URBAN METHOD

Alright so check it out. We are proud to be part of the wildly popular culture of vocals. There are so many outlets to find vocals, and in our case, a cappella. This is such a hard-working society and it’s produced things like Glee, The Voice, The X Factor, American Idol, and the most a cappella of them all, the SingOff. The first 2 seasons showed of a real growth in the not only the quality of the groups, but the production value and the support from fan voting and viewership.

What’s the latest in Denver, CO when it comes to a cappella? We’re your source for what’s going on in the Mile High City when it comes to vocal music. While there are a ton of incredible singers in Colorado, not all of them do a cappella. So Urban Method wants to present to you the latest and greatest in Denver.

Old Faves: If you have known a cappella you know that there always seems to be a fantastic group holding it down. The 17th Avenue All Stars with long-time frontman Norm Silver have been a real mainstay in Denver. They were a fantastic hit when they showed up over 20 years ago and really helped to push a cappella to new places around the country. Quite literally hundreds of spin-off groups have populated cities nation-wide and made a cappella popular and accessible in a number of places. More recently, Sing Off contestants Face have made a name for themselves with a very strong fan-following just west of Denver near the Boulder and Broomfield areas. They’ve been performing a fun pop-rock set for what has become a thriving a cappella population in Colorado.

Up-and-Comers: With a lot of bubbling music in the city, there are a ton of great things happening. Check out DU’s Idiosingcrasies, Confidential, and Plumbers of Rome (2010 National Harmony Sweeps champions).

Shout Outs: Some brilliant projects that call Denver, Colorado’s a cappella scene home and we wanted to take a minute and give a word of recognition, appreciation, and thanks to our fellow musicians. Check out Graffiti Tribe, Moosebutter (spelled moosebutter), Up On The Roof (long-running a cappella musical review), and the newly reformed Curious Gage.

Ok, let’s be honest here…we’re doing things that you don’t usually hear. For us, there is no novelty in what we do and rapping over a vocal background has rarely come across as anything other than just that–novelty. It’s a throwback for Urban Method. Hip hop started with people making drum sounds and rapping over them. We expand that with harmony and some of the new techniques we’ve learned with a cappella.

So what makes it tick? Without the connection between the drums and the bass and our MC, the bubble bursts and it just becomes singing. In a way, it’s a huge rhythm section. That’s why you can dance to Hip Hop and partly why it’s a very accessible genre. A lot of our time is spent between Myke, Troy, and Richard to hold down a groove that goes beyond just ability but enters into the essence of why music with friends can be palpably better than without.

We just finished up a video and photo shoot all over downtown Denver! We’d like to begin with a huge shout out to Lannie Garrett for letting us use the Clock Tower theater for 2 of the sessions. Awesome theater and Jefferson, Vegas, Paul and Selene were a huge help in making it happen–thanks guys.

All in all, we took 3 full 12+ hour days putting together all kinds of promo materials. We made stops all over Downtown Denver in the onslaught of Denver’s 100 degree days! Nothing like wearing full outfits we’d wear on stage while sunbathing! We could have used 8 I.V.s by the end of it all! On top of the outfits, we had ourselves outfitted with lapel mics and packs to pick up all the sound. It was a grueling experience and we each got to experience the full capacity of our lungs and performance abilities.

The best part of everything was finding a way to re-engage with the songs each time we sang them. It was an opportunity to move from execution to full embodiment. I believe that every time you sing something, play something, or (re)create something, you become closer to its origin. Performing somebody else’s song takes more than just learning it…we must move beyond it or rather into it. The toll it takes on the body is that the mind must switch to a deeper place on demand and the the body follows what it feels. You begin to sense the pain or joy or sadness or longing in the music and you feel your heart in your throat, the knot in your stomach, the pounding in your head.

Urban Method got its start in the recording studio in Denver. From session work to full album production, the group members can be found on a wide variety of albums. Of course, just about everything we do is vocal and much of what we do on stage is either inspired by what we do in the studio or used to expand what happens in the studio. We love to experiment with sounds and noises and things that we’re not used to and it comes through differently between the stage and the studio.

On stage, we get to do things we’re not allowed to do in the studio…all of the energy we bottle up behind the studio glass can finally explode when the lights are on and there is a whole stage to use. The reality is that when you take what happens on stage and track it, you lose some of the opportunity to build energy with a crowd. We look at it the other way around–we can get a track to sound the way we want to and it explodes when they let us out of the studio! That’s kind of the beauty of live tracks…you can have the energy and the power of a live show.