Groove for Thought on The Sing-Off!

Okay. I'll start off by apologizing. A few entries back, I stated that GFT was taking some time off of gigging to work on our upcoming CD release. Well, that wasn't entirely true. Now before you start throwing rotten fruit and eggs at me (and who brings rotten fruit and eggs to their computer anyway?), let me explain. While we did spend some time on our new CD (which I've tentatively entitled "That One CD With Those Songs On It"), we also spent a substantial amount of time preparing for The Sing-Off.

"So what exactly is The Sing-Off?" you may be asking yourselves with mouth agape. Well fret not, baby birds, because I'm about to tell you. The Sing-Off is a reality TV show on NBC that brings in the best a capella groups in the country to compete against one another for $100,000 and a Sony recording contract. I'll give you all a second to let that soak in. Yeah. That means you get to see Groove for Thought on TV! The show begins Monday, December 6th (8-10pm ET). I don't have to say this, but you're probably going to want to mark this one on your calendars. For more info, go to the official NBC release.

So, about that CD. There is good news and bad news. The bad news is that we aren't done with it yet. (Put that moldy peach down!) The good news is that we're about four or five songs into the project and the tracks are sounding great. Amanda and Steph (and Brennan too, for that matter) have added something completely new and cool to the GFT sound. We all dig it here and I'm sure you all will feel the same about it when you hear it. When will you hear it? Um...how about you move that fruit to just outside of arm's reach. We have no idea.

But what if there was a way you could hear the new GFT recorded sound before our second album release? Shhhh. Come closer. What I'm about to tell you is extremely public information and (had you read the official NBC release) you would already know. For those true Groove for Thought blog fans, the ones that couldn't possibly dream of clicking on meaningless links when there is more hilariously informative blog to read, follow me to the next paragraph. For those "link clickers" that already know what I'm about to say, you can follow me to the next paragraph too. Think of it as a punishment for reading ahead. Nobody likes a know-it-all.

An album entitled “The Sing-Off: Harmonies for the Holidays” is being released by Epic Records on November 30. Each of the ten groups (did I mention there were ten of us?) that will appear on this season of the Sing-Off has recorded a track. All of the tracks will then be combined and placed in an order that makes the most logical sense to form a CD of awesome that is "The Sing-Off: Harmonies for the Holidays." I'm not saying this is what everyone on my list is getting for Christmas, but yeah this is what everyone on my list is getting for Christmas. For those of you that have been foaming at the mouth to get something (anything) new from GFT or those of you that have complained (since before the first album was released) that we don't have even a single holiday track recorded...well, there you go. While we don't know about distribution at this point, we will let you know as soon as we do.

Lots of cool stuff on the Groove for Thought plate. A TV show, a new CD in the works, and we're back to gigging. I know we've been quiet for a while, but you can expect regular updates in the future. We'd love to hear your thoughts about some of these new announcements. Post something on our Facebook wall, leave a comment on our newly updated Myspace page, or tweet about us on Twitter.

Peter
GFT

Updates

GFT has had quite a bit on our plate lately. When we aren't recording our new album, gigging, or doing photo shoots; we are diligently practicing new material for some exciting new performances. In other words, we've been busy working on some projects that all of us GFTers are really excited about.

We recently had a performance at Trinity Parish Church in Seattle. If you didn't make it (for shame), you really missed out on a special evening. While amplified sound and a cathedral hall creates an interesting set of problems, we are all creative individuals that are more than willing to embrace an interesting challenge. By the time we were done with our sound check, things were dialed in nice and tight (probably because the dynamic combination of my ability to run mic cable and Amanda's ability to tape stage markers). The stand out tune in that environment was, of course, And So It Goes. The acoustics of the cathedral hall were... unbelievable. For those of you who didn't show up (for shame again) you truly missed out.

Last weekend, we had one of our long weekend recording sessions. Because we've had some issues with planes, lawn mowers, leaf blowers, and dogs at our normal space; we decided to take a trip out to Port Orchard and record in Brennan's old stomping grounds. We spent all Friday night finishing up Brennan and James's tracks on "How Sweet It Is" and spent Saturday morning tracking Amanda and Stephanie. For lunch, we drove out to a great restaurant and had a nice normal casual run of the mill relaxing meal. Well, except for the photographer that was running around us making sure he got that perfect shot. You know the one of Brennan, nostrils flaring, as hes swooping down the his poor unsuspecting tacos. Just to clarify, we brought the photographer (not some random dude that was there taking pics of us eating) and that photographer happens to be my father... Hawk Jones. It comes full circle. GFT is a family affair.

Once we were done stuffing our faces, we went back to the improvised studio and took some more shots of us singing (see video below).



It was a nice fun/productive weekend for GFT. This weekend, we are all doing our own thing (although word on the street is that James and Brennan met yesterday to discuss choreography. Not a joke) so that we can be nice a relaxed for our performance next weekend. Did you see what I did there? That is what we call (in the biz) a perfectly executed transition.

Friday, May 21, 2010
Vocal Jazz Residency
Eastern Washington University
Cheney, WA

This is the last gig on the books for a while (taking some time to record the new album), so you should probably just plan on being there. You can always visit our website to see when we will be performing near you or visit our Facebook or Myspace page (yup. We've still got a myspace page) to just say hello.

There is one more super exciting announcement I'd like to make, but I think the rest of GFT would kill me if I let the cat out of the bag. So, I'll give you all a hint. GFT is preparing to... do something that would require all of us to sing... together. Oops. I better stop before I give too much away.

