The Etownian >> Features
Vocalign completes debut studio album “Half Past Two”
Thursday February 25 2010
It’s been quite a semester for the music groups here at Elizabethtown College. Only two weeks ago, Flint released their first album, “On Top of the World.” Now Etown’s co-ed a cappella group, Vocalign, is finishing up their debut album, “Half Past Two.” The recording process has been a long, labor-intensive one, but ultimately very rewarding. “Recording this album was definitely an experience for me as well as the rest of the group,” said senior Derek Shanely, Vocalign’s current president. “We recorded one or two songs every weekend during the fall semester in order to have the tracks finished by early December. I spent, on average, 10 hours a week producing the album, whether it was using the studio on campus or at Fresh Valley Studios in Reading.”
Producing the album is the hardest part of the process. It involves balancing out every single aspect of a track so it all harmonizes and sounds good together. Because of this, Vocalign will release “Half Past Two” at their spring show during T.G.I.S. weekend, despite the fact that they finished recording in December.
Of course, Shanely wasn’t the only one involved in the process; it’s something that the whole group came together for, even members who had graduated.
“Altogether, we had 16 current members and six alumni record, including co-founders John and Emily [Wise] Barborek,” Shanely said.
“Recording a CD was a unique experience,” sophomore Lauren Foster said. “As a vocal percussionist, I actually had to record each sound separately for some tracks and then have [Shanely] mix them together in a drum-set-like pattern.”
“It was a lot of work, and also a lot of fun. Derek and I worked together to figure out how we wanted things to go, and were able to be creative with it,” Foster said. “And then, singing as a soloist was a bit different. I had to really know the song and be able to sing sections over and over until we were able to get a good version.”
Each song’s soloist had a difficult time singing by themselves in a tiny recording closet. As first-year Ryan Stadel described it, “It was crazy hard singing everything alone. Plus it was so dark in the room [that] it was hard to get used to.”
But all this work appears to have paid off. One of the tracks on “Half Past Two” is a cover of the song “Lighted Up” by Gabriel Mann, an artist living in Los Angeles. Upon hearing their cover, Mann actually contacted Vocalign to tell them how much he loved it.
This album is the culmination of a long journey for the members of Vocalign. In the past year alone they sang in front of 8,000 people at the Giant Center in Hershey, Pa., and performed at Hershey’s Christmas Candylane, in addition to having one of their songs being featured on radio station The River 97.3 FM at 10 p.m. this Sunday.
“Half Past Two” will be released May 2 at Vocalign’s T.G.I.S. show. This is not merely an album for the current members of Vocalign, but for all the members over the years. As Shanely put it, “This album is dedicated to the original founding members of Vocalign. Without their support there would not be a co-ed a cappella group at Elizabethtown College.”
The Etownian >> Features