#eli jacobson

[ambular-d]

Psst.  Got six minutes to spare?

Wanna hear something awesome?

VoicePlay just released an a capella cover of Metallica’s Nothing Else Matters, and it is glorious.

Nothing Else Matters - VoicePlay

For those not familiar, VoicePlay is a group of skilled professional vocalists who’ve been performing for over a decade.  Although they’re known as the ‘theater kids of a capella’ and their videos are often cinematic, playful or even downright goofy, none of that is in evidence here.  This performance is restrained, contemplative, masterful, and eminently respectful of James Hetfield’s iconic 1992 power ballad.

Geoff (Bass,) Layne (Baritone and Percussion,) Eli (Tenor,) Cesar (Tenor/Baritone,) featured guest J.None (Baritone), indefatigable Production Manager Kathy Castellucci, and their crew went through hell to get this video put together.  The result, IMO, speaks for itself.

tl;dr: It rocks.

[fangirl-of-music]

Let's talk about Voiceplay's cover of Hellfire from Hunchback of Notre Dame

I know they've done snippets of the song before, but this full length masterpiece of acting and vocal parts combined NEEDS to be talked about.

(For those of you who haven't seen it, GO WATCH IT)

This song is such a good choice for Geoff and for basses in general since the role of Frollo in the Hunchback musical was written for a bass and Patrick Page does spectacularly. The role is very dark and deals with mature and intense subjects like lust and desire and the character handles it very very poorly. But that's what makes him interesting. We love to hate Frollo, and giving him a low bass vocal part is perfectly suited for a character with such a dark and twisted character.

Layne has arranged the song perfectly, allowing Geoff to have all the time he needs to portray the character's thought process. The character turns from piety to fear of the monstrous feelings growing in him and what God will do to him should he sin, and then he gets angry and turns his blame on Esmeralda, claiming that she is to blame for his sinful thoughts. Geoff portrays Frollo's descent into obsession perfectly. Eli's intense rock belt is so powerful and lends to the song's intense tone. Cesar's breathy and frantic "It's not my fault!" perfectly displays Frollo's desperation as he fights his lust and then turns any blame away from himself by saying that he could never have fought this evil off when "if in God's plan he made the Devil so much stronger than a man".

Geoff's low notes are especially good and powerful in this song (thanks to Layne as I stated in my last Voiceplay post) and his acting make this probably my favorite Voiceplays song EVER. I have always loved Hunchback's music, and seeing Voiceplay perform this song so well has only made me love it more. And while the low notes do seem to bring Frollo closer and closer to Hellfire (or the Devil), Geoff's growly high notes also bring out Frollo's determination and ravid mannerism the song and the idea of Esmeralda has brought out in him. The high notes are unexpected, but anyone who saw the video knows they are insane and crazy and beautiful and a little scary.

Thanks for listening to my rambling.

[yoursinharmony]

Black Hole Sun - VoicePlay ft. Anthony Gargiula (acapella) Soundgarden #...

This is just mind-blowing 🤯 As someone who loves the original and ADORES the cyberpunk aesthetic, it's like VoicePlay put this piece of art together for me specifically. Treat your ears today and give it a listen.

[acaplaya-musings]

Voiceplay Visuals: Hellfire

As IF I was ever going to skip over this video!!!!

Voiceplay's cover of Hellfire was released on the 7th of October, 2023 (being their Halloween upload for the year), and, fun fact, it was the first Voiceplay video I watched after a sort of personal "hiatus" of 1-1.5 years, where they had somehow fallen off my radar for a while (which can happen when A, you weren't originally subscribed to them and mostly just relied on the Youtube algorithm/recommended section, and B, you previously only watched videos for songs you were already familiar with (I know better now though, obviously), plus a few other random factors). Geoff's cover of Jack's Lament was the first from his channel I had seen in quite a while (thank you YouTube algorithm for actually being helpful!), and I stumbled upon Hellfire the following day. And man what a video to bring me back into the fold!

