Island boy makes good: Singer poised for his big break
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By Gabriella Burnham
I&M Staff Writer
Standing in the audition room of NBC’s new talent competit...By Gabriella Burnham
I&M Staff Writer
Standing in the audition room of NBC’s new talent competition “Star Tomorrow” in downtown Manhattan earlier this month, the glitz and glamour threatened to overwhelm Caleb Whelden.
Performing in front of a panel of
judges whose positive recommendation could propel you to stardom is a tad more nerve-wracking than singing doowop with the Cobbletones at the bottom of Main Street, but Whelden pulled it together.
His all-vocal rock band, Slapdash Graduate, made the cut, and is now one step closer to becoming finalists on NBC’s latest reality show competition. They will fly to Los Angeles, Calif. next week to tape for the competition.
But not before they make a pit stop in Whelden’s hometown, Nantucket, to reunite with his former a cappella group, the Cobbletones. The two groups will perform Saturday from 6-7:30 p.m. at the Children’s Beach bandstand. Admission is free. Whelden suggests bringing food and blankets for the lawn seating.
Whelden, who is now 24, joined the street-performing band when he was still a student at Nantucket High School, from which he graduated in 1999. His mother, Cheryl Perelman, is a yoga instructor on Nantucket and is married to Jim Perelman; while his father, Norris Whelden, owns a local plumbing business with his wife Susan.
Whelden has two brothers, Seth, 21, and Schuyler, 27, and a half sister, Tessa, 6, who is just out of kindergarten.
“The Cobbletones have gotten so much better over the years,” said Whelden, who left the group in 2004 after five years, four of which he was the conductor.
That was the year the Cobbletones made their big break, opening for the Counting Crows at the House of Blues in Chicago, Ill.
That gig, said Whelden, happened thanks to the enthusiasm of a music producer’s 7-year-old daughter. After she told her father how much she enjoyed the interactive, pop performances the Cobbletones put on every Thursday to Saturday night on Lower Main Street, the American Express Concert Series producer booked them a spot before the Counting Crows’ concert.
“What a blast that was,” Whelden said modestly. “It’s a tough crowd because they’re expecting the Counting Crows and they get an a cappella group. But we didn’t get a negative reaction. Either people didn’t cheer for it, or people loved it and came up to us afterwards and said, ‘That was amazing.’”
Just a year after graduating from Ithaca College with a bachelor’s degree in music education, Whelden used the experience as his curtain call with the Cobbletones, passing the torch to his brother, Seth, 21. and other veteran members of the group. He currently lives in Southborough, Mass. where he just recently received his plumbing license.
That is just what pays the bills, though. Whelden is simultaneously trying to follow his true passion, singing professionally with his current five-person a cappella band, Slapdash Graduate.
He uses the term “a cappella band” tentatively, however, because of the cheesy, barber shop connotations it exudes, he said.
“For all purposes, we’re more of a rock band. Our vocals sound like instruments. Pretty much whatever sound we want to make, we can,” said Whelden. The group uses a synthesizer to give the illusion of a guitar sound, while mimicking a percussive, beat-box rhythm with their mouths as well.
Whelden also arranges many of the a cappella versions of the songs they perform, including “I Want You to Want Me” by Cheap Trick, the song they performed at their NBC audition, while writing some original pieces too.
“You listen to the sound and figure each part out,” he said of arranging a song to fit a cappella harmonies. “You listen for the nuances.”
At the New York audition, Whelden said the band made it halfway through an original song before David Foster stopped the track and said, “You guys are just interesting enough that we’re going to push you through to L.A.”
They have a lot of work ahead of them, he added, including raising money for the plane tickets, on top of preparing for their Nantucket concert. So Whelden is killing two birds with one stone. The group will sell CDs at the Children’s Beach concert to raise money for their expensive, last-minute trip across country.
The Cobbletones will perform with Slapdash Graduate Saturday, July 22, 2006 from 6-7:30 p.m. at the Children’s Beach bandstand.
Local Band Makes the Next Round of NBC’s Star Tomorrow
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Slapdash Graduate moves on with first-of-its-kind Online Competition
(Boston – July 12th, 200...
Slapdash Graduate moves on with first-of-its-kind Online Competition
(Boston – July 12th, 2006): The call came in this morning that local ‘band’ Slapdash Graduate made the cut for the next round of casting in NBC’s new program Star Tomorrow, a reality competition that promises to “let the audience be a music producer”. That means no Simon Cowell or Survivor-like eliminations. Each week, the audience will whittle down the bands from 100 to the ultimate winner. And they’ll have to do it online.
The premiere will most likely air on NBC with the first round of competition starting July 31st, but you won’t find it on your local TV lineup for long. Star Tomorrow is being touted as NBC's new, exclusively online music competition. According to the show’s website, “Star Tomorrow is conducting a nationwide search for the first Internet superstar band or singing group. The interactive music competition will put viewers exclusively in control of choosing the first Internet superstar band, singing group or solo act - and Grammy winning producer David Foster is going to help decide who gets a development deal with a major record label."
Does it matter that Slapdash Graduate isn’t really a traditional ‘band’? None of the members play an instrument – in fact there are no instruments played at all. They’re an a cappella group, but this is not your father’s barbershop quartet! The band is the next iteration of a cappella with each member mimicking the sound of instruments such as bass, drums, etc. They also use guitar effects boards and pedals to enhance the sound so that the difference between them and a full rock band is practically indistinguishable. The result is a full-band experience that is found only in Slapdash Graduate. The band is so unique that the producers of Star Tomorrow have already posted the band’s audition videos online, 1 of only 5 posted nationwide so far. Go to www.nbc.com/startomorrow and click the “featured” link.
If Slapdash Graduate makes it pass the next round on Friday morning, they’ll be called to Los Angeles next week where the competition really heats up. Until the acts make it to the actual program, the NBC producers have the say as to who stays and who goes. We’ll keep you posted on Slapdash Graduate’s auditions this Friday and if they do make it to LA, they’ll be counting on their Boston neighbors to vote early and vote often!
