My main bands…
The New School Rock days with The Mother. 1993-95
There’s The Padres (aka the paydays – inside joke, shout out to the boys). 1994-98
Some like the short lived band with my sister Melt named after George and Robin’s fanzine. 1999
I enjoyed a new style of song writing with IF - I was more singing than on guitars. 2003
Then there’s The Silence And The Sea (IF spin-off) a band on hiatus for a while now which may do something… soonish.
Bhaskar Subramanian’s Steel City Skies was my favourite, I played bass. Was such a joy being in the back seat for a change, no pressure and pure pleasure. He’s my favourite local song writer. 1999-2002
Now I have an office band The Endless. So I’m still making music and having a great time doing it.
PLAYING STYLE
I’ve never considered myself a guitarist, cos I’d play any instrument as long as I could be in a band.
I was a kid of the 80s, so I was surrounded by lots of new wave and rock with lots of reverb / echoes. Like Alphaville, Duran Duran, U2, Echo and The Bunnymen, The Cure, The Cult, Flock of Seaguls, Stone Roses etc. That early music was an inspiration as were my friends.
I remember going over to friends’ houses just to listen to music, then on a $20 Congress tong guitar we’d try to figure out and tangkap the chords.
I guess maybe that’s my sound, a mishmash of all that with lots of reverb echoes and delays. Space rock… with pop sentiments.
I wouldn’t say I have a particular style, it’s like I use short cuts for everything.
My Philosophy… if it sounds good it can’t be bad. #famouslastwords
MAIN INSTRUMENTS
In The Mother years I used a Semi Hollow, Ruby Red - Aria Pro 335 copy that I borrowed from Fred Boanes, Eugene’s Father. Which I broke. Sorry Uncle Fred, RIP.
After that I had a $50 second hand blackish Aria Pro Cardinal series but sold that for $100 to finance a backpacking holiday.
I bought my first brand new electric guitar in 95 with my first pay cheque from Tower Records. A handsome looking Sunburst Epiphone Les Paul for $350. The main guitar you hear in The Padre’s Night album.
In 96 I bought a 60s Japanese-made semi-solid guitar at a pawn shop when I visited my Nanna in Vancouver Canada. I paid $200 Canadian ($180 SG) for it and a Boss Flanger pedal, what a steal. It became the Padres' back up guitar.
Next is a sunburst 57 classic reissue Fender Japanese Strat specced out to Clapton’s signature series which I bought online from a shop in Japan in 2003. Easily the best sounding guitar I got.
Recently added Olive Green Fender Jaguar but I haven’t been able to play it in a proper studio or gig setting yet due to covid restrictions.
My day to day is acoustic Taylor GS Mini. I call it Baby, which confuses people cos they always think it’s a baby Taylor which it is not. Love that guitar.
OTHER EQUIPMENT
I have Fender Delux but at home I use a 5 watt Bantamp.
Most of my pedals are Roland Boss Pedals.
My classic set up is Vox-Wah, Overdrive, Distortion, Chorus, Flanger, Digital Delay 3 and sometimes a DD6 on reverse mode just to add flavour.
Recently I’ve been messing around with classic clones and boutique gadgets from china cos they’re extremely cheap and sound great.
Strings… My guitars are either 12 or 14 gauge. Thicker strings sound better to me and tend to hold tuning.
OTHER LOCAL GUITARISTS YOU FIND INTERESTING
The band at St Theresa’s Church at Kampong Bahru were quite inspiring when I was a boy, they sounded like the shadows and sang like Elvis and Cliff Richard. My sister, brother and me would go early just to listen to the soundchecks.
I remember watching Heritage do their thing at Far East Plaza when I was in secondary school. Those Jensen brothers made music look like so much fun. They were inspiring.
My friend Eugene Boanes inspired me to pick up the guitar when I was 14. He would always figure out the chords for the songs that our band from school would play. I’ll never forget how he made me play the lines from U2’s Where The Streets Have No Name 3 times as fast cos we didn’t know about delay or echo pedals at the time. Haha.
When I was 17, my course mate Isa was the most natural guitarist I’d ever seen. He was the first kid I knew that was actually recording his own originals. I remember going to Noise Box studio at Serangoon Gardens when he was tracking and being gobsmacked. That inspired me to do it myself. So just a few months later The Mother tracked our demo there the week before we went to NS. That got the whole band ball rolling for me.
Nazim from The Mother was a great guitar player. A lot of the things he did blew me away. It’s like he approached the guitar in a completely different way to other guitar players. Most of those edge like sounds actually came from him and not me. Everyone’s always shocked to find out that he came from a death metal band.
Evan Tan bassist of the Padres was Legend. It was so much fun playing with him back in the day. He allowed me the space to do my thing. He made it sound seamless and effortless, generally always played the right thing. That’s why he’s a legend. I wish he’d start playing bass again.
Randolf Arriola is the absolute best guitarist in Singapore in my opinion. He does things with the guitar most can only dream of. A virtuoso. In fact, it feels like he’s transcended the instrument with his live looping. He’s only one gadget short of launching rockets into space. I’ve been privileged to call him a friend, brother and mentor. He’s given me some sagely guitar and life advice over the years. He was one of the few accomplished musicians who didn’t look down on us indie kids. And if I remember correct, he helped me pick out that Handome Epiphone Les Paul all those years ago.
My favourite guitarist to play with is Fuzz aka The Fuzzbox (only to me haha) aka Elintseeker. He always inspires, cos we have some kind of weird otherworldly connection… a uniquely telepathic musical understanding that I cannot explain. Writing songs comes so easy when I do it with him. Every time he walks in and says I got this guitar line, you know its gonna kena. The most tasteful guitarist in my opinion.
Nohghani from Turntable Music – he’s more of a composer but also a great guitarist. My partner in crime for my day job. Watching him work is definitely inspiring, Salute Dato’.