2012 Spring Sing lineup includes diverse bunch of Bruin bands

Growing up, Yuki Akaishi saw a lot of musicals, such as “Beauty and the Beast” and “Cats,” with her father. Akaishi hadn’t seen her father in four years ““ until last week, when he flew in from Japan to watch her senior recital.

On Friday, she will perform at Spring Sing, another accomplishment her dad can be proud of.

This year’s Spring Sing competition will give the stage to bands whose styles and influences include post-hardcore, folk, jazz, blues, rock and opera, reflecting the diverse range of music of the Los Angeles music scene.

Alto, an indie-folk group formed by upright bassist Jessica Jones, a third-year performance in bass student, and violinist Nicolette Yarbrough, a third-year ethnomusicology student, will also perform at Spring Sing, along with the five-man rock group The Ten Thousand, Arianna and the Roomies and Six Feet Off the Ground.

Yuki A Band is comprised of vocalist and pianist fourth-year ethnomusicology student Yuki Akaishi, percussionist and fourth-year ethnomusicology student Sarah Mori, and alumna, vocalist and glockenspiel player Lucy Li. Akaishi said the band has a folksy pop sound with jazz influences.

Yuki A Band will perform “Sad and Beautiful,” a song which, according to Akaishi, communicates both vulnerability and hope. She said that every song is a little different because the members constantly improvise on stage.

“It’s great that this year’s (Spring Sing) roster is so diverse because it represents all kinds of UCLA students,” Akaishi said.

The dramatic pop rock band, Six Feet Off the Ground, formed two weeks before Spring Sing auditions, where they were selected from more than 100 other acts, according to fifth-year music student Griffith Frank.

The band is comprised of Frank, guitarist and fourth-year ethnomusicology student Jordan Higgins and percussionist Nick Robertson. Frank, who has performed as a bass player for the Los Angeles-based pop-electro group Rough Duchess and as an opera singer, also works as a voice coach. He performed for the president of Indonesia at a jazz festival in 2010.

Higgins’ guitar style stems from post-hardcore influences, and Robertson will use double bass kicks and fast fills on the drums, according to Frank.

“The focus of guitars in that style of music is … shredding and fast arpeggios,” Frank said. “It’s this … culmination of different musical influences and styles.”

Six Feet Off the Ground will perform the original song “You Don’t Know Me,” which uses bass distortion and guitar delay to replace the synthesizers and produced sound of the recorded version, according to Frank.

Frank said the premise of the song is about empathizing with others who are going through difficult times, and doing anything to help them.

“We strive to write songs that everybody can relate to. That is a very difficult thing to do,” Frank said. “This will be our first show as a band. … It’s a chance for us to have fun on stage.”

Third-year ethnomusicology student Arianna Afsar has performed at Spring Sing in 2010 and 2011 as a duet artist. This year, she will perform with guitarist and third-year ethnomusicology student Ryan Thomas, bassist and first-year ethnomusicology student Erik Shiboski, pianist and second-year jazz studies student Kiefer Shackelford and percussionist and third-year ethnomusicology student Forrest Mitchell as the band Arianna and the Roomies.

“You’re able to project more with a band (than as a duet),” Afsar said.

Although the band formed in September, the members have been friends for several years, some of them since high school.

Afsar described their sound as a combination of jazz, pop and soulful R&B.

Arianna and the Roomies will perform the original song “Own the Moment,” a song about living every day to the fullest, according to Afsar.