It’s VoiceMale’s ‘Time’ to shine on new compilation album

VoiceMale

Things are looking awfully sunny for VoiceMale at the moment. The Brandeis a cappella group can now be heard on “Sing Six: Sunny Side Up,” the latest compilation album created by The Contemporary A Cappella Society, or CASA. While VoiceMale tunes have previously been selected for other CASA projects, like “Best of College A Cappella 2009” and "Voices Only,” this selection is even more impressive because the album’s international track list includes songs from professional groups.

“It’s an incredible honor,” VoiceMale president Doug Friedman ‘10 told BrandeisNOW. “To be featured alongside all of these fantastic professional groups is amazing. And it’s really nice to know that it’s 'Time,' which is one of our original songs, that is receiving this recognition.”

Friedman says “Time” is his favorite track from VoiceMale’s latest album, “Suit Up.” The song was a collaboration between the group and local producer John Clark of The Attic Studio. “We spent a couple of days in the studio with John, and he’d say ‘Let’s add this part or change these syllables.' It was a really interesting effort to create a song and record it on the spot.”
 
While VoiceMale has gone through the impromptu process before when recording covers of pre-existing tunes, members had more room to explore this time since they were tweaking one of their own creations. “When you’re doing it with a song that’s not your own, there’s a guideline you have to follow,” Friedman explained. “No matter what you do, even if you think you’re being inspirational and new, there’s going to be a hint of the original song in there. Whereas ‘Time’ had never been written, so we were using whatever was subconsciously going on in our heads.”
 
VoiceMale plans to expand on its original catalogue in future albums. It’s a trend that Friedman says is reflected in the professional a cappella community. “Groups like Rockapella, Firedrill!, The House Jacks, these groups are getting noticed because they write their own stuff and do all original music. And we’re trying to go in that direction as well because everyone in the group right now can write and read music. It’s really good to pull from our own talents and see what we can come up with.”
 
You can hear- and see- what VoiceMale has come up at the group’s big semester show, “Steamy Winter Concert,” on Dec. 5. The show will begin at 8 p.m. in Golding Auditorium. Check the VoiceMale Web site for information on other gigs, or to listen to some of the group’s music.
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