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Monster Mash — Geoff Castellucci music video

Halloween can be truly terrifying or spectacularly silly. This classic novelty song definitely leans into the latter mood, but Geoff made sure to incorporate a few tastes of horror movie spookiness among the more cheerful entertainment. All his years of theme park experience gave him the skills to strike just the right balance of moods while updating a very fun oldie.

Details:

title: The Monster Mash (low bass singer cover)

original songs / performers: "The Monster Mash" by Bobby "Boris" Pickett; "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" by Johann Sebastian Bach; "Für Elise" by Ludwig van Beethoven

written by: "The Monster Mash" by Bobby Pickett & Leonard Capizzi; "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" by Johann Sebastian Bach; "Für Elise" by Ludwig van Beethoven

arranged by: Geoff Castellucci

release date: 8 October 2021

My favorite bits:

lead Geoff's mild annoyance at the monsters' singing interrupting his quiet reading time

the calm singspiel narration that only sounds a little sinister

the dance moves for the choruses reflecting all the classic Universal movie monsters — Frankenstein, Wolfman, Dracula, and The Mummy

each monster's more freeform dancing starting from a different body part — Dracula's head bopping, Wolfman's hip wiggles, and Frankie's shoulder shakes 🕺🕺🕺

narrator Geoff's delay in ♫ "The zombies were having… fun." ♫

the high harmonized ♫ "He did the monster ooo" ♫

each monster doing a different gesture to signify ♫ "Dracula and his son" ♫ 🧛 🦇

the doowop-y backing vocals and dance moves as lead Geoff sings about the musical entertainment

the choreography getting more elaborate with each repetition

narrator Geoff cringing away from Dracula's intrusion

slow motion Charleston-ing

😱 Hi, Kathy! Are you okay…?

substituting an invitation for his lady to dance for the original's chastisement of Igor

Frankie casually flossing as the other two point out the slightly out-of-tune piano note

that excellent villain laugh as the happy couple waltz out of frame

the farewell waves being sidetracked by Wolfman's scratching and Dracula's gentlemanly bow

Trivia:

This video was filmed twice. The first version had a darker set and more elaborate makeup from horror master Rick Underwood on the dancing trio, but when Geoff reviewed the footage, didn't like the results. On the second round, they went with brighter lighting and simpler makeup — done by Kathy since Rick wasn't available on the additional shoot day — that fit the tone of the song better.

This wasn't the first time Geoff and Kathy had played classic movie monsters. They spent many years as Frankenstein's monster and the Bride in the Beetlejuice Rock 'n' Roll Graveyard Revue at Universal Studios alongside Tony Wakim's Dracula and many other folks who have since become VoicePlay and PattyCake collaborators.

More recently, Kathy was featured as the "floor zombie" in VoicePlay's "Thriller" video for Halloween 2024.

Geoff had previously portrayed a vampire in VoicePlay's "This Is Halloween" video, and a zombie in their "Survivor" collaboration with Home Free. He'd also used the same ear scratching gesure in VP's "The Fox" video while wearing a dog-ear headpiece.

The slightly jerky stop-motion effect on the dancing monster trio was achieved by filming at half speed, then ramping up the footage to match the tempo of the music during editing. Geoff had used a similar technique for VoicePlay's "Grim Grinning Ghosts" video five years earlier.

The choreography was created by Matthew "Bucky" Buckner, former 4:2:Five baritone (2004-06) and Wolfie in the Beetlejuice show at Universal Studios. He has appeared in several PattyCake and VoicePlay videos in recent years.

Wanting to get his monster moves just right, Geoff practiced around the house, particularly when he was cooking and had a bit of time to kill.

The "la la la" sections reinterpreting "Toccata and Fugue" are very appropriate to the horror movie theme. That song has been used extensively since the silent film era to convey spookiness and villainy. Its first appearance in a film with sound was the 1931 adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and it was chosen for the introductory section of Fantasia.

Geoff's VoicePlay bandmates are also fond of the famous Bach tune. Eli had mixed "Toccata and Fugue" into his arrangement of "Eleanor Rigby" earlier in the year, and Layne later used it as the opening section in their "Classical Chaos" medley.

