A scene that was once dominated by veterans and long-time musicians of the past, now has more fresh faces than ever before.
Nabil (24), from Roku, sharing the stage with Janssen (20) from Aggressive Raisin Cat at Fleeting Feelings Festival 2022 at Lasalle. PHOTO: EUGENE TAN
When Aaron Devoy, 20 and Casper Neo, 24 first met on Carousell in 2017 over a posting of a guitar part put up by the former, both did not expect they would quickly bond together through the mutual liking of a progressive metal band.
Casper recalled the funny exchange, “After the deal, he messaged me “Hope you enjoy the gear. By the way, do you like Periphery?” Then it started off from there.”
Aggressive Raisin Cat members posing for a photo for their Baybeats Budding Band Profile. They are one of the six bands apart of the Budding Band programme in the Baybeats Music Festival 2022. PHOTO: EUGENE TAN
Fast forward to 2022, Casper and Aaron have brought their shared passion of music and metal with three other friends, Janssen Chang, 20, Lin Yuxuan, 25 and Hadir Jasmani, 25 are apart of a Progressive Metalcore band, Aggressive Raisin Cat, an up and coming group that has made strong strides in 2022, being apart of the lineup of multiple shows, most recently, one of the budding bands apart of the Baybeats Budding Programme for the Baybeats Music Festival 2022.
They are not just the only young band in the local music scene. In a recent growing trend, more younger bands have begun to form up in Singapore’s music scene, particularly the rock and metal music scene in Singapore, where the genres are more familiar with veteran names such as Caracal, Wormrot and Rudra. However, in the span of the past three years, especially in the midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic there has been a recent rise of young bands forming. Some names include Roku, Constitution and Uranophobia that are a part of this rising movement of young bands.
Janssen Cheng (20) and Aaron Devoy (20) spotting Ruben, their previous drummer, in the crowd while performing at Baybeats 2022 PHOTO: EUGENE TAN
Young Strides, Tall Walls
This was very apparent when the band was in its infancy, when they first formed their band in Noise Music Mentorship 2018, where they were one of the youngest bands at the time.
While Aaron enjoys the experiences, he recalls how he and the band were surrounded by people who were significantly older tha“Imagine three 16-year-olds, one 19- or 20-year-old in a room full of 30-year-olds. Just imagine the pure chaos of it.” n them, especially the difficulty of being in a very alien environment,
It led to them being not confident and hoping that people would be able to appreciate their music, as they described their music in the trademark candor that the members have become known for. To them, they had just hoped that people would be able to view their music “favorably”. However, they have since found a way that has allowed them to be able to better pursue their passion and dreams, at the same time express themselves in an unbounded manner.
“When we write, we don’t write it with the mentality of writing so that we would appeal to the masses,” Aaron said, “We wrote songs because we like it, and if you like it, then you like it as well.”
Neo added, “For us, it was never about trying hard to make it in the industry, it was more about enjoying the writing process and when we come up with something, it’s more about trading off one another. That’s the most fun we have had.”
However, the hopes of chasing there passion was put to a halt when the COVID-19 Pandemic hit, which resulted in the band having to put on hold their activities and recordings in 2020 and 2021.
“It was a tough period, because we wanted to do so much but so little could be done, because of everything going on in the past two years.”, said Casper, “That’s why when 2022 came, we really took whatever we could get.”
Aaron Devoy (20), jamming his heart out playing one of ARC’s songs, Buzzkill, on stage at Baybeats 2022. Aaron is the only member who is serving National Service while being apart of the band. PHOTO: EIFFEL LEE
Making it
However, all that changed in 2022, when they performed at Baybeats as one of the budding bands, where they realized that there was an appeal to their music, from playing along and feeding off the energy of the crowd that populated the Esplanade Outdoor theatre and the small mosh pit that was formed.
Yuxuan recalls how he was so surprised over the reaction people had to their music, “Honestly, I never thought that people, imagine people moshing to our songs like cough bin or buzzkill because of how technical and intense the songs were, but to see people nodding along… I was shocked and thought to myself “Oh my god, you can follow.”
Casper agreed as well, recalling how he was not able to headbang to the music, but rather watch the crowd, “It was surprising, considering how they were able to sing along to the choir lines of buzz kill.”
Despite all the mistakes that they made, they favorably recalled their experience as being one of the most fun, something that they prioritize more.
