Starting the fire: True Men’s new album released November 14

One by one, several people sing, their voices being recorded in a piano studio. Eventually, all of the voices are combined into one symphony, but without additional instruments — just voices. 

This is how “Burn True” came to be, the new album released Nov. 14, 2025 via Spotify by Truman State University’s all-male premier a cappella group True Men.

Much of the recording and production process took place with the help of Zach Christian, a spring 2025 graduate and former member of True Men. 

Traditionally, True Men keeps a pattern of alternating between making an album and going to the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA) each year, but this year, they decided to do both.

“Last year, we had such a good group that we really wanted a chance to do both,” president of True Men Jack Blackburn said. 

The title was decided based on True Men’s theme for the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA), which was associated with fire, burning and passion.

The five songs for the album were chosen shortly after the competition, and each song was arranged by one of the True Men.

“Most everything with the True Men was a group effort,” True Men music director Ryan Leick said. “We had decided at the beginning of last year that we wanted to do a small album to go along with our competition that year.”

Throughout the process of making the album, True Men learned several things, including the importance of community and a better understanding of music production.

Although True Men risk manager Jobe Weber did not get to take part in the creation process, he still greatly enjoyed seeing the album come together.

“I’d ask [Zach Christian] what he’s looking for in particular,” Weber said. “I want to do something like that at some point in my career.”

Although True Men typically performs unanimously, each member was recorded individually, usually starting with the leads for each song.

This process and method of recording helped members of True Men to grow independently as individual singers.

“It made everyone to be reliable on their own skills as opposed to having other people in the group to sing louder than them,” Leick said.

Sophomore Kayla Marker said she was especially impressed with the production value, the quick turnaround, and how professional “Burn True” sounded.

Marker said she chose to listen to “Burn True” in order to support creative projects from fellow students.

“Sometimes I feel like music isn’t taken super seriously as a potential career path, so I hope that [“Burn True”] encourages people to be open-minded about how that can be a fulfilling career,” Marker said. “If this [album] is something that people that are still in college can create, then imagine what they could create if they were doing this professionally.”