Good Question

Good Question

Type of group	Arts
Selective	Yes
Membership	About sixteen
Meeting time	Several times per week
Meeting place	Somewhere with a piano
Established	1995
Website	http://www.williamsgoodquestion.com

Good Question was created 21 years ago, which makes it one of the youngest a cappella groups on campus. However, having just hit puberty means that the awkward years are over, and GQ is getting rather sexy. Stuck between crazy and hot (leaning, however, to the latter) GQ has been known to put on a good show, always with something to laugh at, someone to drool over, and some pretty damn good music to listen to in between. Members are rumored to like the following: jersey shore, flannel, whales, spoonerisms, and bundt cake.

Available for hire; prices negotiable.

Current Members

Jochebed Bogunjoko '16 (Business Manager)

Bailey Edwards '16 (Treasurer)

Michella Ore '16

Daniel Potter '16 (Senior Music Director)

Andrew Lyness '17

Cami Speyer '17 (Junior Music Director)

Bee Sachsse '18

Eli Llera '18

Justin Smilan '18

Nick Friedman '18

Alice Obas '19

Alex Summers '19

David Krane '19

Francesca "Frankie" Eluhu '19

Members abroad

Rose Warner Miles '17

Trivia and Lore

Group Song

Like most of the a cappella groups on campus, GQ has a group song, which it uses to officially end every rehearsal and that is sung as the penultimate song at every concert (with hand motions!). The group wanted a song that would be upbeat, short, and "straight up ridiculous," which reflected the group dynamic then and now. In 1998, Adam Bloom '99 came up with the idea of doing a Janis Joplin song in "barbershop quartet style," and Mercedes Benz spoke to him as reflecting the song qualities that GQ wanted. The rest, of course, is history.

Official GQ Haiku

GQ is so hot

They make Hell look like a place

That is not hot. Yeah.

Discography

Find GQ on Soundcloud here

Senior Solos

Since around 2009, GQ has taken to recording the spring solos of the senior class every year, and these have formed a collection rather than an album of true gems. This era marked what Ryann Leona Tookes would refer to as "GQ's entrance into the mainstream." Not to fear though -- although we were singing Justin Bieber and making grown women and men swoon (both thanks to Kilo V Martin), we remained the weird lovable nerds we have always been. These songs were recorded over 5 years, under a variety of conditions: in 2010, during a snowstorm in Malex's New Hampshire bedroom (?); in 2011, at a studio in New York (the setting of the ill-fated "We lost Doug!" hoax, and a guest appearance by Darryl Tookes); in 2012 and 2013, at a studio in Albany; and in 2014, in Brooks Rogers Recital Hall in the Bernhard Music Center.

(Hannah Wang '13)

Fruity

Half of this album was recorded during Winter Study of 2004*, and the other half was recorded in Winter Study 2006. As a result, Fruity features people from the classes of 2004 through 2009.

Featuring everything from country (She’s No Lady; Walkin’ After Midnight) to oldies (I Think We’re Alone Now; Silhouettes; 59th St. Bridge Song; You Send Me; I Will) to TWO Disney tunes (Duck Tales Theme; I Just Can’t Wait (to Be King)) to MTV musicals (U + Me = Us (Calculus)) to songs about legendarily genitalia (Enormous Penis), Fruity is nothing if not eclectic.

Fun facts about (people who sang on) this album:

-Miles Klee had just gotten back from studying abroad when the 2006 recording sessions started. Miles almost certainly made up parts on most of the songs we recorded then. -I was the music director during the Winter Study 2006 recording sessions, but then I went abroad right after we finished recording. I found out the name of the album when Stephen Abbott emailed me the final cover art and the message, “We just thought this was the right name for the album.” To this day, I love that cover art, and am incredibly glad I was not involved in that process, because I’m sure I would have screwed it up. -This album features three singers who attended high school together, and as college students, we all performed a jam at that high school during the winter of 2004. Those students? Sumana Cooppan Wolf ("Freedom 90"), Christine Kearsley ("59th St. Bridge Song"), and yours truly, Andy Eklund ("Silhouettes"). Amanda Ali ("Hard to Say I'm Sorry") grew up 13 miles away, and as I recall, she had fans in the audience as well. -Attending this annual a capella jam at a high school auditorium outside of Boston was an annual tradition for several years.... until the high school cut its a cappella group. But numerous GQers from those years had sleepovers at the Hunt, Cooppan, and Eklund households. Only one year involved a terrible snow storm. And my parents are still talking about how much breakfast Karl Naden and Ellen Crocker were able to eat! It must have been the home cooking.