Both video and arrangement were done Layne, and although this is another "guest feature" for J None (he did 5 full-length videos with Voiceplay in 2023!), he's only a backing vocalist for most of this one. Who took lead vocals? Geoff! Apparently Layne was wanting Voiceplay to do a cover of Hellfire for quite a while, and had always envisioned Geoff as the main singer for it, but Geoff, for a long time, said no. I don't know/can't remember what his exact reasoning was; whether he just thought the song was too dark or he thought he wouldn't be able to do it justice, but obviously Layne eventually managed to persuade him (made him an arrangement he couldn't refuse, I'm guessing, because seriously this arrangement is STUNNING), and quite frankly I am forever in Layne's debt for it!

I have no estimate of how long this post might be or how much I'll actually have to say about the screencaps I share, but I'll try to make this worthwhile, and so without further ado, let's get into this!

Pretty "basic"/"simple" visuals here, but honestly that's all that's needed for this one! For one thing, the vocals/arrangement are amazing enough to shine on their own (kinda like with Nothing Else Matters), and for another thing, this may be a Disney villain song, but at the same time it's not really a "Disney Song", y'know? This ain't Friends On The Other Side, or Poor Unfortunate Souls, or Be Prepared; this is a song about deep internal conflict, "burning desire", and attempts to suppress said burning desire, which only leads to more trouble. This is a villain song taken completely seriously, and boy oh boy do Voiceplay nail it!

(I feel like I should also mention that I've never actually watched The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, but I know the characters, I know the story, and this song speaks for itself tbh.)

I mean of course all the guys understood the assignment for this one but Cesar really Understood👏The👏Assignment!👏

I can't believe I'm having one of my "hang on a minute-" moments on freaking Hellfire of all videos, but somehow I never noticed the purple gemstone ring that Eli is wearing here before now! (And Cesar is wearing a red gemstone ring as well, which I only just spotted in a previous shot).

Yep, Layne's got a gemstone ring on as well!

I'm guessing J has got a matching ring as well, but I'm fairly certain Geoff doesn't, because he's got this gemstone necklace instead, which of course helps to further identify him as the lead vocalist/"main character" in this one.

(And even though Voiceplay seem to wear black/dark colours a fair bit (and Geoff does a lot), I still really freaking love the costuming in this video. They all look so good!!!!!)

Yep, there it is! J has a ring as well!

"BURN IT"

((If you've been reading/paying attention to all my Voiceplay Visuals posts, you might have picked up that usually, Geoff is the only one who gets bold font for quotes, but I'm more than willing to make an exception this time, because goddamn))

"This fire in my skin"

The way he looks down at his hands and arms as if feeling himself changing, as if there really are flames coursing right underneath the surface of the skin!!!!

"This burning desire, is turning me to s i n"

Not here to make fun or tease this time, certainly not! Geoff did a fantastic acting job in this one, and his delivery of every single vocal line was just absolutely *chefs kiss*

Everyone else was brilliant in this too, and Cesar absolutely had some attention-grabbing moments of his own! 😄

The "it's not my fault!" section of the song is really cleverly done here imo. (it's technically visual as well! I can talk about it!) It gives other members a bit more of a chance to shine, in a song which (aside from the Latin chanting in the background) is only meant to be a one-man performance. And the video (arrangement included) does this by turning Layne, J, Eli, and Cesar into a sort of Greek Chorus, or more specifically, a "singing chorus" (yes, that's a real thing, which I learned about when I was double-checking to see if I actually remembered the correct meaning of Greek Chorus). Singing choruses are sometimes incorporated into musical theatre and grand opera, and are "used frequently to interpret the mental and emotional reactions of the principal characters, after the manner of a Greek chorus." And while Eli and Cesar are taking over the lead for this bit here, Geoff becomes a little bit more subdued, head slightly bowed, just doing some little self-conducting hand movements as he holds down the bassline (I'm assuming, though I can't really hear him at all in the background until his arpeggios(?) when J takes over (look, sometimes you really can't fully describe/talk about what's happening on screen without talking about the audio that goes with it!!!))

