Il Divo performs at The Mulia Hotel in Nusa Dua, Bali. (Courtesy of Hotel Mulia)

Nine years on, popera four-piece Il Divo tries to fashion a sound structure to call their own.

Born from a conviction that operatic sound can reach wider audience, Il Divo has upped the game for balladeers. With three tenors and a baritone, a song is a stage on which they perform their vocal gymnastics ' one time as gentle as a breeze, the next as roaring thunder ' \in harmony.

To synchronize such powerful vocals is to synchronize four bold personalities, which they told The Jakarta Post, is the real result of the years together.

'We had been performing solo all of our lives before this. It was not easy to put our egos aside for a moment and build something together,' said Swiss tenor Urs Buhler. He said it was almost an experiment when the group initiator, pop impresario Simon Cowell, first brought them together in 2004.

Coming from different backgrounds and nationalities, not even sharing a common language, the four men tried to get to know each other while trying to present Il Divo to the world. With their black Armani suits, singing in English, French, Spanish and Italian, they started to come to together.

With six albums behind them, mainly renditions of popular songs, sometimes better than the originals, they have made fortunes that they could only dream of in the more privileged niche of opera.

'We have had a lot of bonding experiences, having gone to all of these countries for the first time. Our first tour. Our first time on the Oprah Winfrey show. It's the first time for all four of us every single time. That's really our common ground,' said American tenor David Miller.

'Things get better after 10 years, we just love it, thinking that it was quite stupid to be angry about small things in the past,' said Spanish baritone Carlos Marin.

Now they have performed at a World Cup and Cowell has left them to their own devices. The group decided to stick together after Cowell walked away and have tried to push the boundary even further.

From the beginning of this year, they have been working on a concept album, which they want to be quite different from previous efforts. They've been in the studio between tour legs recording songs that represent the 'Il Divo sound'.

'A concept album is one where all the songs make sense together as a body of work, not just random songs from here and there. It's not a roller coaster so much as it is a journey,' said Miller.

With their vocal virtuosity, it should not be a problem for the four gentlemen, but in fact, it's turned out to be a bit tricky.

They've been successful making popular songs sound 'Il Divo', starting with one or two singing together rising to a powerful chorus, leading to a dramatic end that usually puts Miller's voice on top. It is, however, quite difficult to find a song that's iconic enough and will remind people only of them.

'For me, the previous albums have been formulaic. I think it's good for us to do something slightly different,' said Sebastien Izambard, the French pop singer-songwriter who produced his own album before joining the group. He is the only singer not from a classical training background.

The men want more up tempo songs, which they seem to struggle with.

Miller wants to incorporate 'something where people could get up and dance'. He pointed to 'La Vida Sin Amor' from their fourth album Siempre, as one of the kind of songs that he'd like to have more of on the upcoming album.

''La Vida Sin Amor' has a little bit of rhythm going on. It's got Latin drums underneath. It is a very particular song because it was written by guys who know who we are and what we do,' he said.

Buhler said to make the Il Divo sound, it takes a lot of big, long notes.

A day after their interview with the Post, the four men wowed the audience at The Mulia Hotel in Nusa Dua, Bali, singing in perfect pitch in perfect tailoring.

If only music was about impeccable looks and vocals, Il Divo was already on top.

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