UF’s co-ed competitive a cappella group is upping the tempo this year.
No Southern Accent plans to recruit new vocalists, compete at festivals and record its second album. Half of the group’s 16 singers graduated in the spring, so it plans to recruit eight new members this semester. Auditions are from 6 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday in Room 357 of the Reitz Union.
No Southern Accent especially needs a beatboxer, said musical director Alex Greene, 21.
“Without instruments, you have to transpose everything to voice,” Greene, a materials science and engineering junior, said. “You have to make it sound real.”
The group, which was founded in 2001, performs songs without instruments.
“You take all the layers of a song and break it into different vocal parts,” Greene said.
Along with adding new members, the group will now rehearse three times a week instead of two. The first song the members will work on is “I Won’t Give Up” by Jason Mraz, and they eventually plan to release a second CD.
While the group is based at UF, the members plan to take their talents outside Gainesville.
No Southern Accent takes trips throughout the year, said President C.J. Wittus, a 20-year-old criminology junior.
The group will perform for the Brevard Gator Club’s Gator Nation Vacation cruise at the end of September, Wittus said. It’s also auditioning to compete against other southeastern colleges at SoJam, an a cappella festival in November in North Carolina.
No Southern Accent can be seen on campus, too. The singers will perform at Orange and Brew throughout the semester and put on gameday flash mobs for tailgaters.
“I think the potential we have with all of those new singers will really give us a chance to achieve a level of performance that we’ve never really had before,” Greene said.
