A Rude Awakening Part 1

Before I begin talking about this chapter of our journey at the Vocal Asia Festival 2016 in Taiwan, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to everyone who listened to my podcast (A little bit of the Ale). I totally didn’t expect to have 100 hits on the first day! I was so nervous when I posted it but thanks to you guys, I am very very motivated to keep on creating content! Please feel free to drop me a message to tell me how you feel about my blog and podcast! If you say something nice, I will feature you on my blog, if you say something bad, you get to be in the podcast. 

Ok, recap! On 2nd July 2016, we won our first Acappella competition at the Singapore Acappella Championships (Acachamps) and we saw the end of our most stressful period – The need to give a good first impression. However, with Weixin announcing his departure from the group right after the award ceremony, there was no time to celebrate. All the momentum we built was replaced by a giant hurdle. It was like dying at the end of a very difficult Mario level and back to the start you go. Even though I was completely lost, I also felt a sense of relief, this is because I knew that Cheeyang and Weixin cannot work together. No faults of either one of them, it’s just different perspectives. 

So here I go again, tasked with looking for a bass once again. Just like teleporting back to 12th March when CY and I first discussed starting the group. But then so many years doing Acapella, you think I don’t know people meh? Within a few days, here comes Luke, someone I met in Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s Acappella group, “NP Voices” and also sang with my casual Acappella group “NoeXit”. I was very fond of his attitude towards Acappella, especially his passion for singing bass. That is very rare. Most basses in Singapore are either indifferent to the part or they are forced to be bass because they have the lowest tone. However, with Luke, you can tell he wanted to sing the part and sing it well. Well… I would love to give him the prestigious Stamp of Musician Excellence, but he came for the first rehearsal unprepared and hungover.

Here is a blurry video screenshot of Luke’s first performance with us, singing the National Anthem at the Super24 stage. Left to right – Me, CY, Yvonne, Gen, Luke.

At the same time, we were also auditioning Kenneth; you can go back to my first blog post to find out who he is. Long story short, we did a few rounds of auditions for Luke and Kenneth and we found Luke to be more suitable for the group at that time. If you don’t know me by now, I do not skip details, so… if I have to cut a long story short… it means I have someeeeee not-so-good things to say, and not so good things are only said in my Podcast. 

Soprano – Gen 

Mezzo Sop – Jean 

Alto – Yvonne 

Tenor 1 – Cheeyang 

Tenor 2/Baritone – Alejandro 

Bass – Luke 

Beatbox – Bryant

With the Vocal Asia Festival (VAF) being only a month away, we had to start grinding right away. It didn’t matter that we were using the same repertoire plus one new song because we were going to compete with a new bass anyway. We can only move with our slowest member in order to cross the finish line together. While we were preparing hard for VAF in mid-August 2016, we also wanted to release our second music video! It also happened to be the new song we wanted to use for VAF. Cheeyang wanted us to include our identity as Singaporeans at the competition as it was an international stage; Many Acappella groups from all over the world would be there. Hence, establishing an identity was at the top of the important to-do list. Come to think of it, we really should have stuck with our original repertoire. I think what we lacked at that time was some consideration for the newly added bass and the lack of time for him to perfect four songs. Anyway, that new song was “家”, the Chinese version of “Home” written by Dick Lee. This song has a special place in my heart. This is because our version was very nicely arranged, full credits to CY, it really highlights the 7-member sound. The different layers, the ebb and flow, and voices replying to each other, it is beautiful. This is also officially our last cover as 7. The unofficial cover as 7 which was released in Feb of 2017 was removed from existence because the music video was so cringe. So let this be the last. At least it was beautiful.

Cover art for 家

The one month of rehearsals leading up to the competition was filled with ups and downs. We had fantastic bonding moments but also times where we were completely directionless due to some very obvious problems with our performance. One of the two biggest problems was Bryant’s inability to stick to a tempo due to his many years of beatboxing experience. Let me explain, being a solo act as a beatboxer, keeping a tempo was never that important. This is because beatboxers always switch up their routines to introduce new sounds and rhythm; hence, he was very used to this style of beatboxing. Being a vocal percussionist was something entirely different. No fancy routines, no switching as and when you wish, and though the routine may be simple, you have to keep to a very strict tempo. At that time, we didn’t have in-ear monitors to help us. Therefore the only way we could help this situation was to try and exorcise this beatboxer demon in Bryant. The second problem was obviously the lack of time to train Luke. Weixin was different as he had many years of experience and had won many Acappella competitions before. He won Acachamps five times. Come to think of it, I am still very proud of everybody as they dealt with these problems the best they could. I will not go in detail on this because I don’t know how to. I need to be nice here.

