S’porean a cappella band seeks to set new beat
Every first and third Wednesday of the month, Yahoo! MusicScene shines the spotlight on talented, up-and-coming Singaporean bands or musicians. This week, we speak to the founders of a cappella rock band, MICappella, about the stereotyping of their music genre.
When the term "a cappella" is mentioned, a typical image of a jazzy group of singers grooving to "shoo bee doo wop" music may come to mind.
However, local vocal band MICappella begs to differ.
"We're very aware of the members' of public's opinions about the phrase 'a cappella', that it is just boring. But, no, there are a lot of other cool stuff out there that can be done with just voices," said band founder Peter Huang.
Describing their music as a cappella rock, Huang and Calin Wong, who are both freelance musicians, told Yahoo! Singapore that the 6-man band's focus is on contemporary music.
"As a musician, I'm not very good with any particular instrument, and as a vocalist I think I'm okay," said Huang, who added, however, that he considers his vocal drumming, or beatboxing, as above average.
"It is my biggest asset, musically speaking," he said.
And it is in this area that they play to their strengths.
Comprising of members Lee Ein Ein, 30, Juni Go, 25, Eugene Yip, 29, Ng Wei Jin, 29, Huang, 29 and Wong, 25, and founded in 2009, MICappella covers modern hits like Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours" and Maroon 5's "Harder to Breathe".
Drawing on Huang's and Yip's vocal percussion abilities, the group's aim is to make their music sound like a full band is playing, but with only voices involved. They are also one of the only vocal bands who have a focus on Mandarin music in Singapore.
"When people listen to a cappella, they are typically English-listening audiences. The Mandarin pop music audiences have virtually no idea about this genre, not even to the more traditional styles," said Huang. "I noticed that (when) we went for a competition in Taiwan. It was a domestic competition so all the groups were Taiwanese. I did a count and out of 66 songs, only 22 were in Mandarin, and this was in Taiwan. Everything else was in English, French, German or some European language."
"For some strange reason, even Asian groups who sing a cappella do it in English," added co-founder Wong.
Watch them perform a medley at the Esplanade:
In line with this philosophy about extending a capella music to a Chinese audience, the sextet is releasing their second EP, "MICappella Featuring:", in July, which comprises of four songs in Mandarin and one in English, of which three of those songs are originals.
Huang and Wong revealed that their strategy for this new EP would be to target the Taiwan and China mainstream markets first, and then hope that Singaporeans will pick up their music from there.
"There is a lack of awareness and an organised push to create awareness in the mainstream media in Singapore," explained Huang on why their primary focus is not on the local market.
"Hopefully this (push into the China and Taiwan markets) will get us more opportunities to perform live on a larger scale, which can help expose audiences more to us and to surprise them that all these sounds are actually coming from vocals only."
Punching above their weight, having just been around for two years, the band has already taken part in competitions and performed in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea and Kuala Lumpur. They also recently performed at the Singapore Youth Olympic Games Opening Ceremony.
At the end of July, MICappella will attempt to do Singapore proud by heading to Graz, Austria to compete in Vokal Total 2011, a competition that Huang described as the "Mecca of European a cappella".
They will also be the only Singapore band contesting.
Singaporeans can catch their performance at the Esplanade Recital Studio on 15 July to celebrate the launch of their second EP.
Details:
Two shows on 15 July -- 7pm to 8pm, 9pm to 10pm.
Tickets can be found here, Singpost and all S.A.M Machines.
