The Los Angeles-based a cappella quintet Sonos has few rules, but those it … Read Full Bio ↴The Los Angeles-based a cappella quintet Sonos has few rules, but those it abides by are ironclad.
“We do our best to defy stereotypes,” says Jessica Freedman. “The whole approach has been to distance ourselves from kitsch,” chimes in Ben McLain. “And we don’t go ‘dow,’” adds Rachel Bearer.
Dow?
“That’s one of the words vocal groups use to emulate an instrument, like a guitar, with a made-up syllable,” Freedman explains. “We steer clear of that in arrangements.”
With a cappella vocal groups proliferating madly on college campuses and infiltrating the mainstream via TV shows like Glee, Sonos couldn’t have emerged at a more propitious time. But the three women (Freedman, Bearer and Katharine Hoye) and three men (McLain, Chris Harrison and Paul Peglar) who produce its tapestry of tones are swimming against the tide of jukebox set lists, doo-wop inflections and collegiate shtick in their quest to take a cappella music to a new, more sensual, more musically adventurous destination.
They’ve already won plaudits from such tastemakers as Chris Douridas of L.A. bellwether station KCRW-FM, who praised Sonos’ “innovative vocal arrangements” and “inspired repertoire, supremely delivered.” “Prepare to be stunned,” advised the U.K. newspaper The Guardian, while Campus Circle lauded their “unaccompanied magnificence.” Beyond admiring the group’s sonic achievements, critics also noted its “sexual tension” (L.A. tastemaker outlet The Deli Magazine) and “sex appeal” (Pasadena Weekly).
On its debut album, SonoSings, the group combines a rich, classically choral sensibility with an ultra-modern repertoire and sonic toolkit. The result is a spellbinding fusion of ancient and contemporary sounds, as songs by the likes of Radiohead (“Everything in Its Right Place”), Sara Bareilles (an a cappella veteran herself, she joins Sonos for a rendition of her “Gravity”), Fleet Foxes (“White Winter Hymnal”), Bon Iver (“Stacks”), Rufus Wainwright (“Oh What a World”), Björk (“Joga”), Imogen Heap (“Come Here Boy”) and other cutting-edge creators are transformed into mesmerizing vehicles for voices only.
The only pre-existing pop megahit in the batch is “I Want You Back,” but the group’s moody, trip-hop rendition radically re-imagines the tune – bringing out the dark, despairing lyrics that were all but negated by the Jackson 5’s bouncy, bubblegum original. With the passing of Michael Jackson, the version serves as an emotional homage.
Harrison produced and mixed the disc (with Gabriel Mann and manager Hugo Vereker, who assembled the group, provided A&R direction on the album and dreamed up the stark reworking of “I Want You Back”); he also handled several arrangements.
“Chris is a freakin’ genius arranger,” enthuses Freedman, “but we all have experience arranging and writing music, and we bring so many diverse backgrounds to the table that we’re greater than the sum of our parts.” Indeed, Freedman, Bearer and Hoye all contributed sterling arrangements to SonoSings. Agrees McLain, “If any of us weren’t what we are, Sonos wouldn’t be Sonos.”
Performing “I Want You Back” and other songs live, Sonos further pushes the envelope with the judicious use of effects pedals, guided by resident “gearhead” Harrison. McLain, in addition to singing leads and harmonies, contributes beatboxing that’s looped into a panoply of polyrhythms. (He developed the latter skill while lying in bed in his small-town California home, listening to hip-hop station KMEL-FM; his first cassette, he volunteers, was Very Necessary by Salt-N-Pepa.) But that’s just the tip of the technological iceberg.
“We’re very comfortable performing purely acoustically,” explains England-born, L.A.-bred Hoye, who attended the famed Berklee School of Music before heading to UCLA, where she met her future co-harmonizers. “But in the studio and playing live with a sound system, we essentially make electronic vocal music. We think of our collection of pedals and loops as the seventh member of the group.”
