The Techtonics

The Techtonics are an all-male a cappella group from Imperial College London. The group was formed in 2008, and has since risen to prominence in the world a cappella scene.

The Techtonics
Background information
OriginImperial College London
GenresA Cappella
Years active2008–present
Websitewww.thetechtonics.co.uk
MembersThomas Stephens (Musical Director)
Hugh Blayney (President)
Louis Sharrock (Treasurer)
Matthew Guy (Publicity Officer)
Tom Briggs (Equipment Officer)
Theo Barfoot
Arran Bayliss-Chalmers
Arun O’Sullivan
Jonathan Hedley
Alexander MacLaren
Shanil Panara
Cornelius Carlsson
Paul Monaghan
Charlie Houseago
Roshani Abbey (Choreographer)

The group is best known for winning the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella in 2016.[1]

The group is also known for winning Best Male Collegiate Song at the Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards (CARA) for their cover of Earthquake in their 2012 album "Groundbreaker",[2] and for busking weekly on Portobello Road.[3]

History

Formed in 2008 by Edward Brightman and Christian Carter [4] the group is composed solely of STEM students from Imperial College London. The Techtonics performed their first gig at 'ArtsFest' (an annual celebration of arts at Imperial) in February 2009. They went on to perform at their first full concert in December 2009 in the Imperial College Christmas concert, which has since become an annual fixture for the group.

In 2010, The Techtonics competed in their first competition, The Voice Festival UK (VFUK), and won the award for outstanding arrangement, awarded to Christian Carter for the arrangement 'Come Undone'.[5]

The Techtonics after their ICCA win in 2016.

In August 2010, the group performed for the first time at the Edinburgh Fringe festival.

In 2015, the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA) began hosting annual live competition rounds in the UK. Imperial College A Cappella Society hosted the semi-finals from 2015 to 2016, which The Techtonics competed in both times. In 2016, the group placed first in the UK, and went on to win the ICCA world championships in New York.[6]

The following summer, the group performed for a second time at the Edinburgh Fringe festival with their show Don’t Push the Button,[7] which was awarded 5 star reviews.[8]

From March - April 2017 the group went on tour to Hong Kong to perform as a part of the Hong Kong International A Cappella Festival.[9]

In April 2017, the group recorded a cover of Bang Bang (Jessie J, Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj song), arranged by Kyle Alexander Hogan, former member of the University of Rochester YellowJackets, for the UK TV series Tonight at the London Palladium, which aired on 19 April 2017.

Competitions
The Techtonics at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium for the Hong Kong A Cappella Festival

Voice Festival UK Awards:[5]
  • Outstanding Soloist: Peter Noden, March 2014
  • Outstanding Soloist: David Maguire, Outstanding Vocal Percussion: Max Hunter, March 2013
  • Outstanding Performance, Outstanding Soloist: David Verhoeven, Feb 2012
  • Outstanding Performance, March 2011
  • Outstanding Arrangement: Christian Carter for 'Come Undone', Feb 2010 (2nd Year of VFUK)

International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA):[10]
  • 2016
    • World Champions of Collegiate A Cappella 2016
    • Outstanding Choreography: UK Quarter Finals (overall performance) and Semi Finals (Bicycle Race by Queen)
    • Outstanding Arrangement: Bicycle Race (Arranged by Conrad Godfrey and Alex Moore) UK Quarter Final
  • 2015
    • Competed in 2015 UK Semi-final, did not place.

Tours

Every year the group embarks on a self-managed tour, normally international, providing the opportunity to perform in many unique venues as well as meet other groups from around the world.