Cesar with the sick air guitar! (Not all reactors seemingly noticed this moment, which is a damn crime tbh (you can actually see him doing it in the group shot just a few seconds before this too, though that part I myself didn't pick up on till just now))

I can't remember seeing a single reaction video (out of the ones I've watched at least) that actually figured out who the Guard was, even though it's in the description of the video! (Though I guess those who were watching from Patreon have more of an excuse). It's Tony! (Also, this means that this video featured 4 "generations" of Voiceplay baritones - Layne, Tony, J, and Cesar!)

I've heard one or two reactors say they wish they could have seen the guard's face, but nah, I don't think it's necessary. He's there to provide Relevant Information for progression of the plot/song/scene, and that's it! His identity is irrelevant!

(But still, shoutout to Tony!)

"what" (hhhhhh)

"I'll find her,"

"I'll find her and I'll find her if I have to burn down all of PARIS!"

(He did so well! <3 <3 <3)

At first when I watched this video I was like "wow I really love this video, but should I like this video so much? Considering the context/meaning behind the song and all that?" That lasted for like maybe a week maximum. I adore this cover and this video and I make no apologies about it!)

*swoon*

Very cool flame effect in the eyes! According to one reaction video I watched, that likely was not easy to do, but it's a great addition to the already-very-awesome video!

The zoom-out on Geoff is done brilliantly for dramatic effect here as well!

Do I even need to say it at this point? 😂😅

Well anyway, obligatory "he's so pretty!" comment

(Here's a slight shot of Cesar's ring btw)

Man I love it when he belts <3

Firstly, the absolute power and feeling that Geoff put into this, like it's absolutely amazing to watch and it delights me to no end. Secondly, I wasn't going to include that third pic above, but turns out Geoff is wearing a gemstone ring as well! (maybe more than one?) I knew he was wearing rings in the video, but I just assumed they were his wedding/engagement rings, as he pretty much always wears them in videos (unless he can't for costuming purposes), one on each hand, but now I wonder if he was in fact wearing them at all in this video?

Excuse me while I just- *muffled yelling into pillow*

As I type this, Voiceplay's cover of Hellfire is just 4,700 views away from reaching one million hits on YouTube! I hope it gets there, it certainly deserves it (and more!). (UPDATE: As of the morning of the 20th of February (AEST timezone), it's now at one million views! Can I hear a wahoo!?!) (SECOND UPDATE: and it's now at over 1.1 million, as of the 25th of March!)

It's not exactly a typical Halloween-type video for Voiceplay, no super-elaborate character costumes or coloured face/body paint, but just like practically everything Voiceplay did in 2023, this was EPIC!

But anyway, I'll be skipping over Whiskey In The Jar, and I'm not doing any posts about Christmas videos (for now), which means that I'm finally onto the first two full-length uploads of 2024! (And I really would have expected there to be a third 2024 upload by this point, but it seems we're just gonna have to keep on waiting.) Stay tuned!

[playvoices]

I can sense your horror .ᐟ

[nerdhappenings]

Boy Bands in 5 Minutes - Voiceplay

[sarandipitywrites]

oh god they actually did it. the outfits. the arrangement. the DOG. oml i am dying

[thehappysorceress]

Something Just Like This | The Chainsmokers & Coldplay | VoicePlay Feat. J. None

Their music lives in my happy place.

[auxiliarydetective]

I'm honestly kind of curious about how you decided on different people's powers. With Avi, you said it was because of the reactor and because of Avi liking dragons. What about some of the others? Pick a group and tell me about the ones you've revealed so far. (Also, how's writing going?)

I'm gonna do VoicePlay since they were most definitely the first and had the most thought put into them:

Geoff

Geoff being a demon is because he's often nicknamed the "bass demon" in comments and since lots of the characters he plays in music videos have demon vibes or are villains (Oogie Boogie, Baron, his costume in My Mother Told Me, Geoffsula, Mr Hyde, a vampire, Tamatoa...). It just really fits with the glowing red eyes, claws, wings... but it also immediately gave me the idea for a storyline of him not wanting to be that evil monster that people see demons as because Geoff is a really caring person but the aggression from his demon blood sometimes takes over.

