Spring Sing 2015: Fine Print
Members of the band Fine Print will bring together jazz, funk and R&B elements in their Spring Sing performance of original song “Move On,” a piece that conveys the group’s spontaneity. (Hannah Ye/Daily Bruin)
By Ruhee Patel
May 13, 2015 12:17 a.m.
Fourth-year ethnomusicology student and bassist Erik Shiboski said he originally came up with the name Fine Print because he thought it was fitting for a rap MC.
Fine Print, a collective comprised of eight ethnomusicology students with a concentration in jazz studies, will make its debut with its original song “Move On” at Spring Sing on Saturday as the show’s closing act. This jazz-based group features the saxophone, trumpet, trombone, guitar, bass, keyboard, drums and vocals.
Erik Shiboski said the group brought together elements of jazz, funk and R&B for its music in an effort to bring the members’ love for jazz to Spring Sing’s huge stage.
“We were formed spontaneously, (‘Move On’) was written pretty spontaneously, and I think that’s the spirit of our whole group and the spirit of the music that we’re inspired by,” Erik Shiboski said.
Hugo Shiboski, second-year ethnomusicology student, saxophonist for Fine Print and brother of Erik Shiboski, said this spontaneity also comes from the fact that the group plays improvisational music.
“Although we have an arrangement and the lyrics written out, we have improvisation incorporated – a lot of the groove is based on us communicating during the performance,” Hugo Shiboski said.
Fine Print formed in January when Hugo Shiboski reached out to some of his close friends because he said that he wasn’t seeing a lot of people in the UCLA music community getting together and playing for big crowds at school.
“We just wanted to play some grooving, funky music in front of a large audience at UCLA,” Hugo Shiboski said.
Fourth-year ethnomusicology student and vocalist Teira Lockhart Church wrote the lyrics for “Move On,” and Hugo Shiboski said while the song has to do with moving on from a relationship and looking forward, it isn’t sad.
Fine Print’s debut song was written specifically for Spring Sing, third-year ethnomusicology student and drummer Joel Manduke said.
“When we decided to join Spring Sing, we all got together and the beauty of (‘Move On’) is the fact that we really wrote it collaboratively,” Manduke said. “Hugo and Erik took the lead, but it was such a group effort and it really seems like a product that came from all of us.”
Third-year ethnomusicology student and keyboardist Grant Milliken said the members of Fine Print draw inspiration from each other because they’ve been playing together for many years.
“I’ve known some of these people since high school and the rest since I first got to UCLA, so there’s really close friendships in the band,” Milliken said.
When it comes to rehearsing for Spring Sing, Hugo Shiboski said the group spends most of its time polishing its performance and making sure that it can get the energy going. For Fine Print, he said the most important part of its musical performance is getting the audience moving, especially since the group will be closing the show.
“We’re going to go out with a bang,” Hugo Shiboski said. “It’s going to start intense, and it’s going to end intense, but there’s some sweet, sensual moments throughout the song.”
