The Wondersound Festival aims to showcase Singapore’s diverse music

SINGAPORE — Music fans here are spoilt for choice when it comes to music festivals this month, whether it’s jazz (Singapore International Jazz Festival) or dance music (Future Music Festival Asia). Indie music fans, though, will want to head to the SingJazz Club for the Wondersound Festival.

Organised by Edward Cheang, Norah Rahmat, Mohd Iqbar and JJ Ong, it runs from March 5 to 8 and features a diverse group of Singapore acts whose music is as colourful as their names suggest. These include Pastelpower, Orangecove, Baba & The Black Sheep, The Good Life Project, Lion City Ska Jazz Ensemble, Ciao Turtle, Attention! The New Portsdown, Comic Strip, Popwhizzee, among others.

“Even though this is not an SG50 project, this line-up is as SG50 as it gets, because it features veterans and new names all coming together. That’s the spirit we’re trying to build in the community,” said Cheang.

But why put together such a festival now, considering that other festivals are already on the calendar?

“The real question should be ‘why not’? The music scene in Singapore is growing and ever-changing. There is so much good talent and a lot of people don’t know where to look for them. So how do you get (around that)? You have to host shows and festivals,” said the 24-year-old.

Popular fuzz-pop outfit Obedient Wives Club (OWC) agreed to play because it seemed “like a pretty fun show to do”, said the band’s drummer, Lennat Mak. Together with Pastelpower and The Good Life Project, the band will kick off the festival on March 5. “We were quite moved by the organisers’ enthusiasm. It’s always great to see young kids so full of ideology and teen brio,” she added.

“It’s going to be a pretty special one. This show is Pastelpower’s first Singapore show in more than a year. OWC will be adding some of our old classics and demos to our setlist too, and we can’t wait to catch The Good Life Project — they are such a blast to watch live!”

Unlike instances in the past where local bands had to pay to play gigs, Cheang has agreed to pay the bands a token sum. “We don’t pay much, but we believe that no band should ever play for free,” he said, adding that bands sometime have to “pay through the nose” to be able to perform at certain venues. “At some places it’s S$500 to book it for four hours, and you can only fit like, 70 people comfortably. You’ll sell out the venue, you barely break even.”

He continued: “Taylor Swift was right. Art deserves value: You’re not paying for the performance — where the band stands in front of you for 45 minutes — you’re paying for the blood, sweat and tears that the band shed before that, making sure that the performance is well worth every cent you paid.”

The organisers’ biggest concern now is making sure that bums fill the seats. “Yeah, our biggest challenge is selling tickets ... arranging the logistics and getting the bands are comparatively easy,” said Cheang.

Even though he knows the results may not be as spectacular as SingJazz, Cheang seems prepared to go all out with Wondersound. “We’re a minor festival, but our goal is to keep doing this every year. My idea is to grow the community and turn Singapore into one of Asia’s top locations for English music. The only way we can do that is to create more opportunities for bands to play.”

He added: “Even if 10 people show up, that’s a success, because 10 people have paid money to see these bands play. They have shown that art has value in Singapore. It’s going to be a slow process, I’m not saying it’s going to be easy. I think it will take another five years before we can get a proper Singapore music scene going, but it is growing. People are getting interested and our attitudes are changing.”

Mak feels it’s good for young organisers to take risks in order to make things happen. “Granted, it’s inevitable (to run) into issues and challenges due to inexperience. But you know what? The more they do it, the better they can get. As a band, the best we can do is to show equal support to these young organisers whenever we can because we have all been there before.”

The Wondersound Festival happens from March 5 to 8. Visit http://wondersoundfestival.tumblr.com/ for updates. Tickets from S$20 (email wondersoundfestival [at] gmail.com to book).