It’s silent for just a moment. Quietly, a steady hum is heard. After a moment, another voice is added and then another. The sound of a drum is mimicked through the lips of a man wearing a colorful bowtie.
Eventually, each singer joins in. The room is filled with sound of beat-boxing, humming and vocals. The men begin to dance around, filling the empty space on stage. It seems nearly impossible for anyone in the audience to not be tapping their foot, clapping along or simply enjoying the performance.
Priority Male is an all-male a cappella group at Arizona State University and anyone who has sat through one of their performances can testify to the passion, creativity and pure talent that is displayed during their live shows.
"We always want to have high energy performances, we want to sound good musically, but the most important part for us is the energy level,” says Mitchell Weeks, a business communications junior.
Priority Male was formed in 2009, and although it is a student organization, it functions very differently from the typical ASU club.
“This one is different because we are constantly working on something like performances or songs,” says Erik Kausin, arts administration senior. “It's basically like a second job for some of us, but we love it, and we're passionate about it.”
Within the musical group there are multiple layers that eventually make up Priority Male. Neurobiology, physiology and behavioral senior Drew Hensley has been the group’s musical director since 2013.
“The original role of music director was just to plan rehearsals and then teach all the music, make sure everything sounded nice,” Hensley says. "It kind of transformed more into an arrangement because I spend so much time teaching the guys individually, I know what their voices sound like.”
In addition to arranging their own music, the musical group creates its own choreography and costumes. Although the main focal point of each performance is singing, other elements add depth to each show.
"You can use your choreography to give yourself dynamics and when you're dancing you can have fun with the people around you,” Hensley says. “If you're having fun the audience is going to have more fun too.”
The group makes sure to put in enough time and effort to every aspect of their performance to make sure everything is at its best level and still fits the group’s image.
“A cappella choreography is very different than regular choreography just because you have to remember these are singers, they're not dancers,” Kausin says. “You have to take into consideration that you're singing the entire time so you can't do anything super crazy.”
Throughout each academic year, the musical group will put on shows around campus and in the community. This has given them much success and has resulted in the group pursuing other large-scale projects, including producing an album.
Producing an album requires planning a year in advance, Kausin says. The group needs to fundraise between $10,000 and $15,000 as well as spend a week in the spring recording. However, larger-scale productions allow for collaboration between students that have other specialties.
“I love the collaboration aspect of it because I love getting to pull on graphic designers to design our artwork and I love being able to really incorporate marketing schemes,” Kausin says.
Last semester the musical group worked with the all-female a cappella group, The Pitchforks, on a commercial concert event.
“It cost around $15,000 to produce and a lot of time and effort went into it,” Kausin says. “Plus, it was a huge collaboration and the first concert we did with the Pitchforks.”
The performance was at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts and seated about 800 audience members. The two musical groups collaborated on everything from performance numbers to the intricate set.
“We got along so well because we’re kind of like what the other group is missing,” says Arianna Torman tourism and development management junior and member of The Pitchforks. The groups compliment each other, with strong male and female vocals.
Torman co-produced the show along side with Kausin, because they wanted to create an event they had never done before.
“Both of us were really into making it a new experience for our groups and also really cool for our audience,” Torman says.
At the end of February, Priority Male competed in the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA), which is the largest event for the crew all year. They typically spend the end of the fall semester and the beginning of the spring semester gearing up for the event. This year's competition was held at ASU's Gammage Auditorium for thr first time.
"ICCA is where all collegiate a cappella groups compete against each other to just flex their muscles and show what they're made of,” Kausin says.
Kausin and Torman were huge players in bringing the competition to ASU this year and for the first time the competition will consist of only Arizona-based a cappella groups.
“We have 10 groups from all over the state so I think it’ll be a really fun competition,” says Felix Herbst violin performance and medicinal microbiology sophomore.
In the past, the musical group has viewed the event as more of a competition, but this year the members aim to enjoy their performance and make sure their audience is having a good time.
“We're comfortable, we're fun, we understand our sound, we like our sound and if the judges don't like it that's OK, because we know we're going to kill whatever we put out there,” Hensley says.
Many of the group members see a cappella expanding even more in the future, with more groups and more competitions. Priority Male will likely lead the movement in Arizona.
“I just see it growing from here, but I also see it becoming much more serious,” Hensley says. “Now it's a music form that's playing on the radio and fighting for Grammy's.”
For many of the members Priority Male as been a creative outlet and a place for each of them to find their place at ASU.
While members prepare for the future, whether that be pursing a musical career in LA, gearing up for another year of Priority Male or simply enjoying these last few months, it’s certain that Priority Male will have a lasting effect on each of them.
“When I think of college I think of Priority Male,” Hensley says. “It’s everything.”
