From Financial Analyst to Rising Music Producer, A Cappella Leads the Way
From Financial Analyst to Rising Music Producer,
A Cappella Leads the Way
After years balancing a white-collar career and harmonizing vocals, Shams Ahmed is a juggernaut headed towards mainstream success.
LOS ANGELES – At more than twenty million views on YouTube, a cappella group Citizen Queen’s “Evolution of Girl Groups” winds through twenty-six of the most popular women-sung hits from the 1950s to 2014. Spotlighting Mr. Sandman by The Chordettes to BO$$ by Fifth Harmony and well-loved classics from Sister Sledge, Salt-N-Pepa, and Spice Girls in between, the 6-minute tribute is the type of viral exposure Citizen Queen sought after debuting in late 2018.
A year later, they opened for Pentatonix at Madison Square Garden with Rachel Platten, singer of Fight Song, and signed with RCA Records, Miley Cyrus and Alicia Keys’ label. It was the second major record deal Shams Ahmed had inked as co-creator within two years of putting in his notice at the cybersecurity company he worked for as corporate financial analyst in Boston and moving to Los Angeles.
Until then, Shams led a double-life or “super side hustle,” as he calls it. In high school in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, he sang in choirs and ensembles (he is a Baritone and Tenor), and piled on music theory classes as part of his A.P. curriculum. Music came naturally to him, he says. “Learning theories, nomenclature, vocabulary, and other quantifiable knowledge – I felt like I knew these things in my body.” He exceled at arranging and composing in particular, a gift his school nurtured through its choral and a cappella programs, specifically the all-male group, Casual Harmony.
“[A cappella is] the creation of something out of nothing, taking a beautiful melody and fortifying it with lush harmony and interesting texture.”
At an upscale gastropub in the heart of downtown, Shams politely bartered with our waiter to ensure his meal would be keto-friendly, a dietary tenet and rite of passage of living in L.A. Between bites of chicken salad with dressing on the side (a hallmark request), he explained that musical arranging take on many forms. Daft Punk Medley by Pentatonix, Water Night by Eric Whitacre, and O Magnum Mysterium by Morten Lauridsen are among his favorite compositions – “technically those last two are choral pieces, but I still love!” he added.
For non-a cappella listeners, he offered the slowed-down, beguiling rendition of Beyoncé’s 2003 single, Crazy in Love, featured in the 2015 film Fifty Shades of Grey, as a popular example that transforms a narrative.
He recommends an arrangement be melodically different from its original if you want to tell a story. “If you’re trying to show how impressive or cool a cappella can be, then you have more choices,” he said. “I like to keep things closer to the original, but with clever enhancements and tricks to make it uniquely me.”
Shams and co-founder, Ben Bram, with Citizen Queen: Cora Isabel (beatboxer), Hannah Mrozak (Mezzo-Soprano), Kaedi Dalley (Bass), Kaylah Sharve’ (Alto), and Nina Nelson (Soprano). Photo by Luke Fontana.
Shams already stands out from the white-dominated a cappella crowd. His parents emigrated from Bangladesh to Nasiriyah, Iraq in 1982 then to Stamford, Connecticut in 1983 before he was born. His father, a Bengali folk singer himself, is a full-time engineer. His grandfather, of whom Shams is his namesake, was a prominent doctor in Bangladesh, martyred during the Bangladesh Liberation War.
When it came time to apply to college, his South Asian roots pulled him towards a “real career.” He targeted business schools with one caveat: an established outlet for music. He sprinkled in music schools too, just to see if he would get in, he said. “I have a competitive nature.”
Denied from Harvard and uninterested in other Boston schools – “I’m not a white guy in joggers,” he laughed dismissing Boston College, and Boston University’s physical campus did not appeal – he studied finance and Mandarin at Northeastern University, a durable pairing for the traditionally lucrative career-seeker. Plus, he’s good at math. Northeastern boasted strong STEM, business, and co-op programs, but to his dismay, its music curriculum lacked. Still, he was adamant to find his community.
In his first semester, Shams auditioned for the Northeastern Choral Society. His performance attracted a cappella groups on campus, but “none of them were very good back then,” he said, knowing he could be the change agent for one lucky ensemble. “I joined the Nor’easters because I saw their rickety leadership and knew I could scale up quickly.” His business acumen served him well. By Spring semester he was their music director. He won the seat by one vote.
His basic growth strategy – “fake it ‘til you make it” – focused on recruiting the best talent, savvy networking, and choosing the right songs. He positioned the Nor’easters to draw in gifted students who sat their music dreams in the backseat to pursue something more practical – just as he had done.
“If you want a serious music experience while studying economics or whatever, this is the group for you,” Shams said.
