Interview: LAMARKS meets Mallory, Mike and Melissa of Backtrack Vocals
At a YouTube Creators event recently, I met a few deeply engaging women who are making much more than “content.” One of them was Mallory Moser, a senior member of professional a cappella quintet Backtrack Vocals. Learning a bit about her and her work, I immediately became a fan and looked up their YouTube channel - they have over 100,000 subscribers and make high quality music videos on par with much more packaged and mature acts. My two instincts were:
I want your group to sing me a song
I want to interview you about your work and learn everything about you.
And, as you know, I follow my instincts, so we’re featuring Backtrack Vocals at Words of NoMads on November 6th at 8:30pm, and I invited the team to come to my office and teach me all about their a cappella ways.
If any of you are artists working collaboratively in the entertainment or education worlds, their insights will definitely resonate with you. And also they are the nicest people in the world, as you would expect a wholesome, slightly famous a cappella group to be, naturally.
LA: Why do people book you?
Backtrack: For parties and corporate events, it’s innovative and niche entertainment. Event planners are always looking for a way for their event to be unforgettable, and our live music is a way to make an event stand out. We get to perform music that we love and activate a brand in a new way.
When it comes to education, we will do a show and then also teach a lesson to the students, often choir groups or high schools and colleges. They get a 2-for-1 in a way: entertainment and guest teachers.
LA: You mentioned “activating a brand” - What does that mean? What’s the connection between a cute quintet singing a popular pop song and activating a brand?
Backtrack: Oh good question. The music we perform can be targeted to a demographic and a theme that’s relevant to them, and the environment we’re in. For instance, we did a dance party for Peloton and they partied hard and danced to our music, we made it more hi tempo. Whether it’s a very buttoned up or less formal event, what’s exciting to the guests is that we are making the music with just us, no instruments or backing tracks.
People that book us usually have just seen our videos, they haven’t seen us live, and they are really impressed with how full the music sounds in person. We’re even better in person than in our videos. (laughs) We’re so much more than a barbershop quartet, you know?
LA: When I hear your music, it kinda gets me, like emotionally. What do you think is the emotional impact of a capella and live music in general?
Backtrack: We prefer a band over a DJ always (no offense DJs) because the energy of the performers is so specific. We’re bold and beautiful, you know? (laughs) A lot of times when people book us, there is one person, one specific decision-maker who LOVES a capella. They are shameless; a cappella fans are true blue. They know Pentatonix, or have a personal connection with the style of music. But there is no one a cappella fan demographic, they are all different. There’s something old fashioned about it, yet fresh. It’s like a nostalgia remix. And grandmas love us as much as school kids.
LA: What have some of your best experiences been performing and teaching?
Backtrack: We did a girls’ summer camp called Timber Tops in the Poconos. It was amazing, the kids painted T-Shirts for us, they were like crying and screaming with excitement. We felt like The Beatles.
Another time we performed at an assembly where the kids and teachers mobbed the stage and we had a mosh pit for a few numbers. It was the teachers’ idea!
Oh and once, we won a competition where we got to sing a number at the end of Kinky Boots. A lot of us got into this industry dreaming of one day being on Broadway, so that was epic.
LA: What’s it like to have so many fans, and what are your fans like?
Backtrack: They’re on the younger side - at least the fan-ier fans are younger. The most fulfilling are the kids that are afraid to come out of their shells at first, but the music brings it out of them. Especially when we’re teaching, we give them access to real ways to get better at singing and performing. Our super fans are so excited to meet us and see us perform, probably because our videos put us basically celebrity status. We do have a high production value. We are worth freaking out over!
LA: So, what are your dreams for the future? Where do you want to take this?
Backtrack: Perfect timing that you ask that, we’re actually working on creating our first cohesive vision statement. Our values are unity, taking risks, being yourself, pushing boundaries, and being a compassionate person.
We definitely want to do bigger and better venues where people come out to see us because we’ve had an impact online and person. Where people will get up and clap their hands along with us.
We put heart and humor into everything we do, and we want to let that guide us. We’ve picked up so many other skills: video production and editing, musical arranging, and of course running the business side of things: contracts, riders, legal, travel…
We like that we get to create our own path by doing this as a business. We could totally do different types of creative projects, but who knows what they will be? The group has become a canvas for us. we can pursue different ideas whenever we want.
We are all “yes-and” people.
LA: “Yes-and” is a great mentality for a group of artist-entrepreneurs to have! OK, what are the the best songs to sing? What are you gonna sing for us next week?
Backtrack: We invented a Beethoven medley for a gig at Carnegie Hall - things like that let us highlight a classical artist in a funky way with beatboxing and choreography. We also do a lot of performing for theater nerds - they love our Dear Evan Hansen medley. We always close our show with “No” by Meghan Trainor.
Every song we perform needs to take you on a journey, needs to have some drama.
LA: You take requests a lot - Any song you refuse to sing?
Backtrack: We were recently asked to cover a rap song with a ton of expletives - we had to say no, we’re a pretty wholesome group, the most cursing we’re gonna do is “hot damn.”
LA: Haha yep I still bleep myself if I am urged to curse or write something risqué in a poem. Who is your dream client?
Backtrack: Disney or Nickelodeon!!!
LA: You guys are pretty big, and growing. As working artists who also interface with corporate clients, do you ever worry about selling out?
Backtrack: You know, we know we deserve bigger and better audiences and gigs, but we’ll never give creative control away, and that keeps us from worrying about “selling out.” Also, we run everything totally collaboratively. With five different opinions at play, we all have to agree and be aligned, and we’re so much stronger together.