Year Location Cities Visited
2018 USA East Coast Boston, MA, New Haven, CT, New York, NY, Washington, DC
2017 USA Deep South Orlando, FL, Gainesville, Florida, New Orleans, LA, Memphis, TN, Nashville, TN, Knoxville, TN, Durham, North Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, Jacksonville, FL, Tallahassee, FL
2017 Hong Kong Hong Kong
2016 UK Edinburgh Fringe Festival
2015 USA and Canada New York City, NY

New Haven, CT Providence, RI Boston, MA Montreal, QC Toronto, ON Rochester, NY Collegeville, PA

2014 California San Francisco

Los Angeles San Diego Monterey

2013 USA East Coast New York City, NY

New Haven, CT Providence, RI Collegeville, PA Rockville, MD Washington, DC Durham, NC Raleigh, NC Pigeon Forge, TN Atlanta, GA

2012 USA East Coast New York City, NY

New Haven, CT Providence, Rhode Island Washington, DC Philadelphia, PA Syracuse, NY Rochester, NY

2011 Croatia Rijeka

Krk

2010 UK Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Recordings

Studio Albums
  • Groundbreaker (2012)
    • CARA winner for Earthquake
  • Clockwork (2015)

Live Recordings

The Techtonics recorded a collaboration with Matt Mulholland, a popular YouTube musician,[11] in 2015, of a cover of Ed Sheeran's Thinking Out Loud.

Many live recordings of The Techtonics busking on Portobello Road are found on Youtube.

Alumni and Current Members
Name Joined Left Voice Part Course
Ed Brightman 2008 2011 Tenor I/II, Vocal Percussion PhD Fuel Cells
Christian Carter 2008 2011 Tenor I/II, Vocal Percussion Mechanical Engineering
Joe Illingworth 2008 2010 Tenor II, Baritone Biochemistry
Jacob Brady 2008 2010 Tenor II, Baritone Biochemistry
Eugene Chang 2008 2012 Tenor I/II PhD Bioengineering
Jonathan Silver 2008 2009 Tenor II Bioengineering
Ryan Dee 2008 2013 Bass, Baritone Physics
Ben Krikler (BenK) 2008 2010 Bass Physics
Nic Church 2008 2009 Tenor I Civil Engineering
Attakorn (Ohm) Saiyasombat 2008 2010 Bass Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Abdul (Aziz) Kamara 2008 2009 Bass Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Reuben Rowe 2008 2011 Tenor I/II PhD Computer Science
Steve Garland 2008 2009 Tenor I Physics
Tom Horner 2009 2010 Bass, Baritone, Vocal Percussion MSc Science Communication
Jamie Wasley 2009 2010 Tenor II Visiting US
Niall Smith 2009 2010 Bass Mathematics
Zain Khawaja 2009 2012 Tenor I/II, Vocal Percussion Chemistry
Luke Johnston 2009 2012 Baritone, Vocal Percussion Chemical Engineering
Ayman Osman 2009 2011 Tenor I Mechanical Engineering
Ben Chadwick (BenCh) 2010 2012 Baritone Mathematics
James Hayward 2010 2014 Tenor I Chemistry
Ed McDonald 2010 2012 Tenor II Medicine
Guy Needham 2010 2011 Bass Biochemistry
Chandra (AK) Kaza 2010 2012 Tenor II Chemical Engineering
Tom Stokes 2010 2012 Bass Medicine
Peter Scott 2011 2015 Tenor II Medicine
Philip de Grouchy 2011 2011 Bass PhD Physics
Max Hunter 2011 2013 Bass, Sound Engineer Physics
David Maguire 2011 2013 Bass Civil Engineer
Alex Moore 2011 2016 Bass Physics
Mike Ronan 2011 2014 Bass Chemical Engineering
David Verhoeven 2011 2012 Tenor I MSc Civil Engineering
Chris Witham 2011 2015 Tenor I Physics
Will de Renzy-Martin 2012 2012 Bass Computer Science
Conrad Godfrey 2012 2014 Tenor I Computer Science
Akash Mehta 2012 2013 Tenor II Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Peter Noden 2012 2016 Baritone Geology
Chris Pellew 2012 2015 Tenor II Biochemistry
Theo Barfoot 2013 2018 Vocal Percussion Biomedical Engineering
Freddie Barker 2013 2014 Baritone Mathematics
James Hay 2013 2014 Tenor I Computer Science
Will O'Reilly 2013 2016 Tenor I Medicine
Ehsaan Shivarani 2013 2017 Tenor I, Countertenor Geophysics
Alex Wedderburn 2013 2014 Tenor II Earth Sciences
Henry Harrod 2014 2016 Baritone Mechanical Engineering
Arran Bayliss-Chalmers 2014 2018 Tenor I Earth Sciences
Nick Bradley 2014 2017 Baritone Theoretical Physics
Ezra Kitson 2014 2015 Tenor I Natural Sciences
Arun O'Sullivan 2014 2018 Countertenor, Tenor I/II, Baritone Medicine
Laurence Pallant 2014 2015 Baritone Medicine
Edric Ramirez-Valdez 2014 2017 Tenor II, Vocal Percussion Biological Sciences
James Cunningham 2015 2016 Tenor II Electrical and Electronic Engineering
David Smith 2015 2016 Tenor II Petroleum Geoscience
Tom Stephens 2015 2018 Tenor II Materials Science and Engineering
Hugh Blayney 2016 - Baritone Physics
Matthew Guy 2016 - Tenor II Materials Science and Engineering
Jonathan Hedley 2016 - Bass Chemistry with Molecular Physics
Alexander MacLaren 2016 - Countertenor, Tenor I Mechanical Engineering
Louis Sharrock 2016 - Tenor II, Baritone MSc Statistics
Dan Bartley 2017 2017 Baritone Civil Engineering
Charlie Houseago 2017 2018 Tenor I/II PhD Robotics
Benjamin Wu 2017 2017 Tenor II MSc Computer Science
Thomas Briggs 2017 - Baritone Mechanical Engineering
Cornelius Carlsson 2017 - Vocal Percussion Materials Science and Engineering
Paul Monaghan 2017 - Tenor I Physics with Theoretical Physics
Shanil Panara 2017 - Tenor II Materials Science and Engineering

