Category: My Music

Looks like our search for a drummer who will practice and perform live gigs with our band continues.  My old friend in KL has just opened a brand new lingerie shop and she has invited our band for the official launch, with media coverage!  All I have to do is to compose a new set of songs – something sexy I guess? – practice them with the band, memorize the songs, and to figure out what to do with the drum track … in this couple of months’ time.

Fun time.

Who is who in these images – white shirt dude is the guitarist Jason, white shirt chick is the bassist Cynthia, red shirt hottie is our Singapore band manager Selrol (a.k.a. Jason’s wife), and the blue shirt schmuck is me.

I can always trust Selrol to be our band archivist, our very own band journalist to document our journey.  Just in case we become famous in X number of years’ time, we can readily publish a photo book titled: Who are the Real Candies in “No Eye Candy”?  (note: our band is called “No Eye Candy”)

This time, Selrol brought along a darn cute orange color Polaroid instant camera (see the picture at the bottom).  And this yummy cute little thingie produces crisp clear vibrant color photos (see the montage above) that cost S$1 per shot.  Totally worth it if you were to ask me.

The jamming session happened couple of weeks ago.  On the day itself, our drummer Chip couldn’t make it.  So we cancelled our studio booking and headed to my own home studio instead.  Jason bought a Les Paul guitar on that day and we were keen to take it for a test drive.  We love the sound.  What can I say?  Mine is a Les Paul too.

So I met our drummer Chip a few days ago for lunch and he shared with me some of the challenges he has in prioritizing his life, especially now that he has a new baby.  Deep inside, of course I was hoping to be able to take our band into the next level since we have been practicing our original songs for years.  But I can totally understand where he is coming from.  Maybe the timing is not right for us yet.  Maybe with Chip, we have to work on less time intensive home bound activities such as recording – something he can pick up the guitar for 20 minutes and continue another day like he said.

This is the time when I keep thinking of what Randy Pausch once said in his “Last Lecture”: Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how badly we want things.

And the hunt for a live gig drummer continues …

[Opal]  Now that our drummer’s new baby has safely landed on Planet Earth and our lead guitarist has officially signed his bachelor life away, it is time for our band to come out of this 5-month hiatus and do something.  Just anything.

[Sapphire]  Do I have imaginary friends?  Of course I do.  Everybody do.  I have one who must begin each sentence with his name.  Way before Facebook’s time.  That’s why I don’t find Facebook’s “status updates” function that odd.  For those who are new to Facebook, a journal written in Facebook status update style would look something like [ruby] below.

[Peridot]  As exciting as [opal] can be, I have started a side project with our drummer to transform one new song of mine from our band’s signature rock style to something that sounds somewhat trance, somewhat electronica.  Hopefully, I can package the journey from songwriting, to demo, to a trance version, to finally a rock version in several episodes of Podcast-like materials.  Don’t get too excited yet.  I have yet too many side projects that don’t quite take off.  But still, we shall continue to dream, right?

[Aquamarine]  Prince turned into a love symbol in 1993.  Ayumi Hamasaki has a symbol that pronounced as “A”.  I too want a symbol.  If you look closer at the image above, there are two “dots” on the right side of “W”.  Well, there are no t’s to cross but I do have 2 i’s to dot.

[Ruby]  Now comes the Facebook style updates:

•  seriously needs to return to his weight lifting ritual and is not happy that his brand new curl bar set is now a white elephant!  He nearly collapsed on the street while carrying his (heavy) guitar and Cynthia’s (equally heavy) bass across 3 blocks of street!
•  was as disappointed as Cynthia when he realized that the knobs of the bass got oxidized and couldn’t be played due to the fact that she hardly plays her bass!  The replacement bass guitar provided by the studio is just not good.  Boo!
•  likes Stone Jamz – the music studio at the other end of Boat Quay.
•  loves the new toy that nearly got taxed by the Malaysia Custom.  His band can now have the sessions decently and conveniently recorded (4 channels!) for after-session review.
•  is slightly demoralized by the recording.  His vocal track is horrendous!  And the band needs a lot more practice.
•  is excited (again, so easily?!) as our next jamming session is set on the week of May 12!  Time to give Stone Jamz a call.
• ‘s clock says 4.45 am right now and he feels really hungry.  Could someone send him a Big Breakfast – the real one and not the virtual one from Facebook please? 

