#nigel chey

[ambitionsource]

“Snow Day," for Ellie (@leoleofitz). Happy Holidays, Ellie! I'm so grateful for another year of your wonderful energy and passion. You are a joy to know. From Meg.

[lucasmatthews]

AMBITION | NIGEL CHEY:

Someone protect this shy vegetarian, Shakespeare lover dork at all cost! He’s too precious!

dt: @jadenigel @charliezay @lucasjamesfriar @dunsbar

CHECK OUT AMBITION @ambitionsource

[ambitionsource]

since you guys did the voice casts for the front nine, which singer(s) would fit jack and eric?

Pearl I am so sorry, you sent this 100 years ago lol so forgive me for the delay. As it turns out, shockingly, trying to vocally match older men is a lot harder than the young adults of our main cast LOL. Still, I want to do them justice so I've done the same as I did previously in this post, along with a couple others who have since emerged as more common singers in our ensemble:

ERIC | Eric is the one of the two of them that does have an actual musical theater background, so I do think that makes a difference. His voice would without a doubt be more trained, have a broader range, and probably have more inflection in terms of emotion and emphatic delivery (that's the theater kid edge). I also think that Eric's voice would be deeper than maybe one would assume off the cuff, at least when singing. So as requested, a couple of comps:

Hugh Jackman – This might be partially because we had him perform "A Million Dreams" in Season 2, but I think it fits. Jackman has voice that's like, sturdy and baritone, but it's not overbearing. It doesn't eat up all the oxygen in the room or feel like it's so deep it's coming from the pits of hell. Additionally, I like that he does have a decent range -- see him going for Valjean songs in Les Mis -- so I think that point is important. Example track: A Million Dreams

Christopher Jackson -- Whoop! Didn't see this one coming did we, especially since Jack tends to be the one singing Washington songs from Hamilton... but I do think this tone of voice fits Eric better. Again, it has that rounded, well-balanced, sturdy vocal quality and can emote without a doubt. Example track: History Has Its Eyes On You

Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) -- For a non-Broadway or film take, Justin Vernon of Bon Iver is a fitting enough comp range and tone wise. Example track: exile (with Taylor Swift)

JACK | I think Jack, much like his not-son Lucas, has an edge to his voice that is distinctly unpolished and rough. Even though he's an appreciator of the arts, and works at an arts school, a big part of Jack's whole thing is that he isn't from this world instinctively, and he for sure wasn't honing his range or vocal ability all through his youth. So his early 40s man voice is not Broadway ready, but there's a charm to that as well. I also imagining him having a bit of a husky, Southern quality to the edges of his singing voice because of his upbringing in Virginia. As such, comps to go around:

The Avett Brothers -- Obviously this is a bit unspecific because... there are three brothers in this band and only one Jack, LOL, but you can kind of get the vibe of the like slightly rustic quality, emotive without necessarily being good at channeling emotion, etc. I think this also fits that I picture Jack's singing voice a bit higher in tone than Eric's, and that register works here. Example track: I And Love And You

George Harrison -- I know my Beatles nerd is showing, but I stand by this. George was never the standout vocalist of the Beatles (not that I think any of them were tbh lol, they were much more about music composition and arrangement than like being the best singers ever), but his almost soft-spoken delivery just hits right for Jack to me. Example track: Something

James Taylor -- This is veering almost too much into the twangy territory, but I think it helps serve what I mean by sounding a bit more unpolished and husky while still being more in the baritenor range. James Taylor has had a long career, so there's option abound for sampling, but I went with a cover song from his latest album because he is. Well. Older lol. Example track: God Bless the Child

YINDRA | I would argue Yindra is the most defined singer in our new crop of elevated mains, so she needs a section here. When it comes to her, I want you simply to think of the most talented vocalist you know -- that artist you think is just unbelievably talented and you can't believe they have a range like that. You wonder how they're not a huge star already if they aren't well known. That's Yindra. I feel like there are genuinely so many talented female vocalists that could make this comp list, but since I'm keeping it concise, a top-of-my-head sampling:

SZA -- I think sometimes people think of SZA more as a rap-adjacent vocalist (i.e. more about rhythm and delivery than vocal range, to a degree, which is an equally impressive skill), but I love her voice from a tonal perspective too. Have you heard her jump the octave in tracks from ctrl? An immediately slay. In this case, I will reference one of my favorite tracks from that album and that I think lets her vocals really shine due to the stripped nature of the track. Example track: 20 Something