"Für Elise" is a very common student piece, and young Geoff almost certainly had to practice it during his classical piano lessons in middle school.

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My Mother Told Me: You descend a ladder into a pool, starting from the shallow end and wading towards the deep end. Before too long you step off a ledge on the pool floor that you didn't notice, and sink considerably, but it's manageable, and you can stay on your feet (just)

Valhalla Calling: You sit on the side of the pool, and drop into the middle section, somewhere between the deep side and shallow side. Your vision is impaired, so you can't see much of what or who might be coming towards you, but you got this, surely.

Hunt The Sky: Somebody picks you up, swings you, and just freaking chucks you into the deep end. Lol good luck

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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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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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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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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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We're almost there folks!!!

Time to start getting excited folks!!!

The video doesn't say when this'll drop to YouTube, but I'll do y'all a solid and tell you that the planned release date (pending no difficulties with music distributors) is June 6th (or June 7th if you're Australian like me). I will of course have more to say about this once the premiere thing appears, but this is 100% a teaser worth talking about!

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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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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!

[acaplaya-musings]

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!

[acaplaya-musings]

House of the Rising Sun — Geoff Castellucci music video

The origins of this song are murky. It can reliably be traced to Appalachia in the early 20th century, but may have its roots as far back as some 16th century English folk ballads. Every singer or group that performs it puts their own twist on it, and Geoff is no exception. In addition to the low notes he's known for, he took the instrumentation in a Southern rock direction. Once the beat kicks in, his version of the narrative voice won't stop to tell you his tale. If you want to hear it, you'll have to go along and keep up. It's a heck of a ride.

Details:

title: House of the Rising Sun (bass singer cover)

original performers: traditional American folk song; oldest known recording "Rising Sun Blues" by Clarence "Tom" Ashley & Gwen Foster (1925); popularized by The Animals

written by: unknown; lyrics first published in Adventure magazine column titled "Old Songs That Men Have Sung" (1925); The Animals' version arranged by Alan Price

arranged by: Geoff Castellucci

release date: 3 September 2021

My favorite bits:

Geoff's legato, almost mumbly diction that suits the introspective manner of the opening lyrics

how comfortable he'd become with riffing in his bass register since Layne scared the crap out of him with "Tennessee Whiskey"

the spooky sigh and blackout that brings in his doppelgangers

the moments of environmental percussion from the lighter snapping closed and the slamming trunk lid

having his vocal line follow the lyrics ♫ "way down" ♫ into that rumbly register as the guitar enters

building the rhythmic and harmonic complexity through each hummed section

the high harmonies taking the pickup of ♫ "so now" ♫

that double drop on ♫ "dooo-oooo-NNNE" ♫ sounding like a fall into the underworld

the subtle match ignition sound as the candle in the background lights up

adding a slightly dissonant harmony to ♫ "the other's on the train" ♫ to create the feeling of a steam whistle 🚂

letting the clones take over the melody on the final chorus so lead Geoff can indulge in a counterpoint descending riff

lingering on that final solo ♫ "sunnn" ♫ as the shot widens to reveal that the extra singers have disappeared again

Trivia:

This arrangement proved to be somewhat tricky, since the well-known version by The Animals is pitched quite a bit higher than Geoff's usual wheelhouse, and he "didn't want to spend the whole song above middle C screaming my face off".

Although The Animals' version is officially credited to keyboardist Alan Price due to space constraints in the vinyl record's label, all five band members contributed to their arrangement. It was heavily influenced by the rendition written by folk singer Dave Van Ronk and first released by Bob Dylan three years earlier.

Like most artists who have covered this song, Geoff made a few changes to the lyrics, most noticably inserting "one and" into "the only thing a gambler needs" at the start of the second verse. It's a cool rhythmic change, but it also creates a contradiction when he then names two things — a suitcase and a trunk. It could be explained by the final line of the verse, "when he's on the drunk" and therefore not speaking coherently.

A fan in the YouTube premiere chat joked that he was "in a shirt competition with Tony" due to the number of buttons left undone. To be fair, filming in a non-air-conditioned space while wearing all black under hot lights in the middle of a Florida summer must have gotten toasty pretty quick. Any ventilation would help.