“When we sing ‘I Want You Back,’ I use an octave pedal,” she adds, referring to a device that splits notes played or sung into two tones an octave apart. “That way, I get to fulfill my fantasy, as an alto, of singing bass. You can hear a bass part, but I’m the only one singing. It confuses people.”
That said, the electronics are a small part of the picture – the Sonos experience is first and foremost about how “You can go from nothing to something just by opening your mouth,” as Cleveland-born Cali transplant Peglar – whose stratospheric range is variously described as “rock tenor” and “ballsy falsetto” by his compatriots, and who’s been spotted playing keyboards on the aforementioned TV series Glee – puts it.
Like almost everything else about the group, its origin and development have been unconventional. “We sort of became a band backwards,” explains elder statesman Harrison. “We formed, rehearsed, made a record and then started performing live.”
The San Diego native – who grew up watching his dad playing in bluegrass bands – sang in the famed UCLA vocal ensemble known as Awaken A Cappella with Bareilles and fellow future Sonos members Freedman (who comes from Santa Rosa, Calif.) and Peglar. The latter two had attended high school in Santa Rosa with McLain.
Bearer – who grew up singing opera in Tulsa, Okla. (“the buckle of the Bible Belt”) – had been kept from pop music by her musical-purist parents, but says singing a cappella changed her life completely. She attended both UCLA and USC, and was a member of celebrated a cappella ensemble SoCal Vocals when she met Harrison, who invited her to audition for the group; after a mere five rehearsals, she flew to New York for a performance.
Rather than bang out the record over a few months, Sonos took its sweet time. “We recorded the Radiohead track nearly three years ago, and we added two new tracks the day before it was mastered,” Freedman reveals. “It spans our entire evolution as a group. We’ve really grown into our own sound and style.”
They performed their first gig at the Santa Rosa high school Freedman, McLain and Peglar had attended together. While their vocal mix clearly delighted the crowd, Peglar recalls, their visual presentation hadn’t yet evolved. “I watched a video of it and promptly deleted it,” he relates, “because it was not what we wanted to present to people.” Some seven months passed before their next show, however, and the group soon developed its signature presentational style – sleek, sexy and confrontational, with an air of mystery not often found in the a cappella world.
Perhaps the ensemble’s most revelatory live moment thus far came in the gorgeously austere confines of a 17th Century London church, where they sang for an audience of fans, friends and industry folk. Performing “White Winter Hymnal” and “Gravity,” particularly, in such a setting, Peglar remembers, “Was kind of a checkpoint, because it was the six of us and the audience, with nothing in the way. I’d never even been overseas, so just being in London was amazing; compounding that was making music with my friends in this incredible church.”
“There’s something organic and mysterious about singing a cappella,” Peglar continues. “It’s beautiful and intangible. It could’ve been centuries earlier with a piece of classical music, but we’re taking something from last year and making it just as haunting and interesting. I think that’s what’s most captivating about us.” Manager Vereker reports that the music-business types in attendance were stunned. “Almost every one of them came up to me afterward,” he says, “and told me they’d never seen anything like it in their lives.”
With its debut album complete at last, the group is prepared to bring its one-of-a-kind vocal blend to the world – and plans to pepper its tour schedule with venues like performing-arts centers, colleges and even living rooms. But whether they’re in a courtyard, a club or a concert hall, Sonos will always seek that intangible, mysterious, intimate fusion of timeless tones and modern meaning – with nary a “dow” to be heard.
Sonos performed on Season 3 of the NBC show "The Sing-Off" and they were eliminated in the 4th episode.
“We do our best to defy stereotypes,” says Jessica Freedman. “The whole approach has been to distance ourselves from kitsch,” chimes in Ben McLain. “And we don’t go ‘dow,’” adds Rachel Bearer.
Dow?
“That’s one of the words vocal groups use to emulate an instrument, like a guitar, with a made-up syllable,” Freedman explains. “We steer clear of that in arrangements.”
