Celebrity Travel: Go away with Kevin Olusola

Jae-Ha Kim, Tribune Content Agency on May 6, 2025

Singer, cellist and beatboxer Kevin Olusola is famous for being one-fifth of the three-time Grammy Award-winning a cappella group Pentatonix. But this May, he makes his debut as a solo artist with his album “Dawn of a Misfit” (https://kevinolusola.lnk.to/DawnofaMisfitPR). “The idea for this album actually came from my Hollywood Bowl performance in 2022,” Olusola told me in a Zoom interview from his Los Angeles home. “I did a version of ‘Beethoven's 5th Symphony’ that I called ‘Kevin's 5th.’ It was something that I'd been working on for fun on my own, and it took off from there.”

Q: Most people wouldn’t think of you as a misfit. What can you share about yourself that we may not know?

A: Most of my life, I have felt extremely misunderstood. I'm not Black enough for the Black kids. I'm too Black for the white kids. I'm not African enough [like my dad]. I'm not Caribbean enough [like my mom]. I'm not academic enough. I'm not hip-hop enough. I'm not classical enough. But I finally did enough self- discovery to realize I know what I want to say and how I want to say it. And I finally feel like I have a message, which is that our uniqueness, our weirdness, our quirks – the things that maybe you were bullied for as a kid – are actually our unique superpower. And that’s what I try to get across in ‘Dawn of a Misfit.’

Q: What was your most recent trip?

A: I went to South Africa. I was actually there for a funeral, and then after the funeral, my cousins and I went around and had a bit of fun seeing the sights. It’s funny to me, because the terrain in a lot of ways was very reminiscent to me of Los Angeles. There were lots of beautiful, rolling hills. I want to visit Africa more. I haven’t been back to Nigeria since 2010.

Q: I know that you studied abroad in China when you were at Yale. And I recently saw a few videos of you speaking Chines e. As a native English speaker, how do you maintain your Chinese language skills?

A: That’s a good question! Funnily enough, my daughter is interested in Chinese. She goes to a Montessori preschool and has Chinese classes. And probably twice a week, we'll watch this show called “Little Fox Chinese,” which is a really amazing show for kids. It’s simple Chinese, but I think even that gets her interested. So that’s one way. Some of her friends in preschool are Chinese, so we'll talk in Chinese, and they're always so surprised that I speak Chinese. It's just super fun.

Q: When was the last time you were in China?

A: I haven't been back in recent years, but there was a time when [Pentatonix] went in 2012 for the Chinese version of “The Sing-Off” and I spoke in Chinese the whole time. [Laughs.] The judges were so impressed, because I used some pretty high-level Chinese. I'd love to go back, especially with the classical angle that I bring into my solo album, because I know how much classical music is a big part of Chinese culture.

Q: I understand that you practice Sabbath. How does that work when you are on tour or have a schedule to main with Pentatonix?

A: Sabbath is an important part of my life, where from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday, I don’t do any work – nothing with the band, nothing for myself. When I rest on that day, I feel like I have the capacity to do more work on other days. In the first year of the band, I said, “This is something that I have to do. It's a practice that is extremely important to me as a Christian. So I can't do Friday night shows. If this is something that can't be worked out, I understand that you will need to find another beatboxer.” I was scared that I might get kicked out. But they were very, very understanding, and it hasn't really been an issue.

Q: Do you bring your family on tour with you?

A: We tried that once, but my wife and I decided that we really love the regularity of having our children in school. So they come to visit when I'm on tour, but they don’t stay for the entire tour.

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(Jae-Ha Kim is a New York Times bestselling author and journalist. You can reach her at www.jaehakim.com, follow her on Instagram and X @goawaywithjae, or read more from her on Substack (jaehakim.substack.com).)