They returned to the same building three and a half years later to film his "Wicked Game" video in a room down the hall from this one.

Geoff used a clip from this video to demonstrate differences of sound quality in the "Hearing Loss" mini-documentary he and Kathy released a few months later.

He posted a live excerpt on TikTok a few days after the initial release in response to fan requests.

This video reached 5 million views on YouTube in May 2025.

A few days after that milestone, his old pal Rachel Potter released her own version of the song, along with a video featuring a sultry dance performance from fellow reality show alumni Jonathan and Oksana Platero.

[acaplaya-musings]

ANOTHER WEEK!!!! 😫😭

We're still gonna be getting something on YouTube on June 6th, but just not this video - that'll be up the week after. I mean at least we're still getting two in one month, which is nice, but the waiting is KILLING ME!!!!

Time to start getting excited folks!!!

The video doesn't say when this'll drop to YouTube, but I'll do y'all a solid and tell you that the planned release date (pending no difficulties with music distributors) is June 6th (or June 7th if you're Australian like me). I will of course have more to say about this once the premiere thing appears, but this is 100% a teaser worth talking about!

[acaplaya-musings]

This video has millions of views on their channel (as it deserves!!! It's so good!!!) but honestly I still feel like it's one of the more 'underrated' ones, at least in terms of reaction videos these days. Like new reactors will go for Nothing Else Matters, and Valhalla Calling, and Hoist The Colours, and Oogie Boogie's Song, etc etc etc, but this one usually takes a while to get around to, which is a shame! Those who have reacted to it have had some great reactions though, both to Ashley's ascending riff, and to Geoff's high to low "showing off" at the end! 😄 (Fun fact, if you look at the group shot at the end when Geoff is going up into his higher range, you can see Layne pretty much smirking behind him, perhaps a nod to him being the one who arranged the song, and thus the one who made Geoff push himself a little bit more than usual 😜)

Another fun fact is that originally Layne was considering doing an In The Heights medley, since the movie had released the previous month and seemed popular, but then he heard some of the controversies about the casting choices, and changed his mind, seeing as most of the group is very much not Latin American (except for Cesar, who's Puerto Rican, and their guest Ashley). So he shifted to Fiddler On The Roof, which worked out especially as both Layne and Eli are Jewish (and Geoff's been an "honorary Jew" for like 10 years minimum, apparently).

If I Were A Rich Man / Girl — VoicePlay music video

Many people dream of having wealth, whether it's just enough to live comfortably for the rest of their lives, or vast coffers that would allow them to experience all the world has to offer. And that desire has been expressed in music of every genre. It had been quite a while since VoicePlay indulged in a mashup rather than a multi-song medley, so Layne grabbed these two related tunes and worked his arrangement magic to create something uniquely VP.

Details:

title: If I Were A Rich Man / Girl (feat. Ashley Diane)

original songs / performers: "If I Were A Rich Man" by Zero Mostel as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof (1964); "Rich Girl" by Gwen Stefani, feat. Eve

written by: "If I Were A Rich Man" by Sheldon Harnick & Jerry Bock; "Rich Girl" by Mark Batson, Kara DioGuardi, Mike Elizondo, Eve Jeffers, Chantal Kreviazuk, Gwen Stefani, Andre "Dr. Dre" Young

arranged by: Layne Stein

release date: 23 July 2021

My favorite bits:

the floaty, ethereal opening chords under Geoff's bassy melody

Layne enjoying himself on a couple beautiful lead vocal lines before he settles into the beat

the gestures Cesar makes to accompany ♫ "fine tin roof" ♫ and ♫ "real wooden floors" ♫

Ashley's melody and Layne's percussion illustrating ♫ ⇗ "just going up" ⇗ ♫ and then ♫ ⇘ "even longer going down" ⇘ ♫

that eyebrow raise and dipped chin as Geoff asks "Please" 🙏

Eli's joyous grin as he hits that iconic ♫ "yidle-didle-deedle-didle man" ♫

the crisp, almost military cadence in Layne's drums under ♫ "they would ask to advise them" ♫

the lush octave layering on ♫ "Reb Tevye" ♫

Cesar's solid timbre for the repeated ♫ "If I were a rich man" ♫ in the first break

the coordinated delay at the end of the trio's ascending ♫ "na-na-na… NAH!" ♫

the subtle downward slide Geoff does before Eli picks up the melody with ♫ "I wouldn't have to work hard" ♫

