Interview With Dominic Wu of the Higher Keys

Dominic Wu is a Freshman in the Higher Keys.

[Notes: “...” represents a pause in speech, my questions are in bold and Dom's answers are in unbolded text]

How often do you interact with other groups? In what contexts?
Okay interacting? Im going to start with singing with them I guess?

Sure
We....I think we sang with the Bears for our Christmas concert, and we just had an arch sing with them. I guess whenever we have a major thing we would do it with another group. We did something with the Derbies but that was during winter tour, and it just happened to be that they were there.

And is it just about singing with them? Or do you guys ever have parties together, stuff like that.
Uhhh...Well not as whole groups, but off the group contexts. It’s just that the Bears and Keys live together in the suite in Wayland, so we sometimes just hang out there.

Why is Brown a cappella special? Do you feel like it is?
The a cappella community at Brown is definitely a different community. I mean, we have the whole intergalactic a cappella thing going on. A lot of other schools don’t have that. I believe that per capita, we also have the highest concentration of a cappella people. So that would definitely put a cappella as more important for Brown than other schools.

Is there competition between groups?
Oooo Yes. The good thing with the Keys is that we’re coed so we don’t have a lot of competition. But with the guy groups and the girl groups, which one’s...better.

How do you think that manifests itself? Have you seen it? Heard talk about it?
You see it. You hear that the Jabberwocks are like, “The Best,” but then you go “noo, they’re just the oldest.” Um, but then they have their own things. The Bears are like, the fun group, the entertainment. The Derbies are...Gay. (laughs). Great performers, though.

How does the Tzar system work? What does the Tzar do?
Ok, I know the tzar is Alex Bachorick. So I think she’s in charge of coordinating all the arch sings during the big events such as ADOCH , all the callback schedules. I guess getting groups into the group. Like we had to vote the High Jinks in recently. I think A.Bach talked about this: she wants to get Brown to fund the a cappella groups more. Because in Stanford they get 1,000 dollars per semester per a cappella group, which is crazy. And she said that Brown might have a fun like that that we can tap into. Speculative.

Do you feel as though a cappella groups should be more integrated? More separate from each other?
I say definitely more integrated. Its just so much more fun. And it would relax the competition. What we did with the Bears, the flip flop arch sing, we should do that more often.

Is dating between members of the a cappella community a common occurrence?
Totally. And I feel like our concerts totally reflect that. So when certain members date other members, I feel like we sing with that group more. And then when there’s a bad breakup, every time you talk about that group it’s like (makes a face). Yeah, it’s not ok.

Do certain groups hang out more with certain other groups than others?
I think, yes definitely. I only see it in the Bears and Keys, because I’m just there. But I think that relates to your previous question about dating.

What groups go with what styles? How do you perceive the styles of other groups?
I see Bears as anything fun. Anything that they can just belt the shit out of because they’re amazing that way. The Derbies do a lot more pop. Old 90s pop like Backstreet boys and Nsync. I feel like their styles also differ. Bears have really complicated arrangements where everyone sings really loud, its always about volume. The Derbies background vocals are all about chords, so they have the chords going on, not very complex..I don’t think. Jabberwocks they sing basically anything, which is fun. Girl groups also have a huge variety. Keys, they stick on Jazzy, classy, rock. We have our different styles and we all know it.

What about Harmo? I feel like they get thrown to the wayside a little bit because they’re Brown/RISD
Harmo....yeah, I don’t know why that is. It’s really depressing. The only song I remember them singing is MmmBop. They’re also a lot of fun. I don’t know what their style is.

Can group styles be the same and still retain individuality?
Whenever you have two groups that are so similar in style, that’s when there's a lot more competition. You just don’t know who to listen to. The girl groups, I haven’t really noticed that, because I just know about their repertoire. I don’t see very much competition there. But I worry that like, Jabberwocks and High Jinks, like, what are they going to be like? I’m very interested to find out about that.

How do you choose soloists?
We have auditions. First we get a new arrangement and then we all learn the song. And then on Audition Night, the ones who don’t want to audition for the solo will go to one side of the room and do the background for one section of the song, and the soloists will practice once or twice, and then we keep looping the background track and keep going from one to one. Afterwards, we have all the soloists just leave and then they make a decision there. And how they make a decision is usually by voting. There’s like high preference, low preference type. Voting.

How do you choose which songs to arrange and go about arranging them?
We never take arrangements from other people. I think that’s a Keys thing, like, you have to do your own arrangements. How do we choose them? People bring up songs that we want to do, and the rest of the group has to agree with it...or at least most of the group. And then they go and arrange them. Um, but they have to fit in within the Keys repertoire or Keys style. So we don’t go for...you know....It’s democratic.

