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VoicePlay Mini: Pink Pony Club

Featuring Ashley Diane

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Voiceplay Visuals - Hunt The Sky

Hello friends! It's been a Hot Minute since I've done one of these (6 months, in fact), but finally we're back with a super cool and complex video to talk about!

(If you wanna see my other Voiceplay Visuals posts, go HERE, and if you missed my musical breakdown of Hunt The Sky, go HERE)

Hunt The Sky was released on the 13th of June, 2025 (or the 14th of June if you live in Australia or New Zealand, like myself), and was not only arranged by Layne, but also co-written by him! He and Tony Wakim (former VoicePlay member and co-owner of Pattycake Productions, together with Layne) wrote Hunt The Sky as VoicePlay's first ever original song! (Well, I'm pretty sure they have at least one original Christmas song, and they had some originals back when they were 4:2:Five, but this is their first proper original in many years, and the first to get a music video!). And who else could they invite to collab for their first proper original than J None, who's basically still an honorary member anyway? (And hopefully, one day, might join the group permanently again?)

There are some other credits in the description to acknowledge - Layne, for example, is also credited with creative direction and editing - but I shall leave the rest for within the post itself! So without further ado, Let's Get Into This!!!

Dragon Counter: 1 (Yes, I've decided to count how many dragons are seen in this video, because while not).

Shoutout to Eli for once again being the tech wizard that he is, and creating all the cool visual effects for this video! He used Unreal Engine, which is the same computer program that he used for My Mother Told Me and for Valhalla Calling, but honestly this is some of his best work yet imo. Like damn, he can do all this, and do lighting design/lighting tech, and sing????

I love that it even got the detail right of the dragon's pupil contracting/getting thinner as it opens its eye, before then dilating slightly.

(More below cut!)

Dragon Counter: three 2

What a freaking CHOICE it was to have Geoff be the very first person we see and hear in this song. Like goddamn they're pulling no punches!

Behind Geoff, we have a body of water illuminated by an Aurora Borealis, (certainly nicer than the background he had for My Mother Told Me!), and off to the right, there's a viking ship, which maybe has a fire on it, so either a viking funeral ship, or simply a ship which has caught on fire from a dragon attack.

Dragon Counter: 4

Also in regards to the dragon flying in the background behind Geoff in the previous shot, I like that the video also adds in the sound effect of the dragon flapping its wings as it comes closer to the foreground, just to make it that extra bit immersive!

Well there's definitely some fire in Cesar's shot!

In the background is a small village, and behind that I believe is a fjord? I can see some mountains and a bit of water where some ships are.

Does that coat look familiar? It should! It's now been worn by every current permanent member of VoicePlay! (Yes, I am in fact going to make a post dedicated to it at some point). Layne wore this coat (with the embroided arm cuff and the thin fluffy grey trim going down) in both My Mother Told Me and Valhalla Calling, as his appearance was pretty much identical between those two videos, but now the coat has been handed off to Cesar! (But he does also appear to be wearing an extra fur cloak thing on top of it)

Additionally, the dark grey glossy "chestplate" thing is I think something that J wore in Valhalla Calling and My Mother Told Me?

(If you want side-by-side comparisons of everyone's appearances in the three VoicePlay viking videos, see my photo collage HERE!)

Lots of water in the background here! In fact it even kinda looks like it could be the same body of water as seen in Cesar's background, but just further down the way.

Dragon Counter: 5

Dragon Counter: 6 (I like this one as it gives me Night Fury vibes (yes I'm a HTTYD fan, and an animation loyalist/purist specifically!))

And again you can hear sounds of the dragon flying through the air! (Pretty sure it's not on the main audio track, and thus I'm talking about it here instead).

Also I just realized now that these shots (dragon-Layne-dragon) are fully on beat, which is cool!

No water to be found here, but there's fire both in the foreground and in the background!

I like the blue colour of Eli's tunic(?) - immediately made me think of Astrid ngl

(Shoutout to Tony for costuming btw)

I also actually kinda like how Eli's left foot is partially obscured by a small rock, and his right foot is hidden entirely by a large one that he's standing behind! It adds a bit of extra "depth" to the scene!

Fun fact: 11 days before Patrons received Hunt The Sky, we were given a sneak peek image, but the screenshot only showed close-up images (head to torso) of J, Cesar, and Eli. No backgrounds were shown, and no shot of Geoff or Layne either. Honestly it was probably for the best - we would have lost our dang minds had we seen what Geoff looked like ahead of time 😂

Us Patrons who get to watch monthly webchats did know that there was an arm tattoo involved (Geoff told us how much of a pain it was to fully remove), and so I was excited to see what it was, and boy it didn't disappoint! It's an incredible design, but man oh man it would be such a pain if somebody were planning to make fanart based on this video! (*cough cough*)

Also this is the most facial hair we've seen Geoff have in a VoicePlay video, and the most natural facial hair he's had for any video! (i.e., that ain't fake!) It makes sense - of course a fearsome, rugged viking man wouldn't be clean-shaven! (As much as I think Geoff looks very nice in Valhalla Calling ^^;) (Geoff was quite keen to shave as soon as he could after he was done filming his parts though - the beard was apparently driving him a little crazy, lol)

Dragon Counter: 7 (and again, a bit of dragon noises here!)