Tess Henley -- If I haven't made it clear yet by how I slip her songs into the series here and there, I love Tess Henley. She is severely underrated. Why I bring her up for Yindra is two-fold: she has an incredible belt range, and also has a somewhat scratchy quality to her voice in certain octaves that I think is such a unique sound and makes her sound so... authentic and evocative. I think Yindra would have qualities like this too. Yindra's vocal talent is raw, untamed, a force to be reckoned that is bursting out of her -- it wouldn't be polished to pop perfection like Maya. It's just against her nature. Example track: Boomerang

Alicia Keys -- Okay is this a basic answer. Maybe. But I think Alicia's vocal talent speaks for itself, and so does Yindra's. Not to mention, her range alone is blockbuster. Case in point, example track, we all know it's coming: Girl On Fire

NIGEL | Nigel doesn't sing as much as some of the other characters (he's an actor at his core), but he's picked up enough performances this season to warrant mention here. I think of his voice as a gentle, somewhat level tonal tenor, and while I don't have much to say beyond that, a few comps nonetheless:

HONNE -- I can't tell the two members apart so don't ask that of me please lol but the vibes are there. Example track: Location Unknown - Brooklyn Session

Hippo Campus -- Again, don't know who is actually singing here LOL but again, the sound will tell you what you need to know. Example track: Golden

JOSH | Same goes for the above for Josh -- he's not a singer in the explicit sense of the word, so to a degree, his vocals would just sound like some guy. But he's a guy who has a deep, intrinsic understanding of music, and I do think that colors his vocal delivery. He's no Farkle, or even Charlie, but it doesn't hurt your ears to hear him chime in on a tune every now and then (especially when he's splitting with someone like Maya). Comps:

AJR -- AJR are basically just some guys, but some guys who know how to craft a good song, so they're kind of my go-to sound comp for Josh. I also think they sing pretty well about both young adulthood what-am-I-doing-with-my-life angst, and the battles of the industry, so their emotion shines through in that way. Example track: The DJ Is Crying For Help

Glass Animals -- Same sentiments. Example track: Solar Power - Spotify Singles

VANESSA | Unlike Zay, Vanessa is less of a triple-threat than she is more consumed with dance, but we know she can carry a tune competitively. And unfortunately, unless you're going into ballet, it helps to be able to sing to get more performing opportunities that include dance (see: Broadway), so she has most certainly honed those skills. In terms of skill vocally, I would plot her somewhere on the scale between Maya and Riley -- she's more polished than Riley, from all her training and overworking competitiveness, but she lacks Maya's raw natural vocal charisma. But that doesn't mean her voice can't be a showstopper when the moment calls for it. Comps:

Jasmine Cephas-Jones -- The oft overlooked third Schuyler sister of Hamilton, Jasmine has vocals that can cut right through you. I love how much energy and power you can feel in her delivery. Vanessa definitely has that quality. Example track: Little Bird

Normani -- Goes without saying, since we gave her the bop of all bops with "Motivation." And also unfortunate how Normani despite being talented got kind of celebrity eclipsed by a fellow former bandmate (Camila), which is something I'm sure Vanessa would relate to. Example track: Motivation

Billie Eilish -- This one is a bit out of left field, but something about the somewhat flat inflection and lower range (definitely alto) that Billie's voice encompasses has always struck me as a bit Vanessa-like. So I'm including her. Example track: Getting Older

-- Maggie

[ambitionsource]

can we just talk about nigel... walk us through him please

i’m 2 months late to answering this, but yes. yes we can! i’ll try to give the same general portrait of him as i did in the past with like nate and stuff, hopefully it will be somewhat coherent bc i love him and he deserves to be appreciated and understood just as much as our other fave a class kiddos

so as we all know damn well at this point, nigel is an aspiring actor. he’s one of the few students in the a class who has a very core passion that he doesn’t waver from (like in the way maya, farkle, yindra, riley, etc. kind of just do lots of everything -- and eat up the opportunities in their wake LOL -- nigel is like zay in that they both have very clear areas of expertise that they dedicate most of their energy and passion to). and though he’s not as intense or vocal about it, acting is extremely important to nigel. actually, the whole process and experience of being an actor is, from the character work to the play reading and annotating to those moments of actual delivery. he’s an actor in his bones, equally as dedicated as maya or zay just significantly more outwardly laid back about it.