Peter
GFT

Arranging...this is tough

At the moment, I'm sitting in my studio working on an arrangement for GFT. This will be my first ever GFT arrangement, and while I'm excited, I'm also discovering that this type of arranging is extremely difficult.

I've done some arranging for jazz choirs and concert choirs in the past, and felt pretty good about how things turned out. But GFT arranging is a whole different animal. When arranging for a jazz choir, people often find a cool Kurt Elling arrangement or an instrumental version of a tune and then adapt that for a jazz choir. Others really dive in and do original arrangements, but with my limited experience, that isn't the case. With GFT, though, we don't really do other people's arrangements. So, with this tune I'm working on, trying to distance myself from the original to ensure it isn't just a "cover" is really difficult. While I want to keep the elements from the original that are cool, I also want to make this a GFT tune. Wish me luck. I'll keep you posted with how things turn out.

Brennan
GFT

Recording...Day 2

Yesterday marked Day 2 of our first intensive recording weekend for our new album. Friday, though it started with some frustrating set backs, proved to be a productive evening. We were all looking forward to Saturday and another productive day of recording. Of course, we are GFT, and so things can never go ENTIRELY smoothly. As we were to be recording in our recording space/recording studio, which is not very well isolated from external noise, we needed to have a plan in case the neighbor decided to mow his lawn. So Saturday morning, an hour before our session was to begin, we devised a plan that involved some major construction of an iso booth. Jeff and I took off to the local Lowes to get supplies while Peter, Amanda, and Kelly started tracking before the neighbors were up to start making a bunch of noise. When Jeff and I got back, we all started constructing our iso booth. Certainly not everyone in GFT has construction experience, but things went smoothly and before too long, we had a little iso booth. Of course, we made it out of 2x4 and drywall, so it is massively heavy.

I think it's also worthwhile to mention that while we were all brainstorming and slaving on the booth, James was off with his kid at a parade (see below)...hmmm.


All in all, though the session started a little late, the day proved to be another productive day of recording. There are some loose ends to tie up on "Shining Star," but some good progress was made. We'll get another session on the books soon. Time to start editing!

Brennan
GFT

Recording Day 1

Considering Groove for Thought is about ten years old, we figured it's about time we cut another album. A lot has changed for us in the past few months, but there's no rest for the wicked(ly awesome). Of course, as is the GFT way, nothing can go completely without some kind of problem. In this case, we were all ready to record at Bellevue College. Kelly went up early and set up mics and cables and got the room all ready. There are large fans in the room, however, and we needed to get these turned off. Apparently this was supposed to be done BEFORE the session, but when we showed up, the fans were roaring. So Kelly, Peter, and Brennan trekked across campus to the Campus Ops building to get the fans turned off. Thirty minutes later (and after trying to communicate with an Russian lady with a VERY heavy accent), the fans were turned off and we were ready to get recording...or so we thought.


Upon arriving back at the recording studio, we discovered that the IT people at the college had picked that day to do a system update on the studio computer, and the install was not going smoothly. The install was finished, but the computer was not restarting. So, we called James, Amanda, and Stephanie, told them to pull over and wait for word on the computer, and waited to see if the computer would reboot. After waiting for 45 minutes, we decided it wasn't worth the wait and all seven of us headed to Renton to our rehearsal space/recording studio. So here we are, recording "Shining Star" after a couple hours of traditional GFT hassle. We'll keep you posted as we continue recording through the weekend.

Brennan, Peter, and Stephanie

GFT

GFT 5.0

Usually I would start one of these posts with a "Hello Friends and Family", but I'm going to skip all that this time because I just can't wait to tell you all some exciting news. See what I did there? Boy am I clever.

We would like to officially announce that Groove for Thought has two new members. Yes. You read that correctly. Amanda Kunz and Stephanie Collins are the two newest members of Groove for Thought. While Amanda has been performing with us for awhile, Stephanie will be making her GFT debut this Thursday (March 11th) at the ACDA Northwestern Division Conference. If you'd like to see Amanda and Stephanie in action (and who could blame you), check out our schedule page for more information.

Don't forget to check out our website, facebook, and myspace (yes its still there) for news, exclusive photos, videos, and more.

Peter

So... its been awhile

Hello family and friends!

We haven't really had too much going on... except for a little thing called MANFEST! Talk about a blast. All of us left the gig talking about how much fun we had. Manfest, if you don't know, is a music festival for guys (grades 8 through 12) enrolled in choir that is designed to "encourage males in a female-dominated field and expose audiences to underrepresented talent". All of the guys that participated in the festival were fantastic. Its encouraging to see such enthusiasm for the choral arts. Especially from the guys. (If that last "sentence" bugs you, deal with it! This is my show and I'm making my own rules.) I probably shouldn't write these when I'm this tired.

I've got a bit of announcement. I think James said it best when he said that "we are beginning the process of starting to record another CD". If that very odd quote gets you super excited (and it should) you can get a bit of a sneak peek right now on our website. Thats right. Pick up your jaws and I'll let you know where you can find a brand new GFT track. As you probably remember, GFT (well Jake, Brennan, and Jeff) did a radio interview that air on BBC back in October. During that interview, the full version of "Hallelujah I Love Her So" was played. You can find a link to the whole interview here.

So... that is kind of what we've been up to lately. Like I said earlier, we've been working hard on some new stuff and getting ready for some upcoming performances. Remember to check our schedule page to see when we are going to be performing near you. We have some fun things coming up and, like always, we would love to see you there.

Peter