Octaves Interview with Duncan Trawick

Partial Transcript: Alexa- So, what’s your name?

Duncan- My name is Duncan Trawick.

Alexa- And what year are you?

Duncan- I’m a junior.

Alexa- So, how long have you been singing?

Duncan- I have been singing for –umm– seventeen/eighteen years.

Alexa- Alright and were you in any musical groups in high school?

Duncan- I was in a choir and I was – uh– in an opera or two.

Alexa- Ok. Did you do anything else? Did you have private voice lessons? Were you like studying music seriously before you came to University?

Duncan- Um I started taking voice lessons my freshman year of high school, but didn’t start doing it all that seriously till my senior year of high school when I went to arts school.

Alexa- Right and what is your major?

Duncan – I’m a Music Major with a focus in Vocal Performance.

Alexa- Alright, so when you got to campus – uh– what year did you join an A Capella group.

Duncan- I joined it my first year.

Alexa – And what made you want to join an A Capella group?

Duncan- Um I think my high school years were when – um– the sign off really took off and so I went into college knowing generally that A Capella was a thing. And –um– when I came for a scholarship weekend type thing, I was able to sit in on a rehearsal for the Octaves with my – um– my student host and that’s how I came to know the group. And so I was planning on auditioning even, um, before the time I got here.

Keywords: A Capella; Auditioning; College; Performance

Subjects: Choirboys; College and school drama; Music Rehearsals

Partial Transcript: Alexa – And what made you want to join an A Capella group?

Duncan- Um I think my high school years were when – um– the sign off really took off and so I went into college knowing generally that A Capella was a thing. And –um– when I came for a scholarship weekend type thing, I was able to sit in on a rehearsal for the Octaves with my – um– my student host and that’s how I came to know the group. And so I was planning on auditioning even, um, before the time I got here.

Alexa- Alright –and there- uh, why did you choose to go with the Octaves over a coed A Capella group?

Duncan- Um, – I– I think it is likely just because that was the one I knew people in coming in to school. I auditioned for another coed A Capella group. Um, but I just preferred the overall vibe of The Octaves. It seems to be the most serious of the groups – at least when I– at least in my first experience of them.

Alexa- Alright and so, how would you describe the atmosphere of rehearsal?

Duncan- It, huh. I’d say that as someone who comes from a fairly, for lack of a better word, professional kind of schema about rehearsal. It is definitely not what I have been used to. Cause – I– I mean I’m used to structures in rehearsal where there’s someone leading rehearsal. Where it’s a conductor or a director of some sort. And so, having a Music Director be one of one’s peers it’s a different environment that allows for less rigidity, I think, and that could be a good or a bad thing.

Alexa- So, do you hold a position in the group?

Duncan- I don’t currently –um– my sophomore year I was the music director and then I went abroad and dropped the position and never ran again, for sanity reasons. Haha.

Alexa- So, do you think in rehearsal certain people take the lead of the group?

Duncan- Yes, absolutely.

Alexa- Would you be willing to give me who you think?

Duncan- I’d say, –um– generally speaking, the leaders of the groups, or at least the ones who lead by example are – um– Jacob, myself, Morgan Simmonds, Pierre Galloway, um… and maybe Joe CoGallin. Uh he can sort of either roll. He can get everyone’s attention or he can distract people. It’s just he has a great deal of social cloud, so that helps things along.

Keywords: A Capella; College; Music Director; Rehearsal; eclectic; leaders

Subjects: Atmosphere--research; Music rehearsals; Social Interaction

Partial Transcript: Alexa- So, what are your opinions on the audition process?

Duncan- Um, I think... – I– I don’t have many complaints. Um, or I do… – are– are you referring to like auditions?

Alexa- Yeah, like solo auditions.

Duncan- Solo Auditions. Um, – I– I have complaints. I think that, um, the group as a whole struggle with arbitration whether it’s solo auditions or auditions for the group or deciding what gigs we wanna do or anything like that. Um and it - it’s kinda like the flaws of a popular democracy. Where it’s just – there’s– people get distracted from the initial intention of things and develop their own personal agendas that may or may not be beneficial to the whole group. And it can also be as a process, somewhat – um– unnecessarily inefficient. Where it’s people want like our process is we send people out of the room and bring them back in one by one or – or– in groups, depending on whether or not we think they can go forward to be – um– to be the actual soloist. And sometimes that process gets somewhat perverted into “oh like we need to keep that person out there as long as we can, so they know they were close” or something like that. Even if nobody really wants them to be the soloist. So it – it – in short different motivations lead to a somewhat overly complex process.

Alexa- So is there anything…how would change that?

Duncan- Um, I’d say that, I mean I’ve proposed in the past that everybody gives their top two –um– top two soloists and if somebody is in nobody’s top two they’re automatically brought in and if somebody is nobody’s top choice then they’re brought in.

Alexa- So, how would you think the dynamic of the group would be – say– if it had to be unanimous. Cause I know for Sirens it’s unanimous. Like, the decision has to be as close to unanimous as it can be, so do you think that would work for you guys or do you think just because of…

Duncan- Um, I think. I think it could work because – um– generally speaking we’re pretty close. I guess we do it by percentage. It has to be like seventy-five percent of the group or something like that. It’s been a while since I actually looked at the exact, um, required number. But, um, I mean we judge who gets into the group based on a unanimous decision. And I remember my, my, sophomore year when we were doing, um, when we were letting people into the group, um, like it took forever. It went well into the night and then at the beginning of this year it took a couple hours. And so – it’s– it depends on how well run it is and how –um– contrarian the individual members of the group are.

Keywords: Auditions; Dynamic; Flaws

Subjects: Auditions; Majority Leaders; Voting

Partial Transcript: Alexa- What’s your favorite part about being in the Octaves?

Duncan- Um, probably the social dynamic. Honestly, –I– I mean as someone who’s not all that into pop music. –There’s– a lot of our repertoire isn’t really up my alley, but – I– I like singing in general and also just the – like– having friends that I can hang out with, even outside of rehearsal. Like the group dynamic is good for me.

Alexa- And then what would you say your impact is on campus?

Duncan- As a group or just…

Alexa- Yeah, as a group.

Dunca- As a group, I’d say – uh– we are just like one of many, uh, groups that bring music in some form to campus and I’d say there’s a certain extent to which it’s self-gratifying. Um, but I mean – I– I think especially in the Octaves it’s sort of oriented around putting on the best show possible and just being fun, so.
Alexa- So if you could say there’s one unique thing that you guys have compared to the other – A Capella’s– A Capella groups, what would it be?

Duncan- Um, one unique thing… Uh…

Alexa- Or something that’s different?

Duncan- Yeah, um… I think... um largely it’s just the fact that we are energy driven – uh– musically. And so it’s like, at least when we’re performing everything is all about connection with the audience and stuff like that. And, uh, even to the point that we are not all that musical. Frankly, – I– I’ve said after performances – like– “we made up for energy what we lacked in musical precision.” And, um, and – I– I’d say that other groups like because other groups tend to stick to the format of single arch soloists or something like that, which we still do on occasion depending on the song. Uh, our performances are generally – uh– you get the music as close as you can and put on a show…so.

Alexa- Is there anything else that you think would be important to know for me to know about the group?

Duncan- Um, I’d say it’s worth mentioning that, um, the group has –like– I lured to this before with the group dynamic, but I’d say that the group kind of functions as a poor man’s fraternity. So, if that helps…

Alexa- Alright, well thank you.

Duncan- No problem at all.

Keywords: Dynamic; Energy; Music; Pop Music; Social

Subjects: DIVERSE; Music--Performance; Musical groups; Social Interaction