(Andy Eklund)

Speed Clocked by Aircraft

This album so named as it was one of the road signs observed during cross-state trips, was recorded spring 2000 and recorded January 2001, with the album being released just in time for the spring 2001 concert.

The album included equal parts 90’s schlock (All For One, All For Love, More Than Words, Kiss Me, Hands), classic rock (Pinball Wizard, Piece of My Heart, Her Majesty), contemporary pop (Because the Night, Something’s Always Wrong, Rain King) a dose of novelty (Doctor Worm, It’s Oh So Quiet), and more. Singers from the classes of 2000 to to 2004 were featured, musical director extraordinaire Carolyn Adams Lowell won MVA (most valued arranger) with 8 songs under her belt (runner-up Sara Sara Caswell Kolbet with 3). Most solos - Alex Lavy! (Pinball Wizard, Doctor Worm, All for One, All For Love and back up on Something’s Always Wrong).

A few things GQ learned in the making of this album: - You can’t write with ballpoint pen on the cover side of a CD, and if you do that on the master copy you’ll need to get a new CD master produced - You can get a bit punchy mastering an album all night on a Sunday and then driving back across state just in time for Monday classes - J Stefan Kaczmarek is the king of vocal percussion (Rain King as case in point)

(Eric Powers)

Party to Go, Volume III

GQ's first album, was recorded from December 1997 to January 1998, GQ overcame a lice epidemic and, you know, school work, to produce a marathon 23 song album (there is a hidden track following the last song). The diverse set of songs ranged from GQ's first, Brown-Eyed Girl (solo by Adam Bloom), to Higher and Higher (solo by Hilary Ley Jager), which appeared on the CD before it was ever sung in concert, which explains why it ends in a fadeout.

(Bryan Frederick)

Known Alumni

The Founders - '98s

Bryan Frederick

Erica Hyman

'99s

Stine Goldstein

Adam Bloom

Matt Grainger

Jessica Stokes

Rich Ota

'00s

Sara Kolbet

Elizabeth Baker

Sung Kim

Alicia Currier

Cate Williamson

Torie Gorges

'01s

Hilary Ley

'02s

Carolyn Adams

Fred Hines

Stefan Kaczmarek

Iva Borisova

Eric Powers

'03s

Alex Levy

Emmy Valet

Andrew Schulte

'04s

Rachel Adams

Susi Mitchell

Eve Biddle

Sumana Cooppan

Jen Vorse

Louisa Pitt

'05's

Rebecca Allen

Meghan Giuliano

Dan Krass

Josh Larson

'06s

Vlado Nedkov

Christine Hunt

Ellen Crocker

Julie Esteves

'07s

Andy Eklund

Steve Abbott

Tracy Foote

Miles Klee

Amanda LaSane

'08s

Peter Shin

'09s

Lauren Bloch

Dave Kleinschmidt

Matt Lincoln

Claire Monroy

Emily Olsen

'10s

Achbold Battogtokh

Alex "Falex" Budden

Alex "Malex" Creighton

Caitlin Eley

Jessica Mahoney

'11s

Rob "Grob" Gearity

Rob "Krob" Kim

Marissa Pilger

Ryann Tookes

'12s

Megan Behrend

Lizzie Fox

Kyle Martin

Sam Mazzarella

'13s

Doug Ballanco

John Chandler Hawthorne

Joel Siskin

Hannah Wang

'14s

Charlotte Dillon

Pat Megley

Sarah Sanders

Frankie "The Tank" Simms

'15s

Veronica Gould

Brice Green

Amir Hay

Piper Sallquist

'16s

Jochebed Bogunjoko

Bailey Edwards

Michella Ore

Daniel Potter

'17s

Andrew Lyness

Cami Speyer

Rose Warner Miles

Ananya Mayukha (member Fall 2013 - Fall 2014)

'18s

Bee Sachsse

Eli Llera

Justin Smilan

Nick Friedman

'19s

Alice Obas

Alex Summers

David Krane

Francesca "Frankie" Eluhu