With a cappella vocal groups proliferating madly on college campuses and infiltrating the mainstream via TV shows like Glee, Sonos couldn’t have emerged at a more propitious time. But the three women (Freedman, Bearer and Katharine Hoye) and three men (McLain, Chris Harrison and Paul Peglar) who produce its tapestry of tones are swimming against the tide of jukebox set lists, doo-wop inflections and collegiate shtick in their quest to take a cappella music to a new, more sensual, more musically adventurous destination.
They’ve already won plaudits from such tastemakers as Chris Douridas of L.A. bellwether station KCRW-FM, who praised Sonos’ “innovative vocal arrangements” and “inspired repertoire, supremely delivered.” “Prepare to be stunned,” advised the U.K. newspaper The Guardian, while Campus Circle lauded their “unaccompanied magnificence.” Beyond admiring the group’s sonic achievements, critics also noted its “sexual tension” (L.A. tastemaker outlet The Deli Magazine) and “sex appeal” (Pasadena Weekly).
On its debut album, SonoSings, the group combines a rich, classically choral sensibility with an ultra-modern repertoire and sonic toolkit. The result is a spellbinding fusion of ancient and contemporary sounds, as songs by the likes of Radiohead (“Everything in Its Right Place”), Sara Bareilles (an a cappella veteran herself, she joins Sonos for a rendition of her “Gravity”), Fleet Foxes (“White Winter Hymnal”), Bon Iver (“Stacks”), Rufus Wainwright (“Oh What a World”), Björk (“Joga”), Imogen Heap (“Come Here Boy”) and other cutting-edge creators are transformed into mesmerizing vehicles for voices only.
The only pre-existing pop megahit in the batch is “I Want You Back,” but the group’s moody, trip-hop rendition radically re-imagines the tune – bringing out the dark, despairing lyrics that were all but negated by the Jackson 5’s bouncy, bubblegum original. With the passing of Michael Jackson, the version serves as an emotional homage.
Harrison produced and mixed the disc (with Gabriel Mann and manager Hugo Vereker, who assembled the group, provided A&R direction on the album and dreamed up the stark reworking of “I Want You Back”); he also handled several arrangements.
“Chris is a freakin’ genius arranger,” enthuses Freedman, “but we all have experience arranging and writing music, and we bring so many diverse backgrounds to the table that we’re greater than the sum of our parts.” Indeed, Freedman, Bearer and Hoye all contributed sterling arrangements to SonoSings. Agrees McLain, “If any of us weren’t what we are, Sonos wouldn’t be Sonos.”
Performing “I Want You Back” and other songs live, Sonos further pushes the envelope with the judicious use of effects pedals, guided by resident “gearhead” Harrison. McLain, in addition to singing leads and harmonies, contributes beatboxing that’s looped into a panoply of polyrhythms. (He developed the latter skill while lying in bed in his small-town California home, listening to hip-hop station KMEL-FM; his first cassette, he volunteers, was Very Necessary by Salt-N-Pepa.) But that’s just the tip of the technological iceberg.
“We’re very comfortable performing purely acoustically,” explains England-born, L.A.-bred Hoye, who attended the famed Berklee School of Music before heading to UCLA, where she met her future co-harmonizers. “But in the studio and playing live with a sound system, we essentially make electronic vocal music. We think of our collection of pedals and loops as the seventh member of the group.”
“When we sing ‘I Want You Back,’ I use an octave pedal,” she adds, referring to a device that splits notes played or sung into two tones an octave apart. “That way, I get to fulfill my fantasy, as an alto, of singing bass. You can hear a bass part, but I’m the only one singing. It confuses people.”
That said, the electronics are a small part of the picture – the Sonos experience is first and foremost about how “You can go from nothing to something just by opening your mouth,” as Cleveland-born Cali transplant Peglar – whose stratospheric range is variously described as “rock tenor” and “ballsy falsetto” by his compatriots, and who’s been spotted playing keyboards on the aforementioned TV series Glee – puts it.
