On a Friday night, sitting around a circle on the floor of an ordinary living room is an extraordinary group of musicians who use only their voices as their instruments. Named after the apartment number that some of its founding members lived in, Fourty4B is an a cappella group based in Irvine and all six of its current members are either UCI graduates or are currently students. The full crew goes as follows: Monica Mandapat sings Soprano and graduated in 2014, Jeanette Mañgilit sings Mezzo Soprano and is graduating in 2015, Clara Blaxton sings Alto and is graduating in 2015, Justin Netka sings Tenor and graduated in 2014, Grayson Villanueva sings Baritone and graduated in 2012, and Amer Quilala sings Bass and is graduating in 2015. (Phew!)
Established in July 2013, they have grown from their late night jam sessions in Villanueva’s apartment. Some of their most recent gigs include a performance at the OC Night Market, opening for the Filharmonic, and competing in UCI’s very own Soulstice last May in which they won first place in the a cappella category (with only four of their seven members performing). “[The performance] was difficult because with only four people trying to represent our bigger group, we took a different route in arranging the music…It was hard to come up with ideas,” says Mañgilit, adding that the stress of the performance was not to win. It was more on promoting “the vision of the bigger group, rather than just the four performers.” Luckily, the judges saw their vision as well.
The singing style of the group is influenced by Soul and R&B. However, “[Their] songs don’t necessarily have to be R&B, but [they] like to add ‘crunchy’ notes to them,” says Quilala. He further explains that “crunchy notes” are notes with more depth to them, or basically “more than three notes at one time,” says Blaxton.
They debuted the group by posting covers of popular songs on their YouTube channel (side note: my favorite is their rendition of Janet Jackson’s “All For You.”) Soon enough, they were booking small gigs and entering competitions. One of their more defining moments as a group was their performance in the Los Angeles Regionals for the 2014 Harmony Sweepstakes A Cappella Festival. For them, this was a chance to establish their confidence and identity as a group, especially since they had just formed and, as Villanueva admitted, “We didn’t know if we were any good.” Well, they were good enough to win first place at L.A. Regionals and received the chance to compete at the national level. Although they did not win at the national competition, Villanueva won Harmony Sweepstake’s national award for “Best Original Arrangement” for his arrangement of “Heaven,” originally performed by John Legend. Much to Fourty4B’s liking, it seems like they are good after all.
Despite their advancement as a group, Fourty4B does not stray from looking up to other a cappella groups for inspiration. Some of their biggest inspirations include the YouTube sensation Pentatonix and contestants of the TV show “The Sing-Off”, Committed and The Filharmonic. “These groups are really pushing the boundaries of a cappella and are paving the way for groups like us,” says Villanueva. As the group’s arranger, Villanueva says that his numbers are influenced by their works. In fact, Netka adds that the a cappella community in and around L.A. is a fairly tight-knit group that helps each other out and influences one another, but ultimately the goal is to “take what you hear and make it your own.”
Although they have reached some pretty big achievements, they have bigger goals in mind, one of which is to release their own album sometime next year around spring. On deciding whether it will be digital or physical, they’ve decided on physical. However, showing that they are obviously keeping up with modern technology, they jokingly added to not assume it will be a CD. “I was thinking, like, Hit Clips…” suggests Mandapat with Mañgilit, mentioning that cassette tapes could be another option. “I’ve heard [cassettes] are becoming really profitable again. Let’s do it,” says Blaxton. No matter what medium they choose to release their album, I am sure that their talent will be heard in full force.