INTRODUCTION
I fly planes as a profession. Formerly in the air force, airlines, and now in a small flying school. I’ve been playing the guitar actively for over thirty years, with about a decade in between where I completely stopped, and everything rusted.
Debân was a fusion band formed with keyboard wiz Andrea Teo, Xhuan Abishegenathan III on drums, Wendy on bass, a singer and me. We took part in the Yamaha Combo Competition ’83. If I recall right, I believe we played “Twilight Zone” by the Manhattan Transfer in the finals. My guitar teacher Danny Lim helped me learn the Jay Graydon solo. Didn’t win.
Breaking Glass formed when I was in CJC. It started as an all synth band, replicating the new wave bands of the time, but later morphed into a guitar-based band. It was one of the most creative bands I’ve ever been in. Straddling the tension between electronica and guitar, we’d swerve between synth-based songs, such as “Innocence” or “Pacific Day” and rock songs like “Dolphin Dreams”, “Fast and Furious” or “Cry Scars”. We crafted songs that, with Brian’s lyrics, we felt far transcended what was “local” at the time, and we worked hard, Me and Prakash, to provide the sonic tapestry.
We played everything from synth, rock, funk and reggae. We played the JC / NUS circuit extensively, were requested a lot for functions and stuff, but we never were one of the “core” underground or indie bands. We never got invited to Bigo parties. So, we organised and played our own gig to a public audience, which was unheard of at the time. We called it “The Secret Gig” and held it on Dec 7th ’89 at the PUB auditorium. 2 hours, half covers, half originals. The band lasted until ’91 before dissolving.
Morpheus Dream started in ’95, out of the embers of the defunct Breaking Glass. Initially a 3-man band, Prakash, Patrick and I recorded two songs for the compilation album “Tempo”. One song from it – “Don’t Give Me Love” hit Perfect 10’s Top 20 charts in ’96. Sadiq joined us for Perfect 10’s yearend gig, and then we were 4.
To date, MD has 2 albums out: a self-titled EP and an album called “Other stories”. Of note, “Silence”, a song off the EP received generous airplay on MTV and some other broadcast services of the time. Maybe because of the depiction of bondage?
In between the EP and Other stories, I had more or less given up music. Didn’t pick up even a string, until about 2015 when Prakash asked me to play guitar for the album launch of “The Fallen” (his solo project as The Moors). Morpheus Dream naturally restarted up after that with a new line up, new music and new album.
Null Voyager is a solo project where I can gather my muses and pour them into my self-indulgence. It’s a platform to explore my musical paths and see where I go.
PLAYING STYLE
I’m primarily a flat-picking blues based player with my roots in rock, prog-*, folk and strangely enough, new wave. I love the guitar for its ability to channel expression and emotion. I think the guitar is closest to the human voice in what it can do. You can tell a story with it, express emotions.
I find it hard to define a single approach to composition, whether it’s the song or the guitar part. But generally, it starts with something I have in mind or have heard, or maybe even an idea the other band members have. I try to visualise a story out of it, which may or may not align with the theme of the song. For example, in the song “Dream Sequence”, the guitar solo at the end was written to express menace and malice, a nightmare howling, with repetition and feedback. It had to underscore the malevolence while providing a counterpoint / contrast of the energy of the main song.
Sound wise, I’ve always tended to prefer more open, uncompressed voicings. I would rather gain stage than pour on a heckovalotta gain from one pedal. Preserves dynamic range. I like sweet singing tops, without the fizz.. so I guess I’m more vintage oriented.
For gigs, I favour smaller tube amps, between 10 to 15 watts. That way, to keep up with drums, I can push the amp to get the power tubes cooking, which is where I think these amps should live, plus getting the speaker cones to breathe. I normally would get 2 amps set up this way, as I prefer to go wet/dry on my rig. One amp will have the dry signal and the other amp will have dry signal plus everything else. My pedal board is wired such that I have flexibility to scale between gigs of different sizes with different numbers of amps, and to be able to plug into the front of the amps or use the effects loops, all without needing to rewire. Most of my gain comes from pedals, with a little help from the amps, which are set to scrape at the top of headroom. Cleans up with a twist of the volume knob.