Like almost everything else about the group, its origin and development have been unconventional. “We sort of became a band backwards,” explains elder statesman Harrison. “We formed, rehearsed, made a record and then started performing live.”
The San Diego native – who grew up watching his dad playing in bluegrass bands – sang in the famed UCLA vocal ensemble known as Awaken A Cappella with Bareilles and fellow future Sonos members Freedman (who comes from Santa Rosa, Calif.) and Peglar. The latter two had attended high school in Santa Rosa with McLain.
Bearer – who grew up singing opera in Tulsa, Okla. (“the buckle of the Bible Belt”) – had been kept from pop music by her musical-purist parents, but says singing a cappella changed her life completely. She attended both UCLA and USC, and was a member of celebrated a cappella ensemble SoCal Vocals when she met Harrison, who invited her to audition for the group; after a mere five rehearsals, she flew to New York for a performance.
Rather than bang out the record over a few months, Sonos took its sweet time. “We recorded the Radiohead track nearly three years ago, and we added two new tracks the day before it was mastered,” Freedman reveals. “It spans our entire evolution as a group. We’ve really grown into our own sound and style.”
They performed their first gig at the Santa Rosa high school Freedman, McLain and Peglar had attended together. While their vocal mix clearly delighted the crowd, Peglar recalls, their visual presentation hadn’t yet evolved. “I watched a video of it and promptly deleted it,” he relates, “because it was not what we wanted to present to people.” Some seven months passed before their next show, however, and the group soon developed its signature presentational style – sleek, sexy and confrontational, with an air of mystery not often found in the a cappella world.
Perhaps the ensemble’s most revelatory live moment thus far came in the gorgeously austere confines of a 17th Century London church, where they sang for an audience of fans, friends and industry folk. Performing “White Winter Hymnal” and “Gravity,” particularly, in such a setting, Peglar remembers, “Was kind of a checkpoint, because it was the six of us and the audience, with nothing in the way. I’d never even been overseas, so just being in London was amazing; compounding that was making music with my friends in this incredible church.”
“There’s something organic and mysterious about singing a cappella,” Peglar continues. “It’s beautiful and intangible. It could’ve been centuries earlier with a piece of classical music, but we’re taking something from last year and making it just as haunting and interesting. I think that’s what’s most captivating about us.” Manager Vereker reports that the music-business types in attendance were stunned. “Almost every one of them came up to me afterward,” he says, “and told me they’d never seen anything like it in their lives.”
With its debut album complete at last, the group is prepared to bring its one-of-a-kind vocal blend to the world – and plans to pepper its tour schedule with venues like performing-arts centers, colleges and even living rooms. But whether they’re in a courtyard, a club or a concert hall, Sonos will always seek that intangible, mysterious, intimate fusion of timeless tones and modern meaning – with nary a “dow” to be heard.
Sonos performed on Season 3 of the NBC show "The Sing-Off" and they were eliminated in the 4th episode.
