Top 56 Quotes & Sayings by Kevin Olusola
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American musician Kevin Olusola.
Last updated on September 18, 2024.
The thing about the national anthem is that it's actually a pretty difficult song to sing for anybody.
Well, my parents live in Cambridge, Maryland.
We want to be considered a band, like Maroon 5 or Coldplay.
I want to be what Kenny G. and Carlos Santana were, but for this day and age.
Imogen Heap - she was in the baggage claim at the airport and was like, 'You're from Pentatonix, right?' She's like, I love you guys! I'm like, that's awesome.
Yeah, I would go to New England Conservatory a lot. My orchestra teacher ran a program for minority students there.
With an arena, it sounds so big and full sometimes it can obstruct the way we sing because we're hearing so much slapback and things like that.
Performing the American Music Awards and having Harrison Ford introduce you behind the John Williams orchestra for Star Wars, and then Meghan Trainor is in the front just standing up and like, 'I love you guys!' That was a huge moment.
From my situation as an African American person in the U.S., people may look at me and think a certain thing without getting to know me. I'm of Nigerian and Caribbean heritage. I went to Yale. What you see is not what you think you're getting.
For me, it's classical music I started with and I admire Jacqueline du Pre.
I finally realized that not only was I passionate about music, but I had a unique way of thinking of music.
I did a capella for a year at boarding school and then I stopped because at Yale, I think they really focus more on singing than having a beat behind them. So I just did my cello thing.
It's quite difficult to figure out a common thread among us all as we're five very different people who love different types of music.
If I'm fulfilled mentally, spiritually, and physically by my daily activities and I'm constantly striving to grow by living out of my comfort zone, then I am successful.
I grew up in Kentucky, and went to boarding school outside Boston at Phillips Academy Andover for two years.
I went to Yale for undergrad.
I loved the idea of playing cello whilst beatboxing, and I ran with it. I didn't realize that it would put me in front of people like Quincy Jones or Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang, or even lead me to my current job, being the beatboxer of Pentatonix.
My dad's from Nigeria and my mom's from Grenada and they both went into medicine. My dad's a psychiatrist and my mom's a nurse so I was going to go into medicine, also.
I think being part of Pentatonix has helped my arrangement style a lot, and that's helped me expand myself.
I have played Yamaha instruments since I was young, specifically their alto saxophones, and I have always appreciated their top-notch quality when it comes to making instruments.
Kids bring their mothers and grandmothers to our concerts. You don't see that with a lot of artists today.
I know a lot of people think a cappella is this cutesy, kind of novel thing.
I'm not perfect, I would never say that, I just believe that if I try my hardest to be consistent, show what I believe, and live it, most importantly, then that will hopefully shine through more.
Work extremely hard, but as you continue to rise up the ladder, never forget your roots or where you came from or the people that helped you along the way. Humility takes people the farthest.
We didn't really have a fan base to begin with. We kind of had one with 'The Sing-Of,' but it was relatively small.
Uh, I think so many things have happened in the mainstream that definitely brought awareness and attention to a cappella. The 'Pitch Perfect' movies, 'The Sing-Off' - I mean, the college a cappella scene definitely has become really hot, which is definitely wonderful.
The thing we get to do is bring music to people. I think that's the most important thing we can do. That's the way we show joy. That's the way we show love. That's way we show our gifts to so many.
I would say Whitney Houston's 'I Will Always Love You' is up there - it's one of the best.
We're a microcosm of America and are blessed to live in a country that's so diverse. While it's great for people to see that we can love and respect each other and work together, despite our differences, at the end of the day, we just want to make great music.
My parents always instilled in me to be a citizen of the world, so that's why I've taken to traveling and why it's such a huge part of my life.
To be able to wake up and know I get to do music every single day - arrange music, compose music, write music and to be with my four best friends in the world, and just to go and do performances and to tour, it's honestly a dream come true.
I studied a month in Costa Rica and loved it. I'm not scared to go abroad. I feel like I can figure things out and I know what to do.
I've always been technically a Christian, my Dad and my Mom, they're both Christians.
I think it'd be weird for us to do hard rock.
I am a singer, first and foremost, but the medium happens to be the cello.
It's really a blessing that our music can reach across generations.
I was actually going to go to a conservatory after I graduated college, now I'm thankful that Pentatonix happened because I'm working with singers in this realm of mainstream music, and to learn about how all that comes together has really helped my cello playing.
I absolutely love Shirley Temples. I don't know why, but ever since I was young, it's always been my favorite thing to drink!
I don't even want to say I'm trying to necessarily popularize classical music, I just want to take this thing, this cello, this sound, and make it artistic so people can understand it today.
When you think about choir music, that's a cappella. You have church choir that you would sing without any instrument. I think the popular form that we have now is barbershop in the 20th century, and the collegiate movement.
Christmas and a cappella - what we learned really, really well is that they go extremely well together.
A cappella music has always been around. It's such an old form.
We can watch videos of our whole journey - from old tours to doing the AMAs (American Music Awards) in 2013 and through the 'Star Wars' medley or when we sang with Stevie Wonder on the Grammys. I just sit back and say, 'I can't believe we did all this!'
I never thought that I would pursue a cappella music. I went to Yale College and I was going to go into the medical field.
The second we were done on 'The Sing-Off,' we were like, 'All right, now we're competing with Rihanna and Taylor Swift.' We've always set the bar high. We want a hit.
When I was at Yale, I was one of the students chosen to go to China. I lived there for 1-1/2 years and I can speak Mandarin fluently.
Of the members of the band, I'm the biggest Michael Jackson fan.
That's something Pentatonix tries to do in all of our music. We try to keep it clean so that everybody can come to our shows.
I would have never thought to put cello and beatboxing together. But I did, and it was extremely hard work to make it cohesive and musical, but it worked.
I will say, all the Barden Bellas are hot.
The reason immigrants come to America is to provide their kids with opportunities, but when they say 'opportunity,' they mean a prestigious job and career. When I had the epiphany that I could do music and sustain myself, they were like, 'OK, son, we need to talk to you.'
I actually love the challenge of being in a new place where I'm so obviously the foreigner.
My original plan was to be a surgeon.
With social media, if you have a viral video people can like what you do and it's homegrown and very organic.
Doing 'New Rules x Are You That Somebody?' was really, really fun.
My parents always wanted me to do music because they thought it was such a great extracurricular activity but we never thought it was going to be something that would be my career.
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