visaisahero. says:
eh i meant the random music they play in the background here and there
as filler
and on stuff like, TV commercials maybe?
dharma s. says:
oh ok at NDP i think out of all the music played, i’d say a good 90+% of it is local music though
TV commercials it’s different hahaha a lot of it isn’t local
but if it were all local, it’d be almost exclusively Electrico and perhaps The Suns
and Shirlyn
and Tanya Chua and Stefanie Sun and Taufik/Hadi
that’s about it
occasionally maybe WGB
and maybe also Great Spy
visaisahero. says:
an increased percentage would be a start
dharma s. says:
but i think that’s pretty much it as far as the local bands go
visaisahero. says:
it’s a cyclic thing
it would be good for there to be more incentives for bands to take their stuff more seriously
but there has to be a reason to give those incentives, it can’t be charity
dharma s. says:
well…i dunno
visaisahero. says:
if more bands take things more seriously then there will be a growing larger pool of material to choose from
and if they have to fight for it they’ll push each other to be better, in terms of writing or production quality
dharma s. says:
we already have it so easy here in singapore, i’m not sure it’s worth encouraging folks by making it easier
it just means the quality drops
visaisahero. says:
yeah it shouldn’t be EASIER
that’s definitely wrong
it’s far too easy as it is
i mean at the bottom level of entry
too many people go to those random-chapalang gigs with terrible bands
and are completely turned off
dharma s. says:
we spent so many years campaigning for more avenues for bands and now that there’s an explosion of bands we’re also seeing a huge drop in quality. there are so many gigs available now that so many bands that are just god-awful can gig whenever they want
visaisahero. says:
i think alot of the newer people don’t realise that
i tend to forget too that when you guys were starting out (and i just started being interested in the scene at all) that there were far fewer bands but more quality
dharma s. says:
i think it’d be good if the media featured local music, but i guess i wished there was a larger pool of commercially digestable local bands, but that’s not something that can really be controled
controlled
hahaha yeah man, there were a lot less bands
and a lot of them were still terrible
but the ratio of good bands vs terrible ones was much better than the ration now
it was like 1 good band to every 4 or 5 awful ones?
visaisahero. says:
we need to focus on the best. there are some newer bands that have solid potential
hahaha now there’s like 1 to 15
dharma s. says:
now it’s like 1 good band to every 100 awful ones?
hahahahaha
visaisahero. says:
k
hehehehehehe
i am still encouraged whenever i catch a young new band that’s really good
dharma s. says:
yeah but at the same time, if we start singling out bands and “grooming” them, it kinda takes the fun out of it
visaisahero. says:
yeah it needs to be self-sufficient
or efficient
dharma s. says:
bands need to grow on their own, and their success depends on how motivated they are to push themselves
visaisahero. says:
… it needs to take care of itself
people tend to be more motivated if they have hope in something
one thing is alot of bands don’t dream big
play baybeats or new year countdown or some big gig once or twice ok can die happy
dharma s. says:
haha ok i may be old school here but WGB’s sole motivation is to have fun when we play music
visaisahero. says:
that’s staying power for ya
dharma s. says:
i mean, of course you need to have goals, but the goals should not override the PURPOSE
our goal was to play baybeats by 2nd year and tour by 3rd year, and we’ve done that
but our purpose was to have fun and write whatever the hell we felt like writing
and that is still our purpose
so i think we can’t confuse the two, and if bands don’t have a sufficient PURPOSE to make good music, then you can’t rely on them to achieve GOALS
visaisahero. says:
that is such an important message.

dharma s. says:
if a band isn’t self-motivated enough to practice and prepare and push their marketing and their performance and their own musical ability, JUST so that they can be the very best that they can be, then offering them the chance for their music to be showcased on tv is selling yourself short
because from then on the band won’t be interested in being at their best
visaisahero. says:
yes!
yes!
dharma s. says:
they will only be interested in pursuing the showcase
that’s what i mean
visaisahero. says:

