Outspoken is a top notch a cappella group out of Oregon State University with an interesting history. Jason Taylor, a co-founder of the group, took time to answer questions from A Cappella Blog Content Manager Mike Chin.

A Cappella Blog (ACB): Last spring, Outspoken celebrated its fifth anniversary with a special show. How has the group developed over five years, and what did this milestone mean for the group? How did the show go?

Jason Taylor (JT): It’s a very long story, but here goes. Outspoken was the direct result of myself and my long time childhood friend David Emmert. We were part of the Oregon All-State honor choir back in High School which was held at the University of Oregon. While there On The Rocks (OTR) did a two song exhibition performance for the honor choir. This was the first time either of us had heard contemporary a cappella before. Needless to say we loved the style. We both had our hearts set on going to Oregon State so singing with OTR was out of the question. So we decided to start our own group. We wanted to be different than OTR, but just as appealing. At least we hoped. Getting it started was a task in and of itself. A cappella in Oregon at the time was just still getting started (only a year or so before had UO’s Divisi been formed) so we had no help besides what we came up with ourselves. We managed to recruit many freshmen guys and a couple sophomores into the original group since the upperclassmen didn’t take us seriously. In fact some of the members who have been with us the last two years straight up refused to be in the original group. Now we can’t get rid of them… go figure huh?

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Raagappella is a fantastic South Asian a cappella group out of Stanford University. Despite the groups short history, they made an immediate impact on the ICCAs last year, finishing a close second Brigham Young Vocal Point, at the time, the returning champions. Members of the group took the time to answer questions from A Cappella Blog Content Manager Mike Chin.

A Cappella Blog (ACB): As a South Asian focused group, how is Raagappella different from other collegiate a cappella groups. How does this focus affect how you perform
or the culture of the group?

Raagappella: Because a cappella is a genre that is not traditionally South Asian, all of our songs inherently have strong elements of eastern and western fusion to them, which allows us an enormous amount of creativity in how we arrange and perform them. South Asian music typically has a strong emphasis on solo voices accompanied by carefully coordinated background instruments. When we arrange, we strive hard to break this mold by emphasizing the importance of the background as something more than just an accompaniment. We tend to have complex movements and transitions focused on the background singers specifically because we want the audience to be engaged on a level that they’ve never experienced with South Asian music. “Chan Chan,” the song that we performed at the ICCA quarterfinals is a great example of how the soloist’s importance was tempered by a subtly transforming wall of sound that especially came into prominence during the chorus.

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The Dicks & Janes are a top notch mixed group out of the University of Michigan. The group has enjoyed tremendous success throughout its 10 year history, entertaining crowds and thriving in competition. The story of The Dicks & Janes will continue this Saturday, when group heads into the Midwest ICCA Semifinals. Three members of The Dicks & Janes—Courtney Miller (Major Events Coordinator), Deborah Sacks (President) and Mike Rowan (Music Director) took the time to respond to questions from The A Cappella Blog’s own Mike C.

The A Cappella Blog (ACB): The Dicks & Janes (D&J) has a long history of successful performances in the ICCAs, including multiple victories and awards. What have these accomplishments meant for the group? How important are the ICCAs to D&J?

Courtney:  Participating in ICCA has never been as much about the competition as it has been about the experience.  We have always enjoyed performing with and meeting other a cappella groups.  Road trips are always fun for us too.  Of course, doing well at ICCA is always nice too - it is great to be given recognition for all of our hard work.  We look at ICCA more as an invitational where we get to see great groups perform and learn from them - not as a competition.

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Florida State University’s mixed sensation, All Night Yahtzee has performed at the highest level for years, including two consecutive appearances in the ICCA finals. On March 15, they will continue their journey through this year’s tournament, heading into the South Region semifinals. The group’s Music Director, Chris Diaz took the time to answer questions from The A Cappella Blog’s own Mike C.

The A Cappella Blog (ACB): In back to back years, your group has not only advanced to ICCA Finals in New York, but also taken the honor of winning Outstanding Soloist honors in both outings (not to mention an Outstanding Vocal Percussion award in 2007). What have these honors meant to the group? What has the group learned from its experiences in competition, how has competing affected the nature of the group?

Christopher Diaz (CD): Firstly, I’d like to say that we are always so grateful to receive honorable mentions at competition. Yahtzee is a group that prides itself on working very, very hard to reach a common goal, and in the ICCA we set our standard of excellence extremely high, working our hardest to maintain it. Personally, receiving the Best Soloist honor was a huge deal for me–in both instances I also arranged the song, and it was a song that had a special significance to me. Because of this, I instilled each with a profound sense of self, and since the group shared my vision with me we were able to achieve something that was and is for us, very cathartic. This is a competitive group of people, but that nature isn’t driven by a selfish desire to “win”, it’s more driven by our selfish love of feeling like we’ve accomplished something really cool.

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Acasola is a relatively new group on the collegiate scene. Nonetheless, the mixed group out of California State University, Northridge, has already made quite a name for itself. Acasola President Jared Wolf took the time to answer questions from The A Cappella Blog’s own Mike C.

The A Cappella Blog (ACB): Acasola only came together last fall, and by the spring was already competing in ICCA. How did the group prepare for competition so quickly? What did the group learn from the experience?

Jared Wolf (JW): We came together as a group in September of 2006. We were founded by Chase DeLuca and Tillie Spencer. After Chase and Tillie had auditions in September of 2006, we were a strong group of 13. Chase was the president and Tillie was our musical director. We immediately went to Big Bear, Ca for our first retreat. We learned our first 3-4 songs at Big Bear. From the get go, we knew we had something special. At Big Bear was when we decided to work our hardest to compete at the ICCA’s and that is where we thought of the name Acasola.

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