Butler University Freshly Brewed

Butler University's Freshly Brewed is an all-women's group that has only been around for three years. Freshly Brewed president Martha Funston took the time to answer questions from A Cappella Blog co-founder Mike Chin.

A Cappella Blog (ACB): Given how recently you're a cappella group formed (about two years ago), I am interested to learn about how the group started up. How did you recruit members? How much interest was there in women's a cappella at Butler before you got started?

Martha Funston (MF): The group was started by Kathleen Marvin in the spring of 2004. Auditions were announced through posters and Butler's new digest to try to reach as many students as possible. After the auditions the group had five members, who held another round of auditions that fall. The group had call-out meetings and advertised beforehand, and with five additional members things really got rolling. Out of the Dawg House, the men's a cappella group on campus, had formed just a year earlier, so I think a lot of people were excited to have a women's group forming too.

ACB: What have been some challenges Freshly Brewed faced in its formative stages? Are there ongoing challenges based on how new the group still is?

MF: Early on, almost everything was a challenge. Organizing events was new to a lot of the members and trying to raise money for the group was not easy. The biggest concern for us was getting our name out there. Once people knew about the group and came to performances, our support base started growing and hasn't stopped since! I think money is really the only problem we face still. We've become well known across campus, but it can be hard to raise money for events we would like to do. We also are still working to spread our name through the Indianapolis and collegiate a cappella communities.

ACB: Describe your relationship with Butler's all-male group, Out of the Dawg House. Do you collaborate much? How do the groups co-exist at Butler?

MF: We have a very good relationship with the guys. This fall we are opened for each other's shows and sang a song together for the first time. There is a lot of mutual support because we all benefit from increased interest in a cappella at Butler. Besides opening for each other, we have not worked together much, but there could be some fun collaboration on a big event in the future.

ACB: Describe a typical Freshly Brewed rehearsal. How often do you guys practice and what do you do to achieve such success by the time you hit the stage? Do rehearsals change before a big show?

MF: Our rehearsals are pretty straight forward. We warm-up, run through old songs, work on new music and sometimes have auditions for soloists. We focus on working as a group and everyone is always welcome to voice suggestions or criticisms. We rehearse three times a week, usually for an hour and a half, but sometimes for two hours. Before big shows we make sure we are organized. We know the order of the songs, who will be presenting things and any other technical issues. We try to make sure that by the time we hit the stage we only have to think about the music and having fun with the performance.

ACB: What can we expect to see from Freshly Brewed in the future? Any new songs in the works? Any upcoming gigs of note?

MF: Hopefully a lot! We are hoping to record an EP in the spring to promote the group and raise money for recording a whole album. For this semester our new music is "Unwritten" by Natasha Beddingfield, "Under Pressure" by David Bowie and Queen, and "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley. Next semester there will be more, but we like surprises, so I'm not telling.
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ACB: How does your group go about deciding which songs to add to its repertoire? Who is responsible for arrangements?

MF: Only a few girls in the group do arrangements, but we really let people arrange whatever they want. The whole group has a good sense of what we can do, and having a variety of musical tastes helps to keep our repertoire exciting.

ACB: What drew you, personally, to collegiate a cappella in the first place?

MF: I come from a big university town with a lot of a cappella, and I've always enjoyed those performances. I was in an a cappella group in high school, and one of the guys in that group goes to Butler and is now the President of Out of the Dawg House. He told me about Freshly Brewed, so I thought it would be a great way to get to continue performing, as well as arranging. I really like how free a cappella is in the wide range of music that can be done.

ACB: Is there anything else you would like to share with the readers of The A Cappella Blog?

MF: Mostly just that Freshly Brewed is really up for any opportunity. We are still a young organization, but we are motivated to establish ourselves in the a cappella community. We would love to perform at other schools, and to have other groups come perform with us. If anyone wants more information on the group, our website is www.freshacappella.com.