Our arrival at Taitung. Far-left – Luke’s mother and Feng (Sound engineer) between Gen and I

The format for the festival was – four days of classes by world-renowned musicians in the Acappella field, in which the competition was after class on day one, and then we have the GALA concert on the last day. Needless to say, the stress level was filled to the brim. However, the whole experience was made 100 times better thanks to the two angels we met at Taitung. Nicest people in the world and I don’t think I can do them any justice no matter how much I write about them. 

One of the angels was Feng’s friend whom he knew through his father’s colleague. Her name is Peiyi and the other angel was her cousin. Their families generously lent us their place to store our luggage and treated us to the best seafood dinner I could remember in a while. They brought us around Taiwan to have great food and insisted on paying for every meal. They also let us stay in their big mansion free-of-charge. THEY DON’T EVEN KNOW US. They could have just brought Feng and Gen out and catch up but no, they chose to make all of us feel comfortable in Taiwan.

Enjoying some bonding time at the beach after our wholesome seafood dinner

Our two angels holding the TW <3 SG sign after we returned from the competition on day 1

They also prepared a traditional local cuisine for us; I cannot remember what is the name of the dish but it was a chicken and some potatoes baked in a big metal can (if you know the name of the dish please let me know). It was delicious, that I can remember. OH yes, they also prepared the hostel we stayed in and made sure we got a good discount. Seriously, what else can I say? I really wish I have that capacity to be this nice and sincere to people. There is much to be learned from these two. Thank you for everything. I am sorry we couldn’t get the big one for you guys. 

We practised almost every hour possible during the 1.5 days before the competition. We were rehearsing at the airport for goodness sake. It was non-stop just go and go, sing and sing. Then, we went through our choreography, then we sang again. I could tell how much we wanted to win, but in hindsight, I felt like the endless rehearsals wore us out. We left our best performance at one of our rehearsals and from there it was diminishing returns. If you tell me that the strenuous last-minute practices were needed, then we were obviously not ready for this competition.  Truth is… we weren’t and not by a longshot ready to be the ones on top. We didn’t know better and had zero knowledge of the calibre of Acappella groups we were competing with. If you are in the Acappella scene, you will only have one thing to say about us – SUAY AH! Our first competition and we met O-Kai and Acapellago. To-date, these two groups have won more champion titles than I can count with my hands, and my brother’s… and my sister’s.. and my mother’s… the whole Apex project members’. 

However, I was really glad that we didn’t know this before the competition. If we did, I think the stress of that knowledge would have crippled us to an extent that we wouldn’t even win the prizes we won. What prizes did we win you ask? Stay tuned to part 2 of this chapter where I will cover the actual festival, competition, award ceremony, and our impromptu after party!

This is us right before traveling to the battleground

Once again, thank you for all your support! To both my readers and listeners – Thanks to you, I will keep on creating. And one last time, thank you to our two angels. 

Love,

Alejandro

Chapter 2: A Bitter Victory

I strongly believe that a good first achievement is as important as a good first impression. This is so very true in Singapore as we still aren’t able to shake the culture that “Local = not good enough”. I hope that one day the prejudice against local musicians would go away and allow the next generation of musicians to start on a levelled playing field. Knowing this, our (The Apex project’s) plan to establish legitimacy was very straightforward - conquer the biggest local Acappella competition and move on to get a name for ourselves internationally. 

The biggest and only Acappella competition with decades of history in Singapore is the Singapore Acappella Championships (Acachamps) organised by The Acappella Society (TAS). Shoutout to Angie from TAS for helping us so much during our first visit to Taiwan during Vocal Asia 2016. Acachamps’ international category winners’ Hall of Fame is also filled with many big names. Arguably the most successful local Acappella group, MICappella (I made sure to check the correct spelling), was born from Acachamps. 

