It’s tough to keep track of all of the a cappella groups on campus, but it’s just as tough trying to land a spot in one: There’s enough talent at Northwestern (thanks in part to the School of Music) to make the audition process for most student a capella acts pretty competitive. Dan de la Torre, a Weinberg sophomore majoring in psychology, took matters into his own hands this past fall when he wasn’t offered a place in one of the existing groups on campus. He created Extreme Measures, which will have its first headlining performance this Saturday night.

NBN: How did Extreme Measures start?
I was in an a cappella group in high school and I always wanted to do college a cappella. It’s a different level of singing. So, I tried out, got called back to X-Factors, and didn’t make it. The day after the lists went up, I said, “Fine. I’ll do it on my own.” I have a really good friend in Undertones and she told me how to book practice space. I got a time for auditions and I flyered for it. We had 32 auditions. I was really happy with it.

How did you get so many people to audition?
When I was making the Facebook event for people to audition, I wrote down the names of people who got called back from the lists posted at Norris. I sent them messages telling them about the auditions.

How did the audition process go?
We called back fifteen, and then we ended up taking five because I originally had two other people with me. But a girl that was going to do it with us got really sick and so we were down one. We knew we needed another girl, so we re-auditioned. We held so many different auditions after that. It was really tough because the first week of Winter Quarter two people quit. We were planning on a winter show but had to look for new people.

Is Saturday’s show your first performance ever?
It will be our first show with just us. We performed at the Drag Show and Take Back the Night. We are performing seven major songs and then we have skits, some with songs in them.

How can people join?
Right now we have ten people, no seniors and only one junior. So we won’t be losing anybody next year. But we will be holding auditions during New Student Week with all the other groups.