After Dark wins national award for “Mama’s Room”
Seven years after appearing on Washington University’s a cappella scene, After Dark, a co-ed a cappella group, has won the Contemporary A Cappella Recording Award for Best Mixed Collegiate Song, awarded by the Contemporary A Cappella Society.
The winning song, “Mama’s Room,” was originally performed by the band Under the Influence of Giants and also came in second for Best Mixed Collegiate Arrangement.
“It’s one of the highest honors you can get as an a cappella group,” Jazzy Danziger, After Dark’s group coordinator for two years before graduating from the University last year and the member who arranged the song, said. “We were really proud of the album, but [the award] was really unexpected.”
According to Danziger, “Mama’s Room” won because of its unique arrangement and because the song is not as popular as some songs that other co-ed groups perform.
“We were more interested in lesser-known groups,” she said. “We wanted to pick songs that were fun but that weren’t overplayed. You have to arrange [songs] differently and sing them differently. When I arranged ["Mama's Room"] I wanted to spice it up a little bit.”
The album on which “Mama’s Room” appeared, titled “Eclipse” and released last year, was nominated for a total of four awards. Danziger attributed the album’s high acclaim to the unorthodox way in which the group recorded it.
“We completely revamped our recording technique,” she said. “Instead of going to a local studio, we recorded half of it in Lopata [House]. We really tried to work with the music and use the tools of the recording studio that we couldn’t necessarily [have while performing] live. We wanted to explore all of the options that recording gave us.”
Senior Katie Berg, who was the group’s coordinator this year, said that the album and “Mama’s Room” succeeded because of the atmosphere in which they were produced.
“It spoke to the cohesion of the group that we were able to create such a wonderful track that was held in such high esteem,” Berg said. “We worked well as a group throughout the entire process.”
According to Berg, that group dynamic was present in part because After Dark is newer than other comparable co-ed a cappella groups. Not being established, she said, allows members to experiment more with songs and to feel comfortable taking the group in new directions.
“Because we’re newer, there’s a lot of opportunity for people who want to shape the group,” she said. “We’re still forming ourselves.”
This award, according to Berg, gives After Dark the opportunity to market its success, attract new members and establish its reputation on campus. The award holds special significance for the group because it is the first time that a University a cappella group has won it.
“I hope people recognize how big of a deal this is,” she said. “Best collegiate song is a tremendous accomplishment. I hope we get the word out there about it. We’re driven to create a name for ourselves nationally.”
Danziger added that the album’s success should give the group confidence to experiment more and expand their recording abilities.
“We’ll have the opportunity to move further ahead with our next album and experiment a little more now that we have the acceptance of the community,” she said. “It’s really nice to see them coming up with these concepts that they want to try for the fist time because they’re motivated by the success of this album.”
Sophomore Jesse Hu, the group’s current assistant coordinator, hopes that the group can capitalize on the award to recruit new members.
“We’ll definitely be using [the album] during auditions,” she said. “We want to make people aware of it because it’s really wonderful that it happened.”
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