Interviste tratte dalla Contemporary A Cappella Newsletter :
Pubblicato sulla CAN del dicembre '94.
For many of us, Take 6 redefined a cappella. By blending several styles of popular music with jazz and gospel elements, they pioneered a new sound that was as exciting as it was exactingly performed and recorded. This interview caught them just as they were coming to terms with their decision to record an album with instruments, and gives us some insight into what may be on the horizon for Take 6...
CAN: On your new album, Join The Band, most of the tracks include instrumental accompaniment. Alvin, your role [bass vocalist] seems to differ radically between strictly a cappella singing and singing with a band. What do you do differently when singing with a band?
Alvin Chea: You have to be more conscious of the fact that I'm often times doubling Ced, and when I come up to that fifth part I have to be very careful that I'm blending with him and singing like him. My natural tone is a lot heavier than his. Some of the "meat parts" would automatically become out of proportion if you're not careful to match and accommodate for the other vocalists. It's a different experience; it's fun. It's a different range of my voice. They are really excellent arrangers so they accommodate all of that when they approach arrangements.
CAN: I was looking forward to hearing you sing some solos...
AC: I didn't get any solos this album. I did a lot more of the writing and even a little bit of the arranging on it so, you know, it all comes out.
CAN: Back to tone - so your tone is not as heavy because you're singing high more often?
AC: Right. It shouldn't be, at least. I'm constantly trying to pull myself back because the guys up on top are a lot lighter on the things they do. That's the harshest or heaviest part of my range.
CAN: Speaking of singing lightly, I understand you sing more lightly when you're recording. Does that help your intonation? Is that something you consciously think about? Or does that just happen naturally in the studio?
Cedric Dent: There's two different mindsets that we have to be in, depending on where we are. When we record, it's a totally different thing. The softer you sing the easier it is to blend with the person next to you. When I sing full-out, I have a totally different character than everybody else. It's really hard to match, and likewise for everybody else in the group. And with technology you don't have to sing as loud and it's really easy to hear in a studio. When you're singing live, though, it's a totally different thing. You've got the adrenaline flowing so you tend to be more aggressive, instinctively. When people see you live they're looking for more energy. The technique we use in the studio would not work on stage; people would fall asleep.
CAN: Does it bother your ear sometimes if the balance on stage isn't quite what you're used to hearing in the studio?
CD: It's a different vibe. When we're in the studio, very rarely do all six of us sing at the same time. We piece it together, step-by-step. Actually, it's a three-step process: We record the background vocals (save the bass), all together. Then we record the bass part by himself. And then the lead vocal is the final step. So you can really sculpt your sound and make sure everything is done just right. That's what you do in the studio. You have everything at your disposal to make it perfect. When you're singing live, of course, notes sometimes just don't quite come out. There's a bad note here or there. But the trade-off is that we all are singing at the same time and there's a whole vibe that's happening that we just never really do in the studio. So it's a trade-off.
CAN: Is that why some of your arrangements are different when your perform live? Do the re-arrangements come out of live performance?
AC: Most definitely.
CD: We have to re-arrange each song just to perform it, after we've recorded it. Often times, we are all singing the background vocals, even the guy who's eventually going to sing lead, so we have to re-distribute the parts just to learn it for live performance, so we learn the song all over again. But then, as you do it more, the thing you're talking about kind of kicks into play. More ideas start to come and a song or an arrangement basically stays in constant evolution as long as we're performing it live.
CAN: Is that something you really strive for to keep the songs fresh?
AC: You hit it on the head. It's just part of the energy that happens when you're on stage, that spontaneity. To keep things fresh for us, we kind of re-invent things all the time, give it a different bend, whether it be a different lead, different things that we do behind [the solo], a different bass line, or different rhythmic thing. It keeps it fresh.
CAN: Being a bass singer, I would imagine you often times get asked the question "What's your lowest note?" I would rather phrase it 'What's your go-to note?" The note that every night, no matter what, will be there.
AC: It's definitely a B. I can get, no matter where it is or what time of day, a C with conviction. But I can generally get a B, if I need it.
