
April Bender, first place winner of "In The Groove." Photo by Larry Leone.
Article/Interview By: Lisa Occhino
Back in September, The Groove launched our first-ever song contest called “In The Groove.” With just a five-day submission period to coincide with our Welcome Back Party, we spread the word through our social media channels and received over 50 awesome song submissions from Berklee students. The competition was open to every genre of music, as long as it had a “groove.” Our staff meticulously listened through each submission and judged the songs on the music, lyrics, arrangement, and originality. The Top 3 winners were announced at the Welcome Back Party, where they were given various prizes and had their songs featured in the DJ’s set for all of the dozens of people at the party to hear.
*Please note: All MP3s below had to be compressed to under 2 MB in order to upload, so much of the sound quality has been lost. Feel free to click on the artists’ links to hear their songs in full quality and learn more about them.
In third place was John Johnson of the band Midnight Snack (also includes Mike Johnson – guitar, Zack Kardon – guitar, Peter Brownlee – bass, Brad Bahner – drums, Brian Phillips – trumpet, and Jillian Strauss – backup vocals). He submitted the band’s catchy tune, “Bring Me High.”
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The second place winner was first-semester student Hadley Kennary with her beautiful song, “Parachute.”
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The grand prize went to amazing singer/songwriter April Bender. Warning: The chorus of “Make Believe” will be stuck in your head for the rest of the day.
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I sat down with our first place winner, April, to interview her about her music, her time at Berklee, and the huge obstacles she’s had to overcome in order to continue to sing.
Berklee Groove: What’s your semester, major, and principal instrument?
April Bender: I’m 7th semester, a Professional Music major, and a voice principal.
BG: How did you get your start in music?
AB: I cried and cried and cried as a baby, and the only way my mom could get me to stop crying was by singing to me. Eventually the crying turned into singing – I was singing before I could speak, and I was writing songs before I could put sentences together.
BG: Who are your musical influences?
AB: I’ve always been more interested in what’s current. When I was little, I would listen to whatever was on the radio, but my mom and I would also listen to people like Patsy Cline together.
BG: Who are you listening to the most right now?
AB: Right now, I love Sara Bareilles. I really love girl pop, like Kelly Clarkson – I’ve been listening to her new album constantly. Then again, I also really love indie folk stuff like Mumford and Sons… and weird grungy bands like Jet.
BG: Do you put all of those different types of music together to create your own sound?
AB: My sound is almost a non-country version of Taylor Swift, in the sense that I write really snarky, sarcastic songs about guys who have done me wrong [laughs]… But musically, it comes out more like Kelly Clarkson – I really like big choruses. I also write more mellow stuff, like Sarah McLachlan singer-songwritery things.
BG: Your song, “Make Believe,” won first place in our “In The Groove” songwriting competition. How did that song come about?
AB: Usually I have one specific person in mind that I write a song about, or I’ll just make something up that’s completely fictional. But that song was based on two separate people in my life, and I sort of spliced them into one song. One of them was a girl I know who’s really good at getting guys to fall for her… and the other one was a guy who was falling for one of those girls… I sort of imagined those two people in my head together, and that’s how that song came out.
BG: What’s the most valuable thing you’ve gotten out of Berklee so far?
AB: I’ve definitely learned a lot of technical stuff. There are things I didn’t even know existed before I got to Berklee, and now I feel like I’ve grown a lot as a musician. But for me, it’s the students and my friends, and being around all of these amazing people all the time. My friends’ talents are seeping into me and vice versa, and we’re all influencing each other. I feel like with my songwriting and my singing, I’ve been able to perfect my own style more because I’ll take little pieces from other people, and figure out what works for me and what doesn’t. Being around my friends… makes me want to work harder. Everybody keeps each other on their toes, but everyone is also really supportive here… that’s been the best thing for me.
BG: What’s the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome in your musical career so far?
AB: I have a stomach disease [called gastroparesis] that took 17 years to diagnose because nobody knew what was wrong. We finally found out that my stomach is partially paralyzed… It caused a lot of problems with my vocal cords. Throughout my four years in high school, I would wake up in the morning and not know whether I’d have a voice that day… It was all up in the air. Once I was diagnosed, I was able to start taking medicine, and my voice has been pretty much okay for the past four years… It was a long struggle though.
BG: What do you plan on doing after you graduate?
AB: My goal right now is to try and get a publishing deal. Yes, I want to be an artist too, but right now there are so many people starting by writing for other artists… I would love to be a staff writer and get other artists to cut my songs on their album. That’s kind of the priority right now – I’m writing with and for other artists.