You can't see any water in the background here, but you can see a boat, so I'm assuming that there is in fact water back there (and hey! no fire!). But another cool thing about his background is that in some shots, there are flashes of lightning in the top right area where the clouds are!

I just realised that J's shoes are actually just regular black boots (and very shiny ones at that), but they're just partially covered by the furry leg warmer thingies (which kinda look like the same ones that Eli also wears in this video, and in fact absolutely could be the same pair, as everyone's parts were done one-by-one, so no two people were in full costume at one time).

Also goddamn how many different fur coats/cloaks have VoicePlay worn for different videos? Excluding That Specific Coat(tm), I'm not sure if there's any fur thing that has ever been reworn by anyone!

I'm not really sure what the proper term is, but I love the design at the front of the wide "belt" thing that J's wearing. It's got dragons (or at least some sort of serpent creatures) on it, and then Nordic runes around the border of it!

In terms of appearances, the thing that's remained most consistent with the guys across the three videos (or two, in Cesar's case), is their makeup, but particularly for J and Cesar. As usual, Rick Underwood was credited with makeup design, but he wasn't actually the one applying the makeup on set this time! That credit goes to a woman by the name of Alexis Rios, according to the video description. I was surprised to not see him at all in the BTS video for this, and to see someone else doing the makeup instead, but I think I've heard that he's been employed by Universal Studios to help with the new Epic Universe theme park? So that's definitely pretty cool. And hey, Alexis did a great job! Totally nailed the assignment!

I can't really capture it in still images, but this is a cool moment that I wanna talk about regardless. On the first "no rest till we hunt the sky" There's a shot of Cesar, starting to raise his left hand, and then there's a shot of Geoff, raising his left hand from a slightly higher position, like continuing the same motion!

(56 seconds in and already at 13 pictures!)

Dragon Counter: 7 (I also quite like this shot!)

Dragon Counter: 8 (and a fire-breathing one this time!)

Oh and yes, elephant in the room: Layne has long hair extensions in this video! Somehow it has not changed Layne's appearance whatsover, at least not to my brain/eyes 😅

Dragon Counter: 9

I'm no weapons expert, but it's probably not the safest or the most effective method to hold an axe so close to the blade, right? Also I've heard of dual-wielding swords, but dual-wielding axes? Is that actually a thing? It doesn't seem very practical, but I guess it looks cool, if nothing else (though there've definitely been Patrons joking about how most of guys look like they've never handled a weapon in their life 😂)

I wanted at least one shot of all five of them together in this post, and I like how in this video, the order that they're all shown in doesn't always stay the same! And usually the person who's doing the lead vocals at the current moment is put in the middle if they have all 5 of them on screen!

(And by sheer luck/coincidence, this positioning/lineup order is identical to the thumbnail for My Mother Told Me, except with Cesar instead of Jose of course)

The first time I saw this, the reaction my brain had was basically just "!!!!!!!"

I think back to my Voiceplay Visuals for Seven Nation Army, where I said that I would've loved to see Geoff swinging his sledgehammer at stuff (well I called it a bat, but y'know). This is a totally different vibe, and totally different look for Geoff, but hey, I'll certainly take it!

(Fun fact: he actually threw his axe at Layne! (Layne was holding up like a pillow I think? (or a board) to protect his face, so he was fine, and it's just a prop axe, obviously)

Oh and the sound in the video of Geoff throwing the axe is not actually a stock sound effect! Layne couldn't find a sound that suited what he was looking for, so he just... did it himself! Y'know, as you do! (He also did a couple of the sound effects in Valhalla Calling)

Imo, a world where dragons exist is a world where a B0 subharmonic is fully audible to the human ear*, and in that world, if I heard something like that come out of someone looking like this, I'd probably start running away very quickly, or at least hope to gods that I wasn't an enemy of his!

*(very low subharmonics are often very quiet sounding without any microphone usage and/or post-production editing. It's not really a skill issue or anything like that, it's just physics of sound waves and stuff, combined with our hearing limitations).

Dragon Counter: 12

Eli: "Hey Layne how many dragons do you want in this video?" Layne: "Yes."

Dragon Counter: 13

Shoutout to Layne btw - of course everyone killed it with the acting in this, and Layne's always been great at doing "crazy eyes", but I reckon he really stepped up the fearsome-ness vibe for himself in this video compared to MMTM and Valhalla Calling 😁

Fabulous cloak toss!

(Cesar was also brilliant with the character acting in this - 10/10 no notes 👌)

Cesar doesn't just have red on his forehead btw; it's also partially on his ears! (And apparently it took quite some time and effort to fully be removed!) (It's kinda funny because red is also Cesar's "Grundel" colour!)

(Oh and I like the use of "shaky cam" during parts of this video for extra impact!)