Are there any gender limitations that affect which songs you can arrange? Well, for you guys it’s coed, so I guess not really, right?
No, not really. I mean, the only thing is that sometimes there’s too many tenor solos so they want a base solo. Or alto and soprano.

How would you view your own group’s musical style?
Jazz, Pop, Rock. But because we’re a coed group it’s so hard to blend. Our arrangements can’t be so overtly “WAAAH.” Like the Bears are like “Ber Ner Ner” but we have to go “Dooo Baaa.” So that definitely affects the songs that we sing.

Did you choose the group you wanted to be in based on music or something else?
When I was choosing, at first when I came to Brown, I really wanted to be in an all guys group. Because I just thought that it was a lot of fun. But then when you hang out with them after your callbacks, and you realize that the people are actually really important, because you’re going to be spending so much time with them...I just fell in love with the Keys. Like, they’re just so nice. So I guess people are number one for me. And I guess music, how good the group is. Definitely affects it.

Vocal percussion. Who does it? How does it work? When is it necessary?
For perc-ing, we usually have one or two people who perc in the groups. For us, I think right now it’s mainly Kurt and Nick. But for the Keys, what we do is, for some rehearsals, like 30 minutes before a rehearsal we would have a perc session, where anyone who wants to perc or learn perc or just share sounds will come over and we all practice perc-ing. Like, I’m trying to learn perc. It’s a lot of fun.

So like, if you got good enough, would you do it in a song? Or would you do it in a song even if you weren’t that good at it yet?
If you weren’t that good in it, they probably wouldn't put you on there.

Who decides who does perc?
Oh, we just try it. We try out for the song. You don’t try out for the perc. We have Nick and Kurt. So if Nick gets too tired in a set, then Kurt would go for it. Then they have “their” song.

Why an arch?
Why do they sing in an arch? We can hear each other better. Any performance-wise you focus more on the soloist, I think.

When/Where do you perform?
We do a lot of things off campus. House parties, hospitals, stuff like that. I mean, when we toured California, we sang on the pier just for fun, got some money there. Wherever people hire us really. We sang at....what is that thing?....Salvation army once, yeah.

How much preparation is involved with performance?
If we don’t have a performance, its a lot more lax. But like two rehearsals before hand its like (hand clap) ‘Guys we have a rehearsal, I mean performance soon so let’s like step up our game, like ball.’ Um, and then like right before a performance we would meet up too.

So what are the biggest gigs for you guys? On campus stuff so you can show off? Or off campus stuff you’re getting paid for? What’s the highest intensity?
The highest intensity would probably be off campus. Because its like number of gigs outside of Brown that we do is just a lot more. I wish we could do more arch sings honestly. I’m going to bring that up in the group. I don’t see why we don’t do more.

Whats the most important part of performing? Putting on a show? The quality of the music? Connecting with fans?
The Keys really focus on quality and blending and sounding good. Because we have our “bops.” I mean, of course we try to entertain like, the audience, because we want them to want to be there. So it’s like “smile more, get energy and all hyped up.” Connecting with the fans, definitely, we try that a lot. Like sometimes it goes with the music style as well. When you’re doing jazz you obviously can’t go like, all over. Yeah.

Drunken arch sings? Is this ok?
I mean, we haven’t had an official drunk arch sing. But a lot of us get drunk before an arch sing. Like last night we had a bottle around where everyone was just, like...partaking from. We haven’t had like a full-out drunk one. Like I think the Bears had one for Halloween or something.

How does the group dynamic change during performance?
We definitely connect more. There’s so much more energy when you’re performing with an audience. I mean, everyone wants to entertain people. Everyone gets all hyped up, energy, and we look at each other in a funny way. We all have fun. It’s good.

Do you attend other groups’ performances? How do you judge them? Do you use their performances as a way of modifying and improving your own?
I do go to a lot of groups performances. Judge? I think we definitely judge them more because we’re in an a cappella group so we know what goes into each performance. So we would probably analyze a performance more than other audiences. And from that we would like, learn things from them. We try to learn from each other.

What are your favorite venues to perform in? On campus or off? Arch sings or big concerts?
I love arch sings. Like, last night was my first arch sing. It was so much fun. Like, I really wish I could do more of those. That would be my favorite.

How do you get paying gigs?
We have a business manager. I’m going to be the business manager next year actually. So anyways, um, I think we have a loyal customer base that asks us every year. Like Salvation Army, stuff like that. And they pay us for their parties.

Who would you say your main fanbase is?
I don’t know. People. A cappella people and theatre people. Because we have a lot of people in theatre in the Keys. And they’re just friends. Like, friends. It’s friends from everywhere.