Eli and Ashley's harmonized riffing that brings out the cantor-like feeling in parts of the original theater piece

the hint of overcranked autotune on Ashley's voice in the second break to evoke Gwen's style before they explicitly singing her lyrics

Cesar bringing in a bit of lowkey vogueing

that powerful ascending riff and descending run from Ashley, and all the guys' appropriate looks of astonishment

Geoff moseying up into tenor territory, immediately followed by that foghorn drop on ♫ ⇘ "maaa-AAAN" ⇘ ♫ that he just keeps holding as the others continue

the lingering echo on Layne's final "Hey!"

Trivia:

This was Cesar's first video as an official member of the group rather than a featured guest.

It was also Ashley's first project with the boys, and she proved to be a good fit immediately. She was a friend of Cesar's from shared theme park gigs, and is a member of the Voices of Liberty at Disney World alongside several other pals.

Tony was more involved than usual, especially since they weren't filming at the PattyCake studio. He's given a formal credit for both costuming and direction alongside Layne.

Geoff is wearing a red long-sleeved version of his blue shirt from their "Unchained Melody" video earlier in the year.

It looks like he got a new (and slightly darker) pair for this video, but Eli used to have some bright red jeans. They appeared on screen in the "Oogie Boogie's Song" music video as part of his Lock costume.

Ashley used her incredible riffing from this arrangement to issue a challenge in a TikTok video.

She also included several behind-the-scenes clips from this video in her end-of-year recap on Instagram.

It's interesting that this arrangement omits the verse Tevye sings about his poultry, as both Layne and Eli have well established chicken impressions in their repertoire.

Gwen Stefani's "Rich Girl" is a reinterpretation of a song by the same name, released by British ragga/soul duo Louchie Lou & Michie One in 1993. The two versions both sample the Fiddler melody and have very similar sections of repeated lyrics.

.

NOTE: If you venture into the YouTube comments, be aware that the video was found by factions of both snobby musical theater purists and prescriptivist grammar pedants, who all got Big Mad about some of the changes VoicePlay made. Try not to strain your peepers with all the eyerolling they may induce. 🙄

[acaplaya-musings]

Time to start getting excited folks!!!

The video doesn't say when this'll drop to YouTube, but I'll do y'all a solid and tell you that the planned release date (pending no difficulties with music distributors) is June 6th (or June 7th if you're Australian like me). I will of course have more to say about this once the premiere thing appears, but this is 100% a teaser worth talking about!

[acaplaya-musings]

I may be misremembering, but I don't think Geoff is a Tolkien fan per se, I think this song just got requested to him a bunch. And also he was a bit uncertain about the video concept at firat as it felt more like a "VoicePlay thing" with all the costuming and stuff, but hey people loved it! I'm pretty sure he and Kathy have watched all or most of the movies (for reference if nothing else), but yeah he's a casual fan at best, not a diehard, but he and Kathy are very committed to getting stuff right!

Far Over the Misty Mountains Cold — Geoff Castellucci music video

J.R.R. Tolkien's Legendarium is full of poetry and songs. Most of it has been omitted from film adaptations for the sake of time and pace, but a few are so integral to the story that they demanded to be included. Ever since Thorin and his dwarven companions used this elegiac history to convince Bilbo to accompany them in the first Hobbit movie, it has inspired many musicians to record their own interpretations. Geoff created a wonderful adaptation, both vocally and visually, that continues a grand tradition.