For warmups, I don’t normally do scales and spiders. I have a story in my head, with an internal audience that I play to, to whom I play through some songs, chord structures, and solos as if I were playing at a gig. That way I would force myself to pay attention to accuracy, articulation, clarity and timing, as much as limbering up. Aside from that, I don’t really have favourite exercises, except to practice against backing tracks.
MAIN INSTRUMENTS
My first guitar was a steel stringed acoustic I bought when I was 12 from the old Chinese Emporium. Wandering through the maze of traditional Chinese vases, stationary, books and whatever it was that emporiums sold, there was, nestled away in a corner, a small music section. Next to the Erhu and Pipa were these cheap guitars. Nearly unplayable, action miles from the board, tone non-existent, but it was what I could afford. And it became my constant companion for the next few years, until it became a victim of its shoddy construction. Fortunately, I had discovered electrics at this point. I bought a black Cimar double cutaway. It was my one and only guitar. I jammed with it, wrote with it, gigged with it, took part in the Yamaha Combo competition with it. Locked myself in my room for hours with it... playing in a hot, stuffy room till I reached this almost trancelike state.
I didn’t have a social life.
Question: Do musicians suffer because of the intensity with which they experience their lives?
It was with the Cimar that I played one of my first gigs. It was for a church concert and interestingly, the main guitarist in that band is someone also on this list: Steven Tjoa. He played an Ibanez Iceman. Well. He was inspiring.
I then had a Yamaha SG2000. I guess at that point I wanted to be like Issei Noro. Unfortunately, I wasn’t ready for a guitar of that quality yet, though I did play one Breaking Glass gig with it. Even so, selling that guitar was one of my biggest regrets.
My next guitar was a red Strat-styled Yamaha with a Floyd Rose. An SE350 which I bought in ‘86. I still have the receipt, which has a refund disclaimer that I find hilarious: “Return or exchange will not be entertained”. (A musical company that doesn’t entertain?! And I guess since I bought the guitar, I need to do the entertaining!)
I bonded with this guitar almost immediately. It was so technically easy to play, I could pinch out harmonics with abandon, dive bomb for days and make what the band called my whale and dolphin noises with ease. While it had passable tone, once I changed the bridge pickup to a DiMarzio “The Breed”, the guitar truly sang. The solo in the song “See it Through” from the Morpheus Dream EP is played with it and defines the tone I gravitate towards: a sweet, singing, soaring, searing tone, pure like a sine wave and right on the edge of feedback. This guitar has been with me ever since, and it’s been on all the albums I’ve played on. It was the guitar I gigged when I returned to music.
There is a thing to be said about having just one guitar. There’s this sense of immediacy, of totally connecting viscerally with your instrument. I sometimes miss that.
Because come the 90’s, when I started to have the means, I began buying more guitars. I now have about 12 electrics. Starting with an MIJ Fender HMT Telecaster – the one with the pointy headstock, the funky font and 24 frets, a ‘93 Guild Brian May Signature, (because of the amazing tonal versatility, and, because… Brian May.) I used this guitar for the clean arpeggio in the bridge of the song “Silence”, and also to get that almost electric piano-like intro for “Remembrance”.
I have a Mexican Stratocaster, which was a gift from my band mate and best friend Prakash. It has since been so heavily modified that it really doesn’t play like a Strat, nor sound like one. It has steel frets, a Babicz trem, a Seymour Duncan ‘lil ‘59 in the bridge, a vintage stack in the mid and the Satch Track in the neck. This guitar was used for the rhythm parts of the song “Fast and Furious” from Morpheus’ album “Other Stories”.
A Gibson Blueshawk followed soon after. This is a versatile semi hollow with the Varitone, which is a 6 way knob that notches out certain frequencies as you rotate it. A Semi-hollow Baker BJH, (pre-Ed Roman), and a Heritage H-170, both courtesy of Dream Time Music, my now defunct online guitar shop that Prakash and I started in ‘04.
The last few I obtained were a Sandblasted PRS SE Custom 24 in blue, an American Pro II Telecaster and a Tom Anderson Angel. The Angel has an insanely beautiful neck to play. It has a powerful voice yet remains articulate. It challenges how I think and play. It is not just a tool but a muse.