Did you know that Halloween literally means “The Eve of All Hallows”? And since “Hallows” means “Saints”, Halloween also signifies the eve of “All Saints Day” – a celebration by the Catholics worldwide to commemorate the sanctified ones who are in Heaven. And the next day, Nov 2, is the “All Souls’ Day” that commemorates the faithful departed. I have got this new age approach to religion and this morning when I woke up, I have this urge to attend a Mass celebration during lunch hours.

To be honest, the last time I stepped into a church was back in Christmas. I know, this new age approach of mine perhaps is not getting me anywhere near Heaven. But hey, I am a new age kind of dude! Anyway, during the Mass, I have met up with an ex-colleague of mine whom I have not met for ages. Then I have received an internal email from another ex-colleague of mine (yes, small world it is and we are now working for the same organization) that she saw me during the Mass! She said I was too engrossed with the divinity that I did not notice her. Perhaps she is right. I vaguely remember the beginning of the sermon: they are all up there, why can’t we?!

Another reason why I chose to attend the Mass during lunch hours was that I have a jamming session arranged in the evening. It didn’t even came across my mind that today is “All Saints Day”. How “new age” I am, eh?

The mosaic you see above (feel free to click onto it) was taken from two different sessions in the same studio at Bukit Timah. Perhaps some captions for the new readers of my site. From up and down, left and right – (1) me the vocalist and rhythm guitarist, (2) Cynthia the bassist, (3) you really don’t get to see Jason our guitarist to play drum often, (4) Chip our drummer, (5) our all powerful [and handsome] guitarist Jason, (6) Cynthia and her bottle of water, (7) me.

Last week Chip our drummer could not make it so Jason has to step up and play the drummer role. Let me tell you, it is not as simple as it seems. It is as though the air-hostess has decided to be the pilot because the pilot has gone MIA (okay, bad example). And I was suppose to step up as the lead guitarist since he was playing drums. No way! Not even humanly possible!

Jason mentioned that since my website has reviews for movies, music, and books – all inspired by different persons by the way – why not write reviews on jamming / rehearsal studios in Singapore? I am not sure if I shall start a new category on “Jamasutra” (as each category does take up a lot of time!). However here is my take on the three studios I have visited so far.

Four Tones Music Rehearsal Studio (read my blog)

General Impression : Spacious studio with decent amplifiers. Vocal tracks are on stereo monitor speakers and the guitar amplifiers are huge. Hard to hear the bass drum and also, due to the way the room is set up, most likely you can only hear your own instrument (and very hard to hear the vocal). Positive experience it was though.

Sound quality
Space
Overall setup
Cleanliness

TIET Studio at Kreta Ayer Rd (read my blog)

General Impression : The studio is very small with a bucket of water underneath the air-con. The good thing though is that everyone can hear what others are playing. Toilet is not working and you have to visit the loo down the street. I am told that they are moving to a new location nearby. I will have to see what the new location is going to be like.

Sound quality
Space
Overall setup
Cleanliness

Alvron Music Studio (see this blog!)

General Impression : Friendly operator and the studio is of a decent size. It is a comfortable studio with much to improve on sound quality. The amplifiers are just not good. The room is set up such a way that all the amplifiers are lined up with one another. The drum-set is placed at the end of the line.

Sound quality
Space
Overall setup
Cleanliness

(Note: What a long week! I actually fell asleep halfway typing this blog and accidentally hit the publish button. Oops. Hence the extended version.)

Last Wednesday while I was having my nice cold beer with the company of Cynthia – our bassist – the owner of the studio called me. He asked if we could postpone our jamming session for 1 hour 45 minutes. No way! By then we would not be home before one in the morning. I asked for the reason and he told me that he had a power outage and the bands just refused to leave. Now, that is new to me. If the cinema you visit has a power outage, most likely you will go for the refund and book another time slot instead. Yes?

In the end, the owner of the studio referred us to another studio that is a quarter size of what we used to have and it is entirely rundown …

(This was when I felt asleep while typing lots of junks)

… It took us a while to find it. We ventured into a part of Chinatown I have not been to. SATA? Somehow everyone excepts me know what SATA is (Singapore Anti-tuberculosis Association). And somehow, no one excepts me associates the word SATA with computer hard disks (Serial ATA – Advanced Technology Attachment that is). When we were shown where the studio room was, we could barely fit in with our guitar cases. There was a bucket underneath the air-con fan and it was one quarter filled. I wonder if Chip our drummer actually followed the rhythm of the dripping water as our beats. Kidding.