After our first showcase on the 17th of June 2016, Acachamps was 2nd July. We had barely two weeks to be fully prepared for this. Don’t forget, I was away for my grad trip right after the group’s formation in April all the way up till mid-May. Therefore, we had less than two months to forge team chemistry, blend our voices, be comfortable singing with mics and memorise our choreography. At this point, I believe the group had more chemistry with my sub, Marcus Lye, than me. However, deep inside I knew no one will care about these reasons/excuses if we didn’t manage to win. Can you imagine right after a glorious debut and two weeks later you go on to lose your first competition? I cannot imagine a bigger embarrassment than that. 

I am guessing that everyone felt the same way although we were told to “just have fun”. “The most important thing is that we learn from this experience”. I strongly believe that no one was listening to that. Come to think of it, the smart thing to do was to join the competition first and win it THEN debut. If we didn’t win, at least we had a way out. In hindsight, that gamble could be the reason why we did not have a single problem with rehearsing 4 times a week.

A tired Yvonne after one of our rehearsals for Acachamps

On top of that, we only started on our choreography ONE week before the competition. How difficult can Acappella choreography be right? Just walk to your spot, move left to right, bounce to the beat and make sure you come out when it is your turn to sing the lead. I wish. Here is a hint – Yes, we were that group. That group which would do everything just a little bit more, in our case, a lot more. We literally had to dance. Our set was filled with ups and downs, not emotionally, Jean was walking on chairs and Gen was jumping off them. Yes we brought chairs (three chairs) because we just had to be that group. We were kicking, bouncing, stomping, kneeling while vocal-playing different instruments.

Us singing “Sing Sing Sing” and doing all the above mentioned.

If there’s one thing I can remember from this experience (like it was yesterday), it was the final moment when we finished the song. When I got to my final pose, finger pointing to the sky, shouting my last vowel “WAP WA NAO”, that scream and standing ovation from the audience was unforgettable. Thank you to everyone single one of you. I may not remember your faces, but I want you to know that your heartfelt cheers gave me one of my most emotional moments. I know what I said about this being a must-win competition, but after that ending moment, and for the first time since our decision to join Acachamps, I forgot about the desire to win. This was because I felt that I already won. I was so proud of everyone, it was a short three months but it felt like family. 

The second thing I can remember about that day was the brutal wait throughout the whole day. This is because Acachamps has many categories, ranging from primary choirs to college groups to the free-for-all groups (the open category) to international groups to beatbox acts. By the time it reached us at the open category, more than 20 groups had performed. After us, 10 more groups were waiting. Then, we got to the most anticipated moment at the award ceremony. 

The final moment of the brutal wait was also when we met Pinopela, a killer group from the Philippines who is everything people say about Filipino singers. They walked on stage and completely outclassed every other international group. When they did their version of Adele’s “All I ask”, it was clear as day that they were going to win. If I was in a game of Dota 2, I would describe this as – E.Z. You don’t learn by losing a competition, losing a competition only teaches you that you may not be the cup of tea for the 5 people grading you. You learn by being humbled by a group so good that you deem yourself the loser. You learn by accepting a loss you gave to yourself. 

Here’s to the good old days when we were 7, and you guys were about…20 members (Jk, 9 members)

We will meet Pinopela again three years later in Russia. Stay tuned for that story – A story of culture shock and how our 21yo Russian model and tour guide went 1-on-1 with a grown-angry-shouting Russian man. 

Finally, the wait was coming to an end. The children’s choir was done celebrating and on the way home to tell their family about their glorious victory. The screams of the college group winners were slowly dying down and next up it’s time to announce the winner of the open category. There were 10 groups and every group will be getting an award from bronze to gold. You get the award based on your score and the top three (usually all golds) will be crowned at the end. This means, every time they call a name that is not your group’s, you are one step closer to the top. 

I remember looking down while holding CY and WX on each side. I was just repeating myself, “Ok it is not us” as the host was announcing the awards. I could see that CY was as nervous as I was and WX was trying to calm me down. Our stakes were the highest, the only acceptable result was first. Finally, it was left was the final two groups, The Apex Project and Resonance, and we were asked to stand on stage. 

“And the winner for the Acappella championships 2016 Open category, The Apex Project” 

We did it. We won. Our future can continue. All or nothing and we got it all. 17th of June marks our introduction to the world and 2nd July marks the beginning of our music career.

My taste of success in Acappella

You see two awards in the photo because we were also given the Best Vocal Percussionist Award. This award was presented to Yvonne, but Bryant received it. There is a short story (and a little rant) behind this, therefore go listen to my podcast for the story as I promised to be nice here. 

