This week on NBC’s The Sing-Off, judges Sara Bareilles, Shawn Stockman, and Ben Folds made a tough decision and eliminated one of the last remaining collegiate groups, Vocal Point, from the competition. After delivering memorable performances week after week, such as “I’ll Be Missing You,” Vocal Point knew they had to keep their charisma and jovial attitude on stage while working to build upon the judge’s critiques and come back strong every week! Unfortunately, in a crop of five highly talented groups, Vocal Point found themselves eliminated after being in the bottom two wit Afro Blue. Earlier today, YakkityYaks had the pleasure to participate in an exclusive call with McKay Crocket, Jake Hunsaker, and Tyler Sterling from Vocal Point. Read on to find out the story behind the group’s inspiration, thoughts on the competition, and more!
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The Yak: Hi guys, how’s it going? It’s kind of a party on the line today with you three.
McKay, Jake & Tyler, Vocal Point: Haha, ya. We’re pretty much a party all the time.
The Yak: So, I gotta ask, how was it with you guys being a collegiate group on the show compared to groups who formed before The Sing Off for the purposes of the show?
McKay, Vocal Point: I think it was…one of the fun things was how different and diverse everyone was. Each group brought unique and different elements of musicality and entertainment to the show. It was fun to see groups like Pentatonix and Delilah who formed just before the show. That’s what makes this show so great, unique and different from all other singing shows. You never know what you’ll get. We really enjoyed the diversity.
The Yak:What made you want to go on The Sing Off? Did you watch the first 2 seasons or what led you there?
Tyler, Vocal Point: We watched the last couple seasons. We’ve always been big fans of The Sing Off. Every season there has been a connection with BYU in some way. On the first season there were a couple students on Noteworthy and on the second season there were a couple of alum on Backbeats. This year we had the opportunity to represent BYU as a group. To have the opportunity was something that was really cool, and we never really expected it to become a reality.
The Yak:I know the type of camaraderie that develops in collegiate a cappella groups. Do you think that played a part in your role on the show this year or do you think that it didn’t have much to do with anything because of the layout of the show?
Jake, Vocal Point: I think our camaraderie and our friendships is what helped us to get into the top 5. Obviously when Ben was gone, we had to rely on our friendship to lift each other up in a hard time. During the rest of the season as we were taken out of our confort zone with new genres and challenges, we relied heavily on our friendship, talents and ability to help us get through school, arrange and choreograph all at once.
Tyler, Vocal Point: On top of what Jake was saying, on top of that, our unified faith was something that kept us close knit, especially during the hard times with Ben’s father passing. It was our faith that strengthened us during the hard times of the show.
The Yak:Were you able to communicate with Ben during his absence or did you have to come together as a “new” group to make decisions on how your progress on the show would go?
McKay, Vocal Point: I think that this experience on the show and Ben’s dad passing at the same time put things into perspective in terms of priorities and what’s of importance for him. The real priority was his family and we allowed him to spend the last precious moments with his dad before he passed away. We wanted to make sure we were still there so he could come bak to a fun and enjoyable time on the show. We’re glad that he could still experience that after going through something so difficult.
The Yak:Very cool. Now, were you guys able to use songs that you were more familiar with from previous shows on campus or did the theme nights make you come up with new arrangements each time?
Tyler, Vocal Point: With the exception of “Footloose” and “Jump, Jive n’ Wail,” everything else was completely new and we arranged while we were there. Luckily for us, a couple weeks we were able to pull from our repertoire. It was a cool opportunity for us to expand our horizon and explore new genres that Vocal Point had never done before. We actually hope to explore them more in the future. Even Bobby Brown and the Elvis medley are just a couple examples of things we had never done before.
The Yak:Was there a particular critique from the judges that stuck with you as a group?
McKay, Vocal Point: I remember…it’s kind of ironic, it was after we got eliminated. We were walking to our car and Shawn Stockman pulled up in his car and parked in the parking lot to chat with us for a minute. He complimented us on our performance that night. As he was talking, he said something to the effect of “Don’t you dare stop doing what you’re doing. You have a lot of people who love what you do and connect with you guys. Let this be a beginning for who you are and what you guys do.” In a way, it is the beginning for Vocal Point and it’s opening many eyes to who we are and the music that we sing. Not only is it a universal message, but for that we were really grateful for the judges and the fans who have supported and shared the journey with us.
The Yak:How has that support translated onto the BYU campus?
Tyler, Vocal Point: It’s gone really really well. We’ve gotten some support from teachers, felow students and local community members. People just walk up to us and thank us for things we were able to accomplish on the show and the music and stories we could share. It’s been a great opportunity to share what we believe and bring some sunshine and happiness to people’s lives. We’ve been able to see the fruits of our labors and it’s been cool to see the purpose of Vocal Point accomplished in an efficient way.
The Yak:Any memorable performances for you that struck a chord with you? “I’ll Be Missing You” really hit me emotionally, by the way.
Tyler, Vocal Point: From an emotional standpoint, definitely “I’ll Be Missing You.” From someone like me who hasn’t actually lost a family member, to have Ben’s father pass away while we were there, we all felt a piece of us missing because of the love we all feel from our family members. That song is really a message of hope and it talks about how we’ll get to see people again. Ben will see his dad again some day and it was a great opportunity to share those emotions through music.
McKay, Vocal Point: For me, there are moments in each performance that were really unique.”Jump, Jive n’ Wail” really showed America who we are and “Every Little Step” showed how much we love to perform and attempt to dance. {laughs} The Elvis medley was really fun and showed the calm, sweet side and the energetic side as well. I dont’ know. This is a really hard question. I’ll have to sum it up and say the overall experience was the highlight. To be able to do what we love on such a scale with the people we did it with is a dream come true.
The Yak:You guys def show it’s something you love. It wasn’t hidden to the viewers. Before I let you go, I wanna ask you guys a side question. This week is Anti-Bullying Week and our site is working on increasing awareness. Is there anything you want to say that we could put out there from Vocal Point?
McKay, Vocal Point: I know it’s been in the media a lot lately and I appreciate the campaigns that stick up for causes like this. With Vocal Point sharing happiness and joy, that kinda stuff [bullying] doesn’t bring that into lives. So anyone who is willing to stand up for something they believe is very noteworthy. We appreciate that and wish those involved the best with helping that continue to grow. It is a problem and we hope that it can be solved quickly.
The Yak:It was a pleasure talking to you guys. Thanks for sharing your story with us.
McKay, Jake & Tyler, Vocal Point:Thank you very much, we appreciate it! Have a good one.
To keep up with Vocal Point, be sure to follow them on Twitter and Facebook.
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