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National Day Special 2016: No finer time for S’pore music

Last month, Singapore quartet The Sam Willows played their first full-length concert to screaming fans at the Hard Rock Coliseum in Sentosa.

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Last month, Singapore quartet The Sam Willows played their first full-length concert to screaming fans at the Hard Rock Coliseum in Sentosa.

Just a month before that, Singaporean singer-songwriter Joel Tan, who goes by the stage moniker Gentle Bones, played two sold-out concerts at the Esplanade’s Concert Hall.

While Singaporean artistes selling out concerts aren’t unheard of (think Kit Chan, Stefanie Sun, JJ Lin or Taufik Batisah), it’s worth noting that there hasn’t been such a significant show of support for the English pop music perhaps since the 1960s, when bands such as The Crescendos, The Trailers or The Quests were topping the charts and filling seats at concerts and tea dances.

The crowds at both The Sam Willows’ and Gentle Bones’ shows may only make up a fraction of the audience that Ms Sun or Mr Lin gets, but the fact that people are willing to pay to see their favourite local English pop singers is a turnaround in attitudes from a mere five years ago.

In the last five years, there has been an explosion of local music streaming into our collective consciousness, with artistes such as Inch Chua, Shigga Shay, Charlie Lim, Gentle Bones and The Sam Willows leading the charge.

Along with them, other artistes such as singers Cherie Ko, Sezairi, Derrick Hoh and Nathan Hartono, vocal group MICappella, jazz outfit The Steve McQueens, electronic duo .gif, R&B artiste The Lion City Boy and many more have been making a musical impact on the scene here.

Even major record labels here are changing their tune about signing on local artistes. Warner Music has contracted Inch Chua, while Sony has The Sam Willows, Trick and Sezairi on its roster, and Universal Music Singapore has Gentle Bones, its first local signing.

While these artistes’ popularity with fans probably swung the deal, the artistes’ ambition and ability cannot be ignored.

Universal Music Singapore’s head of strategic development and artistes and repertoire, Mr Lim Teck Kheng, previously told TODAY that Gentle Bones’ creative vision, and “exceptional talents, dedication and passion in his music” were also key factors in the decision to sign him up.

And their appeal isn’t only local. An increasing number of Singapore’s younger players have ventured overseas — from The Pinholes to Deon Toh to Cherie Ko — to play at various events and festivals, including Canada’s Music Week, the South By Southwest Festival and the Java Jazz Music Festival. Last year, The Steve McQueens and rock band Caracal performed at one of Asia’s largest music festivals, Japan’s Summer Sonic.

This year, notable names such as rock band In Each Hand A Cutlass and Shigga Shay are doing “offshore” gigs.

Meanwhile, local artistes have also been making a splash online. The Sam Willows, for example, was the first South-east Asian act to break into Spotify’s global Viral 50 chart last year.

Unlike other charts which are based on the number of streams alone, Spotify’s Viral charts take into account both streams and the number of times listeners share the song. The Sam Willows were streamed by listeners from countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Mexico, Germany and Sweden.

THE SINGAPORE SOUND? 

Of course, with all these musicians coming to the fore, is there such a thing as the Singapore sound? America has its jazz and blues, Britain has Britpop, and Europe has Eurodance. In Asia, there’s K-pop (from South Korea), Mando-pop (China/Taiwan), Cantopop (Hong Kong) and J-Pop (Japan). Does Singapore have its own Singa-pop?

“I don’t know,” said musician and Cultural Medallion recipient Dick Lee, who actually coined the term “Singa-pop”. “Everybody seems to want to sound like someone else. Even I did when I started out — I wanted to be Elton John. But if you want the outside world to be interested, you have to offer something unique.”

His idea of that uniqueness is someone like rapper Shigga Shay, who is releasing a remake of Dick Lee’s version of Rasa Sayang.

According to Mr Lee, Shigga Shay is “one person who could bring our Singaporean-ness to the rest of the world”, thanks to Singlish-infused songs such as Lion City Kia, Lim Peh or Da Bao. “He is consciously doing it, and he sounds totally cool doing it.”

For jazz musician Jeremy Monteiro, Singapore has yet to find its sound. “I don’t think there’s a specific sound per se, but a confluence of the influences that our young musicians have picked up. Like Charlie Lim: You can hear all his influences in his music ... even as he adds his own voice to the mix,” he said.

“And you cannot just get the Singapore sound by simply adding some tabla or Malay rhythms to a pop song. If you do it wrongly, it just comes out as cheesy.”

Still, Mr Lee said that writing songs that could be seen as comedic or slightly cheesy isn’t a bad thing. “Take Gangnam Style by Psy. It brought a worldwide consciousness to (the K-pop scene),” he said.

While he said musicians needn’t write another Gangnam Style or Rasa Sayang, they ought to have a crack at creating a “folk song” for the future.

After all, most of the world’s most popular music was derived from folk songs. Even Stefanie Sun’s big hit, Cloudy Day, riffed off a Chinese folk tune.

“That is where it could start. It doesn’t have to be My Bonnie. It doesn’t have to be too poetic. It can be written in a vernacular that we can use. Not necessarily Singlish, but try to write a song in plain English about life here. Not an NDP song, but about your daily life in Singapore. Like how you feel about the sun entering the window of your HDB flat or something,” said Mr Lee.

He added: “It won’t happen overnight. We are culturally still so young, and finding the Singapore sound isn’t going to come anytime soon. It took me almost 10 years to get from Rasa Sayang, which I did in 1989, to Home, which was in 1998. But we have to start somewhere.”

THE NEXT GENERATION

Another question is whether there is enough talent to follow up on the momentum built up by the current crop of emerging stars.

The answer, said jazz singer Alemay Fernandez, is yes.

“There are a lot of great performers and there is a lot of talent in Singapore,” said Fernandez, who has performed with some of the best names in the business and recently released her album, Hard To Imagine. “I am constantly being blown away by the artistic scene.”

One of the artistes whose star is on the ascent is Linying. She will be flying the Republic’s flag on the Island Stage at Summer Sonic this year. It’s a “pretty crazy” prospect, as she said, considering that artistes such as Radiohead, Two Door Cinema Club and Flo Rida are headlining the festival.

Her debut EP, Paris 12, is slated for release in September, and earlier this year, she found herself on Spotify’s global Viral 50 chart with her song, Sticky Leaves.

She was also in a Billboard feature in June, and had previously collaborated with several notable dance music producers from Europe, such as Felix Jaehn and Krono.

“She is amazing,” said Ms Sunita Kaur, managing director of Spotify Asia.

“We are starting to see her build fans all over the world. She has got a great following in Germany and London. It is really exciting to see our homegrown talent doing so well.”

However, Ms Fernandez cautioned that with so many acts getting in on the action, it can be a little difficult to stand out. One solution, she said, is to work on the stagecraft.

“Being good at music is one thing. When you get onstage and you are faced with an audience — that is a whole other ball game.”

One can only hope. But if there’s one thing that Singapore’s young musicians have in spades, it’s hope.

Just ask singer Nathan Hartono, who recently released his single Electricity, and has been making waves in China as a contestant on reality singing competition Sing! China.

“I genuinely believe Singapore can be the hub for English music in Asia, especially when you see what has been coming out of here recently. In every scene, there is a big name that is making waves outside of Singapore. I think that is extremely encouraging and heartening,” he said.

If nothing else, the current surge of local music is definitely a plus point for the scene, said Spotify’s Kaur. “That is something that Singapore can be proud of.”

To paraphrase the lyrics of seminal local band Humpback Oak, there’s no finer time to be a musician in Singapore.

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