dharma s. says:
i think it’s dangerous to offer bands a goal if the band doesn’t already have a purpose to its existence
visaisahero. says:
bands with no purpose burn out after some time
dharma s. says:
bands shouldn’t need a “sweetener” or something to motivate them
and we shouldn’t offer it as an incentive for bands to function
visaisahero. says:
hmm
dharma s. says:
we should reward it if it is done freely
visaisahero. says:
but then and again right
if goals help you reach your purpose
and you have higher goals
dharma s. says:
haha, end justifies means?
visaisahero. says:
doesn’t that help you achieve your purpose more “strongly”
dharma s. says:
think about it this way
imagine these 2 scenarios
1) i offer you candy as an incentive for each A you get in exams
vs
2) you get an A in exams and i reward you with a gift of candy for each A that you get
both have the same outcome
but both have different processes
the first process is negative, as without the reward you won’t work to get an A
the second is positive, as without the reward you would still have gotten your A
the second is better because it encourages you to understand the purpose behind getting the A. in order to get your A you need to be SELF MOTIVATED
self-motivation both earns the reward as well as brings long-term benefits because you understand why you do it
visaisahero. says:
hmm
dharma s. says:
if my band was motivated only by exposure, as soon as our exposure is lacking we won’t give a shit anymore
but exposure is not our purpose, it’s just a perk
fun is our purpose, and we always have fun
that’s why we stick together as a band and as friends no matter whether we have exposure
to grow a healthy music scene, you need bands that are self motivated
that work hard to earn and achieve their goals of exposure/gigs/whatever
visaisahero. says:
you are right
dharma s. says:
but regardless of their goals, they are self motivated to be their best no matter what the circumstances are
so that’s what we need
visaisahero. says:
so the question is, how do we get more people to be self motivated
dharma s. says:
you can’t lol
cause as soon as you start pushing them, they are not self motivated
you are motivating them
what we can do, though, is keep an eye out for bands that push themselves
and support them
like when we saw what Caracal was doing, how they pushed their songwriting, performances, showmanship, everything, we asked them to open for our first album launch
they are self motivated
Electrico, The Suns, AVA
all self motivated
Ronin
visaisahero. says:
YOU ARE RIGHT
omg.
dharma s. says:
all these bands have taken their own initiative and pushed as hard as they can, and that is why they were successful
now look at artists who are not self motivated
Taufik
Hadi
Olinda
visaisahero. says:
so true
dharma s. says:
these are artists who are supported by the media
but their music is in the bargain bins
because they are not motivated to push themselves
they are pushed by others, promoted by others
they have no internal drive to expand, to be their best, no purpose as to who they are and what they are doing. they just do whatever they are told to do
so a) we don’t want to encourage people to lose their self-motivation at the expense of giving them media exposure, and b) we don’t want to be the ones “motivating” people so that they do whatever we tell them to do
because that would turn us into the evil Ken Lims who create clones of good singers singing awful songs and market them to the mass media
we need to encourage self-motivation and integrity in our music scene
visaisahero. says:

thinking back
what inspired me to be self-motivated was watching ronin a long time ago at some crap gig
i thought if these fellas can do it i can do it to
*too
dharma s. says:
ahuh
visaisahero. says:
and i would want other people to feel the same feeling that i felt then
cheesily, that they can accomplish anything
so i would say that that is my personal purpose
dharma s. says:
well i mean, i know exactly how you feel
visaisahero. says:
maybe not so much “accomplish anything” but rather, if there’s anything holding them back from doing what they want to, it shouldn’t
dharma s. says:
when i watched Surreal playing to a huge crowd at Baybeats ’04, i was like WHOA i wanna do that some day
visaisahero. says:
yeah
so once we have a group of people setting a good example, others will follow
dharma s. says:
when we formed WGB i told the guys my purpose in the band was to see how far we could go if we actually worked hard and smart at it
since then my purpose has been a combination of relaxing and having fun as well as still trying to push to see how far we can go
our goals, though, have been very clearly defined right from the start, and we’ve worked hard at it
right at the start, within the first 2 weeks of the band forming, i spelt out our 3 major goals really clearly and we worked hard for each goal and achieved them
so it’s a combination of everything
self motivation, hard work, having goals, and pursuing and achieving them
if you do that, eventually people will start to notice you, and at some point down the road, people may look up to you the same way you looked up to those who inspired you
that’s how it’s been for us
visaisahero. says:
sweet
you should write a little autobiography of some sort
dharma s. says:
huh aiyo no lah cannot lah
Electrico should write one
or maybe Daniel Sassoon
one of my personal local music heroes
he’s been involved in local music for so many years, he’s seen how it’s changed
even before he was in Livonia
he was active in the Humpback Oak/Lizard’s Convention/Sherene’s Closet/Mute era
and then he joined Electric Company and they ushered in a whole new era of local music
visaisahero. says:
amazing man
they should ah
dharma s. says:
yeah man
Dan is my hero lah
hahaha
visaisahero. says:
it might just inspire random people who aren’t involved at the moment
dharma s. says:
whenever i need advice or an opinion on something music scene related from someone older and wiser, i always go to Dan
everything from pedals to advice on how to pack my guitar when touring
haha
Dan even introduced me to my favourite web comic, which i have read every day without fail for about 3 years now
every weekday
visaisahero. says:
hahahah which is that
dharma s. says:
www.questionablecontent.net
visaisahero. says:
OH! i used to read this!!
i forgot about it!
dharma s. says:
haha
it is awesome