For Spring Sing band, rival voices share the stage

It didn’t take long for Spring Sing to become just as much
about bridging the gaps between groups on campus as it was about
showcasing students’ talents. And right in the middle of it
all, directly embodying that sense of community and diversity, was
The Fellows.

Rooted in both North and South Campus, The Fellows include
fourth-year philosophy student David Toney and engineering alumnus
Matt O’Neil, both from UCLA. Even more courageous, the other
half of the band, music student Daniel Purisch and business student
Bryan Neff, is from USC.

For Spring Sing, the band also recruited UCLA students Christine
Wang on the upright bass and Brian Smith as a back-up guitar
player.

Toney, the band’s lead singer and songwriter, gathered
together the sundry group of musicians through mutual friends and
his involvement with Campus Crusade for Christ, though his writing
has not been religiously oriented.

“I’ve never been able to write “˜Christian
songs’ that could be played on Christian radio,” Toney
said. “I just write songs that are hopefully artistic and
poetic. They’re all about life, and faith is part of our
life, but not necessarily the main focus.”

The song performed at Spring Sing, “Swinging from
Chandeliers,” a highly energetic pop-rock ballad, focuses on
what Toney says has become a central aspect of his life:
marriage.

Last September, he tied the knot with fourth-year communication
studies student Courtney Cheney and has since found in her and
their marriage one of the central inspirations for songwriting.

“(“˜Chandeliers’) is half about being in love
with my wife and half being fed up with the image of love that is
portrayed in the world,” Toney said. “There’s
never any concept of the work that’s put into relationships
so people get to marriage and they think it’s all about
butterflies and pumpkin carriages and so the expectations are
totally different. It is actually pretty wonderful once you realize
that it actually takes unselfishness and commitment.”

The message and its delivery immediately caught the attention of
the Executive Committee during Spring Sing auditions, including
Marketing Director Jessica Berliner. “Their song was so good
and catchy. Honestly, all the girls in the room were swooning over
it (at the audition) and it is perfect for people to sing along
with,” Berliner said.

The band’s confident Spring Sing performance suggests its
members have been playing together for some time, when in fact
their experience has been quite the opposite.

Within the span of one week, Toney wrote “Swinging from
Chandeliers,” teamed up with O’Neil to start a band,
and made the decision to audition for Spring Sing. Though
rehearsing individually, the six members did not actually meet or
practice together until the day before auditions. Regardless, they
landed a spot for the show and a few months later they were playing
for the sold-out crowd among some of UCLA’s most talented
performers.

“You don’t really get many opportunities when
you’re just starting, so playing for 5,000 people was
unbelievable,” Toney said.

Toney admits that the members didn’t start thinking of
themselves as a band until a couple of weeks ago. While they
didn’t walk away from the show with a prize, The Fellows
still left a palpable impression on the crowd.

“I think everyone who performed that night had a great
presence,” Berliner said. “Everyone had that charisma
and presence on stage and it definitely showed through.”

Though they are new to playing together, each of the band
members has played a role in other bands as both musicians and
songwriters. These roles allowed them to develop a wide range of
influences and playing styles.

The Fellows are currently working on recording demos of their
songs in their home studio, and experimenting on bringing in
different recording ideas to flesh out the straightforward sound
heard on “Swinging from Chandeliers.”

“Our goal is to be creative,” Toney said.
“Having an electronic drum beat in a song is fine because we
like a lot of electronic bands, and having a hip-hop breakdown is
totally cool because if it fits the song then it should be
there.”

The band already has five gigs lined up across the Southern
California area, including one opening for Spring Sing’s
winner for Best Band Entry, Kevin Carey & The Quest Band.

“Part of the great thing about a show is that you have
time to connect with the audience and settle your nerves down and
really get into the music,” Toney said. “We only had
four minutes (at Spring Sing) to set up, get in and then get out,
so it was hard. But the experience was still amazing and those four
minutes were just phenomenal.”

UCLA profiles run every Tuesday in A&E.

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