Pentatonix is back with new music and is kicking off the holiday season

• The five-person a cappella group’s most recent studio album
• Holidays around the World was released on Friday.
• Kirstin Maldonado, Scott Hoying, Mitch Grassi, Kevin Olusola, and Matt Sallee are the group’s other members.

 The five-person a cappella group’s most recent studio album, Holidays Around the World, was released on Friday. They discussed the album’s inspiration with PEOPLE as well as their growing families, touring, and other topics.

Kirstin Maldonado, Scott Hoying, Mitch Grassi, Kevin Olusola, and Matt Sallee are the group’s other members. They all concur that honoring the many cultural traditions over the holiday season was the finest part.

“It was really cool because we also got to experience all the cultural differences in music there. So the album’s really fun and really eclectic in that way — but it was really awesome just because we never get to have that big of a span in the type of music that we do,” Maldonado, 30, says. “We also have three originals on there, which I feel like we all love so much. We’re all really proud of them and feel like they’re our best Christmas originals yet.”

The three original songs are “Star on Top,” “Prayers for the World,” and “Kid on Christmas,” which Meghan Trainor and the band co-wrote.

The latter song was written by Diane Warren, and Olusola, 34, believes it is pertinent to the status of the globe today.

“This is an anchor for the album because there’s so much going on in our world today and it’s almost like a collective prayer with all these different artists from the international community that all want hope, love, and light and peace for our world today.”

The band’s favorite musicians, Lea Salonga and Lang Lang, as well as Hiba Tawaji, Grace Lokwa, La Santa Cecilia, Shreys Ghoshal, Hikakin & Seiken, The King’s Singers, and others, collaborated on the album.

“She’s simply so recognizable. She has such talent, for one. She sings flawlessly. Hoying, 31, who portrayed the Disney princesses Mulan and Jasmine and recorded “Christmas in Our Hearts,” said of the singer, “She did one take in the studio “around the group.

Grassi, 30, continues, “Her voice brings back memories.”

The Voice season 21 winner A Girl Named Tom will open the band’s Pentatonix: A Christmas Spectacular tour in North America on Nov. 17.

“It’s fun to be able to perform night after night. And we’ve just done it for so long that it’s so dialed in now,” says Grassi. “Honestly, the most stressful part is getting the show in our bodies. But after that, it’s just smooth sailing. It’s just a beautiful routine and we get to travel and sleep as long as we want.”

Olusola furthers, “We’ve discovered that many people turn our Christmas presentation into a family ritual. Every year, they bring their families. That’s wonderful, I say.”

The band will be using a family bus this time because Maldonado is a new mother to her 4-month-old daughter Elliana Violet and Olusola is the father of his 18-month-old daughter Kaia Noelle.

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