This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Hamilton chapter.
The Hamilton College Buffers are the only all-male a cappella group on campus.
Established in 1950, the Buffers have been warming our hearts and serenading our
ears for nearly 65 years. Currently a group of 11 talented, goofy, handsome men, the
Buffers are known on campus for their brash sense of humor and exceptional
musicality. I was lucky enough to score an interview with the Buffers current
President, Vince DiCindio. Vince is easily spotted on campus with his tall stature,
broad build, and warm smile. With his big heart and husky vocals, it is no question
why he is our Campus Celebrity this week!
Name: Vince DiCindio
Class Year: 2015
Major: World Politics with a concentration in international security, and Middle
East studies minor
What organizations are you involved in on campus?
Football, although technically I am retired now; HALT, which stands for Hamilton
Alumni Leadership Training, which is a group of seniors selected to hear from alumni
and the administration on different issues and topics around campus, and receive
leadership training: to be more actively engaged with alumi and to engage the alumi while
you’re still a student; SAAC, Student Athlete Advisory Committee, affiliated with
NCAA that every campus with NCAA sports has: to better engage the rest of campus
to increase attendance at sports games and plan charity events; Buffers; Delta
Upsilon: I am VP of external relations which includes philanthropy and social chair
When did you first join the Buffers?
My freshman fall. My freshman year I auditioned for choir and all the a cappella
groups. I did choir for my freshman fall semester and also joined the Buffers my
freshman fall.
Did you always know you wanted to be President?
Yeah! But I didn’t assume at all that I would be president. I was pleasantly surprised
when I was told my sophomore year that I would be. This is my second year now.
There were times where I felt like it was definitely a fun group to lead because of
what we do, and the potential of where the group could go was exciting. There
always was and is room for improvement. It was exciting to see where we could take
the group.
What is your all time favorite song you’ve sung with the Buffers?
Eli Bunzel’s “That’s Life” by Michael Buble. It is a very dynamic song that everyone
had a lot of fun singing and it was a real crowd-pleaser.
What voice part do you sing usually?
Bass
What was the first solo you ever had? What was that experience like?
Actually it was my senior solo, “All About That Bass.” The first time I was going to do
it during family weekend I was terrified. I had pretty much lost my voice during the
football game, so I was pounding tea and whiskey… conducting my own experiment
to see if whiskey could help my vocal chords before a concert. I’m convinced it helps
(laughter). I had only sung a solo in high school before; it was probably pretty
horrible (more laughter). I only did a cappella my senior year in high school. So this
time it was very different because I was the only one out there for the whole song,
but the other guys made the background exactly what I was picturing, and you can
only be as good as your background is. I actually was going to do a Josh Turner or a
slower country song because I have a deep voice, but I kind of figured that everyone
would know if I screwed it up. So “All About That Bass” was great because if I
messed up on no one would really know or care, and it was fun because I could feed
off the audience during the song.
Tell me about one of your favorite memories from being in the Buffers:
Any time that we have been all together where for no apparent reason at all we can’t
stop laughing. Like today we were at the Arbor Inn… we were about to sing for the
administration and the guy came back and said you should ring these little
Christmas bells. And it was so funny we were like little 5 year olds ringing the bells
at each other and hanging them on each other’s clothes. We are just collectively so
immature.
A more specific memory was when we sang at the John Lennon memorial concert on
Broadway. That was a pretty big deal, but we could maintain that pretty loose
approach to everything. No one is ever at each other’s throats; we are calm and go
with the flow. It’s always been about having fun and not killing ourselves just to get
that exact sound right. It’s been a fun outlet for me. I am enjoying it so much now
and well miss it for sure.
Do you have any plans for after college?
My ultimate goal is to do counter-terrorism as a special agent for the FBI. That is
something that you can’t really jump right into after college. You need work
experience and they have minimum age requirements of twenty-three. But right
after Hamilton I’m looking to get into intelligence, maybe a consulting firm, or in the
government. I’m looking to do some kind of intelligence work and then make my
way into federal law enforcement and hopefully counter terrorism. The DEA is also
hiring college students for the first time right out of college, so I am applying to that
as well. I know that I don’t want to be behind a desk my whole life. I want to kick
down doors and catch some bad guys. But at the same time I want to use my
Hamilton education to do some good.
Any closing remarks?
Thanks to everyone who supports the Buffers and comes to our concerts. We have a
new CD that should be out when we get back from winter break called “Buck
Dynasty” and it will be featuring all the senior solos from the past couple years.