Musical resonance is not uncommon but the way the members of Yale’s a capella group, The Baker’s Dozen, feel about one another is. In this interview, Stephen Haskell, a junior at the time, describes collective resonance among his friends, on and off the stage.

RL: Stephen, please tell me what collective resonance in The Baker’s Dozen feels like to you.

SH: Okay, well first of all, becoming a member is sort of a stressful process. You have to audition and then if you’re selected, you’re really happy. As a freshman you bond quickly because you do a lot of things together besides singing, like trips and parties. And because it’s only a 3 year commitment, you take on a leadership role quickly, like initiating the new freshmen.

RL: So there are lots of ways you are bonding in addition to singing together. What do you think the role of singing is, specifically, in creating collective resonance in the group?

SH: I think that’s what it’s all about, actually. Someone asked me that last night, in fact, “Why do you guys bother singing? Your groups are such good friends, why don’t you just give it up and continue the friendships? That’s actually what you’re about, isn’t it?

And I said well, ultimately, yes, it is about the friendships, that’s why we do it, but the whole group would just fall apart if we didn’t sing because singing gives us a purpose and it gives us some things that we can all share. It’s a reason to exist, and we have to have rehearsals three times a week to be able to see each other that much.

We also have to go through the process of preparing for a jam, which means we have to write new skits and think of different themes every year, get costumes, rehearse the songs. It’s a huge process, like being in a play, a musical or something. When you devote so much time to it you get a lot out of it.

Then the actual act of performing gives you so much in terms of being with people. We sing in a lot of high schools on our tours and it’s a bonding experience to sing for a high school in Florida, for example, because they know The Baker’s Dozen is coming. Every year they make posters for us, it’s amazing! The teenage girls just go crazy, they make posters and take pictures, and we sign their autographs

It’s really a unique experience. It feels like you’re a pop star or something, but everyone does it together. The freshmen are just blown away by the experience and the juniors are sort of looking back because they know what it’s going be and they like seeing the freshmen. And the sophomores, too, are still sort of excited. So the performing, the rehearsing and the preparing for it makes everyone work hard and that is where we actually find the bonding. Even riding in the van for twelve hours together to and from the performance is part of it.

RL: Tell me more about the performing piece. I’m really curious to know how it feels to be singing in the performance.

SH: Well, I’m the musical director this year so I feel I’m particularly aware of how we sound at every concert. We start every set with the same song, this old Norwegian drinking song, that starts with everyone singing the same note, everyone singing the same word on the same note. And it’s really sort of a powerful moment every time, for me, because I blow the pitch and it’s an F and it’s what I always blow after we run on. Then I take a second – everyone just looks around, like breathes – and then I conduct us in to this first note.

Every time that note comes out I feel like…we’re back. This is the same group I’ve been in. Even though the people have changed and now I’m a junior, this is the same group that’s been around since 1947 and here we are and we’re gonna do our show and we’re a group.

RL: So there’s a feeling of belonging, of connection to the group and to the past, the people who have come before you.

SH: And I feel the same way other times – particularly in concerts when I always feel that same sort of feeling. It’s at the very end, for most concerts anyway, when we sing this rock and roll medley. It’s really an upbeat song and there are some dancing parts and we go out into the audience a little bit. It’s a very upbeat, fun song but it takes a lot of energy because at the end there’s all this choreography. We have sort of a kick-line going, there are people jumping up on their hands in the background, cheering, girls going crazy…

And we have this last note where we all get on our hands and knees in two rows - there’s one row on their knees and the other row comes behind them and leans over them. Our hands are all around each other and at this point we’ve taken off our ties and our jackets and we put our ties on our heads because we’re trying to seem sort of casual for this rock and roll medley.

Then we sing this last chord, which sometimes sounds pretty terrible because we’re so tired and we’ve sung the whole rest of the concert in a pretty formal way, and now we’re at the very front of the stage, all sweaty. There are pictures my dad has taken from the front row of a concert that really captures the energy. RL: Energy! That’s what I’m feeling right now…

SH: Oh my God! It’s ridiculous! We’re so sweaty and smiling…

RL: (Laughter). What does that energy feel like?

SH: It’s like this…like smiling. It’s like being in a convertible on the highway. It’s like this rush of air and your eyes get sort of teary and cold and you’re smiling and you can’t really hear everything that’s going on but it’s just sort of like a roller coaster ride… like you’re not in control so much.

RL: Ahhh….

