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Singing Quartet Interview

by: Mark Arellano

Many different genres of musical groups exist today, and many rely heavily on instrumental leads with synthetic sounds created to alter voices in studios that sound rather fake. Though they’ve just started to work together as a group, the a cappella quartet of Seniors Alex Edlefsen , Darren Giglio , and Jeff Graham and Loyola High School Senior Brian Mescher, are hard at work and up-and-coming in harmony vocalization that is the real thing.

They got the idea to begin a group during the summer when Edlefsen had a pool party and asked Giglio, Graham, and Mescher if they’d like to perform a song at the party. “Alex asked us if we wanted to get together and sing a song for this pool party of his; we thought it was a good idea and we sat down together to come up with something to exhibit at the party. We decided to do a rendition of ‘In my Room’ by the Beach Boys; we practiced it, and we sang it, and it was really smashing. So, we had the idea to start a singing quartet and see where it would take us,” explained Giglio of how they came together to start their quartet.

They recently preformed at the Homecoming game right before the game started on October 25 with “Be true to your School” and joined the Chamber choir in singing the Alma Mater. When they were finished, the crowd cheered and was accepting. “We were nervous about doing this, but we knew we had to since we couldn’t back out at the last minute,” said Graham when asked about the feelings they had right before performing at the Homecoming game. “We had little time to practice before the actual performance, but that wasn’t a big obstacle to us; we knew what to do, and the organization and actual practice we put into the song assured us that we’d do just fine, as we were all equally sure that we had in down and it was in the bag for us.”

“I was a bit apprehensive towards doing it, but once the moment came closer, I was sure as to what I had to do,” explained Mescher about the way he felt that night. “I mean, you get the usual pre-show nervousness that is only human, but once you get out there and start singing, you become more relaxed and you feel motivated to give it all you’ve got.”

These guys have a long history together, going back to when they were younger and involved in the drama productions with the city through Rec Park. “It’s so easy to work with these guys because we’ve known each other for so long, and we couldn’t argue about anything since we’ve grown up together and we understand one another, and it is easy going all of the time, and we’re all cool with each other. It is so great to work with people I’m close to, and

the talent we all possess is phenomenal,” said Giglio.

Mescher is the bass in the group, Giglio sings baritone, Graham is the tenor, and Edlefsen sings falsetto. “Depending on the song, whoever has the better voice to use for the song we’ll use for that particular number; if the song calls for a tenor, we’ll have Jeff lead, or if the song is suited for a bass, we’ll use Brian,” said Edlefsen.

They mostly perform Beach Boys covers, yet they make superb renditions of these songs, which make them stand out with their take on each selection and the vocal differentiations of each guy. “We’re definitely staying with the a cappella sound, since it is far superior to our preferences, and we sound really good! On occasion we’ll put in the piano, but we don’t have immediate plans to include instruments in our set,” said Edlefsen.

“Once we have been working together for a while, and start to improve and fortify our style and find our strong points in our voices, we really anticipate on recording something together. It

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and find our strong points in our voices, we really anticipate on recording something together. It would be really nice to have a momentum like that to hold onto and possibly take it farther one day,” said Mescher.

They have a routine schedule for practicing; they usually meet once a week to work on anything they happen to be considering and discuss parts, arrangements, and usually spend two to four hours in this process. Despite their many ongoing activities such as work and sports, they manage to work with each other on the quartet’s upcoming works in progress. “If we didn’t have the time, this wouldn’t work out, and it wouldn’t be half as enjoyable as it is to us right now; but we pull through to work on our singing, not forced or with any bitter obligation, but because we want to and we like singing together as a group,” said Mescher of the practicing schedule.

When asked about upcoming events they planned to entertain at, Graham said, “We are planning a lot of things where we can get our name out there and familiarize our faces and most importantly, our voices. Open Mic night at Blue Butterfly is an upcoming thing we plan to do, as well as the Winter Concert that Chamber and Chorale have annually. We will have a lot of chances to get exposure and recognition at these times!”

Edlefsen said,” Any possible date we can get will be great, as we plan to not only do the Winter Concert, but the Spring Sing and other city wide events such as the Farmer’s Market and other school sporting events.”

They are looking to soon move away from the Beach Boys tunes, and anticipate on writing some of their own music and hopefully perform that music to audiences eager to hear original compositions by the group. Giglio stated, “We aspire to write our own material one day. Alex is our piano man, and I’m pretty good with lyrics, so with our collaboration, and possible contributions from the other two guys, we could really come up with some great songs.”

The guys are considering long terms goals, and if time permits this could be a potential vocation for this quartet. “We’ve given it serious thought about doing this in the long run, and it had come up often, but that’s not what we are doing this for; we are primarily singing together to have fun and to work and improve our skills, and to simply have fun and enjoy what we love to do,” said Edlefsen.

“It’d be great to make a profession out of this work; it’s interesting to see where this can lead us to, but that’s not our main focus; our main focus is to have fun, work diligently and b

basically to make the most of it and to enjoy ourselves in the process of doing so,” said Graham.

“The reaction we’ve gotten from people who like our sound and what we are doing has been incredible, as it motivates us further to move on and continue to do this work and to come up with something new to add to our act and to move through every aspect of this journey and to savor and learn from everything that we experience through it,” stated Mescher.

This quartet has very strong potential, and there’s no doubt that they’ll do some remarkable, noteworthy, and memorable work for not only school-related events, but also for the community. The dedication and hard work that they are enduring will help to make this quartet possible and keep them a strong force with cemented staying power.

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