Eli

Eli's super speed comes from his general behaviour. If you've watched him while he's singing - especially live - you'll see he's almost constantly moving. People always joke how Geoff needs his hands to sing, but they’ve clearly never looked at Eli. The best example of this might be him singing Superstition. Not the new cover with Omar, one of the first videos on VoicePlay's channel where he sings it solo with a band. Another influence is his vocal agility (his runs, the way he can sing so many different notes clearly and quickly and how his very fast parts are also always easy to understand lyrics-wise) and how quickly he talks. Also, he stated in the VoicePlay True Stories stream that he's never late and he gets very rushed and anxious if he is. Also, vibes.

Earl

Now, Earl's super strength was prompted by @florida-irl, actually. Also, look at him. That's a strong man. It's almost too obvious what his superpower has to be. Also, this video. He literally flexes and tears his overall doing it. That just sealed the deal. He had to be a super strong gummy bear vibes person.

Evelynn

For Evelynn, being my OC, I knew I wanted something special. The whole thing each of the groups is known for is music, so somebody had to have some sound-related power. Well, Layne also does, but that's something for another day. Evelynn's powers are inspired by comments saying things like "x's bass could cause an earthquake" or "i'm surprised y's high note didn't shatter my windows". Of course, it's scientific nonsense, but, y'know, what if it wasn’t? Partially inspired by Viktor in The Umbrella Academy, Evelynn can use the vibrations created by sounds and make them stronger to either make objects or her environment vibrate or turn them into a shock wave sort of thing.

Writing's going pretty well, though not for this AU. Not yet. Another plot bunny appeared and demanded my attention. BUT I made some rough concepts for this story on my ride home today and figured I could write something for it tonight. Then again, this AU would just take the special bond between Evelynn and Austin as a given fact and that would rob me of my epic reveal moment by spoiling it. So, I think I'll write the reveal tonight! Tonight meaning now, actually, it's 9pm already, I gotta get started already

[jules-has-notes]

Superstition — Eli Jacobson live performance

While the VoicePlay guys were in NYC for the 2013 Association of Performing Arts Professionals conference, they did an off-site show at The Bitter End nightclub. When that was done, the venue's house band invited them to sit in for a song or two. Eli took the opportunity to show off his rocker roots, with Earl and aca-pal / audio engineer Tony Huerta providing backup.

Details:

title: Superstition

original performer: Stevie Wonder

written by: Stevie Wonder & Jeff Beck

performance date: 13 January 2013

release date: 16 January 2013

sweaty singers and their sound guy for the night — VoicePlay with Tony Huerta outside The Bitter End in NYC

My favorite bits:

riffs on riffs on riffs, my goodness

Earl and Tony doing Night at the Roxbury head bops in between harmony parts

Eli's powerful, gritty wails

Tony making (and miming) shaker sounds as part of his vocal percussion

Earl fanning Eli toward the end as though he might combust

Trivia:

Tony Huerta worked with VoicePlay again two years later as the sound engineer for the 2015 Sing-Off tour.

VoicePlay later covered "Superstition" with Omar Cardona as their featured guest.

[julandran]

Hi, tenor.

So, I recently binged my way through VoicePlay’s music videos on YouTube. (Hello, latest hyperfixation.) And I couldn’t help but notice that there was a period of a year or so when they were being particularly deliberate about some of their staging to ensure that their incredible tenor / short king, Eli, was boosted up to be closer to the other guys' heights. Specifically, during the era when both Earl and J.None were full-time members of the band, so everyone else was a fair bit taller than him.

(Side note: As someone of about the same height and prone to perching myself, I can totally understand if being up higher was at least partly his own preference. Shout out to my fellow kitchen counter and furniture arm sitters.)

Do I think it's necessary to hide the group's height differences? Absolutely not. And clearly neither do they, because there are plenty of videos where they don't do it. (Or just pop him on an apple box for closer-framed shots.) Which is part of why it caught my eye when it did happen. But it's interesting to look at their methods and degrees of adjusting as additional aspects of their creativity.

