Stanford Raagappella
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.
To comment more about our arranging culture, there are relatively few a cappella groups that specialize in fusion music. Consequently, when we pick a western song, we not only examine it to see if it could be a good a cappella arrangement but also how well we can incorporate a unique South Asian lilt to it. Our adaptation of Brian McKnight’s “Can You Read My Mind,” is one of our latest arrangements that attempts to fuse the two genres by starting out with an expressive Qawwali riff in its introduction accompanied with background vocals with syllables designed to capture the mood of some of the older Bollywood love songs. Likewise, we sometimes take an Indian song and try to add a Western feel to it. One of our current favorite arrangements is a fusion of “All Along the Watchtower” with an ancient Hindu chant called “Om Asatoma.” Setting the chant to a four part harmony is something that is very new and unorthodox. Because we’re bridging two cultures, we have an enormous creative potential that can draw from the best of both musical traditions while we add something of our own.
Regarding our performances, one of the biggest troubles we have in connecting with our audiences is the language barrier. Even within the group, many of us don’t understand a particular song that someone may have arranged because it’s not in their mother tongue. We try and overcome this we very expressive choreography, although admittedly it is a challenge trying to convey some of the heavier themes in our songs like unrequited love (like in our original song “Without You”) or overcoming the seemingly insurmountable obstacles in life with the help of a higher power (like “Allah ke Bande”, a future album track). We often have the most positive response (and the most fun) in songs like “O Hum Dum Suniyo Re,” a very catchy recent Bollywood hit that even has a rap built into it. We cherish the times when we can be badasses on stage, and to a certain extent it does influence the songs we decide to perform. Of late, we have had huge success incorporating humorous skits into our performances that capture what we are trying to sing.
ACB: Raagappella is the two time reigning champion of Anahat, the National
South Asian A Cappella Championship. For the uninitiated, how would you
describe this competition? How would you compare it to ICCA?
Raagappella: The South Asian a cappella scene is still nascent, so competitions like Anahat are comparatively less important from the general a cappella community’s perspective. However, this doesn’t diminish the importance of the event for South Asian groups like ours; being two time reigning champions of Anahat gives us a sense of validation in our musical development and gives us a crucial venue to see how the South Asian a cappella scene is developing. The past two years we have performed, we have mainly seen the more established groups in the South Asian a cappella community like Illini Chandni and Chai Town from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, and a lot of developing groups from Southern California. Because of the fewer number of groups, the venue is smaller, but it is still a very significant event in the overall Berkeley South Asian community, so there is a fairly large turnout of people. The judges are typically drawn from the local community and we’re judged on criteria that are very similar to that seen at the ICCAs. As time goes on and South Asian a cappella starts to mature, I really think that you will see the Anahat competition as being much more important in the overall sphere of collegiate a cappella. A competition like the ICCA, which canvasses the entire nation and draws from hundreds of groups obviously dwarfs Anahat, but the size of Anahat is largely attributable to the current scope of our genre. For us, both competitions were equally important because they helped us understand what was going on in both the South Asian and the general collegiate a cappella community and helped us enormously in developing our stage presence and blend. For us, these competitions are ultimately about helping us develop our skills and becoming the best we can be.
ACB: Raagappella drew a lot of attention in the 2007 ICCAs, finishing a
close second to Brigham Young's Vocal Point in the first round of the
competition, and advancing to the semifinals. Tell us a little bit about
this experience. What were some highlights and lowlights of competing? Was
the group happy with how it performed?
Raagappella: To be honest, our 2nd place finish at the 2007 ICCA quarterfinals was a surprise. Although we had given it our best, we didn’t expect much because our group is barely five years old, and we don’t have a lot of experience performing at venues as large as the ICCA. We knew from seeing the West Coast finals at Stanford the previous year that choreography was important, so we had incorporated a lot of symbolic choreography into our program, but we felt that the language barrier was a significant obstacle to overcome.
One of our biggest strengths in the quarterfinals competition that diminished somewhat in the semifinals was our blend, especially in Chan Chan, where the chorus can get extremely percussive and out of control if we don’t focus on how we sound as a group. The song, whose title references the gentle clanging of bells or bangles, requires that the group gently ease into the choruses, which are the most intense part. At the semifinals, the size of the crowd, the importance of the event, the fact we were competing against last years’ reigning champions all had a toll on our group, many of us who didn’t have the experience of performing in front of so many people, let alone in a competition.
For Raagapella, these competitions are all about self-improvement, and while we were happy with how we performed, we were happier in knowing precisely what we needed to improve on. The other groups out there were phenomenal, and the winners (BYU’s Noteworthy) were nearly flawless in their execution of choreography, not to mention their amazing sound and blend. We knew right then and there that we needed to develop a stage presence and have more confidence while at the same time focusing on creating a polished performance.
ACB: Raagappella took its first ever tour of the east coast last spring. How
would you describe this trip?
