Scott Hoying, courtesy Steve Thrasher.

Scott Hoying has won three Grammys with a capella quintet Pentatonix, but when he released solo single “Mars,” he realized a dream he first had in high school. Back then, he was chasing pop superstar dreams, he said of two self-released albums. But he views “Mars,” which he released last September, followed by two newer versions last month, as his professional solo debut.

And it’s just a start.

“This is a pretty big deal to me, like as big of a deal as Pentatonix, for multiple reasons,” the 31-year-old baritone said in a video call from New York, where he’d just arrived from L.A. “Pentatonix is such an established thing, so it’s a bigger deal in that way. But my solo project is a representation of totally me, and it’s very vulnerable and raw and scary and exciting, and so it’s a huge deal to me in a bunch of other ways, like personally and emotionally, as well as musically.”

While many of PTX’s songs are new arrangements of established hits, “Mars” is as personal as he’s gotten about his own life and his love for his fiancé (and partner of several years), Mark Manio. Manio contributed to the song and appears in the video. Jon Levine, who’s worked with the likes of Dua Lipa, Rachel Platten and Drake, produced it.

The song finds a home in the large canon of space-themed songs that are really about belonging and the human condition, like Elton John’s “Rocket Man” and David Bowie’s “Life On Mars?” and “Space Oddity.”

Hoying searched through some of these other space-themed songs online as inspiration while writing. He was also very hands-on when it came to making the video.

“I have always loved big, grand, epic movies, videos, songs,” he said. “Because it’s called ‘Mars’ and has to do with space and talks about aliens, I knew I wanted to do something that was kind of like that ‘Close Encounters’ energy.”

So he and a small crew drove out to the California desert near Joshua Tree National Park, where he rented an Airbnb covered in mirrors from all sides called the Invisible House because of the unique way it reflected the alien-like landscape. They brought one camera, three lights and a piano. They had a light outline and kept adding to the script as they went along.

The end product doesn’t feel very bare-bones at all, which Hoying credited to there being just enough cooks in the kitchen without muddying up the creative thinking. The end product was all his, which is different from any composition or YouTube video with Pentatonix.

“It’s always so liberating and exciting to be able to say whatever lyrics, whatever message, whatever visuals I really want in that moment,” Hoying said. “I knew that I wanted my fiancé to be a part of it, because the song is about him. I knew I wanted a lot of narrative in it.”

Hoying said he really leaned into songwriting and recording during the early stages of the pandemic. Learning Pro Tools was tedious, but once he mastered it, he couldn’t stop. It also opened a lot of doors to co-writing, including with recent tourmates and “The Voice” winners Girl Named Tom.

“That became my biggest passion in life. I saw a vision of what a solo project could look like start to take form,” he said.

He said that with his own music he’s also able to push further into some areas that wouldn’t work for Pentatonix despite the group having reached mainstream audiences that most didn’t think was possible at the outset. He said PTX has been able to push the envelope further as it has become more successful—and Hoying has done even more so with his side project with Pentatonix member Mitch Grassi called Superfruit. But he’s able to go even further now.

“I love everything we do with Pentatonix, but it’s a specific brand, and also, there’s four other people in the group, so you have to come to a middle ground and make sure it’s good for the Pentatonix brand,” he added. “With this I was like, ‘I want to do a shower scene… and then I want to kiss Mark underwater, and all that.’ All that stuff would not be possible at all in the group. It’s kind of cool to be able to explore that artistic side of myself.”

The freedom to do whatever he wants with his own music is also what led Hoying to release acoustic and choral versions of “Mars” last month. He said that all of these versions were bouncing around in his head, and he was initially debating which one would be the original version.

The choir version was inspired by a behind-the-scenes video from the film “The Greatest Showman,” with Hugh Jackman fully belting a song backed by other vocalists.

“I’m obsessed with harmony, obviously; not just because I’m in Pentatonix, but I just love choral choir music,” he said. “I love when I’m in a room with people just belting at the top of their lungs, and so I thought that’d be a really special concept to put with ‘Mars.’”

The acoustic version has Hoying playing piano—something he doesn’t get to do in the a capella Pentatonix.

“An intimate piano and vocal tells the story so poignantly,” he said. “I’ve loved to play piano my entire life.”

Hoying will be releasing more music in 2023. He said he’s written a song a day for more than a year and has a hard drive full of them—some of which he’s looking forward to sharing. He’s not sure yet whether there will eventually be an EP or an album, however. He’s playing it by ear. And the songs he’s got for himself aren’t getting in the way of his work with Pentatonix, which includes Grassi as well as Kirstin Maldonado, Matt Sallee and Kevin Olusola. Fans shouldn’t be surprised to see him touring on his own or opening for PTX on tour.

“I do love to work. My idea of meditation or relaxing at the end of the day is songwriting or working on solo stuff,” he said. “I can easily always find the time. … There’s moments where I feel like I bit off more than I can chew, but overall, I enjoy it so much.”

Pentatonix has stayed just as busy recently and will stay busy this year. The group headlined arenas on a holiday tour to close out 2022, playing songs from its latest holiday album, Holidays Around the World. Evergreen, PTX’s 2021 holiday album, was nominated for a Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album Grammy at last night’s award show. The group next has a tour of Europe, Asia and Oceania.

PTX also performed its new arrangement of the “Star-Spangled Banner” at the College Football Playoff National Championship game to kick off 2023, which Hoying said was a high-pressure moment for him because he still gets stage fright.

“It was the most terrifying thing ever, and I’m just so glad it went well,” he said. “It being on live television for 20 million people, I could not get out of my head. … At the very beginning, fortunately they were on a wide shot and not a close-up. My hand was shaking so I had to grab it and then let it down gracefully. They ended up cutting to us right when I was [doing that]. I was really, really, really, really scared.”

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter.