Chugging along to success

Daily Journal Staff

Before reaching notoriety on the Disney Channel as the members of Choo Choo Soul, Genevieve Goings and D.C. grew up in San Mateo County with simple dreams of pursuing performance as a job.

The duo will be featured Saturday as part of the San Carlos Hometown Days 2008 — a community celebration. Their concert scheduled for Saturday afternoon at Burton Park also acts as a fundraiser for the same area. Although their videos are broadcast to homes nationwide via Disney, the performance will be the pair’s first local performance since gaining an audience.

Together singer Goings and dancer and beatboxer D.C., also known as Constantine Abramson, make up Choo Choo Soul. The railroad-themed group produces music children can enjoy without driving parents crazy. Music-video style shorts featuring the duo appear on Disney along with children and a blend of live action and computer animation.

Different paths were taken to find the success sparred by the children’s music collaboration.

For Goings the story begins in San Carlos. The 27-year-old, who now calls Los Angeles home, was raised in the south county city. Growing up, she participated in the San Carlos Children’s Theater and was the mascot for Central Middle School.

"I knew I wanted to perform,” she said with a laugh remembering the mascot job.

Music was an interest for Goings but didn’t become a large part of her life until after graduating from Sequoia High School. Her interest was in hip hop. Her voice is on more than 70 albums singing hooks, which is how she began learning more about the industry. At 19, producer J.R. Rotem took an interest in Goings. The pair would perform at local jazz clubs with Rotem on the piano and Goings exploring freestyle. Much of her early music experience was exploration of various genres to see what fit.

After high school, Goings began taking music classes at Foothill College. She worked at an insurance company and at Piacere Restorante on Laurel Street. Goings would perform late at night and weekends.

In 2004, Goings began working in a neo soul group called Legato — the album can be found on iTunes. It was during her work in Legato that Goings met D.C.

D.C. grew up some miles north in Millbrae. One of eight children, D.C. was adopted into his family at 4 years old. He attributes his success to his upbringing. D.C.’s parents had four children and adopted four. Actually, they adopted a child before D.C. which they thought to be the last. Since adoption laws were different at the time, the biological father was able to get his child back. That’s when D.C. joined the family.

"I get to do a lot of great, fun stuff. That’s all great. I’m lucky to be able to do fun stuff for a living,” he said. "I attribute a lot of that to how I was raised, culture and upbringing from two people who gave me a chance.”

D.C. went through Millbrae schools — Spring Valley, Taylor Middle and Mills. He was the kind of kid who wanted to do everything but swimming and basketball were the activities that stuck. D.C. actually comes from his days on the court. He used to have a big afro and people named him Dr. C after professional player Julius "Dr. J” Erving. The name was shortened to D.C.

D.C. enjoyed dancing and performing as a youth. He’d learn the popular moves and put them to work at dances.

After high school, D.C. tried his hand at the Academy of Art University. The school wasn’t a fit and D.C. began working on the promotions and street team for Wild 94.9 performing at events by beatboxing or breakdancing.

Shortly after, he broke into the world of sports entertainment starting with the Warriors. He was part of the Hoop Troop throwing out prizes. Then from 2002 to 2006, D.C. was the 49ers mascot Sourdough Sam. He worked as the assistant to Lou Seal — the San Francisco Giants mascot — for some time. Finally, D.C. was Thunder, the Warriors’ mascot through the most recent season. Through that work, D.C. had the chance to dance for video games and singers Jessica Simpson and Mary J. Blige.

A friend invited D.C. to one of Legato’s shows. Not long after, D.C. was part of the band.

Choo Choo Soul was not far behind. Goings also recorded voice overs for video games. While recording parts for gospel singers for ToeJam & Earl III: Mission to Earth for Xbox, Goings noticed there were no singing parts. She made the suggestion to video game developer Greg Johnson. Johnson ran with the idea.

Johnson, and his son, enjoyed the music produced. The idea expanded into Choo Choo Soul. A 16-track CD was released in 2004. Neither Goings nor D.C. thought the act was going to be the ticket to stardom. Talks with Disney changed that. Music videos began airing in the United States during Playhouse Disney programming in 2006.

Saturday is an opportunity for both Goings and D.C. to share the success with friends, family and fans from San Mateo County. Viewers who miss the performance should be on the look out for five new videos airing this July.

Choo Choo Soul performs from 12:30 p.m. to 1:15 p.m. Saturday, May 17 at Burton Park, 1070 Cedar St., San Carlos on the basketball courts. For more information about Goings visit www.genevievegoings.com. For more information on D.C. visit www.myspace.com/dcbeatbox. For more information about Choo Choo Soul visit www.choochoosoul.com. Donations can be made to sancarlosparks.org.

Heather Murtagh can be reached by e-mail: heather@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 105.