that being said, i feel like all you have to do to really get a sense of how deeply he cares about it is to... ask him about it. like if you get him talking about shakespeare, any of his plays, the kid who always seems so quiet and laid back will be talking a mile a minute and unpacking the nuances and brilliance of shakespeare’s works faster than you can keep up. he’s also like this -- tho not to the same degree as acting -- about classical music / jazz / a capella choirs / orchestra (since he plays the violin), local cafes + coffee, nostalgic story-driven cartoons like digimon that he watched on pbs when he was younger, and editorial cartoons. like he’s the friend that sends yindra and zay his favorite political cartoon from the new york times every sunday to their group chat (and after some time, jade gets these excerpts too). he’s also decently savvy about fashion, at least the lowkey hipster art deco pretentious chic type of fashion. i think he’s similar to asher, riley, and charlie in that he comes off a certain way and everyone assumes they know what he’s like bc he’s great a maintaining this calm persona, but those who really know him know that it’s all a charade and he’s extremely nerdy, excitable, enthusiastic, and impassioned, etc. if he’s comfortable with you, then you get the full nigel chey experience with all those quirks and eccentricities.

part of the reason nigel has the calm, unbothered persona, though, is mainly because of his family. he has a good relationship with his parents and his siblings, but he comes from a family where there’s a lot to juggle and so many things going at once that it behooves him and makes him feel better to be out of the way and not adding to anyone’s plate. as we mentioned on the income scale, nigel is one of the scholarship students at aaa, so much of his parents’ time is dedicated to making ends meet and looking out for all of the chey children. nigel has a few siblings, but the age gap for the most part isn’t that wide. he has an older sister who is one year ahead of him in school (but is not an artist, she’s studying to be a school counselor), a younger sister who is a freshman, a younger brother who is in middle school, and then the baby brother of the family who was unplanned and thus is quite a few years younger than the rest of them. so they’re a crowded, hectic little clan, and nigel feels like the best thing he can do is just stay out of the way as much as possible and be useful when he can. so he’s become very good at internalizing unpleasant emotions, letting things go, and not getting riled up (esp by provocation of younger siblings). in some ways, this has also made him a bit of a doormat, as we see in some scenes with yindra and zay where their personalities are just so much louder than his so he tends to default to them or try to keep the peace.

nigel also puts a lot of pressure on himself because of the money situation in their family as well as the unspoken expectations of his parents. both of them are supportive of him pursuing acting, and they always do their best to make it to at least one of his performances, but they’ve taken pains to make it understood that nigel is going to have to work his ass off simply because they don’t have the means or industry savvy to help give him a leg up (like half of his classmates do). like, they wholeheartedly supported his application to aaa -- especially his dad, who is a bit of a lit nerd himself and loves shakespeare / passed that on to him -- but they made it clear that if he couldn’t get a scholarship, it just wouldn’t be feasible. thankfully, that worked out for the best, but i think nigel lives very aware of that threat nipping at his heels at all times and that’s part of why he throws himself so deeply into the work and was basically oblivious to any other form of Teenagerdom (i.e., jade’s crush or his potential feelings for anyone) for most of his time at aaa.

there’s also a bit of an internal pressure in wanting desperately to make his family proud and feel secure about his future in such an unstable career. like his mom is an analytical mind, she was studying to be an engineer when she was in college but then she dropped out to help take care of nigel’s maternal grandparents and so she never got to realize that for herself and i think she has a lot of anxiety about nigel ending up in a similar situation where he isn’t as secure or happy as she wants him to be. but she doesn’t really like... understand in her head that thats where her hesitation is coming from + the fact that she just isnt an artist and doesnt really get why doing such a risky career would be worthwhile. she supports him, but doesn’t logically Get it. so i think nigel wants to be able to Prove to her he’s got it under control, that he’ll be okay, so that then they can just enjoy his passion as much as he does without worrying about him at the same time. he’s also the first son of the family, and so he has a sort of subconscious pressure as well from masculinity in terms of like coming out successful and able to help support his family, both his and the one he builds in the future with a partner. so big melting pot of anxieties and pressures going on in that beautiful nerdy head of his, but he doesn’t talk about it really even with people he trusts (like yindra and zay) nor do i think he truly understands himself that he’s carrying all that around. it will probably hit him eventually. guess we’ll find out someday!

