Ask The Group

Q: What is 'acappella'?

A: As you probably know, chapels are small places of worship that are frequently non-denominational and are found on a college campus, or attached to a hospital, funeral home, or full-sized church. They're usually quite small and don't have a pipe organ in them like a church would.

The Italian word for chapel is 'cappella'. So acappella music is singing "in the chapel style"' or, without instrumental accompaniment.

In contemporary acappella music the songs aren't necessarily religious anymore and occasionally percussion is used to enhance the sound, but never is there any sound that gives the group a sense of pitch.

Q: How come you don't put the space in the phrase 'a cappella'?

A: We prefer to spell it acappella even though we know it's technically wrong.

When you put the space in there about 1% of the population gets confused and will say stuff like "a cappella group" as if they're saying "a rock band". Then they ask us what kind of music "cappella" is.

When we explain that it's "acappella" and not "cappella", they usually make some joke asking us if we learned to sing "acappella in Acapulco".

Again, this is just about 1% of the population but enough to drive us to surrender to slight grammatical imperfections on our website.

Q: How do I start my own acappella group?

A: You don't start your own. You just listen to our group, and you like it. When the CD is finished, you put in another one of our CD's and keep listening.

We like to be the only ones singing this style of music and getting all of the gigs, so don't even try to start another group. (Yes, we're joking.)

Q: How did the group get started?

A: While attending Central Secondary School in London, Ontario, Jo3 Oliva co-founded a group that ended up morphing into The Essentials by the mid-90's.

Dan Speck joined in 1996.

Thom Speck was touring with a now defunct Saskatchewan-based acappella group called Streetnix and joined in 2005.

Janet Turner completed the puzzle in 2009.

Q: I've seen you guys performing with Luke Stapleton. What's his deal?

A: On occasion we've performed with Luke Stapleton who is a professional beatboxer (vocal percussionist). When the gig suits, and Luke is available, we replace our drums with Luke.

Q: Are Dan Speck and Thom Speck brothers?

A: Althrough the Specks see Jo3 as a "brother from another mother" and Janet as a "sister from another mister", Dan and Thom have the same parents, so they're the real kind of brothers. And, if you're curious, Dan is older but Thom claims to be wiser.

Q: You were an all-male group for so long. I'm not complaining but what made you think to add Janet?

A: We don't discriminate! We always thought it might be neat to have a female voice in the mix. When it came time to bring a new singer aboard we opened the auditions to anyone willing and Janet was the perfect fit.

Janet has all of the qualities that we were looking for in a bandmate. She's a great songwriter, singer, and performer, learns her parts quickly, is dedicated and fun to hang out with, and frequently brings freshly washed fruit to rehearsal for all to enjoy.

Q: I remember when Jo3 used to be Joe. What's up with that?

A: Good question. What is up with that?!

Q: I googled Dan Speck and found a pic of him playing a guitar. Do you guys play instruments?

A: Yes, we mostly do. Dan plays guitar, drums, and some keyboard. Thom plays bass guitar. Janet plays cello and enough keyboard to arrange a song. Jo3 knows his way around a keyboard (enough to arrange a song) but his fingers can't keep up to play live.

Q: Can Thom do that thing where you simultaneously rub your stomach in a circle and pat your head?

A: Yes. Yes he can.

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