerability of
like just pure like nakedness, that's where the fans can
really like, oh wait, we are on the same page.
But I don't never I don't think I ever think

(41:47):
that an artist intentionally writes to capture that spirit, right am,
I right?

Speaker 2 (41:53):
I mean it depends, like sometimes they do, and sometimes
they're just flowing and spitting. But again, like a lot
of stuff like okay and w A, they're speaking literally
from their experience being it like like that is their experience.
So it's like they are speaking and people are going
crazy because they're like I know that. I know that
because my cousin data like I know that. And so
I think when you're speaking from an experience that that

(42:15):
you have and you realize, oh, way, other people have
this experience too, and you say it in a way
that they go it opens like the light bulbs go off.
Right then I think you really hook people. So that's why,
Like I remember, like when I went to this Table
Swift concert and I'm seeing my wife and all of
her friends like screaming, and I'm seeing all these young girls.
I go, oh, I understand it. That's so that's when

(42:39):
I was like, who are my people? Who are my
That's exactly and that's what I was trying to figure
out because in my head, I go, I know, there
are black kids that are made fun of. There are
immigrants that are made fun of because they like things
that people may say that's not either stereotypically black, or
there might be white kids that say you shouldn't be
doing that. And now the thing that they love maybe
it's archery. I don't know, maybe it's cello. Had they

(43:03):
had somebody like me say hey, you're good, let me
play songs and write music for you, Like I have
this one song called Well. I did a cover of
Miss of Crazy Mona's Barkley. But my whole story behind
it was just feeling like nobody understands me because I'm
a misfit. I don't fit into any bomb and realizing
over seventeen years and making this finally get into this ilbum,

(43:25):
going that's okay. I just never had that that's okay part.
And I want other kids who look like me or
come from those those backgrounds to go that's okay. And
there's somebody rocking with me who understands that that's okay.
So yeah, it's just like finding my people.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
Well, I think children of immigrants definitely have their own lane.
My mom's a Jamaican. If you're a Jamaican, you already know,
you already know what it is, you already know the
trauma that bears being a Jamaican.

Speaker 2 (43:54):
Yo.

Speaker 1 (43:56):
It's funny because me and my girlfriend we talk. I'd
never been to Jamaica, but sometimes you know, when you're mixed,
people discredit your blackness or your ethnicity, and I'm like, eh, nope,
I have a Jamaica mom, which means to me, it
makes me one hundred percent qualifying to say this is
who I am. But I want to go back to

(44:18):
your first record deal.

Speaker 2 (44:20):
Yeah take me there. Yeah sure. So the first record
deal that we got is funny. So it was when
we won the TV show the singlef from Pentatonics. We
on the show, if you win, get a two hundred
thousand dollars, So you get two hundred thousand dollars and
you also get a recording contract with Sony Records. So

(44:43):
we get the record deal. But what people don't know
is like thirty days afterwards, we actually got dropped. How
So we meet with the record executive team and at
that time there was a new executive in the building.
I'm not gonna the name of who it was. There
was a new executive who was just trying to get

(45:05):
the record company i think in a sense solvent, so
that they would be able to generate cash. So they're
focusing on their winners. So he comes in and he
sees this new contract. He's like, what's this. I don't
know what this is. And so him and his team
they ask us in that first meeting, will you guys
put music behind what you do the a cappella vocals?

(45:28):
And we were like, no, we just won a TV
show for not doing that, and like people are loving that.
They're like cool, cuck cuckoock cool, cool cool. And then
we found out from our manager at the time. He said, yeah,
they're they're most likely going to drop you guys. They
gave you guys a kill fee of this much to
kill the contract, and so you can Yeah, they call

(45:51):
it a killfee.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
We'll go back to the two hundred k too. Did
you guys have to split that all amongth Yes, that's
what I mean, And that's taxes too, and then how
long did it take to get the check?