We are finally here as to why this post is titled “A Bitter Victory”. So far, everything had been sweet, if not extremely savoury. However, once the congratulations were done, all the pictures were taken, and the door to the auditorium closed behind us, we met our first roadblock. Without the desire to win clouding our vision, the crack in the group became awfully clear. We now have to face what we refused to acknowledge over the last few months – Weixin’s plans to focus on his family life. At the bench outside the Singapore polytechnic Auditorium, WX announced his departure from the group. 

But… what about our step? Shouldn’t we ride on this success and achieve what we set out to do in the international stage? 

I cannot speak for anyone else but I was completely lost.

I know this is not much of a spoiler because you already know we still went to Taiwan, and obviously the group is still alive but the 2016 chapter only gets better from here. 

I am pretty sure you guys will enjoy my suffering, so ya, please stay tuned to the next chapter – Our journey in Taiwan’s Vocal Asia 2016, the biggest and most well-known international Acappella festival and competition - A Rude Awakening.

Once again, if you do like a more personal touch to this chapter, mostly about how I feel in a less politically correct, you can listen to my podcast, “A little bit of the Ale”, on all platforms. 

Thank you for taking some time to walk through the memory lane with me. 

Love,

Alejandro

The journey begins Part 2

Here is a little recap – Forming an Acappella group was an idea Cheeyang had and told me about during our catch up session in March of 2016. We were tasked to look for suitable singers to form the group. CY found Jean and Zadon, and I found the bass singer, Weixin. 

Let’s pick up from where we left off, and there we were at our first tryout over at CY’s place. 

CY- Tenor 1 

Alejandro (myself) – Tenor 2 (Baritone) 

WX – Bass

Jean – Mezzo sop 

Zadon – Beatbox 

Yvonne – Beatbox (Maybe) 

The two songs that were given to us a week before this tryout were Evolution of Beyoncé and Rather be, both Acappella covers by Pentatonix. 

The tryout took less than an hour. We went in, sang the songs a few times and it was over.  

I am very ashamed to say that the above scenario of a tryout or rehearsal is the biggest praise I can ever give to any aspiring Acappella group in Singapore. If you are a casual reader, you may not get it, but any Acappella group singer/member can totally verify this. I will try not to rant, but hardly any singers here in Singapore go into an acappella rehearsal well-rehearsed. The “wing it” attitude is like a plague that somehow prefers to infect singers. I don’t understand why till this day. 

For some reason, everyone in that room was fully prepared (maybe except Zadon, but still he was ok) and we did both the songs in one try. Evolution of Beyoncé has about 18 songs with I don’t know how many tempo and key changes. Almost four years in and I never had another experience like that ever again. Shout out to Marian Carmel though, when we had her substitute Jean for a few performances she had to learn 10 songs (I am not talking about 4-chord songs, I am talking about medleys, originals and jazz pieces) with less than a month to prepare WHILE having exams and she performed like she had been with us since day one. With that said, Marian gets my prestigious stamp of musician excellence. With this stamp, you automatically get exempted from all “local musician rants”. While I won’t be doing too much ranting on this platform, I still do find a need to give full credits where it is due. 

Ok back to the story. You would think that tryout 1 would seal the deal for the group right? Nope, far from it. Two things - CY had envisioned a 7-member group and Zadon had planned to go solo. I think in CY’s fantasy at that point, he wanted a fuller sound and the ability to explore more complex chords, split the group into two for special features and produce more vibrant music videos, etc… Got to give it to him, the guy had a plan. Zadon went on to do many great things on his own and with his crew. We are still great friends! Zadon owes his two years in SAF’s Music and Drama Company (Basically it is a unit in the army where all you do is perform and train to perform for the entertainment of the military) to me. I auditioned him and fought for his spot despite getting rejected by management a few times. So ya, you owe me one. 

Ok, here is my fuzzy memory alert *ding ding ding*. This means the following may not be 100% accurate as I cannot remember, duh. 

*Somewhere between tryout 1 and tryout 2, we had a… let’s call it tryout 1.5. It was not a formal tryout but just a session to feel things out. It was for the role of the Soprano and the person who came for the session was Stella from Stellavee. Vee was by her side and we sang the same two songs from Pentatonix. Once again, fully prepared. Cue drumroll for the Prestigious Stamp of Musician Excellence. She rejected the role as she was on her way to form Stellavee. She went on to do awesome things for the mandopop industry in Singapore. It warms my heart to see good and serious musicians do well.* 

End of fuzzy memory. 