“It wasn’t our tightest , but it was the most fun and I think that matters more.”, said Aaron, “Despite all the issues and all that we had, the fun and energy that we could feed off of from the crowd was something that we could never forget, especially with the crowd moshing right in front of us.”
Hilman Eddie (22) performing at Republic Polytechnic’s Jam & Hop which is the closing ceremony for RP’s orientation programme. PHOTO: EIFFEL LEE
An Unexpected Start
When Roku was first formed in March this year, it was started due to getting an opportunity to perform in Republic Polytechnic’s Orientation Concert called Jam&Hop. In fact, when the band was created, it was initially formed for the sole purpose of just performing for Jam&Hop.
Hilman Eddie, 22, recalls the moment, “When we performed for Jam&Hop and formed Roku, we didn’t think of taking it seriously and taking a step forward with this band,” he said, “We just wanted to do a one-time show and just perform for the freshies, that’s pretty much it.”
Roku’s first time performing together as a band at Republic Polytechnic’s orientation. PHOTO: JARED KIM
However, there was something that struck them, despite them just being formed for the sole purpose of Jam&Hop. Hence, the band comprised of Hilman Eddie, Hilmi Samsulbahari, Fadzriel Fadzully, Nabil Yazid, Sherman Chow and Hazim Didie stayed after Jam&Hop with a very well received cover of LandMvrks’ Lost in a Wave.
All the members of Roku all met each other through being a part of an RP Interest Group, called Jammerz Arena, where they are all a part of smaller, internal bands that performed within Republic Polytechnic, and was also where famous local bands such as Tell, Lie, Vision were formed.
This attributed to how they formed for Jam&Hop as well, as it started off looking for someone who could sing screamo music, a type of music within the emo genre, “We were facing a problem where we didn’t have a screamo vocalist, so initially our guitarist, Fadzriel, he practiced to actually become a screamo vocalist.”
However, all that changed when they met Hilman, who at the time was a vocalist for Darah, another metal band, and from there “The rest is history”, as Hilman puts it.
Janssen (20) playing with the microphone at Roku’s performance at Lasalle’s Fleeting Feelings Fest 2022. This was also the first time Roku and Aggressive Raisin Cat collaborated in for a performance PHOTO: EUGENE TAN
The Struggles of being local
However, despite both bands being up and coming, they have indeed had their fair share of challenges as well, some of which stem due to the local music scene. While both bands don’t deny that the local music scene has indeed expanded significantly since the pandemic, they still feel that a lot more could be done to better improve it.
“The problem about the local music scene is that we don’t get enough traction,” said Hilman, “And it is not marketable enough for the US, Europe music scene. So, I wish that the government will support us more.”
“To be honest, I feel like the biggest problem now is that there are only a few organisations that are actively supporting the underground music scene,” said Yuxuan, “there’s still a level of red tape to all their processes.”
However, two things that both bands can agree on that can be done in order to improve the scene is to have more venues and better support for these venues, due to how expensive and difficult they are to manage. In addition, another sore point are the people who attend these venues that make it very difficult to manage the places.
“Sometimes , when I look at these venues that close down, and when I look at those people that patronize these places. They don’t deserve these venues, Yuxuan added, “They really take them for granted like it’s an entitlement to have these underground venues as if they are there for their own entertainment… These venues have painstakingly gone through all the troubles to set up and pay for the space, at times being at risk of going into debt for it. So, we need to take ownership and responsibility and cherish these opportunities when we have underground venues that give bands a venue to perform.”
However, one thing that both of them can’t deny is that the local music scene now is so much bigger compared to the past, “To compare back 10 years and now, it’s totally different worlds we live in.”, said Hilman, “The possibilities are endless right now.”
A path onwards
When it comes to how to better themselves, the one thing that Aggressive Raisin Cat believes in is that it is important to be honest with your opinion, and don’t hesitate to be harsh when it comes to telling them if it is good or bad.
“We need to have people that point out the weaknesses and flaws in your songwriting,” said Yuxuan, “Because if you don’t have these people to point out your mistakes and flaws, that’s how you settle for mediocrity.”
It is a similar sentiment shared with Roku as well, that It’s ok to make those mistakes, but to have an open mind and always keep learning.
Hilman also said, “You won’t know what are your capabilities as a musician and as a person until you take the leap of faith to do something that you’ve never done in your life.”
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