University students dominated the dance floor at Kilo Lounge last Wednesday for Varcity SG. The event was aimed at bringing like-minded artistes together to share their music.
What I found interesting about VARCITY — it’s an event organised entirely by university students from the Singapore Institute of Management (University at Buffalo). Branded as an event organised by students, for students, it was no surprise that the crowd at Kilo Lounge that night was a young one.
We managed to catch up with some of the bands after the show. Here’s what they have to say about stage fright, future plans and their muses.
MADE WITH MONSTERS
After watching emo band Made With Monsters kill it on stage, I was intrigued by what inspired their first and latest single, Cherry.
Released on Monday earlier this week, Cherry is a raw yet catchy number — you might just catch yourself tapping your feet and singing along to its honest lyrics.
The band came together in late 2016 when vocalist, Jovan met guitarist Shawn at their university orientation camp. They later roped in Nathan and Jovan’s brother, Aavan, who plays the drums.
When I asked the band what Cherry was about, they laugh and tell me that Cherry is titled after the club, Cherry Discotheque, which is no longer in operation. But laughter aside, the inspiration for Cherry was drawn from quite a dark time in Jovan’s life.
“I was feeling very depressed as I was going through a breakup back then. I had this mental and emotional breakdown and wanted to kill myself, at the time. This actually happened outside Cherry, hence the song’s title.”
The band started out as an acoustic band, but is now veering towards emo or alternative rock. When asked why they went through such a drastic change, lead guitarist Shawn says “acoustics are fun, but it doesn’t let us express who we really are.”
Despite having moved away from acoustic covers, the band says their favourite acoustic covers so far were Lips of An Angel by Hinder and The Diary of Jane by Breaking Benjamin.
Made With Monsters has also performed at UB Talented 2016, played at SIM Music Fest, as well as Passion Arts Festival @ Bedok.
Don’t miss out on Made With Monster’s original Cherry on Spotify.
MJDJ
The six-member band, doesn’t believe in classifying themselves under any specific genre. Says MJDJ’s vocalist Jerilyn, “Honestly, we don’t know. At first, we picked out the more mainstream songs that people listen to.”
We picked the songs according to each member’s talents and what they are capable of. Christian chimes in, saying “We should just do what we want to do.”
Jerilyn shares that apart from being a member of MJDJ, she is part of the SIM singing club, Esprimere as well. You probably can’t tell that she has a stage fright from her powerful rendition of Britney Spear’s Toxic, but the bubbly vocalist explains that she “joined Esprimere in the hopes if being able to cure my (her) stage fright.”
Christian shares that he grew up listening to local music, and even started playing with a post harcore band before he enlisted in the National Service. He also started works with Invasion Singapore and plays with a couple of other local bands.
Andrea, who sets beats for MJDJ, is a resident DJ at Mad Men Attic Bar and also does events. She was trained in electro house music and is sponsored by an agency under 2 year contract.
REVERIE
The all-girl quartet was only formed 3 months before VARCITY SG, as part of the University at Buffalo’s music elective module. Audrey, Linh, Yi Chen, and Gloria. Yi Chen, Reverie’s keyboardist, recalls: “It was a lot harder when we first started out becuase we didn’t have that kind of band chemistry, when we just formed.”
“We would take 3- 4 days just to practice one song. We’re not perfect now, but there’s been significant improvement since we first started.”
I was particularly impressed with their rendition of Mine by Bazzi – especially since Reverie vocalist Audrey, had lost her voice just two days before the show. She told us that she almost couldn’t perform at VARCITY, and the team would have to alter their set list due to one missing member.
Audrey recalls that she was bummed out when she realised she might not be able to perform “partly because I had friends who had bought tickets, and I’d feel bad if I couldn’t perform.”
She also explains that VARCITY was “something I (she) was looking forward to”. The four girls have also had some prior experience outside of the music module.
Yi Chen, the keyboardist, shares that she plays at weddings and bars in her spare time, and has a special interest in playing instrumental jazz. When I ask Gloria, Reverie’s guitarist, about inspiration and music influence, she chuckles. “I’m pretty bad at keeping up with artistes. Whenever people ask me whether I’ve heard of a particular song, I’m like ‘no…’.” She also adds that her music influences are “very,very random” but that she likes jazz singer Michael Bublé.
The girls share that one of the favourite songs of their set was Hold Back The River by James Bay, a number that they had only begun rehearsing on Monday, much to my surprise.
When we discuss Reverie’s future plans, the members share that it may be challenging to continue the music collective due to differing schedules, but commented that they would not mind taking up gigs, “depending on the type of opportunities we get.”
ROYAL ESTATE
The band 4 commanded a strong stage presence at Kilo Lounge on Wednesday. The crowd was noticeable much closer to the stage during Royal Estate’s upbeat performance, and they really manage to get the crowd hyped up with their groovy numbers.
It is clear that Royal Estate are no rookies – they have landed big gigs like Noise Singapore 2017 , where they were under the mentorship of music producer Clement Yang. They also performed during the iLight Festival which ended in early April this year.
When asked about the band’s music influences, vocalist and guitarist Russell Goh comments : “ our sound comes alot from British bands – we’re very influenced by funk bands.” The lyrics of Pacing “rag on the Instagram generation, which is very tiring and superficial,” explains Russell.
“When we started the band, we already had originals. We’ve always wanted to produce originals, the covers are just to get the public’s attention, and to draw relation to other sounds.”
When asked about their future plans, Royal Estate shared that they hope to play at St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival in 2020, or the Glastonbury Festival in the United Kingdom. The band will also be involved in Scape’s Invasion tour, and will be performing at various local secondary schools.
Check out Royal Estate’s latest original, Pacing on Spotify.
Article by Natalie Danielle Kwan