(fun fact: nigel’s mom also does side work as a seamstress, so that’s part of why he has such a natural appreciation for that type of work. now who else do we know who is a masterful seamstress... hm... its on the tip of my tongue...)

all of that being said, at his core nigel truly is a very laidback guy. its somewhat a persona, but it also is true to his inner self. he’s passionate, but in a tempered and healthy way. i think that sometimes, despite how creative he is in many aspects, he struggles to think outside the box and off the beaten path because of how important measured success and competence is to him. so things like maya doing whatever the fuck she wants and yindra thinking about skipping college and just jumping into the industry don’t compute for him (the same way all of it doesn’t really click for his mom), and as we know, he sometimes becomes frozen in inaction because that feels safer or more logical. and he’s just never going to be the diva that zay or maya or farkle can be, and he’s content with that. if he’s going to make it, in his head, he’s going to achieve it through hard work, dedication, attention to craft, and being a decent person who people enjoy working with. and he also definitely understands the importance of knowing who to trust and having that tight inner circle, i.e., what he has with the true star squad of yindra and zay.

-- Maggie

[ambitionsource]

The real talent of the A class is finally here to gab. Do your worst! And while you chat, don’t forget to check out Yindra and Nigel’s carefully curated personal playlists.

Yindra’s playlist

Nigel’s playlist

[ambitionsource]

Hello awesome people, I hope you will accept this humble attempt to draw your likenesses. Your depth and star power is obviously too much to ever fully capture but I very much enjoyed trying! Stay beautiful and amazing ❤️

-

Yindra: WOW, this is amazing! Nice work, darling.

Nigel: For sure, this is awesome. You’ve got talent.

Yindra: Look at my hair, wild and free. I love it. Captures my essence. And look at your cute little smile, Nige.

Nigel: Yes, well, I have been known to be cute.

Yindra: That book though...

Nigel: You kidding? That’s the best part. Says unabridged and everything. That’s how you know they care.

[ambitionsource]

ok but tell me all abt yindra and nigel’s friendship backstory PLEASEEE

sorry for the ridiculous wait on this, i wanted to wait until i had the mental capacity to talk about them with justice! i love it when y’all show interest in the a class — we’ve really grown to love them dearly as they’ve developed into their own unique cast of personalities and it’s the best to see you guys loving them too

so yindra and nigel! this is a friendship that i honestly think didn’t take much time to click. freshman year at aaa is intense, and you fall into your friendships quickly (if the techie crew, maya and the plastics, etc. are any indication). yindra became friends with zay first — real sees real, after all — whereas nigel kind of floated between clarissa, haley, and yogi without ever really grounding to one place.

nigel definitely Wanted to approach zay and yindra, but he’s markedly the most reserved of the three of them, and this was especially true in 9th grade. even more so when huge personalities like maya and farkle were present and LOUD, which just made nigel even more cautious. so he just slipped under the radar for the first month or so, not really finding his people until later into the semester.

two things allowed for yindra and zay to take notice of nigel — his talent, and farkle. the first happened after their first solo monologue performances, during which nigel’s passion and penchant for acting really shined and his reason for being at the school became crystal clear (this was also, pointedly, when jade first developed her crush on him). as for farkle, he contributed when one afternoon of him complaining and squawking and being domineering during rehearsal finally caused nigel to snap out a sassy retort, clever and witty and drenched in deadpan sarcasm. THAT was the spark that yindra had been waiting for, and the smile the two of them exchanged as farkle backed off — hesitant at the time — was the start of a beautiful friendship. nigel started sitting at their lunch table the next day.

how the unique friendship between yindra and nigel really grew, rather than as a trio, happened in second semester. zay was dating brooklyn at that point (the junior who was his assigned mentor and like... a manipulative mess. yeah... its mentioned concretely in cruel summer), and in doing so he had jumped into his circle and basically abandoned the freshman a class. not purposefully, of course, and not will malintent, but when you have the opportunity to hang out with cool juniors (including your bf who you’re desperate to keep interested and impressed), and they seem to really dig you, its easy to get lost in that and completely forget everything else. and despite yindra and nigel pointing out that they hadn’t hung out with him, and yindra trying to explain why the relationship was weird to her + had some shady elements, he didn’t listen. when you’re in the thick of that situation, its always hard to hear your friends speak truth and reason.

so as zay temporarily evaporated, yindra and nigel were left to complain about it — but also got closer and bonded in the process. and that’s what really solidified their individual dynamic, which is still strong to this day. and of course, after brooklyn dumped zay and all of that came tumbling down, they were both willing and ready to accept zay’s apology and comfort him from everything that had happened — something he was still lowkey recovering from going into s1, i.e. his feelings of isolation.

and that, truly, is how an iconic trio was born

— Maggie

[ambitious-2022]