Final Dragon Count: 14

A great ending shot honestly

And that's Hunt The Sky! Y'know this year I've been thinking about how I've just been waiting for a 2025 VoicePlay cover to really come and fully blow me away and knock me off my feet, and well, I got one! I found it! Boy did they ever deliver!

Honestly this is gonna be hard to beat in terms of my favourite VoicePlay cover for 2025. Like unless they do another Disney song cover this year (*cough* Gaston *cough*), this might easily remain in my top spot for the rest of the year. And hey, I'll let you in on a little secret: this is not the last VoicePlay original planned! We might not get another till like 2026 maybe. idk, but we will definitely get at least one or two more at some point!

Anyway, here's hoping I get to do at least one more Voiceplay Visuals post before the year is out, because these take A While to make, sure, but they're also really fun to do! So until next time! 👋

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Aw. No Jose? Still pretty awesome :)

My Mother Told Me (2021) // Valhalla Calling (2023) // Hunt The Sky (2025)

(With only two images for Cesar for obvious reasons)

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VoicePlay ORIGINAL SONG!

Hunt The Sky - A Capella Premiere

Featuring J.None

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2021 VoicePlay summer activites — fluctuations, family, friends, and fun

As the weather heated up, VoicePlay and their many pals just kept rolling. The spring had brought a number of changes to their ranks and plans, and that would continue through the summer. Production schedules wait for no one, but that doesn't mean the work can't be enjoyable, or that there's no time for rest. And when you do what you love with good people, the time just flies by.

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Away we go

VoicePlay started July (and the holiday weekend) on a relaxing note with a rendition of the main theme from Minecraft. It was also the last video in their first batch of shorts featuring Adriana and Cesar to be released to the public.

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Because entertainers and the venues that employ them have to make plans many months in advance, the gang at Hawkmoon Creative celebrated a bit of Christmas in July by putting out a promo for their holiday a cappella group, Sleigh. It had been filmed at the PattyCake studio, and featured several famliar folks singing Kelly Clarkson's "Underneath the Tree".

(Hi, Omar! Hi, Joey! Hi, Labri!)

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The next day, Geoff did some delving on his own with a bassier version of "Far Over the Misty Mountains Cold" from the first Hobbit movie. After a full year of solo videos that were often "just [him] in four different shirts", he decided it was time to get more ambitious with the costumes, wigs, and set dressing.

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Feeling the love

After having a nice Independence Day weekend, VoicePlay celebrated a milestone that had been a long time coming. They'd finally reached 1 million subscribers on YouTube! To commemorate the occasion, they created a montage of video thumbnails from nearly a decade of hard work set to their karaoke track for "I Love Me".

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A post shared by VoicePlay (@thevoiceplay)

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Animated adventures

The next week, Layne and Tony rounded up their "Villains Lair" cast to finally film the second season premiere. Between the usual tricky logistics and necessary pandemic precautions, they had been itching to get the series up and running again. The gang was so eager to continue their story that they even relocated their set to a different space in the building while their usual studio was being renovated.

photo by Rich Pope for the Orlando Sentinel

Then VoicePlay kicked off the weekend by releasing a frenetic version of The Simpsons theme with Deejay Young.

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Who's the new guy?

The next day, the group officially announced that Cesar had become their new full-time member. With both Earl and J.None retiring from the group in less than a year, the remaining members of VoicePlay needed to act quickly to replenish their numbers. Even though they hadn't been actively touring since the start of the pandemic, the logistics of their video production schedule and occasional live events meant that arranging guest singers for every project was that much more difficult. They at least needed a fourth permanent member, and they couldn't draw out the process for a year or more as they had when bringing J onboard.

Urgency didn't mean sacrificing quality or compatability, though. They got very lucky in finding Cesar, a multi-talented performer with boundless energy, who the other three had somehow never met through their many mutual acquaintences.

He was in the rotating lineup of Paradigm Party Band with J.None for a couple years, and his production company Push Love had collaborated with them even before Cesar started performing with them.

He's best friends with Omar Cardona, and they were roommates for several years.

He's in two gig bands with EJ Cardona through Hawkmoon Creative — The Vybe; and Element, also with EJ's wife Lindsay Flick Carodona of The American Sirens, and PattyCake stalwart Michelle Knight.

He's in Evolution: Motown for Victory Productions, which is co-lead by E. Michael Evans, who plays Gaston in PattyCake's Villains Lair series.

He had known Deejay Young since high school, as they had attended neighboring schools. They then worked together at both Disney World and Universal Studios Japan.

His first job in Orlando was the Disney Channel Rocks show at Disney World with Deejay, Omar, and Tony Wakim.

He was in a 2019 production of Into the Woods alongside Robby Pigott, who plays Captain Hook in The Villains Lair, and Sarah Whittemore from Vocatve and Voices of Liberty, who was part of Hawkmoon's "Moonlight Cabaret" series earlier in the year.

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Friends new and old

The first long-form video with Cesar in the permanent lineup added another new collaborator, the lovely and talented Ashley Diane. They mashed up a Broadway classic with a little early-2000s pop to create an absolute bop in "If I Were a Rich Man / Girl".

