Spring Sing Profile: Alex Liu and Eric Jung
(Shreya Aiyar/Daily Bruin)
Three years after meeting at Omega Sigma Tau fraternity, fourth-year neuroscience student Eric Jung (left) and fifth-year world arts and cultures student Alex Liu (right) will perform Friday at Spring Sing 2014.
By Shreya Aiyar
May 13, 2014 1:46 a.m.
The first time Alex Liu and Eric Jung met was during a desperate scramble to fill empty spaces in a production roster. As a second-year student, Liu realized his fraternity’s 2011 Spring Sing production was lacking musicians and reached out to Jung, then a first-year, through recommendations by friends and fraternity brothers.
Three Spring Sings later, Liu and Jung have grown from acquaintances in a large production to an R&B; and jazz duet performing in front of thousands at Spring Sing, with only Liu’s voice and Jung’s guitar to carry the melody.
On Friday, Liu, a fifth-year world arts and cultures student, and Jung, a fourth-year neuroscience student, will take the stage of Pauley Pavilion as a duet. Their YouTube channel includes covers of popular songs such as “All of Me” by John Legend, and highlights Liu’s vocals and Jung’s guitar performance.
Liu said Jung has a natural ability with instruments, having played the guitar and piano for more than 10 years.
“When I sing, I get off pitch, so it’s nice to have someone knowledgeable help me get back on pitch,” Liu said. “When we’re jamming, Eric can just pick up a song, figure out what harmonizes with my voice – those are a couple of his biggest strengths.”
As singer-songwriters, Jung and Liu will perform an original composition titled “Notice You.” The instrumentals were compiled by Jung, while Liu composed the lyrics.
Jung said “Notice You” came about through a casual jam session after both artists realized the potential for their duet at Spring Sing.
Originally intended as a sad song, “Notice You” took on the characteristics of Jung’s chords and transformed into a happier piece, reflecting the feel-good tone and mood of the instrumentals, Liu said.
The main difficulty in planning the duet, Jung said, was reconciling the different genres that both artists are comfortable with. Liu is an R&B; singer, while Jung is a jazz-trained guitarist.
“(Liu) has got this R&B; style with Justin Timberlake riffs that go over a huge range,” Jung said. “The singers that I tend to listen to, they don’t have the greatest range, so it’s always an interesting combination when we get together to decide what songs to sing.”
Jung said both artists’ musical influences have little to no overlap, and that whereas Liu listens to R&B;, he listens to alternative rock and jazz.
“Whenever we meet up, (Liu) always suggests a song that I don’t know, and I always suggest a song that he doesn’t know,” Jung said. “We’ve been playing a lot of John Mayer, Ed Sheeran, so it’s been fun trying to find that middle ground.”
Although Liu said the song is upbeat and happy, Spring Sing has given the duet a chance to stand out from the high-energy acts and present a mellow, laid-back performance that the audience can relate to.
“For us, (the piece) is just one of those feel-good songs, and it’s not one of those songs where I have a super impressive vocal range, where I can just belt something and people start clapping,” Liu said. “It’s just one of those songs that makes me feel good, and I want the audience to feel the same way.”
