INTRODUCTION
I used to say that I’m a singer-songwriter, but that tends to conjure a certain image and meaning that isn’t quite right, so I guess I’m a songwriter who just happens to sing and play guitar.
My first notable band was Silverspy, where we would distribute and sell our cassette tapes in places such as Dada or Roxy Records in Singapore. We released three EPs between 1991-1993. Mad fun. It was largely just me, Jay Phua, and a Fostex 8-track recorder. Neither of us could play our instruments very well and so we’d get friends to help when we could. Suchness followed soon after. We were a four-piece that was more indie rock skewed. We had a track called ‘Spellweaver’ released on BigO Singles Club, where we appeared alongside Force Vomit and Astreal. After that I went away for studies and more or less stopped playing in a band for ten years.
Until, believe it or not, Guitar Hero came along.
It was such a rush to hit the buttons right that I would play late into the night or wake up early in the morning to play and practice. That’s when I thought to myself, if I’m gonna spend so much time on a guitar, it might as well be a real one, since I was never any good with a real one. So I bought a Japanese-made Fender Jaguar off a website. I still had a bunch of unrecorded songs, and I thought I’d record them before I realized it’s probably more fun doing this with friends and so that’s how Shelves was formed. It’s probably the most fun I’ve ever had anywhere, not just in music. We released a full-length and an EP, both mixed by Patrick Chng who really got our sound.
Then, once again, I had to leave for overseas and everything sorta reset again. This time, however, I wasn’t going to let another 10 years pass without music. I quickly formed a band called Supersloth with my co-workers, recording at the legendary Pachyderm Studios (Nirvana, PJ Harvey, Soul Asylum) to produce an EP called Blank. We were all ready to perform our songs in New York City, had gigs lined up, before COVID struck. Thankfully, even in the middle of Supersloth, I had already started releasing music on my own as Baby Combat, where I would write, record, and release a single every month for a year. This kept me sane, and also showed me that I could still do things without another physical human being in the room.
Baby Combat is now my main musical output. A bit of a full circle thing happening here, too. Just like with Silverspy, I would get friends to help with parts to songs. It also weirdly allowed me to connect with old friends and make some new ones. Everything is done remotely, thanks to the internet. Having said that, I just moved to Portland a few months ago and I’ve been thinking about getting a real band together, i.e. playing with real people in the same room. We’ll see how that goes.
PLAYING STYLE
Listening to Sonic Youth and Pavement for the first time was very freeing. The idea that noise and dissonance and (seemingly) out-of-tune chords was okay. Not only wasn’t I a technical player, I also have a paralyzed left pinkie, which means that there are certain chords, or really, many chords that I can’t play. It took me far too long to be comfortable with that. I think it was really only in Shelves, when there was a gig I couldn’t play and so my guitarist had to play my parts and found that he couldn’t quite recreate my chords live. There would inevitably be an open string here or there when I play, which makes for a fairly dissonant type of sound that is impossible to replicate if all your fingers are working. I learned to embrace my guitar-playing after that.
I thought I’d get better at the things that I can control, such as plucking. This is probably where I am now, craft-wise. Just trying to get better at my guitar plucking. God I sound like such an amateur, which I guess I am. Non-sequitur but I was always jealous of the band name Amateur Takes Control. Just perfect.
MAIN INSTRUMENTS
Fender Telecaster ‘62 Custom Reissue (Japan). First guitar, and for a long time, my only guitar. Primarily used in Suchness. I think I wanted to be like Graham Coxon. I eventually sold it in LA to a very happy, working musician for not very much money. It hadn’t been used in years and I was feeling guilty about having an unplayed guitar at home.
Epiphone Casino (Indonesia). Ridiculously playable neck. My first and only hollowbody. I thought it was incredible that I could sound like John Lennon for relatively little money. Spoiler alert: I never sounded like John Lennon.
