S’pore musician Cherie Ko is on a dark new journey with TOMGIRL

SINGAPORE — They say that when a door closes, a window opens. But even before Singapore musician Cherie Ko closed the door on her musical alter ego that was Pastelpower last December, she had already opened the window of opportunity to a new musical project.

“I was at crossroads and feeling at a loss,” said Ko of the decision to end Pastelpower. “I felt I outgrew Pastelpower and who I was then. I wanted to push myself further and create something with more gravity and express myself better.”

The result is TOMGIRL, a collaborative duo comprising Ko and Singaporean-Australian musician Ted Dore (pronounced “doh-ray”), who currently resides in Melbourne. The pair first met at the Laneway music festival in Singapore two years ago and found that they have not only the same friends, but also the same tastes in music and movies: Shoegaze, ’60s girl groups and cult movies such as Mystery Train, The Lost Boys and Quentin Tarantino films.

“We started jamming and he asked me if I wanted to write some songs together,” said Ko. “It was quite trial and error, like shoegaze numbers that didn’t quite pan out.”

Then the night before Dore had to fly back to Melbourne, they came up with Darker Now, which ended up as TOMGIRL’s first single that’s dropping today and making its worldwide premiere on Beats 1 Radio.

It’s a prelude to TOMGIRL’s debut album, which the duo plans to release in September, and it could not be further from Pastelpower’s quirky electro-pop.

Darker Now has a retro noir vibe — “noir pop” if you will — with aural elements that seem to draw from the best bits of Garbage, Lana Del Rey or even Obedient Wives Club. In fact, it could easily be a track to a film by Tarantino or Robert Rodriguez.

The music video, directed by Jacky Lee, also reflects that vibe, with Ko and Dore playing Bonnie and Clyde-type characters — or perhaps characters such as Natural Born Killers’ Mickey and Mallory or True Romance’s Clarence and Alabama.

TOMGIRL’s music is in part inspired by Ko’s love for “mood and atmosphere, the mis en scene, of film”.

“I like to create a whole world out of the music. It’s not just an audio thing. It is an all-encompassing journey.”

Ko flew to Melbourne to put the finishing touches to the album earlier this year. They had written separately, but she said that was “a struggle” getting stuff done via email. Writing together was more creative.

“We could be a bit more experimental and bounce ideas off each other on the spot. We locked ourselves in the basement and recorded day and night. We barely slept or ate. It was quite intense.”

Ko said this collaboration was an eye-opener for her. “I never worked with someone so closely before,” she elaborated. “It’s quite a symbiotic relationship. You could say he’s my musical soul-mate.”

That Ko has switched gears this manner is not as surprising as one might think. Since she posted her first videos online, accompanying herself on acoustic guitar, Ko has turned out to be quite the musical morph.

Apart from her stint as Pastelpower, Ko still plays lead guitar in the pop-fuzz band, Obedient Wives Club, fronted slow-core trio Bored Spies, as well as worked with the singer of local indie outfit Giants Must Fall, Jean Low, for their Cherie x Ferry projects.

She is also putting on a new hat as the founder of Deer Island Records, which will be releasing all of TOMGIRL’s material. (Although in Australia and New Zealand, TOMGIRL is distributed by Conkrete Music.)

“We’re going all out with that,” Ko said. “I have always been very intrigued by the business side of things and what goes on behind the scenes. I think it’s important ... If I want to be a successful musician, I need to know everything — including all the boring, technical aspects!”

She said that she has learnt a lot with TOMGIRL — from learning the business to handling relationships (“working with friends ... there can be conflicts”) — but it has been worth it.

“It has been quite a challenging journey to pull this whole thing together (but) it has made me stronger,” she said. “You have to have courage to stand your ground, even if there can be backlash (to) stay true to your artistic vision.”

But for now, she is focusing on the new music and TOMGIRL’s album launch concert, slated to be held on Sept 4 in Singapore, and follow that with tours of South-east Asian and Australia/New Zealand.

And yes, she will also be involved when Obedient Wives Club launches a new EP later this year. “Obedient Wives Club wasn’t really a top priority in all (the band members’) lives ... but we’re not disbanding any time soon,” stated Ko.

“They are like my family. When I joined them in 2012, the other members were always looking out for me like a younger sister. They even gave me money to buy guitar pedals!”

Still, Ko feels like her musical journey as TOMGIRL will lead to bigger things. “I haven’t hit my peak yet. I think there’s more I can improve. I feel like I’m on the cusp of something exciting about to happen and I’m evolving and maturing into this woman ... like now I am on my way to doing something greater.”

Darker Now is out now on iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, Tidal and Vevo. For more details, visit TOMGIRL's Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/tomgirlband)