I've been...

very busy.

Work at Yahoo! has been great. The learning curve is a steep one but still a great place to be working at. Everyone sits in cubes and they all look happy to be at work compared to the office at Police HQ. These guys at Yahoo! definitely love their work more than others. At least at places I worked at.

My biggest thanks to all who made their way down to watch us at Bay Beats this year. The crowd was just insane. We were demoralised when we saw how the turn out and crowd response was on Sunday. Even when TooKoo from China played before us, they were trying very hard to get the crowd to move. Dejected, we when back stage to prep up. Little did we know that the Powerhouse arena was filled when Razi introduced the band. It was a pretty rock star night to get on stage and have girls screaming your name. 8 yrs and the best crowd ever, the best ingredient to get us to rock out. Not beer. I'm happy we played Bay Beats again this year. I'm even happier to see the people I want to see there.

We prolly were the louder band that night so that made us stood out a little more. Prolly the Topman and Gibson endorsement helped. Colin took some pics of the crowd during breaks between our songs while Calvin took photos of our rockstar dressing room. I'll try upload them when I'm less busy.

Rehearsed at Jean's for her solo stuff (www.myspace.com/suitcaseheart) yesterday. Going to her place felt like an episode of MTV Cribs! I wanna live in a house like that. Cool house, even cooler music. Her solo songs are great and I can't wait to hear the rest. Played Home Club with Amateur Takes Control after rehearsal for their EP launch. Was an honor to play alongside with The Love Song (HK) and TooKoo(CH). I've still got more KOK shows and bass duties with GMF and Suitcase Heart, so do check out the bands on the following dates:

Aug 23rd: Giants Must Fall @ Home Club, 8pm (with Winterhalter!!!)
Aug 31st: Suitcase Heart @ Esplanade, Nokia Powerhouse, 8pm i think.
Sep 13th: Kate of Kale @ Home Club, 8pm (with Jon Chan)
Sep 15th: Kate of Kale @ *scape (indoor show), time TBC. (with Marchtwelve!)

See ya!

Yahoo!!!!!

This semester break's starting to look pretty to me. What a day...

I've been trying for internships the past 1.5 months to no avail. Was just chatting with a friend on Wed night about internships and she asked if I ever thought of Yahoo! and she has a friend who's an intern there too. Well it'd didn't hit me that I could have emailed Yahoo! for an internship a month ago even tho I read up so much about them while preparing for case studies.

Of cos, I tried applying and got called up for an interview today. I was informed at 2 and the interview was to take place at 4.30pm. Rushed down to my school to get the necessary forms and then took a cab down to Yahoo! office. The roads were heavily congested and the taxi driver was chatting with me and I said I'm going for an interview. He got really worried that I;ll be late due to the traffic jam and dashed through 3 red lights. Then he dropped me off right at the foyer of office lobby. Felt really blessed to board that cab. I reached 4 mins early. Phew... And I think I got the job cos they told me they're waiting for HR side to process the required forms and etc.

After the interview, I rushed home, picked up my bass and rushed to HOME club. Only after 1 short practice session, I played bass for Amateur Takes Control. The turn out was great. West Grand Boulevard played first and they rocked the house down. Really like their new material. We played 2nd and I must say I really had a good time on stage. Adel printed the tabs out for me on paper so I could refer to it whenever I need to. I'm happy that the crowd dig what the ATC boys played and that I didn't bring them down with my mediocre bass playing. We played an encore. The owner of the club liked ATC's music so much that he ordered a bottle of champagne for us. Really cool gesture.

At the show were many young indie kids and also, OLD friends! Everyone's making fun of me for playing bass in so many bands now that they see me playing more shows as a sessionist than with my own band. That's the cool thing that has been happening to me this holidays. Tho luck wasn't on my side for internships, I was kept busy with so many music projects. I'm either doing standing in bass for some bands or planning on some side projects. It's great cos I believe it'll open up my musical abilities more by playing very different styles. Even Ronny is asking to do a project like Jazz & Mosh again. I'm pretty stoked but I doubt I really have the time now.

That aside, I finally DANCED tonight. The ATC guys are pretty party animals. Even Nicky and the Oslo Castaway gang were dancing so I went into the club to check the music they were playing. Yes, I sold out. I danced for the first time in my life tonight. Well how can you not be happy when you have Blur, Bloc Party, RATM, Muse and etc all meshed into one party? Wait, maybe it was the alcohol.

