Everyone can relate to an a capella group, Trist Curless says.

"Even if they're not a singer, everyone has a voice," he said in a telephone interview. "They've tried to sing in the car or the shower and they know a built-in part. ... It's built into our bodies and people can have a little bit of (relativity). They may have never picked up a saxophone, and no matter how amazing it might be, they'll never know how amazing it is because they've never tried.

"It's more personal, more inside the human."

Curless is one of two original members of m-pact, a six-man a capella group that starts its two-week visiting artist tour with Quad-City Arts on Monday. That includes two public performances - a week from today at Davenport's First Presbyterian Church and Nov. 21 as part of the Quad-City Symphony Orchestra's Holiday Pops show at the i wireless Center in Moline.

The Los Angeles-based group, which started in Colorado and then detoured to Seattle, began 14 years ago and grew from five to six members.

It re-creates a full range of voices, from soprano to bass, with six men.

"We definitely have a particular sound just because of the range of the voices and being all guys," said Curless, who sings bass. "You hear a full, basically soprano through bass sound with six people, but with male voices."

The group has had a variety of performers through the years, including Rudy Cardenas, a finalist on last year's "American Idol," and an alto who is now with a Michael Jackson tribute revue in London.

Besides the public performances, m-pact is busy with visits to schools in the Quad-City area, singing and discussing career options with the students.

"We generally talk about not only performing opportunities, if you're musically inclined, but other facets in terms of arranging and producing, and the business side: music attorneys, music accountants and music managers," Curless said. "If music's your passion, you can find a career for yourself without being on your own as a performer."