Speaker 2 (46:00):
That's exactly it. So like moving. So this is why
I think it's so funny because people are like, oh,
my gosh, two hundred thousand dollars, y'all making money, blah
blah blah blah blah. Okay, so first of all, two
hundred thousand dollars, right, taxes, so half of that one
hundred thousand. Also, they're probably like salary k one stuthing
that I don't really understand, but I remember, we get
that and it's split in five ways, so it's twenty

(46:21):
grand right each. But like, you're moving to California, right,
so I have to buy a car because I don't
have a problem there.

Speaker 1 (46:27):
You have to move to California.

Speaker 2 (46:29):
Oh no, we wanted to move to California, so I
had never moved to California, so like the moving fees,
I don't have a car, never had a car in
my life at that time, because you know, you're in college,
I don't I don't need a car. So I'm like,
buy a car for like ten thousand dollars. It was
a ninety seven. It was a ninety seven LS four
hundred Lexus, So it was like beating down a little bit.

(46:49):
Jakie had one hundred and some thousand.

Speaker 1 (46:51):
Miles on your parents at this point, like on board
with like helping you out a little bit.

Speaker 2 (46:55):
Well kind of, but they were kind of so they
had already helped me out, I think from their standpoint
with allowing me to help me with pay with some
college bills because you know, obviously they're like, oh, this
big Yale bill, that's exactly it, right, you're using exactly so,
And I still had to pay off the rest of

(47:16):
that Jesus exactly so. Like honestly, we didn't really start
making money until twenty fourteen when we had our first
big Christmas album. Like I remember that first year. I
think we each made like fifty grand from our tour,
which was like a good amount to us. But remember
fifty grand half we got fees for actually doing the tour.

(47:37):
And that's exactly it. And that's forty percent off the top.
People don't know that stuff. So it's fifteen percent for management, yeah,
ten percent for your business manager, five percent for your agent, sorry,
ten percent for your agent, five percent for your lawyer. Right.

Speaker 3 (47:55):
So it's like you forget all that. Yeah, and that's
off the gross, that's not off the the not off
the net.

Speaker 1 (48:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:01):
So it's like it's just yeah.

Speaker 1 (48:03):
So now at this point, you guys are learning the
crash course of like I know, Yale's teaches a lot.

Speaker 2 (48:11):
Oh, they don't teach finances. It's funny.

Speaker 1 (48:13):
You go to college and then you enter the real
world and like, oh, I don't think they discussed any
of this.

Speaker 2 (48:19):
Where is that?

Speaker 1 (48:19):
But take me back to before Pentatonics forms? Then I'm sorry,
I'm zig zagging. Yes, take me back before Pentatonics because
I want to know, before you guys entered the show,
how did that whole formulate?

Speaker 2 (48:31):
Oh, how did they come to how did they come together?

Speaker 4 (48:34):
So?

Speaker 2 (48:35):
So I come back so so so after my junior year,
I took a year off and I study Chinese some more.
I got money to study China Chinese. But I loved it.
I love studying Mandarin Chinese. It was so fun.

Speaker 1 (48:49):
So is there any way to cash in on that
later in life? Or is this going to be just
a fun hobby. I'm sorry, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no no no. What we going to do with this Chinese?

Speaker 2 (49:01):
And what are we going to do with the Chinese?
Why do you study? Yeah, no, I've had a viral
video for a bit. Other than that, I guess I'm a.

Speaker 1 (49:09):
Sex show dad, Like what are we doing with this Chinese?

Speaker 2 (49:12):
I mean, if I ever toured China?

Speaker 1 (49:13):
You want to know something, Yes, actually it will probably
come in handy, like maybe on one of your tracks
or something. You never know, because Chinese, there's Chinese immigrants
exactly relate.

Speaker 2 (49:24):
I will say this. I'll tell you actually at one
time it actually came in handy. And now, well, then
we'll go back to the story. So our biggest song
to date is Hallelujah, and we had actually done a
Christmas version of Hallelujah with different lyrics.

Speaker 3 (49:38):
So this is twenty sixteen, We're on tour in Asia
in Singapore, and we.

