Gospel Acapella Group Committed Talks New Holiday Album, Getting Back from Hiatus

Just four short years ago, a twenty-something sextet, by the name of Committed, stole the show and votes when they took home the coveted title of Season 2’s winners of NBC’s hit show, “The Sing Off.”

Now the group returns after a brief hiatus with a brand new holiday project called Home for Christmas. ESSENCE.com recently sat down with the acapella boy band to find out what happened after winning the show, the new Christmas EP and what’s next?
 
How did it feel after winning “The Sing Off” on NBC?
That whole experience was surreal. We never thought we were actually going to win the whole show. After the show we signed our record deal and started traveling around the world performing. The weirdest part for us was when celebrities were excited to meet us. We couldn’t even believe they knew who we were. Like Halle Berry told us she was a big fan of ours.  We never realized that being on a national TV show would give us so much exposure.  And at the time of the show we had only been together a couple of years.

Was wining the show and signing with Sony all that you thought it would be?
Well there were a lot of positives and some negatives too. The music business is an interesting arena to navigate through and we were “green” to a lot of things, but we wouldn’t trade the experiences. We got to sing on the same stage with Maroon 5, Earth, Wind & Fire, Boyz II Men, and so many others. And for a 4th of July concert we sang to 500,000 people. That is huge! We never expected any of it.

So after all the traveling slowed down, the group kind of disappeared. What happened?
 We retreated and took a break. We didn’t renew our contract with Sony, so we were free agents. We went through a reconstruction period where we were trying to figure out our next move. Although we were off the scene and didn’t seem visible, we never stopped traveling.

What made you guys want to do a Christmas project?
We love Christmas. It’s our favorite holiday. We actually released a holiday project a few years ago, but it was something we put out ourselves, so it didn’t get a big push. But now we have a new deal with Mixed Bag Entertainment and we are so proud of this project. It really is our best work to date. The only regret is not making it a full album. We’ve been off the scene for a minute so it’s nerve-wracking because it’s like we’re new artists again, but we’re ready to work.

You mostly sing without any music and your vocal arrangements are very intricate. Are the songs ever too hard to try and learn?
Our songs can be very difficult just with all the moving parts and the very tight harmonies. We usually have someone help us arrange or someone will come in and arrange the whole song, it just depends.  But we’ve definitely had songs in the past that were so intricate we questioned could we pull it off. But we eventually get it. In the studio it seems easier and then live it’s harder because your trying to remember all the different parts you learned months ago.

What does Christmas mean to Committed?
Christmas is the time to spend with family and friends and of course celebrating our Saviour, Jesus Christ. And what is Christmas without acapella music? You just have to have it!

Home For Christmas is out now.

Listen to the group singign songs from their album on NPR.