OTHER EQUIPMENT
When I started, it was simply Cimar into a solid state Peavey 10 watter whose name I cannot remember. Then it was guitar, pedal, pedal, pedal, etc, amp. Mainly Boss. I did do multi-effects processors for a while, such as the Zoom 9002, Sansamp, Boss ME80, and some others. This path was driven by my thoughts about sound quality during recording and while playing live. All the venues we played at had terrible sound. No one knew (or cared) about sound control, and whether the audience could hear clearly. I’ve always felt that we were obligated to provide the best audio quality to the paying audience and thus I decided I wouldn’t use amps, but go direct into the PA, through a speaker simulator. That way drum machine, vocals, everything, could be monitored and mixed properly. For Breaking Glass’ “The Secret Gig” in ’89, I was using the Rockman and the Zoom 9002 direct to PA.
Then, later, later, later… Leonard Soosay showed how he could get great live sound. It totally changed my thinking. It made amps available to me again. Partly that and partly my desire to replicate Brian May’s tones, and also partly what I observed Prakash doing on the guitar that pushed me back to amps. Speaking of Brian May… In 2005 I bought an AC30 CC2X, with the Celestion Blue Alnicos. I was set!
I wasn’t. I hated the sound and seldom played it. Fizzy on the top, and to get any decent tone, it had to push volume, which, for those who know AC30s, is blistering.
Fast forward a decade, at the gig to launch Prakash’s solo album “The Fallen”, Leonard put me into his Vox AC30 and cranked it. It sounded wonderful. So I went back and did research that showed Korg had made mistakes with their production AC30s. So I had mine fixed, all except the speaker cones. Sounds amazing now.
Other amps include a heavily modified 4 watt Vox AC4, a Ceriatone 15 watt Overtone Special Lunchbox, a few Bantamps and an Orange Micro Dark Terror. All these are heads which feed either of my two 1x12 cabinets, one loaded with a WGS ET65 and one with a Reaper.
On my pedal board, my drive section starts with an SP compressor into a Strymon Sunset then the Riverside, then a “guest” slot where I will rotate a Marvellous Engine, Sovereign, Pinnacle or a no name Prince of Tone clone. Next slot is where I rotate the KEY9, SYNTH9, MEL9, Xtomp or other generator pedals. From there the signal reaches my Eventide H9 which is so capable beyond just delays that sometimes I have paralysis. Next in line is the Neo Clone Chorus and finally the Neunaber Immerse for reverb. Occasionally I will throw a Dunlop mini–Germanium Fuzz-face right in front of the whole mess, before my buffers.
As I said, my preference is for wet/dry, so my signal chain starts at the Sentry Noisegate, which loops in all my drive pedals before the generator guest slot. From there it splits via a Radial Tonebone Twin-City to two lines. One line to feed one amp directly with gain pedals only, and the other to continue through the generator guest slot, to the remaining pedals to another amp. All controlled by a simple Moen GEC9 which has no midi.
OTHER LOCAL GUITARISTS/BASSISTS YOU FIND INTERESTING
The late, amazing Paul Ponnudorai, who played like the devil and sang like an angel. I can do neither as well, but he inspired me to try. Danny Lim, my guitar teacher, who had unbelievable technique. For him, my Cimar sang. For me the guitar took my nascent prodding under advisement. Also: Clinton Carnegie, Tiang Yeow from Zircon Lounge, the virtuoso Dhalif, and a guitarist called Fahmy from a band called Neural Vibe. Fahmy was unique, inventive, and unconventional. I thought he was one of the best alt rock guitarists in Singapore. Prakash, the other guitarist in the band, whom I admire not just a guitarist, but also as a songwriter. In my mind, his solo from “Dolphin Dreams” ranks as one of the best I’ve ever heard. Evocative, uplifting, triumphant. He’s this ability to compose the perfect part to complement the music.
You know, as I’m in Canada now… Alex Lifeson is considered “local” to me. Does that count? LOL.
PHOTO ABOVE
From left, Guild Brian May Signature, Tom Anderson Angel, Yamaha SE350. Behind them left to right is the Fender HMT Tele, PRS SE Custom 24 and Parker Fly. At the back stands my VOX AC30, Ceriatone on top of two cabs, Orange micro dark, the Joyo Jackman Bantamp and the AC4.