But I don't ever sing very loudly at all, and that's another misconception that a lot of basses have; they think they have to move a whole bunch of air, and you can't do that.
CD: You know what's funny with Vinnie [Alvin], if he doesn't know for sure what note he's singing and you give him a part that goes even lower... I remember one time when we wrote a thing and said "don't tell Vinnie, 'cause if he knows this is a low A he probably will start thinking about it." And he actually sang it several times before he stopped and said "Wait a minute! What note is this?" And once we told him, sure enough, he didn't have it. And we said "We got it on tape, don't worry." It's weird. When you think too much about certain things, it can turn on you. You know, you think about a certain step on stage... you think too much about remembering your part... you forget it.
CAN: You had a change of members - what problems did that present?
CD: It did present an interesting scenario. When Joey [Kibble] came in to replace Merv [Mervyn Warren], it was easiest for the group as a whole for him to just learn Merv's part, so the rest of us wouldn't have to learn new parts. After about a year, we decided that Joey's voice was actually a little heavier than we had anticipated. So what we had to do was flip-flop Dave [David Thomas] so that Dave, who had been the fourth man down from the top, became the third man down and Joey dropped down. But we didn't change it on the things that he'd already learned. It's like we just started from that point on. So depending on what songs we're singing that night, sometimes the distribution is different because of that. But that's part of growing. And I think Mark [Kibble] suggested after about a year to just try this, and the blend was better.
TC: Is there any a cappella that influences you?
CD: A lot of stuff. I don't know if I've been listening to a lot of a cappella stuff lately, because of this record. I always submerge myself, (and I think I speak for everybody), in the style or direction that we're going. So when we actually worked on the a cappella songs on this record, I then went back and said "Man I haven't listened to a cappella in a while, I'd better clear my palette and get back into that." Now, having said that, there are some standard a cappella groups that, when I do listen to a cappella music, I go to. Number one would be the Singers Unlimited (and the Hi Lo's even though they didn't record much a cappella). Anything Gene Puerling. Ladysmith Black Mambazo...
CAN: You did the PBS special with them ["Do It A Cappella"]. How was that?
AC: Yeah we had a sky-view seat and looked at all that footwork and, yeah, it was incredible. Those guys are truly, truly gifted.
CD: Y'know, a cappella music all over the world is just great music. It comes in different packages. Remember the group that Quincy [Jones] turned us on to?
AC: Oh yeah. The Bulgarian Women's Choir? Yeah, they are rich, and the harmonies they come up with...
CD: They do tons of licks. But it has nothing to do with the way we do our licks. It's just a totally different orientation.
AC: It's great stuff.
CD: Also David Maddux, who to me comes straight out of the Gene Puerling school. Every time I see his name on, like, a Glad a cappella project . . . I don't listen intently to Glad's stuff but when David does an arrangement for them, I do. Did you hear the thing he did all by himself? He did a whole male voice project. . . It's called "Eventide" or something like that. And it's nothing but him. When you read the credits it's nothing but David Maddux: arranger, performer, producer. And it lists the microphone that he used and the engineer, and that's it!
CAN: So, as far as future projects, you have a tour coming up. But as far as recording after that: any thoughts about what you might do?
CD: You know, it's hard to say. We may do another project just like this. We've kicked around several ideas: doing an all symphony and voices project, doing an a cappella jazz standards project, combining the a cappella and orchestra things...
AC: ...an all vocal soundtrack. The sky's the limit. We want to try a little bit of everything.
CD: We just finished a project with Kenny Rogers, who's doing an all jazz record right now.
CAN: Are there any other people who you'd like to work with?
CD: I would love to see us do something with Yolanda Adams. Of course it'd be great to work with the queen, Aretha Franklin...
AC: We've had two major dreams come true with Stevie [Wonder] and Ray [Charles].
CD: I'd like to do something with, and I actually wrote a song with Steven Curtis Chapman for, Sandi Patti and Take 6, that we never actually never actually approached her about. It was one of those songs that just didn't make the cut. We wrote over seventy songs for this record. But we'd love to do something with her.
I Take 6 sono stati intervistati da Trist Ethan Curless
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