Michael Hatchett
A&E Editor
While there are a good handful of a capella groups on campus, one of Wooster’s most recent additions will be expanding their reach beyond live performance. Shades of Gold, founded by Nariah Francis ’16 during her first year at the College, will be releasing a single and album in the coming months. The single, entitled “Diamonds,” was released yesterday and the album is scheduled to be released early next fall. The single can be accessed through various digital programs like iTunes or Spotify.
Daniel Carter ’17 is the treasurer of Shades of Gold and has been responsible for “putting together all aspects of the album except music.” Carter has been working on the project for over a year, even utilizing some of his connections in the a capella community. The recording took place at Sled Dog Studios in Rochester, New York, a house with a basement studio connected. According to Francis, Sled Dog is known for their work with collegiate and other professional a capella groups.
Carter also pointed out is that recording a capella music is vastly different from other recording types of music. As Carter pointed out, “it requires a lot of takes from a lot of people.” Despite this, Shades of Gold was able to accomplish the ambitious achievement of recording all five songs in one weekend.
The group went in extremely prepared and every day they had a specific plan of who was doing what at which times. Francis added that the whole process consisted of “12 hours a day for three days.” Carter was quick to note that recording all the songs in one weekend was no easy accomplishment because the group “often had to record fairly late into the night and then early the next morning.”
Even though the group may have been low on sleep, they are now high on anticipation and excitement.
“The whole experience was truly amazing and I cannot wait to hear the finished product,” said Carter.
Another reason they’re excited for the album is because it’s “a chance to showcase all the musical work the group has been doing since Nariah founded it,” according to Carter. Carter praised Francis, stating that “she has worked so hard on all this music [and] it makes me happy to see her hard work immortalized.”
Francis is enthusiastic partially because the group was not just recording songs people have already heard.
While they may be familiar, Francis made it evident that Shades of Gold had “added a lot of new stuff to the songs” and she said that she can’t wait to hear what people think about the new versions. She also echoed Carter’s sentiments about cementing the Shades of Gold legacy on campus and said that “this project is symbolic of all of the hard work Shades has put in to become one of the many influential groups on campus. This group started as simply being a safe haven for many of the members who didn’t feel like they identified with other people and organizations on campus.”
As rewarding as the process was, Carter still expressed satisfaction that it was over because now he has the time “to actually focus on [his] school work.”
The album’s recording was also bittersweet for Francis, who added that she and Shades of Gold “just wanted to thank everyone who supported us from the very beginning.”
She added, “leaving the group is going to be so hard but I know Shades will be left in amazing hands.”