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Enjoy The Silence
Sonos Lyrics
We have lyrics for 'Enjoy The Silence' by these artists:
'Depeche Mode Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in Into …
Alx Child I remember when, I remember, I remember when I lost…
Amos (Tori) Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in Into …
Anberlin Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in In…
AngeliQuie and The Band Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in Into …
Ankhagram (Depeche Mode Cover) Words like violence Break the sile…
Apoptygma Berzerk Words like violence Breaks the silence Come crushing in into…
BEDROOM - Depeche Mode Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in Into …
Bell X1 Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in In…
boyle susan Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in Into …
Breaking Benjamin Words like violence Break the silence They come crashing t…
Carla Bruni Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in Into …
Cluster (Depeche Mode) Words like violence Break the silence Co…
Coil Lacuna Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in …
Dan Daniel All I ever wanted All I ever needed Is here in my…
De Saloon & Lucybell Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in Into …
Dinah York Words like violence break the silence Come crashing in into …
Dj Cremoso & Depeche Mode Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in Into …
DJ Yvan All I ever wanted All I ever needed Is here in my…
Dolapdere Big Gang Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in Into …
Entwine Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in In…
Erdinc Erdogdu feat. Kivanch K Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in Into …
Evergreen Terrace Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in In…
Failure Words like violence break the silence Come crashing through…
FAMILY ROOM - Depeche Mode Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in Into …
Flesh Field Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in In…
Foreigner vs. Depeche Mode Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in Into …
G&S Project Ne assaporo il tepore Quando spengono tutto intorno, non si …
Gregorian Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in In…
Heideroosjes Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in Into …
HIM Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in In…
Him - Ville Valo & The 69 Eyes Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in Into …
Lacuna Coil Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in In…
Lacuna Coil猀 Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in …
LIVING ROOM - Depeche Mode Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in Into …
Locust Words like violence break the silence Come crashing through…
Lotte Kestner Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in Into …
Mike Shinoda Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in In…
Monkey Trick Words like violence break the silence Come crashing in into…
Moonlight Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in In…
Moriarty Words like violence Break the silence Comin' crashin' in Int…
Nada Surf Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in Into …
Patti Austin Words like violence break the silence Come crashing in, int…
Richie Ramone Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in Into …
Son of Rust Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in In…
Spiral Words are like violence Break the silence Come crashing in I…
Squealer Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in Into …
Star Industry Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in In…
Sue Ellen Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in Into …
Swift Words like violence, break the silence. Come crashing in, in…
Swift (Metal) Words like violence, break the silence. Come crashing in, i…
Sylvain Chauveau & Ensemble Nocturne Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in In…
Talla 2XLC Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in Into …
Texas Lightning Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in …
Third Try Words are thoughtless Break the silence Incompassionate I…
Tori Amos Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in Into …
Tribal Blood Enjoy the silence Enjoy the silence Words like violence Bre…
Uke-Hunt Words are very unnecessary They can only do harm Vows are sp…
Valerio Rinaldi Resultados de búsqueda Resultado del Gráfico de conocimiento…
Various Artists Words like violence break the silence Come crashing in into …
Voidoid Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in Into …
Yvan All I ever wanted All I ever needed Is here in my…
Yvan Dan Daniel All I ever wanted All I ever needed Is here in my…
[H]-[I]-[M] Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in Into …
Lacuna Coil Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in In…
Nada Surf Words like violence Break the silence Come crashing in Into …
We have lyrics for these tracks by Sonos:
Ave Maria Ave Maria, gratia plena Ave ave dominus, tecum Santa Maria…
Bittersweet Out Of Line Raise your glasses Think of the times…
Come Here Boy It′s dark in here, visions are flashing into my head As…
Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing Come thou fount of every blessing Tune my heart to sing…
Coventry Carol Lully, lullay, Thou little tiny Child, By, by, lully, lullay…
Everything In Its Right Place Everything Everything Everything Everything In its right pl…
Gravity Something always brings me back to you. It never takes too…
Hold On I'm ready for you light I'm ready take control I'm ready you…
I Saw Three Ships I saw three ships come sailing in On Christmas Day, on…
I Want You Back I want you back, baby, come back to me I want…
Little Bird Of all the things I find in life No moments better…
O Holy Night O Holy Night, the stars are brightly shining It is the…
Oh What A World Men reading fashion magazines Oh what a world It seems we li…
Re: Stacks This my excavation and today is kumran Everything that happe…
White Winter Hymnal I was following the, I was following the, I was following th…
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
@musicmakerscott
The artistry and creativity of their arrangements makes my feel all warm and gooey inside. Great group, those Sonos folks.
@musicmakerscott
I also love the instrumental, easy quality of the backing vocals. I wish I could be in a group like this.
@singitnswingit
favorite :)
@AlexStoneOnline
Very nice!
@peterhaslund
Sounds so natural, hard to come by these days
@elany1609
i heard this song from the kloons video and i like it a lot
@MPM-73
Klasse 👍🙄
@Alcairo02
Not bad folks. Keep up the good work!
@etiiiiiii
kloons!