91“«Ć½

Skip to main content

Without instruments, CU alums FACE the music

Without instruments, CU alums FACE the music

The a capella group ā€˜could do a Metallica song, and your grandma would like it.


Open your eyes, however, and you see five guys seated around a table ā€” not an instrument in sight. Meet FACE.

Since its humble 2001 beginnings in the practice rooms of the College of Music at the University of Colorado Boulder , the all-vocal rock group has been dissecting and re-inventing hits by everyone from Pink Floyd and Garth Brooks to Imagine Dragons and Bruno Mars, giving new meaning to the term ā€œa cappellaā€ as it patiently built a local fan base.

The members of FACE strike a pose. From left to right, Forest Kelly, Mark Megibow, Stephen Ross, Cody Qualls and Ryan Driver. Photo courtesy of FACE.

Now, thanks in part to the hit TV show ā€œGlee,ā€ the box-office smash ā€œPitch Perfect,ā€ and the chart-topping all-vocal band ā€œPentatonix,ā€ a cappella is enjoying its day in the sun. And FACE is too.

In recent months,ĢżĢżhas opened for Jon Bon Jovi, Jay Leno, and Culture Club and Boy George, rolled out a live international album, and hired a manager to handle its 120-plus shows a year. Several members have even been able to quit their day jobs.

ā€œThis is the best time ever to be in an a cappella group,ā€ says tenor Ryan Driver, former president of CUā€™s In the Buff a capella group.

FACE was founded by CU alums Ben Lunstad and Joseph DiMasi, who began to recruit fellow singers at CU in the early 2000s. First came Forest Kelly (ā€™02), a biology major and crooner with a gift at hitting bone-rattling bass notes.

Thereā€™s just something about human voices that is more permeable and accessible to the masses."

Then came Mark Megibow, a Northwestern University grad who traded real drums for beat-boxing, and Driver ā€˜(02) who studied anthropology at CU but always had his eye on a career in music. Next came Stephen Ross ā€˜(03) a music-education major whose piercing countertenor voice resembles the high notes on a synthesizer.

Lyricist Cody Qualls, whoattended CU-Boulder from 1998-2000, was unemployed, was reeling from the break-up of his rock band and singing Christmas Carols on Pearl Street when a band member walked by and coaxed him to join for just one gig. That was 13 years ago.ā€œThereā€™s just something about human voices that is more permeable and accessible to the masses,ā€ says Qualls. ā€œFACE could do a Metallica song, and your grandma would like it.ā€

Lunstad and DiMasi have moved on. But after more than a decade together, the five remaining members have developed a tangible chemistry. At a recent rehearsal they acted like brothers, finishing each otherā€™s stories, ribbing each other, then launching into a radio-worthy harmony on the spot.

[video:https://youtu.be/mWbKavZ1Z_k width:300]

In the early days, they struggled just to get potential audience members to understand what they did, recalls Driver. ā€œYou would say ā€˜a capella,ā€™ and they would envision barbershop.ā€

But more recent reviewers have described FACE as a ā€œwall of soundā€ that ā€œdefies all preconceived stereotypes about vocal bands.ā€ This summer, when the band started a Kickstarter page to fund an international tour, their fans quickly forked up $40,000. Thirteen shows in 16 days across five European countries later, theyā€™re eager to ride that momentum with more originals and bigger shows in new cities.

They credit CU-Boulder not only for bringing them together, but for helping them navigate where they are.

ā€œI still hear the voices of some of those professors in my head when Iā€™m singing,ā€ says Ross, who after 12 years of teaching choir at Skyline High School in Longmont, quit this year to dedicate himself to FACE.

ā€œThey taught us the ability to listen and troubleshoot in real time, whether you were in a choir of 80 or a group of five. I feel like I have the perfect set of tools to do what I am doing right now. Everything led up to this.ā€

Lisa Marshall (Jour, PolSciā€™94) is a freelance writer who lives near Estes Park.

Ģż