Is it true that girls are better fans of a cappella? Does this make male a cappella groups more popular on campus?
I think it totally does. Which....I feel like...I think....A lot of girls just go crazy when they see an all-male a cappella group because they’re just having fun.

So do you normally have more girls at your arch sings than guys?
Well....Coed a cappella group...Yeah, I guess we do have more girls. Um...I don’t see a lot of guys interested in a cappella if they’re not in theatre.

How does the age of your group affect your fanbase (for example, with alumni relations and overall recognition in the collegiate a cappella scene)
I’m going to say yes, it totally does. The older your group...but then there are also exceptions. Like, the Bears are pretty new...they’re from 1990 something. We have a very tight alumni network, but I think it goes around every four years. Like after four years after graduation, you probably just like, get away.

How do you get people to come to shows? What’s the best way to get in touch with your fans?
Facebook. Posters. Telling your friends. That’s pretty much it.

A ca-stalking. Does it exist? Are these people equivalent to rock band groupies?
Yes. Josh Chu fans. And like, yeah.

What are common stereotypes of each type of group? How are these manifested or broken in your own experience?
A male group is like probably like pretty bro-ish. Like “oh what's up.” “How was.....” “Oh look, hat girl is pretty cute, you could totally go for her.” That’s like what I see in the Jabberwocks honestly. Bears are like that too, just having a lot of fun. Girl groups, I don’t really know about that, so I can’t talk about that. Coed groups, there’s more love. Or at least they show the love. Like “Hug!”

There is a rumor that all male groups get the most attention. Do you feel this? Is there any animosity towards a particularly gendered group
Yeah, I think it’s true. Not animosity, but like, I’m sure, sometimes we wish...I don’t know. They don’t have to work as hard as the rest of us do. I mean, female groups, coed groups, we really have to work really hard on blending, whereas guys...it comes easy.

How do gender relations affect group dynamics?
I think within the group? Girls and guys...definitely less competition. But also the chemistry just works for us. It’s sort of like a family. Whereas if you were just like with guys, it’s just like “bros.” I....I don’t know how to put it in words.

Is there animosity between the all female groups? All male groups? Do you feel any competition with Harmo because you’re the two coed groups on campus?
Well there are other ones like With One Voice, and um...Brown....not Brownstones, sorry. Shades of Brown. There are like 4 coed groups. But we don’t really feel competition. We should feel a lot of competition with Harmo but...I don’t think we do. I don’t know why. Though I feel like amongst the other groups, we don’t really compete with them. I feel like you [Chattertocks] don’t really compete with the guys groups either, you’re really amongst the girl groups who compete.

Do you feel any competition between other members of your group?
I mean definitely. There are the tenors who can always sing the songs. And then sometimes an arrangement comes and it’s like Oh My Gosh, it’s actually in my range! So I’m going to try out for it. But sometimes a tenor’s going to get it because they just feel more comfortable.

So what do you sing? What part?
I sing...I auditioned as a base. But now I’m a Tenor II.

How does recording work? How is recording different from other processes within the group?
Well, I haven’t been in the recording studio yet, so I don’t really know about it.
We all go to the studio together, but each person is recorded separately, so you get to hear what everyone really sounds like. I heard about this: someone gets dropped from like, a recording just because they’re not like, working well. Those things you don’t really notice during an all group performance.

Do you go on tour? How does tour affect the group dynamic? Did you get really close?
Yeah. I think it’s absolutely imperative that all groups like, go on tour. Do you guys go on tour?

Yeah we do. Major bonding.
Major bonding. Like, I think before going on tour, I felt like “Hmmm, am I really part of this group? Do people really like me?” But afterwards, it’s just like...everyone loves each other. Yeah.

How do the ages of the members affect how they interact towards each other?
I mean we have....we’re called “Baby Keys.” So we have that going on. But it’s really a family thing. I don’t think there’s competition as in like, what is it....seniority wise. As in, everyone has equal standing when it comes to the group. So like, during auditions for like, the Spring, if a Baby were to totally not like one person, that would be the same thing as a senior not liking that person.

Does Intra-group dating happen?
Keycest? I’ve heard it happens. Right now there’s a Key relationship. I’d like to see how that goes.

I know on your preference cards you rate the groups you audition for. Has it ever happened that someone’s choices have been revealed, and does that affect the group dynamic?
I don’t know if animosity happens or anything. I know that they will find out about your rankings if you don’t get into the group, because when you call them back, like if you don’t get any a cappella, they basically hand you their preference card because it has their number on it. So you can totally see the ranking. I don’t know what happens with that honestly.