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When Layne finally joined TikTok, his first post was perfectly him — beatboxing for a puppy that a passerby had asked him to watch for a few minutes.

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A few days later, a promo for one of Cesar's other gig bands dropped. The Vybe got their Muses on with a fun cover of "Zero to Hero" from Hercules.

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As July drew to a close, the guys welcomed founding 4:2:Five member Scott Porter home for a visit by slapping some fake dirt on him and sticking him in front of a green screen. The resulting "HALO theme" video wouldn't be seen by their Patreon patrons or the public for a couple months, but it was definitely worth the wait.

(Filming in Layne's home studio means he doesn't have to wear shoes.)

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Musical melange

The end of the month and into early August brought the first of several performances for Cesar at the annual EPCOT Food & Wine Festival. Element gave the crowd a rocking good time and center stage ASL interpretation over four days of shows.

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The following weekend, VoicePlay released their next short with Deejay, a surprising twist on "Mr. Sandman".

The week after that, the guys traded their bowties and button-down shirts for scars and swords to film a haunting rendition of "Hoist the Colours" from the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie. They had to scramble a bit when their intended guest performer couldn't get to town, but Jose Rosario Jr. was happy to come back and play again on short notice.

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A brief respite

In the middle of the month, the guys took a bit of well-deserved time off to have some summer fun. Layne, Cyndi, and the girls met up with extended family for an annual reunion trip.

Meanwhile, J.None posted a quick check-in to prove that he had survived Navy boot camp in Illinois, and was headed to his original home state of Virginia for the next stage in his more focused training for the band.

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A post shared by J.None 🧈🎶 🎙📝🎬🎹🎸📽🤣 (@itsjnone)

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Workaholic Cesar didn't slow down for long. First he popped over to the Entertainment Central offices for some multi-lingual fun as part of an array of performers who recorded demo tracks in English, Mandarin, and Spanish to test the sound system at a new arena.

Then he met up with his Vybe bandmates for that group's first round of shows at the Food & Wine Festival.

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As the month neared its end, PattyCake announced the dates for their rescheduled Villains Lair donate-a-thon livestreams. They would now take place over the week leading up to the season premiere.

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Sing out loud

The guys kicked off Labor Day weekend with a flurry of varied content. During a bit of downtime at home, Cesar coaxed Omar into belting a bit of Dear Evan Hansen on TikTok.

Then Geoff took a trip to the "House of the Rising Sun" accompanied by his usual trio of clones.

As J.None moved forward in his Navy training, Tara Simon Studios posted one last vocal tutorial featuring him and fellow coach Nikki. This one demonstrates some techniques for improving breath control and capacity.

And PattyCake unleashed more hype for the upcoming season of The Villains Lair with a trailer. Between the new looks for returning baddies and a couple compelling teaser shots of new ones, the fans were very excited.

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Flights of whimsy

Over the long weekend, the Castellucci and Palazzolo families had an outing at a local alpaca farm, where Geoff met some kindred spirits.

A few days later, Cesar headed back to the Entertainment Central studio for a fun superhero-themed virtual event.

VoicePlay leaped into the next weekend with some Muppety fun in a short rendition of "Magic Dance" from Labyrinth with Jose.

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In their continued push to gain funding for The VIllains Lair and their many other projects, PattyCake released a new Patreon promo video. Those bad guys can be such divas, and it takes a whole team to wrangle them.

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Fantasy, sci-fi, and fun

When their "Hoist the Colours" video was ready to set sail, VoicePlay released it unto the world.

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Toward the end of the month, CreepyKingdom.com published a series of interviews by Jaimz Dillman with her PattyCake castmates Kimberly Zurzulo (Winnie Sanderson), Helaina Wize (Mother Gothel), Chris Ross (Dr. Facilier), James Keaton (Walt Disney), and Robby Pigott (Captain Hook).

VoicePlay started the final weekend of September with their next short, a fantastic rendition of the Doctor Who theme with Jose.

PattyCake joined in on the fun by releasing the Villains Lair season premiere to the public. After the defeats and betrayals in the first chapter of their story, our cadre of nasties regrouped to proclaim that "It's Not Over Yet".

When J.None's first real leave from the Navy rolled around, he made good on his promise that he wouldn't be away from his VoicePlay brothers forever. He scooted back to Orlando to get in on the year's spooky season fun with a full version of "Friends on the Other Side" from The Princess and the Frog.

While J was in town, they also filmed two shorts — a medley of themes from horror movies, and "Remember Me" from Coco.

As September neared its end and summer crept toward autumn, the guys made an exciting announcement. They would be part of the lineup of musicians and artists for the first concert celebrating the music from the video game Genshin Impact. The segments were pre-recorded and would air on the first Sunday in October.

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Since regular live performances still weren't in full swing yet, sound engineer extraordinaire Paul Kaleka spent a bit of his free time organizing the paraphernalia he'd acquired over the past few years and reminiscing about busier times.