From here on, I was out of the recruiting process as secretly I wanted a 5 member group. I was happy with 5 as I was afraid of the potential group politics that could manifest from having more members. *Spoiler alert* I was right, but that’s a topic for another day. 

Tryout 2 

CY – Tenor 1 

Alejandro – Tenor 2 (Baritone) 

WX – Bass 

Jean – Mezzo Sop 

Gen – Sop 

Yvonne – Alto 

Bryant – Beatbox 

Zadon -Beatbox

Fuzzy memory alert *ding ding ding* 

*I cannot remember when I first met Yvonne so here are two possible scenarios. I refuse to ask her because I believe it is more fun if everything is just from my memory. 

1) Yvonne was part of the first tryout; hence. We would have 2 beatboxers during tryout 1 and they took turns to beatbox. 

2) Yvonne joined us only during the second tryout and that will mean that there was a third tryout where Bryant joined. 

I am more inclined to go with the first scenario.* 

End of fuzzy memory. 

Prior to this tryout, WX had expressed his disapproval for a female beatboxer as they lacked a strong bass sound and wanted to pull his friend Bryant in to fill that role instead. Bryant is a pioneer of the beatbox scene in Singapore together with the world-famous Dharni. He was highly respected as a trailblazer in the beatbox community. Being the people pleaser that I was, I joined him in trying to convince CY about adding Bryant into the mix. I admit, we spared no thoughts about Yvonne’s feelings or her standing in the group. To be fair, I only saw her once, maximum twice at that time.  However, due to the immense respect Yvonne had for Bryant, she told CY that she was ok to leave the group and that it made sense for us to take an established and famous beatboxer over a small-time vocal percussionist who had done it only 2-3 years in a university interest group.

CY’s dream for a 7-member group made him decide to put Yvonne in the Alto session even though she had little to no experience in singing for an Acappella group. He definitely saw something in Yvonne at that time. 

Oh yes, time to introduce Gen, the new soprano. We had known each other for a few years by that time due to a performance CY did in Singapore when he came back during his school holidays.

This is 2013, 3 years before we met again in CY’s place.

It was Feng (the guy in between CY and I) who convinced Gen to be part of this group. He was also a student at Berklee College of Music with CY. I have only good things to say about him. Gen and Feng were together at that time and they are married now. Shoutout to Caleb (extreme left), I hope you recovered from that time CY screamed in your face for playing the wrong things on the keyboard. Gen was a great musician in her own right and obviously, she was also fully prepared for the tryout. I don’t know how CY was able to find these serious and professional musicians. 

Needless to say, the tryout was a success and we were all set to go. FINALLY, we have arrived at the FIRST version of The Apex Project!

The Apex Project Ver.1 : The era of the Seizure Sisters and the Calm brothers has began
(From left to right – Yvonne, Weixin, Jean, Cheeyang, Alejandro, Gen, Bryant)

(Yvonne can you not be holding hands with WX, please? It is disgusting.)

CY accomplished all these in 2 weeks. We set up a company (Yes we are a company) with its own bank account, putting Bryant and me in charge of it. He sat us down, got all casual nonsense out of the way and set our mindset straight. “This. Is. Serious.” We are doing this for real. We are ready to come out to the world, the new kids on the block are going to settle in and make a name for themselves. We placed our initial investment of $500 and off we go. 

June 17th 2016 was our first showcase at the Esplanade and during this period of April to mid-May, I was away for my grad trip. I was on a cruise in Miami and I went back to Peru. Ya Peru, does my name Alejandro make sense to you now? During my absence, CY worked magic and went on a full-on workaholic mode together with Yvonne, who was appointed the group’s secretary. Another singer, named Marcus Lye (There is a reason why I use his last name too, you will come to find out soon enough), stood in for me and rehearsed with the group. Although I wasn’t around physically, the work ethic of CY and Yvonne infected me across the globe. 

I finally knew what it meant to be serious, to be professional, to take what you want with everything you got. Thank you. 

With only one month away from the showcase, we had to rehearse the show with me proper, record AND shoot the music video of our first Youtube cover, send out invitations and prepare props. I believe I missed many other things but you get the drift.

Our first release – I dreamed a dream + Fix you = Dream to fix you.

