Student group Resonance A Cappella works on first album

Members of Resonance A Cappella swayed their bodies along to the crescendos and decrescendos of the musical arrangement during a Sunday rehearsal at two of the singers’ apartment.

The group’s voices swelled together at the end of Rihanna’s “Sledgehammer” and cut simultaneously to silence. The singers grinned and exhaled, relieved, before addressing corrections.

The group has not only been practicing for a cappella competitions, but also for its first album.

Marco Aquinde, president of Resonance A Cappella, said the club has grown from a quintet to an 18-member group since it was first founded in 2013. Resonance is now ready to spread its sound to larger audiences with its first album, he added.

The album, set for release in June, will celebrate Resonance’s past, present and future, said Aquinde, a fourth-year microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics student.

Resonance held a Kickstarter fundraiser in November. It reached its goal of $11,000 and this will fund the album’s production. The group will start recording the album through a cappella recording company The Vocal Company, beginning week five of winter quarter, Aquinde said.

[Related: Spring Sing Profile: Resonance A Cappella]

For four original Resonance members, who joined as freshmen in 2013, 2017 is their final year at UCLA, Aquinde said. The departure of the original members inspired Aquinde and other Resonance leaders to want to create an album to honor the first graduating class of the ensemble.

“We wanted to do everything we possibly could to have the graduating class go out with a bang,” he said.

The album will allow Aquinde to remember the best memories he has had at UCLA, including performing a Beyoncé medley at Spring Sing for the first time in 2014, he said. The medley will appear on Resonance’s album.

Aquinde said he remembers standing in front of the the Spring Sing audience back in 2014 as he opened the medley by humming Beyoncé’s “Drunk in Love,” and closed the number with “Halo,” while audience members repeatedly cheered and screamed his name.

“That experience was surreal and humbling,” Aquinde said. “I remember thinking we literally started from the bottom and now we’re here performing.”

The album will also capture upcoming benchmarks for Resonance, including the group’s intercollegiate competitions, Aquinde said.

This year, the group will compete at the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella for the first time and at the Los Angeles A Cappella Festival for the second time. The group’s competition repertoire will also appear on its album.

Resonance’s developing sound allowed for exploration in the group’s repertoire, said Brandon Tai, a second-year computer science student and Resonance’s arranging chair and album manager.

Resonance used to perform oldies hits like Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me,” but has broadened its horizons, trying electronic dance music songs like The Chainsmokers’ “Closer.”

“We currently have an incredible range of voices in our group,” Tai said.

The album will include the groups’s newer material – including arrangements of Jessie J’s “Mamma Knows Best” and Rihanna’s “Sledgehammer,” Tai said.

[Related: UCLA a cappella members tune in on auditions, alumni networks]

With its spectrum of songs, the album will resemble a yearbook for all of Resonance’s members, Tai said. The album allows graduating members to reflect on Resonance’s development and remember all the fond memories, he said.

“Since the album is documenting our current sound, it is documenting the best we’ve ever sounded, which means we’ll only build upon that and improve even more,” Tai said.

The recording process for the album will push Resonance to adapt their live work to the studio, said Matt Groy, Resonance’s musical director and fourth-year English student. Though the group members all perform live together, in the studio they will have to record in groups of three to four people at a time.

First-year psychobiology student Maggie Miller said she looks forward to the opportunities the album will provide, such as learning what goes into recording a professional a cappella album and reaching a wider audience.

Members think of Resonance as their second family, and having an album that documents their bond will preserve Resonance’s close-knit love, Groy said.

“Back in 2014, our group took a great upward turn with Spring Sing,” Aquinde said. “But now with the album in progress, Resonance shows no signs of stopping.”