SH: Not a roller coaster ride so much in terms of being scary, like up and down, but when you get on a roller coaster you give up control. And that’s sort of how I feel with, well (chuckle), I guess with the whole experience. Particularly in concerts when we sing the note, it’s like, “Here we go, we’re off!” I mean, even though I’m in control of which song goes when and I’m conducting it and all that stuff, I still feel like when we hit that first note, we’re just off!

RL: And it’s we’re off, right? Like the whole group is on the ride?

SH: Totally.Yeah, totally. Somehow we all throw in our individual personalities or voices, and then it just becomes this thing that takes us all along with it.

RL: Wow…

SH: It’s so much more than the sum of the parts, you know?

RL: Yes! I definitely do.

SH: Also, another thing is that we have this one particular song which is sort of a special song. We sing it if there are any alumni with us, or coming to see us at concerts. It’s called Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye. And I guess we sing it in memory of a member who died of leukemia. I didn’t know him but at this point, this one song sort of symbolizes our brotherhood.

We always sing it with our arms around each other. We sing it in some concerts and then we sing onstage with our arms around each other. But if we’re not singing a concert we just sort of sing it with our arms around each other in a circle so that we don’t have to think about an audience and everyone can have their arms around each other. And it’s a reminder that we’re all, you know, still together.

RL: And what happens in the group when you sing that song, both for the alumni and for the singers? Is it emotional at all?

SH: Yeah, depending on what the actual context is. Yeah, it’s definitely pretty emotional for some people. It sounds really good, I think, because people get so into it, they just feel it. The chords lock and it goes so high and comes down. It’s probably my favorite song in the repertoire, actually.

RL: You know you just said something really interesting to me, Stephen. You said, “The chords just lock.”

SH: Yeah.

RL: What does that mean? How does that feel?

SH: It feels golden. It’s like you know you’re all on the same page and you know the reason for the group existing is the music. There’s nothing that really shows that so much to me as when I actually hear a particular chord lock-in. To me it’s more rewarding than hearing girls screaming at any high school we go to just because we’re sort of cute college kids. It’s much more rewarding because we’ve rehearsed something and to be able to perform it and actually notice the improvement, or notice the change, is great.

Also it makes me smile when I hear it. It’s comforting to hear everyone on their right pitch, coming in confidently, and all the sounds blending in together into one voice. I mean, that’s really the whole point of this group. To create one voice from all of us. To take everything we throw in and make one voice, one group, out of it.

That’s not to say, obviously, that there aren’t strong individual personalities, because of course there are, but I think one of the neat things about singing and in my group at this school in particular, singing is something that a lot of different people with different interests do. We actually make a point of having singers in our group who do lots of different things on campus, such as athletes, theatre people…pretty diverse interests.

And when people hear about all the rituals that we do and that we have initiation and all that, it sounds like a fraternity, and why bother singing? But one of the things that makes it not at all like a fraternity is that because we’re singing, it ends up a pretty diverse group. I don’t know how else I would have met the captain of the football team, for example, because that’s not my world. I don’t think I would have become close to as many people - different people - as I did through singing.

RL: Is there something different about people who sing that makes them more susceptible to this kind of bonding?

SH: I think so. Not always, but most of the people who want to be in an a capella group, at Yale at least, are sort of looking for that, hoping for it. The feeling I get in The Baker’s Dozen is basically exactly the feeling I got in my high school a capella group, The Beachside Express. To be able to sing and be doing something onstage and having fun with my fifteen best friends. To look at them and know… It grounds it and makes everything more exciting.

RL: So maybe people who want to sing with other people have some element of commonality in wanting to be part of a group and bond with other people, even though they come from diverse experiences.

SH: Yes, definitely. Some people, though, just sort of fall into it. I think some people don’t know what they’re getting into, which is also exciting. But in general I think that people have had a similar experience before. Maybe it was on a sports team, and they’re sort of hoping or looking for something like that again.

RL: Going back to the chord-locking again, Stephen, I’m interested to know what the shifting points are. When you talk about when those chords lock, there’s a sort of shift, right? SH: Right.

RL: Do you have any sense of why that sometimes happens or doesn’t happen?

SH: I think it always happens when our energies are in the right place. Like, going back to that first note we always sing, “ahhh”, and then our whole concert explodes from this one note. And we share all the same note, all the same pitch, and all the same word. If we’re not focused or if something weird is going on…fortunately there really aren’t a lot of weird dynamics, we’re such close friends we usually don’t have fights or jealousy issues…but the only time I haven’t felt that sense of locking in, like groundedness, is when something isn’t quite right. Maybe it’s we’re singing in a room that is full of people who aren’t listening to us. Or maybe we’re in rehearsal and it’s at the end of our second hour and people are feeling tired. Or if we ran on stage and didn’t take an extra second to look around at each other and breathe and look at the audience and think, “Here we are and here you are.”

