Boy Band 'Spontaneous': Taking the Gigs to the People

Inspired by flash mobs, Austin Agar, 17, Reed Cowan, 18, and Justin Lennox, 18, pop up at local businesses and restaurants in Snellville to sing pop songs similar to One Direction, with voices that blend in fantastic harmonies and rhythms. 

Their first music video, "Poppin' Up," received over 210,000 views on YouTube, while the most recent video, "Princess," has received over 110,000 in a little over a week's time. The music is written and performed by the three guys, and filmed by Kaleb Flores. 

Snellville Patch asked the trio, which includes two Brookwood students and one alumni, about their aspirations and motivation via email. 

Snellville Patch: How did you guys get to know each other? 
Justin: Austin and I met through drumline at Brookwood and decided to form a boy band together. Reed was cleaning instruments in the Band Room and saw us practicing one day. He heard us singing and spied on us from the instrument room. We started practicing “Gangnam Style” and he just started singing along from the other room. We liked his voice so much we asked him to come out and from there it was history.

Snellville Patch: Do any of you have a musical background? Instruments? Voice lessons?
Reed: Both Justin and I have brothers who play music, so we took up piano after them and Austin plays drums (though none of us have any formal training, especially for voice!). 

Snellville Patch: Who choreographs your videos?
Reed: We just watch an NSYNC choreography video and copy their moves. (Just kidding.)

Snellville Patch: What are the locations featured in "Princess" and "Poppin' Up"?
Justin: We pop up around The Avenue a lot, but we’ll go pretty much anywhere that doesn’t kick us out as soon as we start singing.

Snellville Patch: Do you have any new projects coming up?
Reed: We should be releasing a new song in a months time, hopefully geared towards Valentine’s Day. 

Snellville Patch: What do you think sets you apart from other boy bands? 
Justin: What sets us apart from other boy bands is that we’re actually cute. Also, we’re trying to bring back the boy band sound of the 90s, like NSYNC and Backstreet Boys. But we have no real talent, so I guess we’re like other boy bands in that way.

Snellville Patch: What are your hopes for the future?
Reed: We auditioned for America’s Got Talent in November, so we are hoping to get a call from them later this month in hopes of being able to be on T.V.

Snellville Patch: Do you have a favorite location to "pop up" at?
Justin: Our favorite location to pop up at is the Starbucks on Scenic Highway near the Avenue. One of the workers danced with us in the ‘Poppin’ Up’ video and their manager held my hand in the ‘Princess’ video. We like popping up at Peachwave in the Avenue too though, because the girl who works there is really cute.

Snellville Patch: Tell me about being kicked out of businesses.
Justin: Either way, sometimes our favorite places are the places that kick us out. We went to a bookstore and sang in whispers in hopes that we wouldn’t get kicked out, but unfortunately the manager asked us to leave. Everybody’s always very kind about asking us to leave though because they know we’re just singing and not trying to cause harm. Except Victoria’s Secret. They kicked us out because they thought we were creepy.

Snellville Patch: Do you have a favorite spot to perform? 
Reed: I liked UGA because it was nice and friendly, and we were lucky to be given the opportunity to perform. We were able to pick up another gig at a UGA fashion show coming up in February.

Snellville Patch: Do you have any scheduled concerts? Or is it all spontaneous?
Justin: We pop up pretty much anywhere anyone asks us to, but even when a performance is scheduled we try to make it as spontaneous as possible. Like sometimes we switch names, employ pyrotechnics, sing falsetto the entire time, and much more. 

Snellville Patch: What inspired the idea for a "flash mob" boy band?
Reed: We started the boy band together, and realized we had no way to reach our audience. I mean, how is a new band supposed to promote themselves and get gigs with no press? We decided we would take the gigs to the people, bring the performance to them.

Snellville Patch: What do your families think of your music?
Justin's Dad:I think what the boys are doing with their music is great. A lot of other parents from around the neighborhood and members of our community always approach me with their own tales of the boys’ escapades in various businesses. The boys seem to brighten up days wherever they go so I fully support them.

Follow Spontaneous on Facebook to keep up with their shenanigans!