“Ricky“ Lee Ricardo Cort, Rod Eldridge, Kelvin “Kelz“ Mitchell, Sean Simmonds, Dwight Stewart, Roger Thomas, and Warren Thomas form the septet Naturally 7. The band is performing 8 p.m. April 15 at the Granada Theater. Admission to this performance is free for ESU students." />
Courtesy of the Emporia Arts Council
“Ricky“ Lee Ricardo Cort, Rod Eldridge, Kelvin “Kelz“ Mitchell, Sean Simmonds, Dwight Stewart, Roger Thomas, and Warren Thomas form the septet Naturally 7. The band is performing 8 p.m. April 15 at the Granada Theater. Admission to this performance is free for ESU students.
“Ladies and gentleman, every sound you are about to hear is created by the human voice.”
This announcement is the last thing audiences hear as they sit in their seats waiting for the a cappella group Naturally 7 to begin their show. What follows is a performance mixing the human voice in ways that are made to excite and entertain.
A cappella has been popularized by groups like Pentatonix and movies like “Pitch Perfect”; everyone knows what a cappella is, yet most people haven’t had the chance to witness the limits of the human voice live, until now.
Naturally 7 has circumnavigated the world thrice with the likes of Michael Bublé and is coming to Emporia at 8 p.m. April 15 in the Granada Theater.
Naturally 7 isn’t your mother’s a cappella group. The group tests the limits of the human voice to create unique sounds.
“We found very early in our career that people were confused when they heard us,” said Roger Thomas, who founded the group in 1999 with his brother Warren Thomas. “They said ‘this is not like the a cappella that I remember or recall.’ We coined a phrase called ‘vocal play’ which is when you become the instrument.”
Unlike most a cappella groups that only perform covers, Naturally 7 writes some of their own music. Additionally, the group will create hybrid songs that utilize original lyrics as verses and non-original lyrics as a chorus.
“Our careers have been built around writing great songs,” Thomas said. “We don’t always do covers, but a lot of a cappella groups do covers all the time. We are kind of 50/50. We also do a thing we call a ‘hybrid’. If we do ‘In the Air Tonight’ by Phil Collins, it’s not quite how people remember ‘In the Air Tonight’. We’ve made it a hybrid where we use the chorus, but we’ve created our own song.”
The process of writing and producing a song varies from artist to artist, however, it’s common for the process to start with a chord or riff that is built upon. When the only instrument used in a song is the human voice, the process is different.
“It can start from a base line, it can start from a lyric,” Thomas said. “The last song I’ve written with two of the other guys, we wanted to write a song about the movies. About the experience of watching a movie. It started off as a thought. The next thing was a title, ‘OK we’re going to title this song silver screen’. It’s very unusual for that to be the approach because it’s usually a melody first or it’s a rhythm.”
One song Thomas wrote was inspired by a chance encounter the group had with the then Prince of Wales, now King Charles III, when he went backstage after a concert to thank the group for performing. The group didn’t talk about this encounter until years later.
“The song ‘Caught in the moment’ is a song that I wrote that is inspired by the fact that I noticed that we would glorify things that happened in the past,” Thomas said. “We want to be here in the moment. I’ve noticed that when you are doing that, it keeps your passion alive. You are recognizing that this show on Monday is different from the show on Tuesday.”
Naturally 7 has a fan base all around the globe, however, they are exceedingly popular in Europe. Four days after performing in Emporia, they start a seven month, 36 show European tour performing in the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Luxembourg and Austria.
“Our fans in America are always complaining that we spend too much time overseas,” Thomas said. “Getting to Emporia, and all the other places we are going to go, I’m looking forward to that. There is just nothing like being at home.”
This performance is part of the Performing Arts Series put on by the Emporia Arts Council (EAC).
Amy Gonzales, the marketing and member services coordinator at the EAC, has been marketing for this event. She said she is excited that EAC is bringing something new to Emporia, however, sales aren’t as she expected due to scheduling conflict with Emporia Mainstreet.
“Ticket sales are not great right now, but that’s because The Taste is happening for (Emporia) Mainstreet the same night. We pushed the time back from 7 to 8 p.m. so hopefully people will come.”
Tickets for ESU students are free and can be procured at the door or in advance at the Emporia Arts Council. Adult tickets are $25 and youth tickets are $12.50. Tickets can be purchased online at emporiaksarts.org or in person at the Emporia Arts Council.