Speaker 2 (49:43):
Finish it turn it into the label feeling good about it,
don't want to think about it anymore. We're done. But
then we find out that we can't do that version
because the Leonard Cohen estate had said, hey, that we're
not doing any other version that you can record except
for my version. So we were flying to Taiwan for
a show and we had to turn it in really quickly.

(50:04):
So we land and then the next morning before the
show is that night we had to go into the
studio and record ourselves singing the right lyrics. So I'm
speaking to all the engineers in Chinese because I'm the
only one that knows how to speak to them.

Speaker 3 (50:19):
Okay, So in that case it actually really really helped.

Speaker 1 (50:26):
I will say this though, you know what I overlooked
in this conversation where the Chinese actually came in handy,
what there would be no Kevin beat boxing celloists if
there was no Chinese. That's true because it was your
Chinese professors exactly. They said, have you ever thought about
bringing them to so technically the dudes have already been paid. Hey,

(50:51):
I appreciate right if you have you thought about that before,
but that could be your comeback if your dad ever says,
what are we going to do with this Chinese exactly?

Speaker 3 (50:58):
Well, he never said that actually about I just loved it.
He's like, cool, that's that's fine.

Speaker 2 (51:03):
I'm not paying for it. I'm living. You don't have
to pay for it.

Speaker 3 (51:07):
Some cool.

Speaker 2 (51:07):
I've sent you to college, go have your college education.

Speaker 1 (51:09):
Okay, so take me back to prior Pentatonics.

Speaker 2 (51:12):
I'm sorry, right, So how we started? So I take
that year off after my junior year to study Chinese.
Now the summer a.

Speaker 1 (51:19):
Year off of Yale, I can't have a problem.

Speaker 2 (51:21):
Well, because I had gotten a fellowship from Yale to
be able to study for an academic year. So I
did the LFE fellowship. I was telling you about twice,
once for the summer and then one for the academic year,
so we didn't have to pay a dome. So I
finished that and then that summer. Funny enough, I bummed around.
I didn't do anything that summer before my senior year.
I was living in China, hanging out with Chinese friends, traveling, like,

(51:42):
no internship, no nothing. So a lot of people probably
think you're you're wasting your life or whatever. I was like,
I'm I'm living my life. I don't need to do nothing.
But what I did do was I started studying this
piece called Julio by a guy named Mark Summer who's
part of the Turtle Islands Drink Quartet, And I started
practicing that. And at that point I had felt like

(52:03):
I had gotten enough skills to try to add beatboxing
throughout a whole entire piece. Before I had just done
like simple scales and beat boxing or an easy groove.
And this is the first time where I said, can
I do it throughout a whole piece? So I worked
on that for the whole summer while I was in China. Yeah,
I took a whole summer to do that, but then

(52:24):
it took a whole year to perfect it, Like I
did it throughout my whole campus. I did it a
talent show.

Speaker 1 (52:29):
How long is it?

Speaker 2 (52:30):
Four minutes? It took that long because it was something new,
like I could not figure out how to make it
feel seamless, like I'd make so many mistakes while I'd
be playing cello and beatboxing at the same time, Like
like think about that, like trying to make that happen
and work, Like, oh, it's just easy. You think it's
gonna take me like.

Speaker 1 (52:50):
A mutt if it took this song. I don't know
how you guys would feel about this, but like he
brought his cell I did, and I would love to
know what that would sound like after a year you've
obviously perfected it. Sorry, we're gonna get like a little
you want to get a little sneak people, We'll do it.
We'll we'll bake it in. But I'll get to hear

(53:13):
what real work sounds.

Speaker 2 (53:15):
I will.

Speaker 3 (53:15):
I will give you the four levels of cello boxing.
Ill show you.

Speaker 1 (53:19):
No, you said the piece, yeah, I will is at
the four levels of boxing or the whole.

Speaker 2 (53:26):
No, So I'm going to show you what it sounded
like when I started off to finally get to that piece.

Speaker 1 (53:32):
I'll just show you step because I saw that before
I saw what on Like, No, I want to see
the the final Yeah, okay, I can do that too.