RL: You take that little pause consciously every time?

SH: Yes, because if I didn’t do it, then that’s when the first note doesn’t sound just quite right. It’s when people are just sort of…

RL: …scattered?

SH: Scattered, yes. To give you an example, there was one time we late to a concert. We were supposed to sing this concert in New York, a fundraising concert on Park Avenue for Yale, and it was this sort of highbrow concert. We’d been looking forward to it but there was so much traffic on 95 that we ended up being an hour late. Everyone was really stressed. I hadn’t had dinner. It was really stressful. And even though we were in contact with them and they were very, very nice about it, basically it was a very rough concert. We couldn’t warm up and that was a big deal, and I didn’t really know where we were singing because it was this small, tight room, so it couldn’t fit our usual formation.

RL: Sounds like you weren’t focused. It’s what you said earlier about the energies being in the right place.

SH: Yeah, right. So this concert was the only one this year when I felt our energies were not in the right place, including mine. It was difficult for me to think clearly about conducting all this stuff.

RL: So when your energies are in the right place – and sounds like the usual course of things for your group – you take that time in the beginning to be grounded, to be together. I’m thinking that by looking around you’re creating that sense of group right there.

SH: Right, right.

RL: Then, also, by looking out to the audience, you’re creating a sense that they’re part of the group, too, because it’s the audience and us together in here.

SH: Right…totally.

RL: So that’s what you’re doing in that looking around? Then those conditions are right for you to almost always lock in, is that right?

SH: Exactly! And also, different songs in our repertoire have different characters or tones. Some of them are, we just know, crowd pleasers. Others are more musically complicated, more serious, more fun, or some have little dances. But there are probably two or three songs in the repertoire we sing on a regular basis that have moments that feel particularly like what we’re talking about, like collective resonance. I know when we sing the song Lach Loman, in the third verse I always get chills when the solo comes back in.

We’re singing an ‘ah’ and the solo comes in with the words. I don’t know, particular points like that. Or there’s one point in this other song that every time the solo hits it, it’s great and the background starts clapping and the solo sings this one note and holds it out for a long time. I don’t know, just like a couple key points in our set, basically, are the keys, I think. And then ending with that rock and roll medley, that one last chord and we’re all sort of on the ground and looking out…

RL: And do you feel that sense of resonance with the audience as well?

SH: Yes, definitely. I think it’s different for each audience, like a high school audience or a small, private party with older people, or in elderly homes. But it happens with almost every audience, again with some exceptions when either our energies aren’t right or something else is wrong. I don’t think I’ve ever sung a concert where people just didn’t like us, but you can tell when they’re less than really excited. Most places we sing really love us and you can just tell. It’s obvious when people are cheering wildly or clapping really hard, but also it’s exciting during songs watching the audience react when we’ve just sung this really upbeat, funny song and we change to the “Everything is Beautiful” arrangement. All of a sudden you can see people look up and smile, or sit back in their chair and relax.

And there are other moments. Our high school coach, Dave Perry, first pointed this out to me, which I still think about and love. At the very end of any beautiful, slower song there would be this moment of silence before people start clapping. Dave would tell us to listen for it. I find that totally cool. Now I always listen for it. After I cut us off on the last note, the longer we wait before people start clapping the more exciting it is to me.

RL: What happens in that moment, Stephen, in that silence?

SH: I don’t move. I don’t even know if I breathe. It just sort of stops and waits…waits for somebody in the audience to make a noise, which usually takes only a couple of seconds, but it feels like a really long time.

RL: Do you hear a reverberation?

SH: Sometimes. And sometimes it’s really strong. We just sang at the Lakers game in California. That time we did hear it, so much reverberation, echoing around the stadium. We’d cut off, “O’er the land of the free” – cut – “and the home” – cut – “of the brave”. We’d cut off and hear people start to cheer and hearing the reverberation… It’s so exciting!

RL: Wow. (Laughter). It is exciting! I’m sitting here and I can really, literally, feel it myself as you describe it.

SH: Yeah. And so that’s sort of the point…SO exciting and…sometimes scary…like at the Lakers game my freshman year I was so afraid I wouldn’t be able to sing. But you’re doing it with sixteen other people and it’s the same sixteen people during the whole year who you’re traveling with, rehearsing with, and all that, and you share the exact same experience. So you feel so close, like nobody else understands exactly what it means besides these other people.

