Among all the things Hopkins excels in, who knew a cappella would be one of the greatest? The Octopodes, the oldest a cappella group on campus, was recently honored when their arrangement of Evanescence's "Bring Me To Life" was selected for the Best of College A Cappella (BOCA) 2004 CD. In the world of a cappella, it's one of the highest honors a group can receive.
The selection of tracks for the CD is the result of a two-person committee made up of Dan Gooding and Deke Sharon, both aware of the levels of quality in both college and professional a cappella. In an intensive, three-day process, hundreds of CDs from different a cappella groups from around the world, (mostly United States, England, Canada and Japan,) are reviewed and judged on song, background, solo performances, arrangement and compelling emotional delivery. In fact, Gooding said that the 2004 BOCA CD is definitely "the most emotionally charged" of the BOCA collection.
Gooding and Sharon are confident that the tracks they select are the best of the best in the college a cappella world. As for their credentials, Gooding was a singer in Yale's a cappella group, The Whiffenpoofs. He runs Mainely A Cappella, the largest catalog of a cappella music in the world, as well as Varsity Vocals, which runs the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella, a popular series of contests in which more that 100 groups across North America vie for a spot in the finals in New York City. Sharon sang with a Tufts a cappella group, The Beelzebubs, and later founded the A Cappella Society, an international non-profit for a cappella groups. He is a prolific arranger of music and a consultant for Disneyworld and Disneyland for their a cappella groups. Sharon also founded the House Jacks, a professional a cappella group, and has produced a number of CDs himself, providing an "engineer's ear" when listening to the submitted music.
The honor for the Octopodes is the culmination of an unusual amount of hard work and dedication. While most groups hire someone to record their music for a price of around $10,000, the Octopodes, were unable to afford such an expense and recorded their own CD. "We just didn't have that kind of money," says Mike Vu, a senior biomedical engineering major and the Octopodes business manager. The group's only expense was the $700 of equipment they needed to buy to produce the CD.
With no background training or fancy studio, the group spent hours upon hours recording to perfection. Competing against the editing of professionals and the usage multi-million dollar equipment, the group created their first CD in the closet of an apartment, with blankets nailed over the walls to muffle outside sounds and a microphone placed in the middle of the room and strung to a computer. Vu, named the "mastermind" in the production and editing of the CD, says it was very much a "trial and error process." "We had no idea what we were doing [at first]," he notes. Vu read up about the recording techniques and picked up tips along the way, from hundreds of hours of recording.
"I crossed my fingers and hoped we did a good job," he explains. Yet, Vu is humble when he is told the members of the group give him much credit for the fantastic outcome. "The success comes in that we have amazing singers."
One person at a time, the members of the group entered the makeshift booth and performed their parts of the songs.
"You really need to know your part. If you don't, it's obvious [because you're alone in the booth]," explains Susie Jang, a junior biology major and a mezzo in the group. "It's kind of embarrassing." In Jang's experience, she spent three hours alone for three or four songs. The ability to concentrate and perfect every song with essentially an unlimited amount of recording time was one surprising benefit of saving the huge sum of money for an expensive recording studio. Recording in studios, the performers are rushed to execute their parts to perfection the first time they sing because time is costly; whereas the apartment setting had no deadline.
Vu admits the editing was certainly "tedious," since one hour of recording may only become two seconds of a song. All his efforts were worth it, though, as the songs "came together" in the end. "There is something charming about doing it all yourself," he says with a smile.
"It was bonding time....[and] we learned a lot along the way," Jang says of the do-it-yourself recording.
"We saved a lot of money, and to be totally honest, we're also proud of the fact that our recordings can stand up to what others deem "professional'...we have been very fortunate thus far," says junior Steven Chen, a biology/psychology major and the group's music director.
Even though Vu admits that the product was much better than he had hoped, he, as well as other members of the group, was surprised by the critical acclaim. Jang discusses that as a high school student, she'd listen to the past BOCA CD's and thought they were "amazing." "I was astounded when I first heard [that we'd be on the CD]," Jang explains. "It's a big honor."
Not only can the group pat themselves on the back, but they're also being recognized by other groups. Immediately after the announcement of the track on the CD, the group received invitations from many other schools to act as their guest groups.
"Before December, there was no question that the Octopodes was an obscure group from Hopkins known only on the East Coast," says Chen. "But now after BOCA's release, we have groups from Michigan and California inviting us for concerts."
Chen has a pride that mirrors most members' feelings of the group accomplishment. "Being accepted to appear on BOCA is extremely exciting for us, especially since we're the first Hopkins group to do so," he explains. "We're hoping that with this kind of publicity, we can bring some more knowledge of Hopkins a cappella to the other colleges in the nation."
Not willing to rest on their laurels, the group is also competing in quarterfinals of the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella in February at Brandeis University.
"We are willing to sacrifice so much of our time for the sole reason that we enjoy being with everyone in the group and enjoy the music. Our only hope is that everyone else does too," says Chen.
The BOCA CD can be purchased from any member of the group starting early February, and the Octopodes' second release will be available at the April concert. More information can be found at www.octopodes.org.
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