Speaker 2 (53:40):
Is that is that?

Speaker 1 (53:41):
Is that horrible that I'm asking? I just want to
see it because it's like if it took that long
to learn it.

Speaker 2 (53:48):
Yeah, I want.

Speaker 1 (53:49):
I want to witness greatness.

Speaker 2 (53:50):
That's all I will.

Speaker 3 (53:51):
Play you with. Slipping of that, that's easy, I get that.

Speaker 2 (53:54):
Yes, Okay, you are good, don't worry.

Speaker 3 (53:56):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (53:56):
So yeah, so that long. It took. It took a
year of performing getting comfortable with it before I felt
like really really solid in that for.

Speaker 1 (54:04):
Me a year, meaning you played it every day.

Speaker 2 (54:07):
I played it maybe not every day, but throughout campus
people would ask me the cool talent shows, I'd play
it at those I would play it for. I actually
use it for my audition for music school because I thought,
you know, I want to try this music thing for
a little bit. Why don't I go to music school.
But then what happened was my senior spring semester, I
got nominated for a senior prize in the arts, and
so I needed to show a portfolio of work. So

(54:29):
I said, well, why don't I use this piece and
show that to the arts committee. So one of my friends,
Jake Brewin, he filmed me playing this piece and he said, bro,
why don't you put this up on YouTube? And I'm like,
nobody cares. Nobody cares about this piece, Nobody cares about
this kind of music. It's not what Jason Derula was

(54:50):
popping at the times. It's not Jason Derulo is. It's
just it's just a a jello piece, that's it. And
he goes, yeah, but you have nothing to lose, and
I was like, that's true. I don't have anything to lose. Okay,
so you know, I recorded it, I put it up online,
went to bed, didn't think anything of it. A few
days later, my roommates knocked my door and they told me, yo,

(55:12):
your video is number four on Reddit, and like, to me,
I go, What's Reddit? I had no idea what Reddit was.
I don't know where that is, Like what read? Who read?

Speaker 4 (55:21):
Who? Like what?

Speaker 2 (55:22):
I didn't get it. But then the video is getting
hundreds of thousands and millions of views, and I'm like,
what is going on? Why is this happening. I'm just
trying to graduate and literally at that time finished for
my senior essay and like, I'm not thinking about all
this stuff. Opportunities were coming. New York Times had asked
me for the next Chullu beat boxing video you do
we want an exclusive premiere, and I'm like, it took

(55:43):
me a year to get the first one, so it's
not gonna take you another year to get the next,
Like like what like was not prepared, but that video
got to the eyes of our friend Ben bram. Ben
Bram is the is one of the producers of Pentatonics,
but he was also acer on the TV show The
sing Off, and one of the acapella groups on the

(56:04):
show sent him that video, say hey, have you ever
seen this kid before? And my bandmate, Scott Mintioned Kersey
had just joined together to form for this TV show
and they had found a bass singer, but they had
gone through four to five different beat boxers and they
had not found the right person. But they were like,
that's the guy. He sent it to them, like you
need this guy, so they literally facebooked me. Scott facebooked

(56:26):
me that Facebook. He facebooked me, He's like, bro, Loop,
we just saw your video. This is dope trying out
for this TV show. Don't know if you're interested in this?
And I said no. I was like, this is not
something I'm interested in. I've seen so much acapella. I'm
acapella out. I don't want to do this. Oh yes,
I said no.

Speaker 1 (56:48):
Did you even see their work?

Speaker 2 (56:49):
Not yet? So he sent me after that like, hey,
I want to send you just a video of us singing.
Just check it out. I know you already said no,
but just check it out and see what you think.

Speaker 1 (56:57):
Scott.

Speaker 2 (56:58):
Scott was Scott determined yet out this guy exactly. Scott was.

Speaker 3 (57:02):
He definitely did not take no. He was he was,
he was, and he's still that way.

