An Interview With Walter Chase
July 13, 2010
Harrah's Resort brings in charting a cappella group for a summer-long run in Atlantic City
By Ray Schweibert
Granted, Straight No Chaser has only been in town around three weeks and may still be reaping the benefits of its novelty status, but a packed, mid-week Harrah’s Concert Venue crowd gave the a cappella group a standing ovation following its July 7 show. And as sure as there are more 90-degree days in Atlantic City’s near future, so are crowd reactions of that sort for the sensational 10-man ensemble.
Straight No Chaser is essentially a group of friends who started a musical trend at Indiana University in 1996 that still exists today. The original 10 members graduated and pursued separate paths, but came together for 10-year reunion that immediately preceded the posting of a YouTube clip of their “12 Days of Christmas” recording that redlined on the viewer tachometer. They followed that up with a couple of big-selling holiday CDs and a 12-song CD of pop hits called With A Twist, released in April on the Atlantic Records label.
The group signed an eight-week engagement with Harrah’s Resort that runs through Aug. 28 at the Concert Venue in Atlantic City. Shows are 8pm Wednesday through Sunday and tickets are $25 to $35. The act is incredible and well suited for all ages. There is a lot of audience interaction, stage adjustments and suit changes included in the act, which masterfully segues song medleys from each of the five decades between the 1950s and ’90s. The group puts personal spins on many of the songs they cover (tailoring The Beach Boys' “Surfer Girl” into a contemporary, Atlantic City-themed tune), and use vocal skills to compensate for lack of instruments.
Straight No Chaser is comprised of Michael Luginbill, Randy Stine, David Roberts, Charlie Mechling, Jerome Collins, Walter Chase, Dan Ponce, Ryan Ahlwardt, Seggie Isho and Tyler Trepp. Chase spoke with Atlantic City Weekly following the July 7 performance.
Can you talk a little bit about how the group formed and its history?
For 50 years there’s been a show choir called the Singing Hoosiers at Indiana University. It’s a 120-person choir that tours all around the country, and 10 of us decided to form an a cappella group based on those that had formed at schools like Harvard, Yale and others around the country 50 or 60 years ago. Ours was the first a cappella group at Indiana. We started doing small shows at the local dance marathon, where we raised money for various causes, and started singing at sorority houses and dorms. Then we threw our own concert, and another concert, then started touring with the alumni association and other groups. The original 10 guys graduated and we went our separate ways, but we decided to keep Straight No Chaser at Indiana University. So if you went back there now there would be an SNC comprised of 18- to 21-year old guys, and auditions are held to bring new guys into the group each year. It was all because of this YouTube video — the 12 Days of Christmas — that got 10 million hits that the [original] 10 guys decided to get back together.
It’s incredible how you can use vocal skills to sound like there’s a band behind you, especially with some songs that would ordinarily be instrument-heavy. How hard is something like that to overcome?
There’s a term called “a cappella friendly.” I’m one of the [musical] arrangers and Dan [Ponce] is too, and what you try to do is find a song that will work in a cappella — as in, just voices — and it can be very difficult, especially with something like a ‘hair band’ song with a lot of drums and synthesizers and stuff in it. That’s why with the Bon Jovi songs and all of those Bruce [Springsteen] songs [during the ‘80s segment], we kind of made it into more of a medley, or turn it into more of a ballad, to compensate for lack of instruments. Sometimes it takes a little bit of creativity to make it sound sharp. That’s part of the line we tow.
Most bands have four or five people with one or two as leaders — a lead singer or lead guitarist that fronts the band or whatever. We have 10 guys who, for the most part, equally contribute to the passion and the orchestration of every song. Everyone sings every show, and sometimes it’s a case of going through song by song and deciding what we can do best, and it sometimes it turns into Congress, where one side is going one way and the other side is going another way, and you’re trying to write the bill so that everyone’s happy.
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