RL: And do you have any sense, sometimes when it’s humming like that - maybe right in the middle of singing it - that there’s a transcendent quality?

SH: Yeah. I definitely think so. Yeah, something transcends (chuckle). I don’t know, like we transcend the music or the music transcends the experience…something, somehow… I feel like we’re all brought to this other place. Even though the music brings us there, it no longer is about the music, it becomes about…I don’t know, like the locking in…it’s almost like we’re in a place where all these different planets are just aligned or something. It’s like somehow we are together…such a sense of togetherness. And the togetherness, I think, transcends place. Definitely.

We’ll be having all this excitement and it doesn’t matter where we are – Florida, Alabama, New York, or in a stadium in California - we can still create the very same feeling and energies. It’s just this thing we can create wherever we are that makes us feel like we’re in the same place - no matter where we are.

RL: Is it a spiritual feeling?

SH: …Sort of. How I think of this is some form…I don’t know…like if any one wanted to call it God, like okay, cool, but something is going on (chuckle)…aligning us…putting our music with our singing with our group dynamics…everyone is just like aligned.

RL: That’s a great word – alignment – because it’s in the flow. It’s kind of what you said, it’s like everything is moving together. Your interests, your abilities, the people…

SH: Yeah, totally…

RL: …that roller coaster…

SH: Yes. And it’s the music that does that, in a way. I mean, I have close friends outside of the singing groups and, of course, those are really important to me. And my family… obviously this group is not my whole life. But it’s such a unique group…the people are so unique to me…almost like my family. There are the guys in The Baker’s Dozen, and then there’s sort of everybody else. It’ like I’m so alive…like almost family, I guess.

RL: Stephen, obviously this has been really meaningful in your life. What value have these experiences of collective resonance have had for your life or your work? In other words, what’s its meaning, what are the learnings for you?

SH: For me it’s been so many lessons about locking in with people. How do you work with other people and then make something happen? Dave Perry used to compare the a capella experience to athletics, which is his whole realm as athletics director…and I never really loved sports or played on an athletic team where I felt everything Dave Perry was referring to. But this is absolutely where I feel it. The feeling of pride and team comraderie, and brotherhood.

RL: How do you think it will affect the work you end up doing?

SH: Well, definitely in terms of leadership. Like knowing how to handle so many different people and all their needs, but also how to just say, “This is what we’re doing and even if everyone doesn’t love it, this is still what we’re doing.”

RL: So the balance between when to be collaborative and when to make decisions?

SH: Yes, and that’s one of the neat things I’m discovering this year as a junior in the group. As a sophomore I was thinking a lot about how to collaborate, like what are the ways to please everyone. How do you decide what’s best for the group, things like that. But this year I’m discovering the importance of just making decisions and gaining people’s trust so that you can just tell them what you’ve decided and even if they don’t think at first that it’s the right choice, you’ve built up trust. And if you’re energetic about it, and if it’s best for the group, then it’s just a matter of you conveying that to the group and they’ll just know it and go with you. I think that’s a really valuable lesson.

Another thing that’s really valuable is that next year I’m not going to be singing with the group but I’ll know that the group is there for me even though it won’t be the same. I mean I won’t have concerts and lock-in chords every week to remind me of it, I’ll just sort of know it at that point.

RL: Yes.

SH: And that’s just how I feel about the rest of life. I know that when I think of college, I’ll think of this group, and wherever I am there’ll be an implicit understanding we all have and that we’ll always have this…no matter what.

RL: Like a safety net, like knowing that they’re there?

SH: Yes, definitely.

RL: That’s wonderful. You know, Stephen, when you were describing that roller coaster feeling, it was as if I was there with you. It almost felt like a was out of breath! What were you feeling when you were describing it? Was it the same as when you were actually singing?

SH: Yeah. That’s just what I was going to say. When I was describing it to you I was surprised to be actually sort of feeling it again. I don’t know, it’s like an emotional place to tap into. It’s like being overwhelmed by brotherhood and togetherness. In the song, Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye, there are some really powerful chords…powerful is what the song is, I guess. But the chords, and the dynamics, and it gets really loud, and we sing it so well and the acoustics bounce everywhere. So describing that, I just sort of felt that same feeling of humbleness. Like I’m a part of this and I’m so lucky to be a part of it. And it’s so much part of me at this point.

Stephen Haskell has graduated from Yale and now works in southern California writing movies and waiting tables. He may attend film school in the future but enjoys his life and stays in close touch with his friends from The Baker’s Dozen.

(Link to Profile for Stephen Haskell)