Full of funky sounds and musicians, 10-piece R&B; and soul collective The Primaries have been preparing for their Spring Sing debut Friday.
The band members say they are ready, due to their evolution in the last year. The group has added more members, including third-year jazz studies student Joe Kwon, who has changed the band’s dynamic with his work on alto saxophone.
“Back then, the band hadn’t fully formed yet,” said third-year world music student and guitarist Ryan Yoo. “Now we’ve had a year of experience and our lineup is really full, and we have Joe Kwan.”
The band members are all ethnomusicology students, and they say this has contributed to their development because it influences their approach to their music.
“We are all music majors, so we learn in class too. We practice a lot outside (for class) so we have all grown as musicians. We are definitely listening more,” said second-year jazz studies student and pianist Alan McDonnell.
The band said that it differs from the other bands playing at Spring Sing not only because of the members’ varying backgrounds in music and their various concentrations, but also because of their differing musical tastes, which range from hip-hop and soul to jazz.
“We have a lot of jazz musicians and we listen to a lot of hip-hop. I write a lot of music for the band and I listen to a lot of soul,” Yoo said. “The composition of the band and the conglomeration of our musical backgrounds sets us in a different direction.”
The band members said Spring Sing is a great place to perform because they get an incredible amount of support from UCLA students.
“I’m excited to have the experience with my friends,” said third-year jazz studies student and guitarist Chili Corder. “I am excited to get on stage and play in front of so many people and, if we start doing an 8-clap, the audience will start doing an 8-clap too.”
Despite having auditioned for Spring Sing before, making it past the audition was not a slam dunk for the band: It had a mildly turbulent audition process.
“Auditions were arduous for a band (of) our size,” Yoo said. “We have a massive band and a ton of instruments, and at the audition my amp broke so I played through the keyboard amp.”
Still, the band has high hopes for Spring Sing and Corder, specifically, is looking forward to a great reaction from the audience.
“We’re there to make their livers quiver and their bladders splatter,” he said.