Paul's badges from — VoicePlay's shows at Cactus Petes in April 2019; Total Vocal concert 2018; [unidentified]; Destination Imagination Global Finals in May 2016; VoiceJam A Cappella Festival in April 2018; Backstreet Boys 2019 reunion tour; SoJam A Cappella Festival in November 2018 with VoicePlay; and SoJam in November 2019 with The Exchange

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The end of the year would bring more ambitious projects, side gigs, and milestones, but those tales will keep for a while yet.

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More epic tunes from VoicePlay!

VoicePlay ORIGINAL SONG!

Hunt The Sky - A Capella Premiere

Featuring J.None

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This video dropped to Patreon on the 17th of May, coming a whole two months after the Patreon release of Human. And finally, after another excruciating four weeks of waiting, we are less than 24 hours away from it hitting YouTube!

But fortunately, this new VoicePlay thing is VERY MUCH WORTH THE WAIT! A VoicePlay original song was very much not on my bingo card for this year but BOY am I excited for it!!! And just like with the previous video, this one is also kinda-sorta trying to get in on some of the hype for a new media release, as this is being released not long after the live action How To Train Your Dragon hit cinemas (personally I'd like to pretend that that movie just doesn't exist, but I respect VoicePlay finding a way to post this at an "extra relevant" time).

But back to the me who was typing this before watching the Patreon release:

This is gonna be the best thing I have ever seen, it's probably gonna be my favourite VP thing of 2025 and I don't know how anything else is going to beat it (unless they still find time later in the year to do Gaston, in which case maybe), and I can't wait to watch it! See y'all tomorrow for my musical analysis, and then see you a couple days or so after that for a brand new Voiceplay Visuals post!! (Though if you're gonna be at the live premiere for this on YouTube, I'll see you there also!) We're!! So!! Back!!!!

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Hunt The Sky - thoughts/commentary

Oh good lord almighty that was freaking incredible! Man, I know it's a good one when I can't even look directly at any of their faces for most of the time because it's just so overwhelming!!! In a good way!!! But I don't need to think too much about the actual video right now anyway, because this video is absolutely getting its own Voiceplay Visuals post! (And note that I write my thoughts/commentary posts on the day the video hits Patreon, but if I choose to also make a visual analysis post, I wait until it hits YouTube, so there's a definite time gap!) So just to fully confirm: This post is just about the musical and lyrical elements - I will make a separate post for the video itself

Now obviously I can't pull up lyrics from the internet like I usually do for my second watch, and Patreon videos don't have proper subtitles/closed captions like YouTube does, but Huldra Draco (one of the Patrons who also has her on YouTube channel posting lots of fan content for VoicePlay/Geoff) has already transcribed the video to the best of her ability and posted the lyrics in the Patrons Discord server, so I'll be using those!

Analysis below the cut!

Right off the bat, I have to remind myself that this is all acapella, and so that opening chord/note (idk) that kinda sounds like it's from one or more low-pitched string instruments is actually coming from a person? Probably? Like one or more of the guys humming, but maybe with a bit of post-production editing on it?

And then there's a rumbling dragon-like sound, which is almost definitely just an added-in sound effect, like the little lion sound in Be Prepared.

Geoff starts the song right down in the basement, and you can pretty much guarantee that he's not gonna go any higher for the whole song (just like in Valhalla Calling, and also My Mother Told Me, to an extent)

I'm going through these lyrics bit by bit, so I'm not gonna scan through the full thing right now (though I might come back to this dot point at the end), but just based off my memory of my first viewing, I don't think they actually say/sing the word "dragon/s" at all? (UPDATE: okay nevermind, there is a line a bit later, at about the 1:15 mark, where it goes "the dragons fall and we stake our claim")

Just like with My Mother Told Me and Valhalla Calling, Layne gives himself a little lead vocal part, and We Love To See It <3 (or hear it, I guess)

Oooh that change in the harmonised humming in the background! Right before "the fires roar, the night grows near", like it sounds kinda discordant? dissonant? Idk I really am not great at music theory, maybe it's just in minor key and that's it, but yeah the humming becomes more kind of eerie in a way, like it puts you on edge!

Oh wow the harmonies on the actual lyrics are doing a lot as well! So much variety! And although Geoff stays down in the basement for his lead vocal lines, I think there's at least one point where he goes a bit higher than usual in the backing harmonies, on the lyric "from cliff to cloud", specifically on the word "cloud" it's the most noticeable. It makes sense, as it fits with the lyrics - they're singing about cliffs and clouds, things high up, and so the vocals raise up a little as well.

I went through all of what I wrote here and was like "oh I don't think I entioned Cesar or J at all, whoops". Of course I'll give all five of them shoutouts in my VoicePlay visuals, but definitely kudos to them musically as well! All brilliant as ever! I also like the bit of accent Cesar puts on "the dragons fall and we stake our claim"!

This song is so good and captivating that both on my first watch and on this second watch I completely didn't even think about beatboxing/vocal percussion, until Layne actually started doing it, and I was like "oh right, that's what Layne usually does in VoicePlay songs". They're getting freaking strategic lately with choosing when to bring the vocal percussion in honestly!