From a production standpoint, it makes a lot of sense to have everyone’s heads at roughly the same level in the visual frame. It can make camera and lighting setups simpler. Especially since they’re singing together, so we want to see their faces. But the deliberateness in some of the blocking is more successful than in others.

In my opinion, it seems most natural when the guys are in more varied positions that feel motivated by the set dressing. For example, in their videos for Tennessee Whiskey and Sh-Boom, they have someone standing / leaning and the rest seated on slightly staggered levels to create a line that arcs a bit, both vertically as well as away from the camera at the center. They also all have at least one foot off the floor. So Eli being on the highest seat with both feet up stands out less. It seems more like casual happenstance.

screencap from VoicePlay’s video for Tennessee Whiskey

promo image from VoicePlay’s video for Sh-Boom (Life Could Be a Dream)

Honorable mention to the Candy Girl section of their Boy Bands in 5 Minutes medley, which gives Eli a brief respite from being towered over, and gives all the guys a break from the dance choreography. It's a cluster rather than a line, but it has a similar effect as the other two examples.

screencap from VoicePlay’s video for their Boy Bands in 5 Minutes medley

It’s a bit more obvious when Eli’s the only one on a different level. I think they made it work fairly well in their video for Bridge Over Troubled Water, because he’s at the end of the row on a piano bench. So it feels like there’s a plausible meta-narrative reason for him to be there, maybe playing notes on the piano for pitch adjustments or warm-ups. But everyone else gets comfy armchairs, which feels a bit unfair.

promo image from VoicePlay’s video for Bridge Over Troubled Water

I also noticed it in their Thinkin Bout You video. Because the other four are in (different) upholstered armchairs, but Eli’s tucked between Geoff and J on a plain, armless wooden chair. To their credit, they did their best to adjust the spacing and camera angles to make it look like maybe there just wasn’t enough room in the three-walled set for a fifth wide seat. Honestly, I might have spotted this one only because I was looking for it by the time I watched that video, but now I can’t unsee it.

promo image from VoicePlay’s video for Thinkin Bout You

“Do you have a point in all of this?” I hear you asking. Well, kind of. It’s this:

Once I noticed that it was happening, every additional instance caught my eye. And then came Hide and Seek. It also has static staging, but it's much more spread out — partly to accommodate the green-screening of Lauren and Cesar, and partly in keeping with the Haunted Mansion theme. Eli is quite visibly elevated on a barrel top like the character from the theme park ride that is also in the portrait behind him.

screencap from VoicePlay’s video for Hide and Seek (Ding Dong), feat. Lauren Paley

But that brought to mind the darn bit from That 70s Show that’s now become a meme.

And now I guess you get to be reminded of it, as well. I take no pride in this. I just had to get it out of my weird brain.

My sincerest apologies to Eli for that last part if he somehow sees this. I mean no disrespect. We see you, and we definitely hear you. You’re an amazing singer and artist, somehow getting even better with each project. I hope that your recent, more comparably sized collaborators have been a nice change of pace.

[ambular-d]

VoicePlay:Black Hole Sun

[claramurphyqueenoffandoms]

Time for another moodboard! I’m getting excited, haha

Eli Madrigal, with the power of weather manipulation. They’re all related in this (because it’s Encanto, lol), so he’s Layne’s cousin. Also, it’s so much fun to play around with his powers.

@auxiliarydetective​ (hope you don’t mind if I tag you?)

[yoursinharmony]

Scrambled Egg Challenge GEOFF VS LAYNE - VoicePlay #cooking #food #eggs

These guys are the silliest 😂

[acaplaya-musings]

Voiceplay Visuals: Hoist The Colours

Oh boy, we're heading into the big ones now!