Speaker 2 (57:06):
He's still like he's determined when he wants something. But
he sent me a video of them singing Telephone by
Lady Gaga. Okay song, it's a great song, and they
were singing it for their high school show choir concert,
and I was like, this is actually a young yeah,
I mean they were younger than me, so when I
was twenty two, they were eighteen nineteen at the time.
So I see this video and I'm like, okay, that's cool,

(57:28):
and he goes, can you just show us like a
little like can you do a little just beat boxing
by itself? So I sent I finished my last final
and I sent a little video of me beatboxing to
them through Facebook.

Speaker 1 (57:38):
Even though you weren't still weren't interested.

Speaker 2 (57:39):
I still was. I was like, I was starting to
get a little bit more interested after you heard them,
after I heard them sing. So I sent a little
video of me doing this thing, and he was like, yeah,
this is perfect. You should you should join us. And
I'm like, okay, what is the audition? He goes, it's
this date, so which is two weeks after I graduate
from college. I thought about it, and I said, and honestly,

(58:02):
my thought process was, you know what, I'm meeting new people.
I'm going to try music out anyway. It's like it's
gonna be like a summer camp, because little music summer camp.

Speaker 1 (58:11):
And then where was this audition?

Speaker 3 (58:14):
Well, that audition, Oh, the audition for the TV show
was in Los Angeles.

Speaker 1 (58:17):
Okay, so you had to get on a plane.

Speaker 3 (58:19):
So what we did is that I paid for half
the flight, and he asked his mom to pay.

Speaker 2 (58:23):
For the other half.

Speaker 3 (58:24):
M Scott, Yes, I like, Scott, get this.

Speaker 2 (58:32):
Exactly. Hey Mama, look, I don't know if it's gonna
pay any divides, but like, look, I'm gonna ask this guy.
I don't know who he is. He could be crazy.
That's exactly it. So I graduated, and then two weeks later,
I'm on a plane. I get there on a Friday,
and then I meet them the day before the audition.
We practiced literally just the day before the audition, all
five of us, and I'll never forget. We were all like,

(58:53):
wait a second, this sounds good, like even me. Well,
I said, I did not like acapella like point blank
did not like it.

Speaker 1 (59:01):
Yeah, And I'm like, this is that's how I feel
sometimes like musicals. I'm not really a fan of them.

Speaker 2 (59:06):
But yeah, I'm not a musical person. No no, no, no,
no no. And it's so funny because I did musical
like my bandmate's love musical. It's not necessarily my thing.

Speaker 1 (59:17):
Okay, that makes me feel good that she would admit that.

Speaker 3 (59:19):
Oh yeah, I'll be fully honest.

Speaker 2 (59:22):
Now I did. I just did see a musical recently
that I really did, like call no I did.

Speaker 3 (59:26):
This is the first one.

Speaker 2 (59:27):
I was like, oh, this is kind of fly. It
was Oh my gosh, it.

Speaker 1 (59:30):
Wasn't Alicia Keys. Thing was no, no, have you heard
about it?

Speaker 4 (59:34):
No?

Speaker 2 (59:34):
I actually did she have a musical like.

Speaker 1 (59:36):
A hell of a Kitchen or something, helles kischen.

Speaker 2 (59:38):
Oh, I didn't know she did that. I think she did.

Speaker 1 (59:40):
Oh well, I don't know if she was in it,
but she it was okay, go about it, yes, Okay, So.

Speaker 2 (59:47):
We do that, and I'm like, this is kind of fly.
So then we do the audition the next day, and
I didn't understand the scope and the magnitude of the show.
There were hundreds of acapella groups trying out from all
over the country. I didn't know that. So I'm coming
in blind, just live in my life. Because I was
I didn't put any pressure on it. I was like, yeah,
I'm gonna go in, live my life. Whatever. So we
do the audition and I'll never forget. We do telephone,

(01:00:08):
We do one of the song and they were really
liking it. They said, can you improvise something for us
on the spot.

Speaker 1 (01:00:12):
I'm like a subway sandwiching.