Of course if you're gonna have Geoff down in depths, you might as well 'balance it out' with Eli soaring up into the sky!

"Through strength and unbroken W I L L L L L" hey Geoff what the HECK was that?!!? Damn, we haven't been totally devoid of subharmonics from either channel so far this year, but it's been a hot minute since there's been a new song with a "Geoffquake" so low and so thick that it gets me all tense and hunched up! And he sustains it for a little bit just into the next vocal line! Good lord! Like are we sure that he isn't secretly just a dragon in disguise?

UPDATE: That was a freaking B0!!!! Like y'know, what he did in Valhalla Calling (and Halo Theme), but even thicker sounding! MAN!

Ooh that was a cool use of sound effects (like swords slicing against each other?) behind the "shield wall strong" lyric, and in time as well! And then everything in the background drops out for just a moment as Eli keeps singing, and then it comes back again!

"We fear no beast at all" the start of that lyric is about the highest Geoff goes on a lead vocal line for like the whole song, and even then it's like probably still only 2nd octave at highest, and he descends down at the end of the line again.

"No rest till we hunt the skyyyYYYYYYYY!!!!" HOLY- ! ELI! I think I might have been so overwhelmed the first time around that I didn't fully process this bit! My god! We get Geoff descending into the deepest bowels of hell, and then like 30 seconds later we get Eli rocketing up into the heavens and beyond! (UPDATE: it's a F#5 apparently). (If any group wants to cover this - good freaking luck!)

Despite all this talking I have done about the song, as I listen through bit by bit, I am still left speechless by the end of it! I mean like yeah, god, wow, it's incredible! Man I can't wait to watch some reaction videos to this! But anyway, me typing this has to wait three weeks until it even hits YouTube, but you reading this only have to wait a couple of days or so (give or take, we'll see), before you get a new Voiceplay Visuals post where I delve into everything the video itself had on display! See you then!

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VoicePlay ORIGINAL SONG!

Hunt The Sky - A Capella Premiere

Featuring J.None

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Where is the a cappella fandom on this terrible website when I need it??? When I am losing my shit over every little thing Adam Bastien does with Home Free???? When I am finally, truly going on a Voiceplay binge and being pulled into the Geoff Castellucci vortex?? I am suffering!!!!!

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Hoist the Colours — VoicePlay music video

Dirges aren't generally intended to be entertaining, but the opening scene to the third Pirates movie included a surprisingly compelling one. When VoicePlay got their hands on it, they turned it into an even more dramatic experience, emphasizing the defiance of the moment when the crew have nothing left to lose. Lash yourself to the mast and hang on for an exciting voyage.

Details:

title: Hoist the Colours (feat. Jose Rosario Jr.)

original performers: cast of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)

written by: lyrics by Ted Elliot & Terry Rossio; music by Hans Zimmer & Gore Verbinski

arranged by: Geoff Castellucci

release date: 17 September 2021

My favorite bits:

passing the opening verse between Jose, Cesar, and Eli with everyone providing soft, mournful harmonies

the dramatic red lighting during moments of silence

the group swaying in unison during the first chorus as though they're on the deck of a ship

that first big subharmonic drop to the seafloor from Geoff, appropriately on ♫ "diiie" ♫

Cesar's unblinking stare into the camera during ♫ "some men have died and some are alive" ♫

Eli putting a little extra grit into ♫ "the devil to pay" ♫ 😈

the vertiginous scene transition of Layne's sword wiping the screen and the camera tilting up from a dutch angle

Layne using gasping sounds and shuffling fricatives in his percussion to evoke the prisoners' procession toward the gallows

shifting into an eerily major key for ♫ "hear its sepulchral tone" ♫

Jose and Cesar's delicate descending riff of ♫ "colours oh" ♫ under Eli's powerful belted ♫ "hiiigh" ♫

the slow layering of the repeated ♫ "Yo ho" ♫ section that then turns into polyphony

Geoff leaping up two octaves to kick off the ♫ "never die" ♫ canon

just the standing trio soaring into the clouds with ♫ "hoist the cooo-ooo-loours" ♫ punctuated by Jose's dramatic sword thrust and the bright flash of cannon fire

Eli's sustained belt of ♫ "diiie" ♫ as everyone else keeps moving

all five voices creating such a lush sound on the last line

the reverberation of that final chord over the silhouetted tableau

Trivia:

Among the scar makeup put on the guys was a raised "VP" on each of their hands / forearms. It reflects a real late 17th-century practice in which captured pirates were branded with a "P". It mostly occured in the Indian Ocean under the auspices of the British East India Company, and was the inspiration for the mark on Jack Sparrow's arm in the Pirates movies.

Jose was not the group's original featured guest for this song. When Anthony Gargiula was unable to fly to Florida due to Covid travel restrictions, the guys reached out to find a local replacement and did some quick re-recording. Eli took on the higher part, and Jose stepped into the tenor 2 spot.

They did eventually record a simpler, more somber version with Anthony as a short four years later.