But the good thing though was that our amplifiers were really close to one another. In a way, we could somewhat hear what everybody was playing. In another way, it hurt our ear drums big time. Hobby hazard eh?

Fun time we had and we are getting tighter with our 5 songs set. Photos taken by courtesy of our guitarist’s wife-to-be … thanks Selrol! Great photos.

In my previous post, I mentioned how excited I was in anticipating my very first studio experience. After the session while we were heading out for food (that’s right EastCoastLife, I know you are going to ask: where’s the food?), I was still in trance and casually commented that it was the best day of my life. My new drummer Chip and my guitarist Jason turned and looked at me and they both asked “How about … (looking at Cynthia’s direction)”. Duh! I quickly rephrased to … the best day of my life in 2007 so far! Phew! Luckily Cynthia was way ahead chatting happily with Jason’s fiancee Selrol. Dumb things men say at times.

I know, I know … I really should have posted this out much earlier. My life has turned busy lately and I do apologize for the delay. I had one particular text conversation over the wireless phone with a special “fan” of the site. I had no idea that some of you are so enthusiastic to read this!

Fan: How was your jamming session?
Me: Great! Gonna post a blog tonight.
Fan: Too late! You are suppose to do it last night!
Me: I only had 5 hours of sleep last night 🙁
Fan: Excuses, ha ha ha … I forgive you 🙂
Me: Ha ha ha … You bloody slave driver!

My dad was used to work for a company that supported the entertainment business back in Hong Kong with equipment and manpower. Since young, I had the opportunity to often walk in and out of the backstage before and after the pop concert. I have seen what a studio looked like and I think because all these events happened when I was still a very young boy, the images of what is behind the music business left a strong impression in me – almost nostalgic in a romantic sense.

Perhaps it is this “special” upbringing that guided me to develop my music skill despite my almost definite lack of music talent. Joined a school band playing clarinet when I was 12 and soon, I picked up saxophone. Thanks to my seniors who taught me how to play these wonderful wind instruments and at around 15, I joined the Hong Kong Youth Orchestra playing 2nd clarinet with my friend from the same school band. Almost at the same time, I was fascinated by piano. I managed to convince my mum to buy me one and I “learned” how to play piano by reading books and experimenting what worked and what didn’t in a self-taught manner. I got as far as playing grade 3 music scores and could not go further. My parents tried to get me a piano teacher but I had to leave home when I was 17 to study overseas.

Since I could not bring my piano to UK, nor could I afford to buy my own clarinet or saxophone (on loan by the school band), I switched to an instrument that is economical, portable, and easy to learn – guitar. 17 was also the year when I first started to appreciate pop and rock music – a big step away from the classical music I was used to listen to. From then on, guitar and I are inseparable. Whenever I feel blue or lonely, I always have my guitar with me. That is why whenever I work overseas, I bring one of my guitars over as well. Writing my own song seems like a natural progression and I have been doing that incessantly for about 15 years. Time flies!

Back to present time, I do have a humble music studio at home that we often used for “unplugged jamming”. Since our band has now found a drummer to jam with, it is time to hit a proper studio with a proper drum kit!

When I first stepped into the studio and … good gracious me … the speakers are SO HUGE! No way I can fit any of these monster size speakers into my home. Each of us has a speaker for our guitars and bass guitar. To be honest, I have not stepped in front of such a huge speaker while I play my electric guitar. Every time I strum a chord, I can feel the vibration going through my body. The sound level is really high inside a studio. First, you can’t control the volume of the drum kit and trust me, that is loud. Second, my own guitar speaker has to be as loud in order to match with the drum. I could still hear what Jason and Cynthia were playing (because theirs were pretty loud as well and I was standing directly in front of Cynthia’s speaker). But hearing my own voice was hard. Though there were two HUGE speakers hanging from the ceiling pointing right at my left and right ears just to project the vocal track, I have to sing really loud and close to the mic in order to vaguely hear myself. Definitely still trying to learn my way through (as I was the only one in the band who has no outdoor performance experience), I think I have already fallen in love with jamming inside a studio.

So, one tiny step closer to live performance eh? Baby steps … baby steps …

PS. Captions time! From left to right and top to bottom: (1) the “rock” post! (2) Chip, our new drummer, (3) Cynthia, myself, the bass speaker, and Jason, (4) Jason and his fiancee Selrol, (5) the guitar speaker that was less than 2 feet away from my back, (6) group photo.