Let’s face it. After music festivals such as 100 Bands Festival and Baybeats, we are unlikely to hear much from the majority of the bands performing. Even though these gigs are well-received and each band has a small following on its YouTube channel, SoundCloud feed and Facebook page, it’s clear that most local acts are still struggling to make a living from their art. Local musicians, record labels and promoters tell us what’s wrong with the scene.
We’re bad listeners
Shame on so many of us who don’t get as excited about catching local bands live as we do when hip young American things or indie Brit bands come to town. And it’s a sad but true fact that bands generally make more money playing covers at bars than original stuff—because that is what audiences want to hear. “Foreign music is always perceived as superior,” says 22 year-old singer-songwriter (dayjob: secondary school teacher) Weish, who opened for Tegan and Sara here last year. Hopeless Records Asia label manager Sameer Sadhu has even more damning words: “There’s no nationalist ic pride when it comes to Singaporean music. When you go to any other country and ask them about their bands, they’ll say, ‘You gotta check out these guys.’ In Singapore everyone’s like, ‘**** local music. There’s not that much to listen to.’”
Artists play for cheap
Because of the relatively low value placed on local music compared to international acts, Singaporean bands have to stay competitive by selling their CDs cheaply and perform for cheap. “This devalues the art even further, and it becomes a vicious cycle in which artists will always remain at the bottom of the food chain,” says Weish.
Starting out is hard
“Today’s independent artists would not only require marketing skills but also some knowledge and proficiency on audio, video recordings, technology to help us keep in touch with our fans and enhance the creative work we put out,” says Celina Kimble, whose first EP came out earlier this month. But there aren’t enough shared resources out there for newbies. Bands like LGF—who do gigs at places like Timbre and who sold all 500 copies of their EP—have had to teach themselves copyright law as well as marketing and promotion strategies with little help. Even after learning the ropes, there’s still money to worry about—and the lack of willing investors or patrons doesn’t help. Earlier this year, singer-songwriter Jonathan Meur had to run a campaign on local crowdfunding platform Avvio to raise funds for his first album.
We’re not thinking big
“[Singapore is only] the size of Dallas, Texas,” says Sadhu. And a Dallas band will stay in Dallas if they’re not in the habit of thinking bigger. To reach out to a wider audience and get more fans on board, Sadhu believes musicians should cast a wider net and see local shows as a launchpad into the region—if not the world. But they don’t. “Of the [local] bands that play Baybeats, how many have also played in Malaysia or Indonesia?”
Not enough local music-friendly venues
We’ve got state-of-the-art concert halls aplenty on this little island. But maybe what we need for the local music scene to grow are a handful of small live music venues where up-and-coming acts can woo their audience without management pressure to pack in hundreds of people. And Singapore falls behind many other cities when it comes to paying attention to and working together to ensure a better live music experience for both musicians and audiences. “There aren’t enough proper gig venues like the live [music] houses that you would find in Japan, Taiwan or Europe,” laments Kitty Wu Records founder Lesley Chew.
We need our Björk
And Björks arrive only with time. Meur reminds us that Iceland—home of the dreamy songstress and Sigur Ros, among others—is another small country who only developed a strong music identity after its scene reached a certain level of maturity. So there’s hope after all. “Maybe the key to unlocking Singapore’s musical potential is simply for artists to feel free to create music that they love, music’s that genuine.”
