In 2023, Genesis hatched an idea.
The corps wanted to use input from its performers to inform its show design decisions. Ultimately, the corps’ leadership believed, since it would be the whole organization’s production, the whole organization ought to have a say.
Performer vote picks Genesis' 2023 production
They liked the results.
“If everyone has a vested interest, if everyone's bought into the product,” program coordinator Anthony Cruddas said, “we're going to get the best out of everyone.”
2024’s process, as such, was sparked the same way. Through a similar survey of performers and staff, designers learned quite a bit about what the members of their corps were looking for.
“We started the season with a survey of some returning and existing staff and some key members on what they wanted to see as the creative direction of Genesis,” Cruddas said. “We started with a discussion, using those as a base point.”
After a series of pitched ideas and collaborative conversations, Cruddas and his team narrowed it down, and landed on an overarching concept that fit the bill.
“The show for us this year is really about connection,” he said.
Featuring the music of The Alchemist, Todd Terje, Cody Fry, Abel Selaocoe, and Christopher Tin, our 2024 production...
Posted by GENESIS Drum and Bugle Corps on Friday, February 9, 2024
Genesis’ 2024 production is titled, “Signal.” The imagery of satellites and radio waves will be a key element for the Texas corps as they build the show's theme on a cornerstone of communication.
“It's about the idea that something as simple as a singular signal can create opportunities for communication and connection, that transcend country lines, language, emotional boundaries, all kinds of components,” he said.
“On the most basic level, when you think about the power of a radio signal, it has the ability to transmit a song through the airwaves,” he added. “The impact that it can have in bridging gaps between different cultures, whether it's within the same country, or it's across an ocean. That's where the show concept started for us.”
According to Cruddas, the music selections for Genesis’ 2024 production took some serious narrowing down. The corps began its design process with “a couple hundred tracks” on its Spotify playlist.
They knew what they didn’t want to do — the same old, same old. They wanted something fresh that would be new to drum corps audiences.
“There are a lot of pieces that have been done by a lot of groups many times, that are very famous in the activity, and they've been done really well,” he said. “But there's so much more music out there. We really tried to stretch our horizons in terms of what we were considering.”
With that mindset as its road map, Genesis ultimately arrived at a 2024 repertoire that successfully accomplished many of its musical goals.
The corps will open with “Arrival” by The Alchemist, a prominent DJ and rapper. It will also include Cody Fry’s “Waltz for Sweatpants” — Fry’s “Caves” was featured in Blue Devils’ 2023 championship-winning program — and a progressive jazz chart titled “Alfonse Muskeduner” by Norwegian artist Todd Terje.
Terje’s piece — which has been performed just once on the DCI Tour, by Crossmen in 2022 — caught the attention of Cruddas early in the design process as a result of its “math rock” like feel which is often characterized by complex or atypical rhythmic structures.
“I was really attracted to it right away and luckily the team agreed,” Cruddas said. “It's got a lot of really great rock influences.”
Terje isn’t the only international flavor in Genesis’ 2024 setlist; the corps will also utilize Christopher Tin’s “Waloyo Yamoni,” an African choral song, and the music of South African cellist Abel Selaocoe.
“We really feel like we've put together an interesting musical journey that doesn't fit just one mold,” Cruddas said. “But when you listen to it in its entirety, it flows, and it makes sense from beginning to end.”
To complement the music, Genesis aims to implement exciting visual components to the show, including the use of color to symbolize levels of connection and communication.
“We’ll start with a little bit of a ‘mono’ color palette, to emulate the idea of a single signal idea,” he added. “And then as those signals come together, we’ll move to more of that fully-fleshed out color palette.”
According to Cruddas, in line with the corps’ member-first approach to design decisions, Genesis has also been very open with its participants throughout the process.
And at the end of the day, he said, if Genesis’ members are excited, then the corps’ ultimate goals are achieved.
“It seems to be something that they're really, really excited about,” he said. “We want this whole thing to ramp up to the summer so that by the time the students have an opportunity to perform, they're excited, they're ready, and everybody can just have a really great time.”
View Genesis' 2024 DCI Tour Schedule