Showcase 1 (17/06/2016). Shoutout to Feng at the soundboard

June 17th has since been recognised as the group’s birthday. To all who attended, donated, and Marcus Lye for subbing me, CY and Yvonne for doing all the admin and planning, Jean for the awesome video and styling, Thank you. I did pretty much nothing compared to them. 

That’s all for now, folks, this will end chapter 1 - “The journey begins”. The world has seen us, the next step was to establish legitimacy. How? There was only one way to start – Win the only yearly Acappella competition in Singapore - Acachamps. 

Stay tuned for chapter 2. 

Love, 

Alejandro

The journey begins part 1

Hi, my name is Alejandro. I am the baritone of this group (The Apex project). Over the years (I believe we are about to turn 4 in June this year), this group has been through many MANY ups and downs and multiple transitions. Some of which I am proud of, some of which not so and some of which I am still mad about to this day. Starting this blog isn’t as easy as you think, this is because as much as I am walking you through our journey, I have to also force myself to relive certain bad memories and trust me, it is NOT going to be easy. 

Where should I begin… Oh yes, just in case you don’t know how I look like. 

This is me during the first “photo shoot” for the group at the most cliché place to take pics ever, go figure.

I have been with the group since day 1, and was a big part of its formation; hence,  I feel like I can give you the most accurate accounts of the group journey. Plus, my partners, close friends and team members - Yvonne and Jean - are rocking with their weekly VLOGs and their web series “Rachet Duo”, so I need to pull my weight somehow. With this blog, I hope to be able to document every important event related to The Apex project so you get to know more about the group and even if no one cares, I get to come back to this many years down the road and be proud of myself and everything I have been through. 

Let’s get down to it. Rewind to 1 faithful day, 12th March 2016. 

I think it couldn’t have started at a better time really. I had just graduated from university and I was looking to explore my passion for music for a bit, just like many people at this stage before accepting Singapore’s reality of putting a suit on. 

It was my birthday month and somewhere in the USA, it was a fruitful graduation for the Founder of this group, Cheeyang. The genius; a future musical star has returned from his education at Berklee College of Music. At this point, we have been friends for over 10 years. We competed together, we performed together, we respected each other. 

Look at the time stamp. This is during the first season of Campus Superstar, I am out of the running but he is on his way to win the whole thing. Photo credit: Clara Tan (Also a contestant)

Throughout his studies in the USA, Cheeyang would always come back to Singapore during his holidays and like the workaholic that he was (and still is), he would always try to put on a show here aside from the usual catch up sessions with his friends. He would always call me to collaborate or help him out, and I would always say yes. 

It was at Star Vista where this supposed catch up session took place and we were having some Wagyu steak at Morganfield’s (1 for 1 entertainer promotion – we were not that rich). 

“Hey, I was thinking about starting a vocal group. Would you like to be part of it?” 

If anyone else in the world said that to me, I will naturally think it was going to be an interest group and nothing more. However, coming from him, I knew he meant business. Rightfully so, he went on to talk about producing albums/EPs and touring around the world. To have someone as clever as him ask me to join him in his crusade to brighten the local Acappella scene, here is a quote from a famous wrestler, “Hell Yeah”. 

This is my first post on Instagram, good times… good times…

At this point, we needed to fill up the empty spots for obvious reasons, CY and I alone will never make an Acappella group. Now here is the reason why I mentioned the Star Vista, this venue reminded us of an old friend, also close to 10 years, also talented and everything we needed to fill that strong female mezzo-soprano role. Jean’s church was a few floors up from the place we were eating at. Honestly, at that time, as much as I admired Jean for her voice and acting talents, I was a little sceptical about her being in an Acappella group. It was nothing personal and my mindset was completely shaped by experiences I had doing Acappella. Usually, a strong lead/singer would face the problem of sticking out too much and thus being unable to blend. In hindsight, the joke’s on me as Jean threw my somewhat biased mindset straight out of the window and stuck it right up my.. ok never mind. She went from someone I thought would not get Acappella to someone I now see as my teacher and inspiration in music, visual arts and fashion. 

Jean and I in 2009. Part of a fund-raising concert organised by CY.

CY took the liberty to contact every other role for the Acappella group but he left me with one to contact: the bass. Real smart of him. If you don’t know by now, a bass singer is the hardest person to find in Singapore. I am sure every Acappella group can confirm this statement.  

