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