Hoist The Colours was uploaded on September 18, 2021, and features Jose Rosario Jr in his second collaboration with Voiceplay. This one stunned a lot of reactors (one of them, Dennis King of King Family Reacts, literally got up and left the room after the video was finished because he had been rendered speechless by it!), and the video currently sits at 4.6 million views (close to 4.7!) (EDIT/UPDATE: as of the night of the 8th of March, it's now at 4.7, close to 4.8!). So without further ado, let's get right into this one, and hope I don't have to start paying attention to my screenshot count!

Can you believe this was only Cesar's second (full-length) video as a full-time Voiceplay member? Because wow

(Also interestingly enough, Rick Underwood is credited with makeup in the video description (shoutout to Rick!) but no one is credited with costuming, so did everyone just acquire their outfits themselves or what?)

Geoff was in charge of the video creation for this one, as well as doing the arrangement, and he worked together with Eli for the lighting design, so big shoutout to Geoff! (And as always to Eli the lighting whiz)

OKAY a few things to talk about here

First of all, love the set design, it's like the Little Mermaid Medley but on steroids and more pirate themed! Also love the horn-playing skeleton on the left-hand side of the screen (took me a while to notice it ngl 😅)

And of course the outfits/costuming! I can't really think of a lot of things to say individually right now, but there was 100% a lot of thought and effort that went into the clothes (even if the description won't specify who acquired the clothes. I'm going to assume Geoff, since the overall video credit goes to him.)

Oh hey it's my blog banner/background, or close enough to it at least! (Hoist The Colours has a decent few very cool visual moments that are totally screencap-worthy, and of course that's what I'm here for - to point them out!)

Geoff may play the villain (or otherwise just-generally-creepy/spooky/scary guy) a lot in videos, but as of the last few years at least, Eli's often been looking like the one that you really don't wanna pick a fight with. (Also cool ring, and is that fake scar tissue on his head?)

This is a better shot of everyone's outfits actually. A few notes on everyone (except Eli, who I just talked about?)

Cesar: Very ghostly, especially with the cloudy contact lens in one eye. Love the white coat/jacket, and love the pop of colour with the red sash! Also what is he holding/shaking? I thought it was a set of old-fashioned keys, but it doesn't look like it.

Jose: The "captain" of this "motley crew", obviously. Cool coat, and love the sword.

Layne: Not too much going on with his outfit, relatively speaking, but I love the bit of eyeliner under his eyes, and the fake scar on his cheek! (Seriously Rick did a great job here, as he always does)

Geoff: Wearing at least two necklaces, and in true Geoff Castellucci fashion, he's got the top two buttons of his shirt undone (well, gotta show off those necklaces! 😉😁). ALSO, bonus thing that I literally only just realized after taking this screencap, is that Geoff has "VP" on his right arm, done in a way that makes it look like like scar tissue I believe.

That is seriously a very cool and very smooth transition. Who edited this? Was that Geoff too? (Also Crazy Eyes Layne!)

As I figured, one of the necklaces Geoff is wearing, the gold one, is for costume purposes, and the other one, the silver one with the diamond-shaped pendant, is the necklace from Kathy that Geoff basically never takes off (bless him <3 )

I think Cesar's holding old-fashioned shackles/handcuffs or something?

Hang on that skeleton on the left lost his little horn/trumpet and got stabbed?? 😅😂

Yeah Layne had fun in this one I can tell 😁 (also his vest is more detailed than first appears! Very nice!)

What a really freaking awesome shot/moment. In terms of "money shots", these two might in fact be two of the most awesome stills from any Voiceplay video ever (or so far, anyway).

He's got charisma, I'll give him that (also cool necklace!)

How are they just an independent acapella group that make YouTube videos that we can all watch for free? Like seriously, this is top tier stuff (both in terms of the video and the song cover itself), but this wasn't even Voiceplay at their peak! Voiceplay doesn't have a peak! They don't stick to a lane, they take "risks", they get creative, they will sing pretty much anything, and it works

Voiceplay says in the description "we may have gotten a little carried away with this one", but honestly would it really be Voiceplay if they didn't?

Anyway, I've got many more awesome videos ahead of me to write about, so stay tuned!

[playvoices]

MADE YOU LOOK. src. voiceplay