Luckily for me, I knew just the perfect one. Another person, pretty much like CY, very professional (way ahead of the curve in terms of professionalism) and a very good singer - a very good bass singer. Weixin was someone I looked up to and a huge part of why I am even in love with Acappella. I remember when I was a lot younger, seeing him perform with his all-male Acappella group was the coolest thing ever. When I was in secondary school and JC, my choir instructor would bring me along to his choir classes in Ngee Ann Poly and Singapore poly to be a guest singer. I think he saw that I was really into it and wanted to help me develop this passion of mine. I met WX in SP where he was a president of the choir CCA. He never saw me as an outsider, and accepted my presence since day 1, included me in all club activities and introduced me to Acappella. WX and his girlfriend - vice president of the club, now wife, took such good care of me. I can only say thank you and I won’t be here without you guys. 

Here is me with the SP choir in 2009. WX is not in this photo as he has graduated. The president at this time was Kenneth, the guy in black, extreme right. He treated me like family, thank you. All the best at fatherhood.

The lunch with CY ended with a lot of excitement, hopes and dreams and all that good stuff. Suddenly, I had something to look forward to. Finally, I had a shot at Acappella. For five years, I had been drifting around different schools, clubs, and even formed my own group called “Noexit”. All with little to no success as nobody, except for me, took it seriously. However, this is not a shot at them, it is what it is in Singapore, I understand. 

When I got home that night and I kid you not, WX so coincidentally messaged me on Facebook, asking me if I was interested to form a group with him and join the Singapore Acappella Championships. If you didn’t know, Singapore Acappella Championships (Acachamps) is the only Acappella competition in Singapore that holds weight. It happens every year without fail - but I am not so sure about this year due to the Virus thingy. Every single Acappella group who wants to be somewhat serious better have a win under their belt, if not… try harder.

Obviously, I told WX about the lunch I had with CY and that I had him in mind to be the bass of the group. WX first questioned me about the leadership but I don’t blame him because the casual musicians in Singapore really did give everyone a bad name. In the end, he said ok to going over to CY’s place for the first tryout. 

So here’s WX and I, preparing our songs, full of hope (maybe not so much for him), getting ready for the tryout. Over on CY’s side, he had Jean and Zadon (A friend of ours, great beatboxer) and we were all set for the first meeting. 

Here is where my memory fails me. I don’t remember if Yvonne was part of the first try out. I know 100% that she was part of the second, but the first one I am not sure. Maybe she can clear it up with me in the future. 

Here is part 1 of this post. I know things are a little slow now but trust me, things are going to pick up real quick. 

Oh yes, the blog posts are somewhat edited and filtered accordingly as I try my best to be as neutral and unopinionated as possible. Not saying that I don’t mean anything I say here. Let’s just put it this way. If I have something bad/personal to say, I won’t say it here. If you like to hear an even more personal account of the events, the no filter version, you can listen to my podcast “A little bit of the Ale”, up on all platforms. I will put up a series called The Apex Recall under this podcast, which will be released right after I upload part 2 of this chapter. Lastly, everything you hear on my podcast is my PERSONAL opinions, I do not speak for anyone. 

Love, 

Alejandro

2019

The December of 2018 was different from our previous two years - we didn’t have to rush back and forth between Orchard Road and Bugis during the Christmas rush hour. In fact, one of the things that I’ve learnt since joining The Apex Project is the fact that performers don’t always get to celebrate certain holidays or special events the way most people do. While our friends head home to enjoy Christmas, or countdown to the New Year with their families, we’re almost always stuck huddled together backstage at a show somewhere. It’s an initiation rite of sorts to spend a birthday during a show or one of our rehearsals - I spent one of my birthdays at the Botanical Gardens amphitheatre, where Cheeyang made the entire audience sing me a birthday song.

It was great. I love it and hate it at the same time.

This time we didn’t do as many Christmas gigs, and instead focused on generating original content with Cheeyang, who flew back to Singapore for a few weeks. I’m really excited about the music we’ll be putting out because some of it’s going to be… different (?). Our first gig of 2019 is up in a few weeks in February and in the meantime we’re enjoying our free time as much as we can. Hopefully this year will be yet another year of/if not more soul-rejuvenating events (and less of the soul-sucking ones).

To a great 2019 and wow we’re approaching three years.

Love,
Jean