In the audience that night was a talent scout for Philadelphia-based record producer Vivienne Crawford. A huge fan of a cappella music, Crawford was actively searching for a group with great voices and smooth harmonies willing to learn how to tackle any genre from jazz to R&B, and flexible enough to win converts to a cappella music. Not wanting to let what he saw as a good thing get away, Crawford's scout telephoned her in Philadelphia at 2am to tell her that her search was over. When the group's manager promptly contacted Crawford the next day, expressing Vicki Lester's excitement over attracting her attention, 'all trepidation evaporated,' the producer remembers. 'The group's attitude and approach to the music was refreshing.' Crawford signed the band a short time later.
Now, two years later, following a few changes in the group's lineup and a new out and proud moniker, Men Out Loud, Crawford has guided the quartet to brighter horizons, including a recording and distribution deal with the Los Angeles-based major label Pure/Mercury Records, which has released the band's debut album, Sweet Enuf 2 Eat, to a global market. Pop music may never be the same.
'Men Out Loud is not a very typical group.' says Steinberg, the quartet's founder and de facto leader. 'We have a group made up of four solo singers. The lead vocals change on every song we do, which gives us four distinct sounds.'
Four distinct voices that harmonize to create one smooth-as-glass sound. Imagine Hanson (on a sugar rush) teaming with the Flirtations (after a few hits of Ecstasy) and you'll have an idea of the high-energy pop-cappella music of Men Out Loud.
It's not only Men Out Loud's fresh approach to vocal arrangements that helps them stand out in the world of pop music; the members also bring a unique gay sensibility to their work.
Sweet Enuf 2 Eat features Men Out Loud putting a fresh slant on some familiar songs, such as the Bee Gees' "More Than A Woman," which takes on a new, campy dimension when sung by four gay men. The group reworks Madonna's "Express Yourself" into a bouncy doo-wop dance-pop number-- a bold endeavor for any artist, gay or straight.
'Actually, we covered "Express Yourself" for that very reason, because I thought it was a bold move,' explains Steinberg. 'I've always admired Madonna and her ballsiness to kind of make her own way and do her own thing. And I also like the fact that since we're men, our version is already sounding a little different than her version right from the beginning. I think every gay man dreams of covering a Madonna song, so I thought, Hey, why not?!? I also thought that if we did it, we'd get a lot of attention, and it paid off because, literally, every write-up we get, people are commenting on that song. I'm still waiting for the call from Madonna that says, 'Who the hell are you guys and why did you have to do my song?!?' Then I hope she asks us to open for her European tour,' he adds with a laugh.
Steinberg and his colleagues show their more serious side by cleaverly transforming the haunting and poignant "Empty Chairs At Empty Tables" from Les Miserables into a compassionate tribute to loved ones lost to AIDS.
'Actually, that song came to me before I even started Men Out Loud,' says Steinberg, who arranged the song for the album. 'I had seen Les Miz in London years ago, and I remember when I first heard that song in the show it really struck me. I thought, This is so about AIDS, even though they didn't write it about that. The parallel was so completely there for me, and the lyrics were so perfect to sum up my feelings about AIDS without having to change anything. Then, when the group got together and started working on songs, I realized that being an openly gay group, there's no way we can't comment on AIDS because it's an important part of everyone's life, so we wanted to do something to address it. And I felt that if we were going to do something that commented on AIDS, I wanted to really rip people's hearts out and make them cry, because I think if you go only half-way, it becomes kind of mamby-pamby, you know what I mean? And,again, I thought "Empty Chairs At Empty Tables" has got to be the song we use, so I started to work on the arrangement of the song and it just kind of poured out of me very quickly.'
'I didn't want to put in the liner notes: "This is dedicated to all the people we've lost to AIDS," because that sounds so sappy, you know? And also, especially in regard to our live shows, where we usually try to keep the vibe on a happy note, I thought that we should prepare people for the fact that from the very first line, we're singing about friends who are dead. So I came up with the idea of beginning the song by each of us dedicating it to someone personally who we have lost. And that seems to work; it sets up the audience for what is coming. Though we don't do that song live very often because it's such a downer.'
While many of the tunes on Sweet Enuf 2 Eat were recorded with musical accompaniment for the first time in the group's career, Men Out Loud return to the traditional a cappella format with songs like "Somewhere" from West Side Story, and their rendition of the Beatles classic "Yesterday," which they unabashedly sing as a same-sex love song.
'It's very importart for us to break the boundaries,' says McElroy, the group's baritone.
'We're a singing group that's gay, not a gay group that sings,' adds Steinberg. 'The fact is, we're four guys who like to sing. But we're also four gay guys who love to sing, and we're not going to hide that.'
'And we really try to show not only our influences, but the styles that we like to cover. The range is from the '50s and '60s right up to '90s dance music. The fact is we don't want to be pigeon-holed.'
'On our album, we're trying to appeal to all fans of a cappella, pop, R&B, and dance music-- gay and straight,' he emphasizes. 'We're trying to get something across where gay people can see what's going on, like the irony of four gay guys singing "More Tha A Woman" and "Express Yourself" without having the music being so in-your-face that straight people can't enjoy it. We're kind of trying to ride the fence on that one, and I believe it's working. From the reviews we've been getting, it seems that everyone understands what we're trying to do. Gay audiences get the irony and straight people just kind of say, "Oh great, they're covering that pretty song from West Side Story." So, in a sense, the individual sees what he or she wants to see.'
Prior to the release of their major label debut, Men Out Loud were carving a name for themselves in pop music circles, garnering a nomination at last year's first annual Gay & Lesbian American Music Awards for "Best Choral Group" for an early version of "Sweet Enuf 2 Eat," which is, incidentally, the first single from their album. Not bad for a group that initially came together in Steinberg's living room as a way to calm shaky nerves after the big Northridge earthquake. The group has now moved well beyond the hobby stage, bringing their live shows to an audience of thousands while performing at Gay Pride events across North America, playing everywhere from Wichita, Kansas to Ottawa, Canada.
'It has been so much fun,' says Steinberg of the experience. 'We started two years ago doing local Pride events in Long Beach and West Hollywood and each year we get further and further out there. It's been so incredible. There's just something so wonderful about seeing gay life everywhere from rural America to the big city. We're far from tired of doing it because we love it so much. And the response has been tremendous. Everywhere we go, we get an incredible response to the music and to the fact that we are out. There was one Internet review that said the most beautiful thing. I'm gonna read it to you because it's the nicest thing I've ever heard and it totally sums up what it's been like touring the Gay Pride circuit across America. It says: "Imagine four hot men on stage, sweating, grinding, and having a blast while doing what they love most and what they do best, sing. Not just sing but croon, doo-wop, get funky, make you laugh, touch your heart, and make you proud." And that pretty much sums up our experience."