The Man Who Sold the World

Ok, I sold out. I tuned in to BOTH the telly and online broadcast of Live Earth. It's funny how I'd check back on the concerts every once in a while just to feel disgusted. Linkin Park deserve to be shot cos they played in Japan and their stage set up is a lot bigger than the local artistes. Can you imagine how much carbon footprint all that flying, transportation of their huge ass gear, stage set ups and blah blah from US to Japan? And then we have them talk about "oh... this is something really real."

There were bands that flew on their own private jets. Beasties Boys flew in and out of UK within 24 hrs. Razorlight flew in and out with their private jet and also a helicopter ride to their next show venue. How cool is that? According to John Buckley of Carbonfootprint.com, the total carbon footprint, including the artists and spectators' travel and energy consumption, was likely to have been at least 31,500 tonnes - more than 3,000 times the average Briton's annual footprint!!!

Sponsors and ad buyers were pretty much out purely for PR. We have Philips marketing their energy saving bulbs on MSN broadcast pages. While major sponsor of the concerts, Chevrolet and Daimler Chrysler were marketing their new brands of low emission cars. WTF? Daimler Chrysler???? Aren't they the company selling cars with emissions level ABOVE the automobile industry's standards? So why were they being approached as corporate sponsors if the organizers are sooooo damn in touch with the climate. Doesn't that make Live Earth an event to help companies with their greenwashing activities? YES.

Then we have all these people going to the concerts, pledging to pressure their governments to join an international treaty to cut down global warming pollution and to do THEIR BEST to cut down CO2 pollutions, plant new trees, offsetting pollution yadahh yadaah. Really responsible eh? NO!!! Cos the Wembly stadium was literally COVERED with plastic cups and heaps of rubbish after the concert even tho there were recycling bins all over the stadium.

There was a goal for the Live 8 concerts which was to get the G8 to commit to reducing poverty. Live Earth didn't have a target. Yes, they got thousands to pledge to their yadaah yadaah but what's most important is for the GOVERNMENTS to do it, not concert goers.

I'd love to see more coverage on the aftermath of the concerts and criticism published on the papers and mentioned on the news. i.e - What actions were taken for carbon offsets and the acheivements of Live Earth. Not for the sake of criticising the event but to continue reminding the people to do their part to reduce pollution. The event was afterall, A CALL FOR ACTION; for us to change our habits to make the world a better place. It'll be great if Live Earth does what they set out to.

Live Earth Hypocrisy

I've got the time to watch the idiot box the past few days and found the ongoing Live Earth ad campaigns really irritating. You have mediacorp's artistes looking all sad and frustrated, talking about global warming and what not. How about getting someone more credible like a Geography lecturer from NUS to teach us a lesson or something? I bet Fiona Xie doesn't bother switching off the air con or car pool.

The cool part about the campaign is that it's significant enough to raise awareness. More people will learn about the "climate in crisis" and what not. That's really cool and I think Al Gore acheived that. But why the need for massive concerts in 7 continents? It's a really great idea I must say and admit that I was pretty stoked to see the band bill but think about the amount of power that'll used to run these shows. Think about the WASTE these concerts go-ers will produce. Think about how much resources they're gonna be using just to make these shows happen.

Then we have superstars who jet around in private jets, limos etc to teach the whole world how to save the earth. How cool is that! So much for conservation eh? The event was heavily publicised as one that will be broadcasted to a worldwide audience of 2 billion people. This will also mean that corporate sponsors will also have 2-billion people reach on 7th July. 2 billion will try to reuse, recycle and reduce, true. A percentage of them will also come to believe that these corporate sponsors are socially responsible and consume more of their products. Good Job!

Let's all wear green over the weekend cos the mediacorp artistes are pms-ing! Hoorah!

Take Me Home

Great that I've been taking time out to session as bassist for Giants Must Fall. I like their melodies and I'm hoping for their EP to be launched really soon. They're really nice, young musicians and I believe good things will come their way. I'll be playing with them at HOME CLUB TOMORROW (details on poster above) since their bassist can't book out on weekdays. It's fun to be able to just play your instrument and not having to worry about vocal duties. And hoorah, I get to play with Vertical Rush again! Here's a press pic of Giants Must Fall (www.myspace.com/giantsmustfall):

Been thinking of the tattoo ideas that Derek came up with the last time we were at his studio. Still not settled on it yet since it's gonna be on my skin for life. Been having the same ideas for the past 2 years and for some reasons, I'm still not settled on it yet. Soon I hope. Derek's pretty patient so I guess I'll have a couple more consultations with him before getting a final drawing. He's got to be the best tattoo artist I know and it's great to be inked by someone you have faith in, especially when it's your first.

