JustArts: What are your responsibilities as presidents?

Brandon Less: The main task is group morale. Administratively, I have to make sure to keep everyone on task, but my main thing is making sure that everyone is having fun and feeling like they’re a part of the group. I’m not the music person. 

Chila Haber:  I would basically say the same thing. I’m responsible for group morale, making sure everybody feels comfortable in the group.  If anyone is struggling with anything ... they can come to me. … Also, just checking in with the other leaders and making sure that they’re doing their jobs. I also do everything with money.

JA:  Why would a new student choose to join an a cappella group rather than (or in addition to) a choir or a chorus?

CH: I can only speak for Starving Artists when I say this, but I think that joining a  cappella is like joining a family. … You are friends forever… and it’s such a good way for [new students in] their first week of college to … feel like they have people that they can confide in and that they trust right off the bat. 

BL: To build off that, … I think it’s really amazing that we are all contributing our own individual instruments to create this larger instrument. … The fact that you’re creating something that is more than yourself [while] you are such an integral part — that adds to being part of that community. 

JA: Why do you hold a new-member debut event?

CH: I think it’s really important for the  [new members] and it gives us something to prepare for, too, which is awesome. …[The group] is always turning over and always reinventing itself, and I think that that’s something to celebrate and that’s something really beautiful.

BL: This is such a calm setting… it’s just fun, it’s relaxing, it helps get the jitters out. We have a bigger fall concert next week. ...We’re going on tour this year, we’re making an album, we have really high aspirations and it’s really important to build up confidence early on. 

JA: What is your favorite, or the weirdest, syllable you’ve ever encountered while doing a cappella?

BL: The bass part for “Letter.” [It’s] “doo-op ba-day-ow doo-op ba-day-ow doo-op ga-dang ga-dank gang ga-flibbity-gank ga-dank gank ga-dank gank”

CH: We have a part that goes “scoobee-doobee-doobee-doo.”

—Maya Zanger-Nadis