Details:

title: Far Over the Misty Mountains Cold (low bass singer cover)

original song / performers: "Misty Mountains" by Richard Armitage as Thorin Oakenshield & the main dwarf cast members in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012); partly inspired by the Clamavi De Profundis extended version

written by: lyrics by J.R.R. Tolkien; music by David Donaldson, David Long, Steve Roche, & Janet Roddick

arranged by: Geoff Castellucci

release date: 3 July 2021

reposted to TikTok: 27 May 2023

My favorite bits:

setting the mood with mournful strings and small interactions as the final two Geoffs take their seats

using the gentle, resonant humming to establish the melody

lead Geoff's clear tone on the opening lyrics

delving deep for that ♫ "gooold" ♫

breathy harmonies providing the appropriate ambiance under ♫ "the pines were roaring" ♫ and ♫ "the wind was moaning" ♫

his small, wistful smile as he sings ♫ "blazed with light" ♫

the airy high harmonies at the start of the third verse

putting the big drop on ♫ "shadows laaay" ♫ to emphasize the ominousness of threat that ♫ "crept beneath" ♫

having just the three higher vocal lines sing ♫ "Farewell we call to hearth and home." ♫

the little skyward glance "Fili" does as they sing ♫ "rain may fall" ♫

the strength in their tones as they assert ♫ "We must away" ♫ in unison

♫ "wood and mountain tall" ♫ starting low and climbing upward

easing back to the hummed harmonies as the end approaches

that final rumbling ♫ "daaaaay" ♫ portending the difficult journey ahead

Trivia:

Being a Lord of the Rings fan himself, Geoff was only too happy to acquiesce to his patrons' frequent and fervent requests for a bassier rendition of this tune.

The lyrics in the film version are only the fifth and seventh verses from the full song in the original Hobbit novel. Geoff has also included the eleventh and twenty-third verses, and the closing couplet.

The clones' fantastic dwarven wigs and facial hair were provided by longtime makeup artist Rick Underwood. He and Geoff had been working together since they'd engaged in daily green airbrushing sessions for the "Beetlejuice Graveyard Revue" at Universal Studios. The four character designs are loosely based on Thorin, Fili, Bofur, and Kili from the movie.

Many of the costume pieces had been worn by Geoff and his VoicePlay bandmates in their video for "My Mother Told Me" earlier in the year. They were provided by Penguin Point Productions, which had also contributed to PattyCake's "Born Bad" music video, released the week before.

The dagger that "Bofur" idly spins is a miniature replica of Aragorn's sword, Andúril, from the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Geoff posted a live clip of the first verse on TikTok a couple weeks later to celebrate racking up more than 500,000 views and over 200,000 YouTube subscribers.

This video reached 10 million views on YouTube just over a year later, on the same day as his "Sixteen Tons" video, which had been released at the end of January. (Is it a coincidence that both songs involve mining…? Probably, yeah.) Three years after that, it has over 27 million!

He also recorded another version as a short with VoicePlay in 2023, arranged by Layne and featuring J.None.

By popular demand, Geoff eventually followed up this video with two Middle Earth themed sequels — "I See Fire" from the second Hobbit movie in 2023, and "Song of Durin" from the Fellowship of the Ring novel a year after that.

The high fantasy aesthetic got some love from his old friend and fellow 4:2:Five founding member Scott Porter.

He also received a few nice compliments from some fellow vocalists in the YouTube comments.

Several other singers in Geoff's extended circles have put their own spin on the tune over the years, including Peter Hollens and Tim Foust, The Wellermen, Colm McGuinness (in dwarvish), Malinda, and Project Pigeon (aka half of Street Corner Symphony).

[acaplaya-musings]

"Shake my hand; come on boys, won't you shake a poor sinner's hand?"

(I'm alive! Hello!)

I absolutely adore VoicePlay's version of Friends On The Other Side, not just the song cover itself but the video! It incorporates so much from the original scene, but then geniusly weaves in additions and alterations, and it's utterly perfect. And I was thinking about the VoicePlay Little Mermaid fanart I did last year (about 11 months ago, in fact), and I was like "screw it, I'm gonna try to do something similar for this video", and here we are, roughly three weeks later! (I spent so many freaking hours on this oh my god).

VoicePlay - Disney style!

[acaplaya-musings]

The only thing more entertaining than this music video is the Behind-The-Scenes video for it! Shows you a lot more of the background shenanigans, and also the phone footage from Layne and Geoff's "competitive vlogging" 😁

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.