I must admit, up until last week, my only experiences
with a cappella—at a variety of mandatory freshman
orientation events in college—had left me a little less
than impressed with the genre. In fact, I distinctly
remember mimicking vomiting to my friend Chris,
who then stuck his finger down his throat in
agreement.
Imagine my surprise—and subsequent
enlightenment—when I attended a small concert
being held by openly gay a cappella group Men Out
Loud at San Francisco's New Conservatory Theatre.
Comprised of four endearing and talented
crooners—front man Steve Steinberg (Bass), Santo
Ragno (First Tenor), Joseph Pearce (Second Tenor)
and Rob McElroy (Baritone)—Men Out Loud skillfully
harmonize a sweeping mix of songs from almost
every genre of music, including reggae, pop, doo
wop, ballads, jazz, and show tunes. Their first album,
Sweet Enuf 2 Eat (Pure/Mercury Records), which
came out last June, features covers of everything
from Van Morrison's "Moondance" to Madonna's
"Express Yourself," plus a very cute original dance
number, "Sweet Enuf 2 Eat."
If you like the album, you'll really enjoy a live
performance. Men Out Loud love to interact with their
audience, telling funny stories about their
experiences at gay pride festivals around the country
and camping it up with true queer flair. And whether
they are singing a slow sad number like "Empty
Chairs At Empty Tables" or grooving to Bob Marley's
"Jammin'," you can always tell they are having the
time of their lives. I caught up with the upbeat quartet
after the concert to talk with them about how they got
started, their continued success, and their upcoming
plans for 1998.
Jeff Titterton:
So, tell me a bit about how you got started:
Steve Steinberg: I started the group with three other people as a hobby, and the very first thing we ever did in public was a thing called the Harmony Sweepstakes (an a cappella competition), for which were selected as a finalist. We performed ten minutes on the stage at the Roxy. We didn't win, but one of the judges brought his girlfriend, who brought a friend of theirs whose sister in Philadelphia had a record deal and was looking for a group, and we got a major label deal the first time we ever performed.
JT: Wow. That's impressive. Men Out Loud used to be called Vicki Lester. Excuse my obvious ignorance, but who is she?
SS: Vicki Lester is the name of the character that Judy Garland plays in the movie A Star is Born. And only about three people in the whole world got the reference, so we decided on something that was a little more in your face but a little subtle too. That's how we came up with Men Out Loud.
Santo Ragno: Or Fags in Black.
SS: We've been called all kind of things, really.
JT: Steve, you're the original member of the group. Do you mind me asking what happened to the other three original members?
SS: Not at all. The best way to say it is that we had started as a hobby, and when all of a sudden we got a record deal, they really weren't ready to commit the time to follow up on this record deal. So basically, they left the group, one at a time, and I started looking for new people.
SR: I actually answered an ad in the Gay Men's Chorus Los Angeles newsletter.
SS: And Joseph was next. He heard about it from one of the guys who had left the group. Rob's story is the greatest. We were looking for a baritone, and we went to Revolver in West Hollywood, on karaoke night, and we heard him sing, and I went over and said, 'Here's my card, I'm from Mercury Records. Give me a call."
SR: We picked her up off the floor.
Rob McElroy: I was so thrilled. That was only four months after I moved to L.A. I really believed in my heart that it was what I wanted to do for a living, and I wanted to sing for a career—and make my mother proud—and really enlighten myself and really follow it strongly. And when I met these guys, a blessing was dropped in my lap, and I'm really grateful for that.
JT: Men Out Loud played a whole bunch of pride festivals last year. You seem like the ultimate pride group. I mean, you really camp it up, but at the same time you perform a really eclectic mix of songs, which I like. What are some of your memorable pride experiences from last year's tour?
RM: For me it was the traveling. I grew up in Texas, and until I was 19 I never even saw the outside of the state. So seven years later, going to 20 different cities in a year and half's time, it was so amazing to be able to feel the energy of so many different places. And representing our community in music and in spirit was the most special thing to me.
SR: You know, we get so jaded living in large cities and having gay pride festivals with hundreds of thousands of people. To go to a place like Wichita, Kansas…the fact that they even have a gay pride, which only has about 500 people, is what's most memorable.
Joseph Pearce: A young kid came up to me after we sang in Ottowa—he couldn't have been more than 16 years old—and he said that he was from some sort of a teenage crisis center, where they were counseling runaways. He said, 'I just wanted us to know how much your CD means to all of us at the center that I go to.' He said that it wasn't just that we were there, it was that we were proud to be there, and not hiding it, and even having fun with it.
RM: That's what the tour is about, right?
JT: Well, I definitely know that you sing some very gay songs, and others, like Bob Marley's "Jammin," which I loved by the way, are not very gay at all.
RM: We're always exploring different elements and styles.
SR: Because we're a cappella, four part harmony, part of the challenge of looking for new music is to do four part harmony with a song that most a cappella would never consider—Madonna for instance.
SS: It's funny to watch people, too. Because half way through a song, they suddenly realize that there's no music and that we're doing it with our voices.
JT: Is there a new album in the works?
SS: Yes. Danny Goldberg, the president of Mercury Records, is very supportive of us, and I also think very supportive of gay music and expanding to the gay community. The first album only has one original song and mostly covers, and this will be more like half and half, with more original work.
JT: When is the new album coming out?
SS: We're not really sure. It depends on a lot of factors, but it should definitely be out by the end of the year. ( Look for it in March 1999!!)
JT: And what are your plans for right now?
SS: Right now we've been going around taking the show to different places, but I'm already starting to book us for our gay pride tour '98.
JT: Is there anything I missed that our readers should know?
RM: Well, just for the record, three of us are single. And available!
SS: And I'm married, but I'm available too!