Raagappella: Our tour of the east coast was a historic moment in Raagapella history. We felt that after releasing our first album, performing all across California, and even performing with Indian music legend A.R. Rahman at the Hollywood Bowl in 2006 that a tour of the East Coast was the next logical step. We had a general idea of how to conduct a tour based on our much smaller scale tour of Southern California the year previous and our trip to Illinois to perform at an Indian cultural event the month before our East coast tour. We had a fantastic time gradually moving up the East coast and singing from school to school while getting to know many students as well as the South Asian associations. The enthusiasm we felt for our group was unprecedented. We didn’t realize that students all across the nation are extremely enthusiastic for this type of music. Often, after the shows we continued to sing for fun late into the night with other South Asian music enthusiasts. Our most memorable time was at Yale where we found the inspiration to write a piece that eventually became “Donga Donga,” one of our newest pieces that debuted at our Spring Show in May. It was an exciting and inspirational journey that reinvigorated our passion for this group. This year, we are trying to be even more ambitious and plan a tour for India, which I am sure will be an unforgettable experience.
ACB: Describe a typical Raagappella 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? Before you guys go into
competition?
Raagappella: A typical Raagpella rehearsal is two hours long and begins with a warm up where we practice going up and down a couple of scales. Often times we try and change the style in which we sing these scales in order to get a feel of different singing styles when we run through our songs. After our warm-up, we usually try to run through songs that we are planning to perform in the coming weeks. When we arrange a new song, the sheet music is copied and distributed at practice, and the parts are expected to be learned by the next practice. Midis of the songs are also distributed in order to aid with learning. During the initial practice of a new song, we usually run through the whole thing and then devote a few minutes to group input regarding how we can improve the song. We then continue to drill the song for a couple of more times, after which we usually reach a plateau and move on to maintaining or improving on other songs in our repertoire. When our group hasn’t been driven insane by school work, we have been known to memorize up to 4 songs in a week, which is pretty impressive, considering that many of us do not speak the language in which the song was written in. An hour into practice, we hold a business meeting and discuss future gigs and other business related items like CD purchases, costumes or other publicity materials.
After a short break, we resume going over older songs that need minor improvements but are more fun to sing. After 2 hours, we call it quits. What we’ve been trying to emphasize more this year is the importance of quartets in order to bolster confidence and create a cleaner sound. We hold quartet practices every couple of months or so, usually before a very large performance or competition in order to nitpick and make sure that we are the best we can possibly be. These are time consuming, and often the entire practice involves running everyone through at most two songs. The results are encouraging, and we typically sound much more robust at the end of them. Right before a big show, however, we are not as intense because we don’t want negative criticism to overwhelm us just before we hit the audience. We believe that being confident is extremely important before we hit the stage, and we right before we head out we have our own ritual which involves a huddle where we encourage each other to do our best.
ACB: What can we expect to see from Raagappella in the future? Any new songs in the works? Any upcoming gigs of note?
Raagappella: If only this question came sooner! Most of the questions in this interview have been answered with references to our newest arrangements. Many of the songs on the first album have been retired and new arrangements are in the pipeline all the time. As I mentioned earlier, “Chan Chan,” and first original song titled “Without You,” which we performed at the ICCA’s and Anahat are two songs that will definitely make it to our next album. Other songs that we’re experimenting with are an a cappella version of the Punjabi hit “Kangna,” Brian McKnight’s “Can you Read my Mind,” (which I had mentioned earlier), our own spin on The Drifter’s “I’ll Take You Home,” and a few other original songs. We’re constantly arranging new material, and we are now trying to focus on producing original material, with some promising results. All of our newest songs were showcased in our Spring Show this May and will shortly be up on You Tube.
ACB: How does your group go about recruiting new members?
Raagappella: Every year we typically lose about half of our group as many senior members graduate, so a good recruitment campaign is essential. Auditions time at Stanford for all a cappella groups starts during New Student Orientation, which typically falls during the last week of September. The month before is typically spent producing an advertising campaign with a clever theme. Last year, in imitation of the mobster movie series “Goodfellas,” we organized a publicity campaign called “Raagfellas. “ We posted flyers all over campus and tabled extensively in public areas. The end of New Student Orientation culminates in a school-wide a cappella event known as “O-Show,” that showcases all the a cappella groups on campus. Afterwards are auditions, followed by callbacks. Each person fills out a card indicating their preference and then a grand meeting of all the a cappella groups convenes, with groups vying for different auditionees. Ultimately, the preferences that each student gave determine which group they will be accepted to. This part is often the most frustrating and often goes into the morning hours. This year, we have a much more robust advertising campaign called “Raag Park,” which is a parody on South Park. We produced a flash animation promoting our group and distributed it on YouTube as well as posted it to our facebook group, which has a significant fan base that just keeps growing as we continue to perform all across America. We plan to put up posters all across campus and really focus on online marketing through making our clips available through our website. We also plan on doing lots of dorm shows and show the new undergraduates how fun our group really is.