The guys indulged in some thematically appropriate snacks when they wrapped, and the official Pirates Booty™ social media manager was suitably impressed.

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Pirate captain Jose returned a couple years later for a very silly rendition of "Drunken Sailor".

The gold coin medalion around Jose's neck in this was subsequently claimed by Layne for their "Yo Ho (A Pirates Life for Me" short and "Drunken Sailor" video.

The arrangement process for this song likely started in the spring, as evidenced by the excerpt Geoff put on TikTok in late April. The fall release date seems to have been timed to line up with International Talk Like a Pirate Day, and also provided an early start to the group's annual spooky season offerings.

Jose joined the chat for the YouTube premiere and was delighted by everyone's lovely comments.

Several of their musical colleagues have also taken a stab at this song, including The Bass Singers of TikTok, Colm McGuinness, Malinda and friends, and Lauren Paley. Many of those folks appear as collaborators in each other's recordings.

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So the wait for new videos has in fact not been getting any shorter or less agonising, but hey, let's be real, I will always still continue to watch and enjoy any and all new Geoff/VoicePlay videos released, no matter how long they take, and I will still continue to post about them, like I'm doing right now! (Actually I've had to edit my draft posts, because I was expecting Hunt The Sky to release first, but no! It got pushed back a week!!!!!!)

Some context on this cover: the collaborator, Scott Porter, is not only a former member of VoicePlay in their pre-"VoicePlay" days (he was their first beatboxer!), but he's also an actor, and currently appears in the Netflix series Ginny & Georgia, in an important recurring role. Apparently this song was featured in an major scene for Scott's character in season 2, and so VoicePlay is releasing this cover just after the release of season 3.

Us Patrons were told multiple things about the video and the filming/editing process (including the difficulties that were had with it), but I won't give everything away right now (and plus I know nothing about the original song anyway). I'll see you all tomorrow for my thoughts/analysis post!

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Until I Found You - thoughts/commentary

Acapella. It's better with instruments!

If I wasn't on either Patreon, and you had told me that Geoff had arranged a cover of a sweet love song, and that the music video involved him playing piano, I would have put another cross on two of my (already-crossed) squares on my Geoff Castellucci Bingo for 2025! But no, it's for VoicePlay!

The video is pretty simple, so I'll talk about it here as well rather than do Voiceplay Visuals for this one, but man, you wouldn't believe the stress it caused Geoff while editing! (Something got switched during filming and then wasn't switched back, in short, and nobody realised till it was too late). The song also doesn't have a ton of lyrics, not even with the repeated lines, but I'll still get lyrics up on my phone to follow along with, and we'll see what I can break down and talk about! More below!

First things first, is this the same filming location as The Way You Make Me Feel? (Update: yes it is! Starke Lake Studios!) I'm pretty sure I made a joke at some point (on Discord if not somewhere on Tumblr) about the piano being there in the video for an acapella song/ Welp, I think I must have been hit by Apollo's dodgeball without realising it! 😅

Another video note: Geoff's got his smartwatch on, as usual, but not his wristbands!

Scott is wearing a blue wristband that appears to have writing on it which I couldn't quite make out in the video, but it's related to Scott's work with the Huntington's Disease Society Of America, and it says "Family is Everything". His mother-in-law has Huntington's, and his wife has the gene for it and so will develop it at some point in her life, and so Scott is a big advocate for funding, research, and awareness <3

A couple of Patrons were a bit "ehhh"/so-so about the lighting, with the bright lights shining towards the camera, and sometimes obscuring Scott, and yeah I kinda sorta feel in agreement, but also it's similar to the lighting set-up in TWYMMF, and it makes me think of Mr Blue Sky, as I remember having slight troubles finding clear screenshots from it because of the bright lights. (Weirdly enough, those two videos and this one are all Geoff arrangements).

What can I say, Scott has a nice voice! There's a reason he made it all the way to the grand finale of The Masked Singer USA last year! (And 2nd place is certainly nothing to sneeze at!)

Me, watching this for the first time: where's everyone else? Oh there they are!

When the chorus started, I honestly expected finger snaps to start happening - like it's got that kind of doo-wop feel to it (and also Geoff loves throwing some finger snaps into a song when he can!)

I'm now just focusing on the lyrics and not the video, just to pay better attention to the audio, and oh hey there's a heartbeat sound in the latter half of the first chorus, which I didn't pick up on the first time around! (It's likely Layne making the noise, I bet)

Geoff on lead vocals for the second verse, oh my 🫠

"You fell, I... caught ya," interesting pause in that line, which I'm willing to bet isn't like that in the original! Also Geoff sings "caught ya" on a lower note than the start of the line, so his voice "fell", so it's kinda sorta text painting? A bit?

"Oh I used to saaayyyy" you can't sneak that subharmonic past me! (One of the Patrons identified it as an Eb1)

Okay so they end the song with a repeat of the first two lines of the song, which isn't how the song ends according to Genius and Google, but apart from that it's basically identical in structure.

