Orange Appeal, an all-male a capella group, has been making crowds go wild since 1997 with its signature Chuck Taylors, ties and black button-down shirts.

On Aug. 8, Orange Appeal released its most recent album, appropriately titled ‘Chucks & Ties,’ based on the group’s trademark performance wear.

Orange Appeal president Zack Phillips, a dual major in television, radio and film and policy studies, said this is the first album the group has produced in four years. After raising $11,500 through Kickstarter, the group recorded the album during the 2014 spring semester.

Sophomore television, radio and film major and Orange Appeal member Brendan Germaine sees the album as a way to remember his time with the group after he leaves SU.

“I think that (often) in college a capella, you do it for four years in school, and then you’re just kind of done with it,” Germaine said. “It’s exciting that the album is out there, on iTunes, on Spotify and it’s going to be there for as long as it’s going to be there because it’s solidified.”

Because several donations came from their family members, Orange Appeal opted to keep the album family friendly and appeal to all ages by singing songs from classic artists like The Jackson 5 and Stevie Wonder and chart-toppers Justin Timberlake and Avicii.

“The fact that we have music from the ‘60s and music that was released last year, I think that’s the really cool thing about the album,” Phillips said.

Until “Chucks and Ties”, Orange Appeal had not released an album featuring any of its current members. With the increasing popularity of a capella music in pop culture, Phillips felt that it was important to release new recorded material.

“People are becoming a lot more into a capella music, which is kind of great, so we kind of needed an album that could compete with some of the more high-level stuff that’s being put out by a capella groups now,” Phillips said.

Ted Trembinski helped Orange Appeal record the album in a soundproof editing booth in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Trembinski works for The Vocal Company, an a capella production company that has worked with acts such as Pentatonix.

Trembinski worked with each soloist for an hour, and helped simplify the recording process by featuring 12 out of the 21 members on each song.

“The process was really seamless. (Ted) was the producer of the album and he was amazing to work with because he really brought a lot out of me that I wasn’t expecting to give,” junior television, radio and film major and member Mike Liebenson said.

After successfully recording the album, the group now hopes to make a music video for the first song off the album, “I Want You Back”, which stars Liebenson as lead vocalist.

“We think it would be really cool if we could make a music video to accompany that song, because you get much more attention if you have a video to go along with your music. That’s kind of our goal right now,” Phillips added.

Production for the music video has yet to start, but Phillips is also focused on other goals for the group, such as traveling for live performances. He said they enjoy traveling to schools to perform with other groups but the trips are expensive.

Phillips is hoping that the album’s success will contribute to the group’s goals of traveling and help them find new members, as eight of their members graduated last year. He said that even though musical talents are important in all singing groups, personality is an important factor as well.

“I think our group has a really distinct personality, and we really look for guys who want to be part of this brotherhood (and) enjoy themselves up on stage,” Phillips said.

Published on August 26, 2014 at 12:01 am

Contact Isha: idamle@syr.edu