What's up everybody? This is Paula Phelps and you are listening to on a positive note.

The holidays are here, which means we've been filling our ears with the sounds of the season.

As we hit the final stretch, I'm talking with Jasper Smith of the popular

a cappella group Straight No Chaser. Since being discovered on YouTube, this group has become an international sensation

and has become part of a holiday tradition for many.

In this episode, Jasper talks about the group's incredible road to success

and how delivering happiness at the holidays has made them synonymous with the season.

Let's have a listen.

Jasper, welcome to On a Positive Note, and thank you so much for joining me.

Hi, Paul. Yeah, thanks for having me. I'm happy to be here talking to you today.

Well, I love the story of Straight No Chaser. It is kind of like a holiday hallmark movie,

you know. It's got that feel to it. So tell us about that. Talk about how

the band first formed and then how YouTube kind of played Cupid and brought you all back together

a little bit later in the story. Yeah, it is one of those really, really crazy things. You know,

we compared to winning the lottery. So groups started back at Indiana University back in 1996

by some guys who were part of a then show choir called the Singin Hoosiers. And the East Coast

kind of had this rich tradition of acapella and specifically male aquapella groups. And there

were a couple guys at IU that thought, man, we should do that here. And so there were 10 guys from the singing

Hoosiers that formed this group. Essentially, I think it was for singing and girls, you know,

what higher calling, or for food and girls. But they just started and kept going for three or four

years and went to competitions and got some notoriety on the collegiate level and ended up recording their

senior farewell concert at IU and then kind of all went their separate ways for the next decade or so.

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