Speaker 2 (01:00:15):
Literally kind of like that, like do you do a
little jingle or do something?

Speaker 1 (01:00:18):
And we're like, we know, so, yeah, because you have
to be in harmony and you guys have to like
practice exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:00:26):
I think it's funny. Somebody just said I think Scott
a video of the audition tape, and he goes, I
don't know how they chose it because we were terrible,
like that part of.

Speaker 1 (01:00:35):
It, you guys, and we just met, you know what
I'm saying, Like, what do you mean?

Speaker 2 (01:00:41):
So anyway, I remember, So we finished the audition. I'm
not thinking we killed it or didn't. I just like, cool,
we did it. We go to Olive Garden immediately afterwards,
because right, yeah, we broke it. We broke go to
Olive Garden. We're sitting outside of Olive Garden.

Speaker 3 (01:00:55):
Scott gets a call and he's like okay, yeah, wow, okay, cool,
thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:01:01):
We're like, what happened? Goes? We got on the show
and I'm like, we're one of sixteen on this show
was just sixteen groups. Like oh wow. So we're trying
to figure out a name for the for for our
group we called. We came up with Pentatonics and they
were like, that's a terrible name.

Speaker 1 (01:01:15):
Yeah, that's a hard name.

Speaker 2 (01:01:16):
That's a hard name.

Speaker 1 (01:01:17):
How would you come up with that? I thought you're
gonna say we were looking at Spooner was.

Speaker 2 (01:01:23):
All right, no, no. So so we came up with
the name because there's a scale in music called the
pentatonic scale, and it's a five note scale that is
used in all different types of music. And because of
how diverse we were and we love all types of music,
we thought that could be a really good thing that
represents who we are. And that was all Scott. He
learned that in theory class. I was just I'm along
for the ride. Okay, yeah, I was along for the ride.

(01:01:44):
I was like, cool, sounds good to me. Exactly how
spelling though, right, And it's funny because they were like,
you guys should call it yourselves Fifth Harmony, and we
were like, whoa, yeah, exactly right, there's already a group
now called that. There another name was like Plead the Fifth.
It was bad. It was bad.

Speaker 1 (01:02:05):
I'm glad that guy exists, just to save the little
bit of savings he did.

Speaker 2 (01:02:10):
He did, Okay, So that's how we formed.

Speaker 1 (01:02:13):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:02:13):
I love that.

Speaker 1 (01:02:14):
It's a beautiful story. For those of you guys that
don't know, I met Kevin like twenty years ago, over
twenty years ago. He didn't even know who I was
because I was telling Kevin. I remembered him because he
was so remarkably talented, and I saved his number on
my phone. And I have this role with my cell
phones because I do actually have a lot of people's

(01:02:35):
numbers on my phones. And you know, when you transfer phones,
they don't always transfer the numbers over. That's true, and
so I keep all my phones. I have a cabinet
that has like ten iPhones and it's serious, yes, because
everyone's in iPhone. It's a lot androids, all of them.
Because I had learned that whenever I transfer phoned, they
don't always transfer, and sometimes I may be looking for

(01:02:58):
XYZ's contact and I'm like, I know I have it,
maybe three or four phones ago, I have the number.
But ironically, by the grace of God, Kevin, I promise you,
like I'll have like, let's just use Tom Brown or whatever.
It'll say Tom Brown, Tom Brown, Tom Brown, Tom Brown
on my phone, but none of them will actually have
the number or the email. But I think on yours,

(01:03:20):
did I have your email and your number?

Speaker 2 (01:03:21):
Maybe?

Speaker 1 (01:03:22):
But I saw that I had looked, and I know
Lie had his number in my phone. I called it.
Of course he didn't and whatever, and I left this
voice like I know you don't know me or you
may not remember me, but we know somebody that I
was lucky enough that we knew a'm mutual. But I

(01:03:42):
co called, I co called and a cold email, and
somehow we almost didn't work it out because of scheduling,
and then we almost didn't work out again because of
Kevin's Teeve is very bulletproof.