Imperial A Cappella Society

The Techtonics were ineligible to become a society of the Imperial College Union (ICU) because as a stand-alone group, it is too small in size and single gender. This led to members of the group starting the Imperial College A Cappella Society[12] of which The Techtonics would be part of, with the wider aim of making the activity of A Cappella open to all ICU members and to promote other groups to form.

Societies at Imperial are able to purchase pewter tankards for their society, and get them engraved with leading members - however due to the historical independence of The Techtonics (existing before the a cappella society), both a tankard for The Techtonics and Imperial A Cappella Society reside in the Union bar.[13]

As of 2016, 5 established groups are recorded as being within the society, making it one of the largest university a cappella societies in the UK:

  • The Techtonics
  • The Imperielles (all-female, formed in 2011)
  • The Scopes (mixed, formed in 2011)
  • Take Note (all-female, barbershop style)
  • Surcery (mixed, fusion style)

The Techtonics perform with the other a cappella groups at Imperial frequently, singing alongside them in Christmas concerts, Easter concerts, and a number of times at the annual Imperial Summer Ball.

gollark: You said "school".
gollark: There are not many things like that.
gollark: Maybe there are people other than average users.
gollark: And the ability to actually add other FS types (FUSE).
gollark: Oh, and sensible filesystems, that's good.

References
  1. "Results". Varsity Vocals. 2015-08-12. Retrieved 2017-04-12.
  2. CARA Awards 2013
  3. Busking on Small Business Saturday on Portobello
  4. "History". The Techtonics. 2014-06-05. Retrieved 2017-04-12.
  5. "University Results - thevoicefestival.co.uk". thevoicefestival.co.uk. Retrieved 2017-04-12.
  7. "The Techtonics: Don't Push the Button". Edinburgh Festival. Retrieved 2017-04-12.
  8. "Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2016 REVIEW: Don't Push The Button (The Techtonics) *****". Retrieved 2017-04-12.
  9. "香港青年協會無伴奏合唱 - 2017香港國際無伴奏合唱節". acappella.hkfyg.org.hk. Retrieved 2017-04-12.
  10. "Results". Varsity Vocals. 2015-08-12. Retrieved 2017-04-12.
  11. Matt Mulholland Youtube
  12. Imperial College A Cappella Society
  13. Imperial College Union Tankards Archived 2017-05-23 at the Wayback Machine
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