This past week, Lick’s popular, self-run band, Space Among Many, spoke with the PT Online staff about their experience in music and how they came together. The band of three seniors– Glenna Roberts, Jack Gorlin, and Tano Brock– are known primarily for their own songs, covers, and popular music videos on their YouTube channel. On the channel, “SpaceAmongMany,” they upload their well crafted music videos and share them with the Lick community. They have partnered with other musical Lick students, among which are Zach Hollander ‘15, Clara Chan ‘14, and Evan Chan ‘14. They recently collaborated with a Lick graduate Nathan Chan, and current Lick student Clara Chan in order to create an instrumental cover of “Counting Stars” and a music video. Nathan Chan currently attends Juilliard playing the cello and has worked with the San Francisco Symphony. He recently performed in The Event at Lick-Wilmerding. The members of Space Among Many recount their story in an exclusive interview with the PT Online.
PT Online: How long has Space Among Many going on and who started it?
Jack Gorlin: [It started] around the beginning of sophomore year.
Glenna Roberts: I joined junior year– I am not a founding member, but that’s okay.
JG: Tano and I played in Big Band during freshman year. He played saxaphone and I played guitar. The summer after that year, we had a jam session at my house.
Tano Brock: We both had been recording on our own for a while, with our own equipment.
PT Online: Where does the name Space Among many come from?
TB: That’s all Jack, the name was all him.
JG: I guess I came up with it… It sort of represents us finding our niche among the Lick community and society, we never decided on a concrete meaning or anything.
GR: I always thought it was about the separation of people…!
PT Online: Do you write most of your own songs or do mostly covers? What do you prefer?
JG: Most of our videos on YouTube are covers. We did an original EP our sophomore year, but we haven’t written a lot of original stuff recently. Tano is releasing his own album of original songs this Friday, May 9th.
TB: Yeah, I love doing original work.
GR: It’s hard to write music for three people. Covers are easier to do with more people.
PT Online: What is your process of shooting a video?
GR: We record first usually at Tano’s home recording studio. Then Jack talks about storyboarding for a while, which we never end up using. Then we figure out the location, we will go out there for a few hours or over a couple of days. Jack directs the shooting and does most of the editing while Tano finishes all the elements of the song and gets the final mix.
PT Online: Do you do collaborations with outside artists a lot?
JG: Yeah! —that’s actually how Glenna got involved.
GR: They needed a female voice for Titanium and I had also recorded a song with them that was not released. It took a while until I was officially part of the band. Conveniently, most of our friends are musically talented, so we could have a huge band if we wanted.
PT Online: How was it working with Nathan Chan?
JG: It was a long process– start to finish it took three months.
GR: Once we all got together it was a lot of fun!
Space Among Many Collaboration with Nathan Chan
TB: We found out we were shooting the day of, we thought Nathan was going to be on a plane but suddenly we all became free.
JG: Clara and Nathan Chan have a ton of classical training and they are very, very good at what they do.
TB: They elevated us to a new level musically.
JG: It was really nice because both Tano and I have played music our whole lives, but when we make covers, a lot of musicality gets lost in the big arrangements we like to produce. We’re usually not taking solos, or anything like that. Having Nathan around reminded us to care more about our playing.
Trojans/Jai Ho Mashup
PT Online: What has been one of the most memorable experiences for your band?
TB: India!
GR: I’ll explain this one. Last summer, these DJs from India contacted us and asked us to sing on one of their tracks.They had seen our cover of “Titanium” and liked it enough to get in touch.
TB: They are pretty successful, they aren’t just random people from the internet, either, the group is called NDS & Blue.
GR: We were a little nervous because it wasn’t our usual style, but…
TB: We did it! Jack and I spent a day writing lyrics and melodies to fit over the instrumental they had given us.
JG: The song has been done for almost a year, but we haven’t worked on it for a while. It got picked up by a famous DJ and is supposed to be released by Spinnin’ Records, one of the largest electronic music record labels in the world.
PT Online: Do you hope to make videos even after graduation?
GR: Probably over the summer, but we are all probably going to different colleges (Editor’s Note: Jack and Tano are actually both going to Wesleyan University!)
TB: We will all jam together when we are here but we will have to give up some of the creative process.
JG: Space Among Many has led us down some new paths, like Tano’s solo album and my video and photography business. We have all gotten so much out of it.
GR: We all know we will try to sing and do music in some form in college, so it has solidified our passion and given us a new perspective on creating music.
PT Online: Who do you think your biggest musical influence is?
ALL: OneRepublic
GR: Tano is in love with them and the love has spread.
JG: The love is strong.
TB: The leader of One Republic, Ryan Tedder, is great. All of OneRepublic songs are amazing, but he is also a composer and has written for big artists like Adele, Beyonce, Leona Lewis, Kelly Clarkson. I really admire his song writing.
GR: He is a great musical force, there are a lot of epic parts of their music…
JG: …like shout choruses. We love trying similar components in our music.
We would like to share our appreciation for anyone who has watched our videos on YouTube, subscribed, or shared our stuff on Facebook. It is awesome to know that people enjoy our content as much as we do! Shout-out to the hardcore Space Cadets: Narimon, Alejandro, Chase, and John Hommeyer.
Also, look for Tano’s new album release this Friday, May 9th!
If I Lose Myself Cover
Subscribe to Space Among Many on YouTube!
