By: Scott A. Hartley
President/CEO, Calibre Computer Solutions, LLC
Straight No Chaser.
While you might like your favorite drink served in that fashion, the Straight No Chaser style of music quenches the soul’s thirst with a refreshing harmony of unadulterated human voices blending together to create a smooth, mesmerizing sound that instruments cannot attain.
Indiana University’s Straight No Chaser men’s a capella group originally formed in the fall of 1996. Known for their fun-loving shows and amazing ability to perform contemporary songs in unique arrangements, the group has performed in venues such as Wrigley Field, Comiskey Park, and Carnegie Hall, as well as earned several awards for their work.
To keep the tradition and heritage alive at IU, the original members of Straight No Chaser hand-picked their successors as they neared graduation – a practice that continues to this day. Approximately 48 students have proudly called themselves members of Straight No Chaser, including the current group of 10 men.
So what’s it like being a member of
Straight No Chaser?
“It’s one of the best things that’s happened to me,” says sophomore Brian Giblin, a Wheaton, Illinois, native majoring in Arts Management and also serving as a co-business manager for the group.
All of the guys agree the perks are nice – the free dinners and carwashes, the opportunity to sing for all the sorority girls, and being a highly recognized person on campus, just to name a few. (And with the entire IU basketball team comprised of mostly new recruits, the members of Straight No Chaser are probably THE most recognized guys on campus this year.)
“The feeling to walk on stage and having people scream for you, knowing there’s a huge following” is exhilarating to Shaun Kelley, a senior from Indianapolis.
Drew Kipfer , a biology major, highlighted the
Indiana
University’s Straight No Chaser
Pictured left to right:
C.J. Pawlikowski, Drew Kipfer, Shaun
Kelley, Brian Giblin, T.J. Breen, Will Lockhart, Brent Mann, and Jesse
Townes
Not pictured: Owen Stevenson and Jason Jacobs
opportunities made available to them. “This past Spring Break, we got to sing on a multi-million dollar yacht in Fort Lauderdale,” he said, adding that their entire trip was paid for by the host group.
However, it’s not all fun and games. Being a member of Straight No Chaser requires a significant sacrifice. “Music comes first. We practice four nights a week, two hours each night,” Kipfer said. This is in addition to their typically full schedule of as many as four performances a week, sometimes traveling out of state.
Getting into the group isn’t exactly easy. Just ask Kipfer, who auditioned three times before he was accepted.
“Our group is almost like a fraternity,” said Kelley. “We not only want to hear them sing, but we also want to get to know their personalities before we accept them into the group.”
Auditions are held once a semester. Candidates, who must be full-time students at IU, have an initial five minutes to sing a verse and chorus of a song, while the members listen and take notes. After a group meeting, they decide how many and who to ask to return for a more in-depth evaluation.
During the callback, each candidate is taught a part of one of the group’s songs. They sing in quartets to see how their voice blends with the other guys’ voices in the group. Once the callback process is completed, the guys have the difficult task of selecting the ones to invite into the group.
Will Lockhart, a junior hailing from Bethesda, Maryland, majoring in vocal performance, was one of the nearly 40 guys to audition this year. “I sang a rap song for my first audition,” he said. “Amazingly, I got called back, but I didn’t get selected. Then two weeks later, the guys called me and after joking around, said I had been chosen to join.”
Mastering a cappella music and making it sound good requires more than your traditional “choir practice,” where you hear your part and simply sing. A capella music involves many elements – including rhythm, vocal percussion, as well as the melody and harmony parts, to name a few.
Kelley and Owen Stevenson work together as Straight No Chaser’s music directors to develop the song repertoire for the group.
“We listen to various songs by various artists and come up with our own rhythm,” explains Kelley, noting that he listens to everything from 80s music to contemporary music. “We add syllables for different sounds.”
The arrangements are then composed by Kelley and Stevenson using a computer musical composition and notation program called Finale. During rehearsals, the group learns their various parts and perfects the song in their own unique blend and style.
“It took us about one and a half weeks to learn ‘Favorite Things,’” Kelley said.
Straight No Chaser is known for their fun-loving – and sometimes unplanned comedic – performances. They’ve learned to play off each other’s energy, as well as that of the audience.
Freshman member T.J. Breen, who was only with the group a few weeks prior to his first performance, was forced to ad lib choreographic moves to two songs “because the guys never bothered to teach me.”
Jesse Townes, ironically the group clown who majors in psychology and neuroscience, told of his embarrassing moment during the group’s performance at an event called the Serenade, where a fraternity hires the group to “serenade” a sorority.
“I was, shall we say, a little imbibed at the time. We were supposed to sing three songs during our set. The first song we sang was ‘Superhero,’ followed by ‘Stand By Me,’” he explained while trying to hold back the laughter. “We all started singing ‘Stand By Me’ and somehow I forgot that we had sang ‘Superhero’ and I just go crazy into ‘Superhero.’”
If you’re looking for refreshing, uplifting music to carry you through your day, check out IU’s Straight No Chaser. Probably their most popular song is the original group’s hilarious rendition of “The 12 Days of Christmas.”
IU’s Straight No Chaser will be holding their Holiday Concert on Friday, December 12, 2008, at 7 p.m. Central Time at the Indiana University Auditorium in Bloomington. Tickets are available via Ticketmaster from the IU Auditorium website at www.iuauditorium.com. They will also be releasing their new album entitled “Black Label” that evening. You can also listen to some of their music and watch videos online at SNC’s website at www.sncproductions.com.