This one was more or less a showcase for Scott Porter - a rare case of only having two vocalists on actual lyrics for the whole song. Layne still did great on beatboxing, Eli had some great runs and bits of lead harmonies, and Scott's voice sounds so similar to Cesar's in parts that it was hard to tell at some point who was "on top" in the harmonies! It doesn't beat Human for me, and I'm not sure whether I'd put it above or below Heavy Is The Crown, but it's going onto my Spotify playlist regardless! (It's been a while since I've really listened to my playlist all that much, but hey, it's there for when/if I want it!)

I hope that this video brings in a sizable portion of new fans to VoicePlay, honestly I really do. It's a nice song, and a nice arrangement, but was it really worth delaying Hunt The Sky by a week in favour of this, just so it could be released closer to Ginny & Georgia season 3? I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

But anyway, see you fam next week!

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VoicePlay A Capella Premiere ft. Scott Porter: Until I Found You Stephen Sanchez cover, from Netflix's Ginny & Georgia

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VoicePlay Mini ft. Ashley Diane: Steve's Lava Chicken by Jack Black, from A Minecraft Movie

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Butter — VoicePlay music video

This is a video you're going to want to watch many times — partly because it's a darn catchy song, but mostly because you can't possibly catch all the shenanigans happening in a single viewing. Rather than forcing themselves and their guests to learn intricate choreography like BTS's original iteration, the guys decided to take inspiration from the hotter remix video so they could cut loose and get silly while bringing us some flirty boy band goodness.

Details:

title: Butter (feat. Deejay Young & Cesar De La Rosa)

original performers: BTS

written by: Jenna Andrews, Rob Grimaldi, Stephen Kirk, Kim "RM" Nam-joon, Alex Bilowitz, Sebastian Garcia, & Ron Perry

arranged by: Geoff Castellucci

release date: 25 June 2021

My favorite bits:

those delicate high harmonies on the opening lines

Cesar giving heart-hands to go with his ♫ "whoop!" ♫

replacing ♫ "break it down now" ♫ with some tasty scratching

Layne being the only one to actually attempt juggling the oranges that get passed around 🤹

Deejay and Cesar playing a clapping game in the lefthand corner (even though they were filming at Orange Studio, not PattyCake)

the woodblock-y percussion hits Layne does in the transitions

Eli running in a tiny circle behind Geoff during his lead lines ↺

how comfortable Geoff's descending run on ♫ ⇘ "ba-a-a-a-a-a-ad" ⇘ ♫ feels

Deejay and Eli's gorgeous coordinated ascending run of ♫ ⇗ "straight up" ⇗ ♫

that adorable grin from Cesar as he sings ♫ "I gotcha" ♫

Deejay's charismatic smile and graceful arms demonstrating that ♫ "I got that superstar glow" ♫

Eli deftly slipping even more notes into his "cheee-e-e-e-e-eeeap ye-ah" riff than the original

dramatic wind effects for those with moveable hair devolving into melodramatic antics 🌬

no popcorn for tall people 🚫🍿

Geoff and Layne competitively vlogging in the back

turning the more intense rap verse into quieter melodic vocals

synchronized sunglasses removal 🤏🕶️😎 (and Eli already having his glasses on underneath)

Layne's choirboy hands and big, innocent eyes during the bell chord section

the unexpectedness of giving ♫ "when the bass low" ♫ to their highest vocalist

the overhead wave from Cesar in appreciation of Deejay's incredible riff, absolutely correct

casual attempts at choreography 🕺

Geoff perched on a stool being almost the same height as Deejay and Eli standing up

Cesar chomping onto his innaugural Twinkie with gusto

that clean cut-off to finish

Trivia:

The watchword for this video shoot was silliness. The primary direction for their improvised choreography (such as it is) was "Um… yeah, do it just like that again, but this time DUMBERER".

There isn't much continuity to be found, since the staging was intentionally loose and they patched together portions of different takes as they pleased, but there is a tiny throughline of Layne being turned into a sandwich, brushing crumbs out of his stubble in the background, and then guarding against a repeated be-breading.

If you'd like to accurately recreate the moment at home, the boys had a loaf of the 21 Whole Grains and Seeds variety from Dave's Killer Bread.

Also, Layne had to film all his solo shots in a partial squat because he was just a bit too tall for the camera angle they'd established, which made it more difficult for him to evade incoming baked goods.

VoicePlay had previously included an excerpt from BTS's "Fake Love" as the closing segment in their "Boy Bands in 5 Minutes" music video, with Eli singing some of the Korean lyrics.

Deejay and Cesar had known each other for many years prior to this collaboration. They first met while attending neighboring high schools in Tampa, and got their first professional jobs together in the Disney Channel Rocks show at Disney World. They then performed together in the R&B Boyz Crew street show at Universal Studios Japan in 2013. After they returned to Orlando, Cesar and J.None were both special guests during Deejay's acoustic evening at a local club back in 2015. (Theme park performers really are a tight-knit community.)

The screenshot VoicePlay used to promote this video has been their channel icon and social media profile picture ever since.