Fender Jaguar HH Special (Japan) 2007. I got this for how it looks and because of My Bloody Valentine and all the usual suspects. I didn’t know the difference between humbuckers and single coils then and didn’t know that with the hardtail (which came as the model’s default) it would actually play closer to a Gibson. It was also all black and chrome, which is very un-Fender, but again I didn’t know all this then. Later when I knew I tried to mess up how the guitar looks by adding a whole bunch of stickers. I wanted to hide how all-black it was. I eventually replaced the black pickguard with a green tortoise shell. Initially I had wanted to replace the pickups because they were somewhat thin-sounding, but just like with my guitar playing, I eventually learned to embrace it. If I had replaced my humbuckers with better quality ones, it would sound even more like a Gibson(!) which I didn’t want. The only real mod was the addition of a Bigsby. It was a non-invasive add-on but I haven’t removed it since so it might as well have been permanent. I absolutely love my Bigsby, possibly even more than a standard Fender tremolo. Sacrilege! The other thing I’ve come to love about the Jaguar is the “strangle switch” that cuts out the low end so your guitar cuts through the mix. So important in a recording, and as a bonus, your guitar gets this frail tone that can make a sad song sound sadder.
Fender Mustang ‘65 Reissue (Japan). Something about this neck makes it tremendously easy to play. The trade-off is that it doesn’t have the sort of resonant tones that, say, my Jaguar would have. It’s also extremely light. What I like about this particular guitar is how you can purposely have the pickups go out of phase, creating this “wrong” sound, not unlike Khruangbin’s.
Fender American Professional II Jazzmaster (USA) 2021. Always wanted a Jazzmaster, the same reason I wanted a Jaguar. So many of my heroes were using it. The thing that turned me on to this particular one was the color, which has an awful name, Miami Blue. Anyway, this is my most recent acquisition and so I’m still getting used to it. I realize I’ve almost exclusively been playing with short scale guitars – Jaguar and Mustang – and so I’m having a bit of trouble reaching for some chords. The action was also a bit mucked up by the luthier who gave me the worst set-up. Had to take it back. Even after that, it didn’t work exactly right so I had to tweak parts of the action myself. I’ll probably bring it to another place in a few months for a professional setup.
I also have some basses and acoustic guitars over the years but they were really just there to help me complete a track and so they aren’t particularly interesting. Actually, maybe except the Gretsch Junior Jet I. I have always struggled with the bass because of my small hands and paralyzed pinkie that I thought that was just how it was, until I played with a friend’s short scale Gretsch. I could play everything! Even the single pickup position was in the right spot for my thumb.
So, in a nutshell, the Jaguar is still my main guitar while I figure out the Jazzmaster. My second guitar should I play live at a gig again would probably be the Mustang because it just works and doesn’t add that much weight to my load.
OTHER EQUIPMENT
I only ever really used a Blues Driver with a RAT before and was happy enough for a very long time. That was essentially the Shelves rhythm guitar sound.
In recent years, I got obsessed with guitar effects and bought a little too many pedals. The current mainstays on my pedalboard are JHS Morning Glory, JHS Muffuleta (usually on Triangle setting), Land Devices HP-2, BOSS Vibrato VB-2w, and a Strymon Flint. They run into a Strymon Iridium which is great if you want to wear headphones and hear everything your pedals can give you.
Amp-wise I’ve only used tiny 4W-type bedroom amps, until two years ago when I got a Fender '68 Custom Princeton Reverb because I needed more headroom for my pedals. OMG. I had been missing out! I strongly urge guitarists out there to get a proper amp so you can hear the full dynamics and tonal quality of your guitar sound. I learned this far too late.
OTHER LOCAL GUITARISTS/BASSISTS YOU FIND INTERESTING
I always thought Zhang Wenjie, who was the bass player for Suchness, had the best grooves. We’d call him Groovy Charlie Chan, which was probably funnier to us than it was for him.
Pat’s solo on the original Song About Caroline remains to me the best solo on Earth. The way it closes the song with its own melody is just the best thing. That was my Hotel California growing up.
PHOTO ABOVE
Fender Jaguar HH Special (Japan) 2007
Always wanted an offset, and this was my first. It came in all black and chrome, which I loved then but later hated. So I added loads of stickers. I've since removed most of them. The ones remaining are Force Vomit and something from my college radio where I worked for a semester. The rust is from my sweaty palms, which was a real problem, also meant I had to change strings often. (Tip: Elixir strings take the longest time to rust.) I taped over my knobs and switches because I would accidentally hit them during a gig and not know why my sound would change or be completely off. This particular Bigsby is a non-invasive add-on that I heartily recommend to anyone who wants a tremolo on their guitar without potentially destroying it. The green pickguard is part of my quest to un-black my guitar. This is my main guitar because it's probably the one I'm most used to. Some say it's got a fast neck, but I've come to realize that guitar necks are the most subjective things in the world.