Actual album tracking starts at Snakeweed this Sunday. Am really pumped to be finally doing it but it's gonna be a long process. Was at Snakeweed yesterday to pass Leonard some pre production tracks. Flybar were there recording their debut and shit they're good! And they're pretty young too! Now I can't wait to start. More on recording after our first session. Prolly gonna start a Studio Diary with videos and etc...

Life's Sofa King Great!

Mine isn't Sofa King great. Is yours?

Exams were the reason why I haven't been updating. How did it go? It was Sofa King bad.... felt like academic suicide over the past month. Bad bad academic year.

Now that school's over, at least for another 3 months, I'm looking for internship programs. At the same time, I've been playing music a lot and finally going for my driving lessons. Am also sessioning bass for Giants Must Fall (www.myspace.com/giantsmustfall) and we're playing at *scape this Friday at 7pm. Some days are just too packed and some days are just too long to pass. There's still an album worth of songs to be wrapped up for KOK's recording starting 1st July. So lotsa jam sessions for recording and also Bay Beats. It's great to be playing again.

Driving's fun. I'm only into my 5th lesson and I can't wait to get my licence. When I do, there'll be no more lugging of merch, guitar and pedalboard to gigs via public transport. Also, your friends will love you for being able to give them a ride late at night or just to keep them cool under the sun. But for now, my friends look like this when we take bus to lunch:



Enough of fierce girls. Here's another vid of Melody and Rusky together with new friend QQ (a mini schnauzer that we're dog-sitting!).

Unreal...

Exams are nearing, 8 days more to be precise. Motivation's not in the house yet. Not cool...

Less than 2 weeks ago, I managed to catch NOFX's show at Far East Pavillion. Been a fan since 16, it has always been a dream to watch them live. Was totally unreal... Colin and I were helping out with Plainsunset's merch so we kinda hung out with the NOFX merch guy. He's pretty cool and I learnt a thing or 2 from how he handles the band's merch. Really professional.

Being in the mosh pit with prolly another 400-500 sweaty bodies, finger pointing and shouting to NOFX was crazy. There were times when I felt like it couldn't be happening, NOFX just a few metres infront of me playing songs from "Punk In Drublic"! I had a really great time.

Anyways, more home videos:
Melody waking Rusky up in the morning to play.

Me giving Hairil (of My Precious) a DIY mohawk.

Give me more numbers to count my way home

Back in 2002, Kate of Kale were playing as many shows as possible in Singapore. Back then, there weren't many high profile shows and venues were really either really small or inaccessible. A buddy band of ours, Pensionstate came along and took us on tour to play our first Malaysian show in KL. I'd find myself sessioning as a bass player with them for 4 shows. We really learnt a lot from PS back then since they were seasoned players. We'd come back to Singapore and share the stage again at Esplanade's Arena at the first ever BayBeats.

Bummed into Dex a couple weeks back and he told me the band Pension State is no more but the same members are still playing together under a new moniker. Great to hear that they're still playing music. I do miss Pension State, watching them live and even playing in the band.

A search on YouTube for Pensionstate got me these 2 videos. The first being a local short film featuring Pensionstate's songs. "Ordinary 21" was played when the lead actor picks up a plastic trumpet a couple minutes into the show and "Paran" was the soundtrack to the vampire slaying scene. A really cool short and I really love the character, Singapore!


The 2nd video has to be their 2004 Bay Beats appearance playing "Numbers". If you like their music, do contact me for their EP.

What are you doing now, 39th Batch??

Here's the graduation video of my officer cadet days in the Training Command of the Police Academy. Really miss those days man... Wonder how are the rest doing. Filmed and edited by Joshua throughout our 9 months in the old Police Academy, the video was aired during our graduation dinner. Thanks to Ming who encoded the video into a suitable format to be uploaded.

Happy Birthday, cupcake!

IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY TODAY, MY LOVELY CUP CAKE!
My apologies for always posting pics that don't do justice to your beauty so here's my fav pic of you! :



Isn't that a great pic, cupcake? I've got more:



I can go on posting more funny pics. Going through my photo albums, I realised you're in many of my happiest moments. I hope you stay the same and continue to make all of us happy. Man, it was more than 11 yrs ago when we first met. You're so old... I'm not gonna reveal your age. Happy 2Xth Birthday, Tiffany. Have a good one... (as good as below!)




*PS - I knew you ate our daughter...