Speaker 2 (01:03:54):
They are thorough.

Speaker 1 (01:03:56):
They slipped him off the email like he was like,
what are you talking about? I'm like, yo, they told
you off that email was like, I know you think
this is how it's going on, but this is how
it's really going down. And I was like, oh oh.
So I went to Todate's and really thought like, oh,
this interview may not happen, but you always come prepared.
So I was like, I'm gonna dress my best, I'm

(01:04:16):
gonna do my best, I'm gonna show up. I'm not
even gonna tell Trevor the producer that this may get canceled.
And I was like, damn, I'm probably gonna have to
pay him for his time. So I was like, I
wonder if you would hear me, let me get away
with not paying him today. Probably not gonna happen, but
just a case cause you know, if talent cancels, I
still got to pay and so but I'm so thankful.

(01:04:37):
But one of the things I wanted to share with
you guys is, like Kevin and I were talking earlier,
it's like, you know, when you watch your art history
and you see the talent and you see what goes
into it, It's like, I don't think you can really
fully put it into perspective if you don't really know
the person, you don't get to see their growth. And yes,
I remember Kevin, he was younger than me, but very talented.

(01:04:58):
And I remember just being like, Yo, this this kid's different,
and I followed him on, like if it was socials
or whatever, I always made sure to follow you. And again,
I'm a fan of hip hop, so you know, you
bring cello to a beaten just uniqueness. I just was
always a huge fan. So I think it was LinkedIn
or somewhere one of your socials I started seeing like
I was like, oh, Kevin's doing stuff, you know, And

(01:05:19):
so I followed you and it's just crazy to see
your journey up close and from when you were like young,
and to know that you didn't give up, you know,
because if you did give up, and if you didn't
take Chinese right, we may not be sitting here, you know.
And I don't go to the doctor that often, so
we probably would have never seen each other.

Speaker 2 (01:05:38):
Yo, that's funny, Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 (01:05:41):
Would have never happened. So but thank you for honoring
your parents and respecting your parents and giving homage to
your family and you know, staying the course, because because
you do that, you know there's gonna be other immigrant
kids of immigrant children, immigrants, black people, brown people, and
other people that because you let your light shine. They're
able to do the same. So you know, even just

(01:06:04):
this interview gives me like another week before I quit.
I wake up three days from now and be like,
I quit. But no, I think it's really important that
we share these stories. And I'm super thankful that she
showed up. Super thankful on many levels. I did not
think this interview is gonna happen. And I'm glad you

(01:06:26):
responded to my email. Got a job, man, you said, yeah,
Trevor got paid today. I was sitting there like, I called, well,
I was sending your team emails like and then I
was like, fuck, I'm gonna have to pay Trevor.

Speaker 2 (01:06:41):
I didn't get those. No, we wasn't.

Speaker 1 (01:06:44):
They was taking No. I made sure that we responded
and copied you on the ones today because I was like, well,
maybe he'll be like, this is in my schedule. Of course,
we had to try to manipulate it. But I thank
you so much for your time.

Speaker 3 (01:07:00):
Guys.

Speaker 1 (01:07:01):
I am going to this is very terrible of me,
but I want to take advantage of having Kevin in
the studio, so I will be having him just play
a little something, which, by the way, his team did
not approve he ain't bring no challo over there.

Speaker 2 (01:07:16):
I was like, oh my god, I didn't even really know,
so I'm glad to bring it.

Speaker 1 (01:07:20):
But yeah, I wanted to see your talent and see
the growth, and you know, I want to see what
a year's worth of work looks like. So I'll record
it on my iPhone and have my team bake it
in so you guys could enjoy it too. But thank
y'all for tuning in. Please go check out Dawn have
a misfit Yes out now anywhere and enjoy enjoy that.
And if you're going through a breakup, you know, hallayu ya.

Speaker 2 (01:07:43):
Peace, don't think I don't think about you.

Speaker 1 (01:07:47):
No peace. For more eating while broke from iHeartRadio and
The Black Effect, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.