By his senior year, the Nor’easters evolved into a juggernaut within the collegiate a cappella circuit. They won the Varsity Vocals International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA) championship in 2013, a true rags-to-riches parting gift for Shams one month before graduation, and performed for President Obama and the First Lady the following Christmas. Since then, they have traveled around the world, won the ICCA title again in 2017, appeared on television, and made one of the most significant marks on the recorded a cappella music scene.
Shams workshopping the newest crop of Nor’easters in Boston, MA, 2019.
Photos by Lauren Scornavacca
As a cappella’s newest sweetheart, Shams continued arranging music for collegiate groups when he wasn’t putting his degree to work at a bank in Boston. He met Pentatonix, season three winners of NBC’s The Sing-Off, and became fast friends with Ben Bram, co-creator of the group and now, Grammy-award winning producer and director (Pentatonix, Pitch Perfect, Glee). Ben invited him to be a director at A Cappella Academy, a two-week summer intensive in Los Angeles for 13 to 18-year-olds, and Shams agreed. He used paid time-off to fly out West over the next few years, familiarizing himself with the city’s rich music and culture scene while on the job.
“I love the creative spirit of L.A. Everyone wants to collaborate,” he exclaimed. “And the weather!” Its perpetual sunshine is matched by his personality – soulful, warm, brightly visible by all. In two testimonials from industry professionals on his website, Shams’ graces are described with derivatives of the word “sparkling,” as in “everything he touches just absolutely sparkles.”
Ben Bram saw it too. In 2017, he approached him about partnering together on a new project.
They brainstormed, at one-point unsuccessfully pitching “Pitch Perfect: Next Generation” to Universal Pictures thinking they could reel in Hailee Steinfeld or Anna Kendrick, before landing on an a cappella brand for kids to give parents a better solution for pop music to play at home. “Young people are cool,” said Shams. “They’re the future.”
“Elevated kid’s music. Clean and wholesome and entirely top-notch, unlike some other offerings out there,” he said with a sneer. Competitors have faced backlash for scrubbing lyrics from songs thought to be too explicit to feature on a children’s album in the first place, like Closer by The Chainsmokers. (The song describes a one night stand.)
When Scott Hoying, Baritone and lead vocalist of Pentatonix, heard about the idea, he insisted he be a partner. In April 2019, Acapop! KIDS was born.
Acapop! KIDS in their music video for Shallow by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. Photo by Michel Fuller.
The first cast had twenty-five kids, ages 10-14, narrowed down from more than a thousand who auditioned. Each music video features 5 to 9 members singing popular songs like Shallow by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper and High Hopes by Panic! At The Disco. Eventually, Pentatonix manager, Jonathan Kalter, signed on and the four entered a distribution deal with Warner Records for their debut album, handing the label marketing control while maintaining creative power.
Like Citizen Queen, a project conceived by Shams, Ben, and Scott during time waiting on legal processes for Acapop! KIDS (employing minors has its course), Acapop! KIDS began self-funded but quickly found success. They’ve performed on the Kelly Clarkson Show and been promoted by Jennifer Garner and Dua Lipa on social media. Shams dreams of a live tour after social distancing measures resign and a television and film program in the future.
Discovering singers with star power was equally as important as authentically illustrating America’s broad racial landscape without tokenism, says Shams, who didn’t see chubby, brown kids in the media growing up that weren’t the butt of the joke. The word “diversity” feels corporate to him, but members of CQ and Acapop! KIDS represent varied backgrounds, ethnicities, religions, and body shapes.
“I always saw myself as a smart, powerful person but was never characterized that way on screen,” he said. “My archetype isn’t how I carry myself.” He wants to normalize young people seeing versions of themselves “crushing it” as examples of what they can become.
As Citizen Queen matures from an a cappella group to a pop and R&B band, Shams stretches his producer title to cover new territory. Most days, he keeps busy with producing their first original album with industry greats tied to Justin Beiber, Selena Gomez, and Beyoncé. Their first single, Call Me Queen, premiered on December 11th.
But building from the ground up and documenting the girls’ raw talent has been his and Ben’s intention from the beginning. “Like *NSYNC or Boys II Men, you can always point back to their a cappella days,” he said. “Once you strip back production, you can hear, more than anything, there is voice.”
Photo by Tory Stolper
That’s the beauty of a cappella. Singing without instruments or aid allows “the creation of something out of nothing, taking a beautiful melody and fortifying it with lush harmony and interesting texture,” he said. Though it remains his first love, it is a piece of his greater pursuit of music and art.
After lunch, Shams stood next to his car covered in violet remnants of the jacaranda trees that lined the street. “I want to be an entertainment and music mogul,” he said unruffled, leaning against the door in a monochrome sweat-suit in ninety-degree heat. It appears he is well on his way.