As most people know, (well you know now if you didn't) Takahina is in 2 Jpop/rock band, namely Resonance and Marukyu. I know my fellow bandmates will see this but then again there's nothing offensive, nor am I comparing anything here.
1st D'J Party I think?
Every year, Singapore has a handful amount of Japanese related gigs. Among them, the oldest and so called "most prestigious" would be Singapore Street Festival's D'J Party. It has first started since 10 years ago and is one of the first, if not the first Japanese Gig in Singapore. For Singapore, there are tons of English/Mandarin gig going on but for Japanese, D'j Party would be one of the first. Eventually it will establish itself (at least in my heart) as one of the "Top Jpop Bands in Singapore" Gig whereby only the top bands who applied to play, get to play in it. So it means that it may not always feature the best Jpop/rock bands in SG as some bands may not be able or willing to apply for it.
Takahina first listened to Jpop since year 2000. I still remembered very clearly when I heard the commercial of Countdown Jpop 2000 playing on TV, showing previews of Vogue by Ayumi Hamasaki, Treasure by Hiro and April by Speed. They got me hooked and I bought my first CD ever since.
The CD to start it all
From then on I began a sacred relationship with Jpop (har har har). Ever since I got caught on with certain artist/musicians and currently I still regularly listen to them, buying their full discography of albums.
I began drumming, well technically when I was 12, I started playing Drummania in the Arcade. It was then still called Percussion Freaks. It was one of the most in-thing in arcade at that time and my bro Tian Wei and me will spend hours lining up just to play the game. Throughout the years we progress from being pure beginners to playing master levels at 16. There's when we decide, it's time we got serious.
Yeah serious we are.
His drum skills are L33T
For a year plus, we started going to drum lessons under the tutelage of Mr Jimmy Lee in Music Clef. What we learned in the arcade helped out in letting us getting more readily comfortable with the whole hands legs eyes coordination thing. So for those who just started out drums, you think it's easy? Think again, I took a whole 4 years just to get proficient in it.
One fine day, my bro Benjamin Seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet wanted to form a Jpop band playing Every Little Thing. I'm cool with it and I joined his band to try out. He managed to get this pro-bassist called Jun (now named Emerson), pro-Keyboardist Jane and a very indifferent Vocalist named Zeith. Then what turns out is that the band failed. Why? Cause I can't remember the combination changes and transition progression when playing the song out. I assume I can remember but obviously I can't. And having a lack of experience I failed in getting the song going on. The whole jam ended in a deplorable mood. We had dinner after jamming where Jun guided me on how the Bassist and Drums are part of groove and it's their job to be consistent while the lead section which most of the time consist of lead guitarist, vox and keys will be the one producing the magic in the song.
Mr SEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeettttt
Emerson AKA Jun. I dun even know how to call him now.
*Can't find Jane's pic, I dun even have her FB.*
I've learnt a lot that day. I think Jane totally forgot who I am now but Emerson should still have at least a bit of memory on this...
I guess?
Then another fine day, my bro Mr Seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet's friend Nika, needed a drummer to complete her Jrock band lineup. Knowing I need experience to level up Mr Seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet recommended me to the band. And thus came out Le Foret.
Nub band
This band called Le Foret, with members Jude, Nika, Moses and Hyde (not the Japan, androgynous one) began to participate in D'J Party. At that time the D'J party was still not as popular and the musicians in it was of rather low level. Believe it or not Le Foret at that time was one of the lousiest band out there. Playing loud and inaudible music which if Takahina listened to now, would scold at.
But still being in Le Foret had got me with an ambition; to play in D'J Party every year. And even though Le Foret was a lousy band, I had fun in that band, so in a sense the band built up a form of camaraderie. That got me to like being in a band as I realized that form of camaraderie can't really be easily obtained elsewhere.
A lot of things happened from then on and I could not manage to join D'J Party every year. Either it's due to band issues, commitment issues, time clashes, lack of bands. But still if I could push for it and there's potential, I would. In the end I only managed to join it with a few other bands at separate years, namely Le Foret in 04, The Unknown in 2007, Child's Play in 2009, Resonance in 2011.
Nub Band acting emo. Yeah I used my JC pic in the band pic, got a prob??
This is like the only pic of The Unknown I could find and it features AHhhhhhh Rong!? WTF?
Huiming was bored in this pic.
Resonance with Jinn being anti-social
In a weird sense though, whenever I applied to join D'J Party, I would be able to enter. So you could say either I'm lucky that I'm in a good band, or not that year's competition is relatively easy.
This year was the same, I had 2 bands pushing to join in D'J Party namely Marukyu and Resonance. Due to D'J Party being 10 years old this year, the organizers were very stringent in letting bands entering the gig. There was firstly a recording application, followed by an audition, which to me is a first.
You look at them and you'll never think "band".
The recording application's ending date was very close to the end date of my examinations, so I literally had to scramble to produce a recording for application for Resonance and Marukyu.
Resonance was still somewhat smooth moving as we have been jamming somewhat regularly. Despite having a change of lineup to the band members and songlist, the song that we prepared for the recording we had played before, so it wasn't too much of a problem.
However for Marukyu, the band hadn't even jammed once! Although some of us such as Robbin and Ting Zhi and me played together before, Vox Rika is jamming for the first time and Adelene is playing with all of us except for Ting Zhi for the first time. For us to produce a decent recording for a song is almost impossible for an amateur band. Amazingly we pulled through and within 2 hours of jamming, we sent our recording to D'J Party.
Both Resonance and Marukyu got through the recording stages. Next up was the audition phrase at Shiin Studio on the 2nd June. There were hick-ups for both bands but still in a sense our performance is satisfactory.
I received news on 11th June that both Resonance and Marukyu were rejected for D'J Party. :/
At that point of time I can feel some sort of dejection for both bands. Resonance was a band then had struggled and trained hard for the audition while Marukyu was a very promising band with a very good set of line up. For us to get out of the gig now, could be said as a great disappointment. Hence 11th June, is one of the worse Mondays of 2012.
I understand though it simply comes as the band being a weaker band... but then I can't help but feeling, "so lousier bands shouldn't be allowed a place to perform, then how we improve?"
and secondly who decides what band is good or not? This is very similar to many talent shows out there, simply put its like asking,
You suck, as always.
"What makes Simon Cowell worthy to judge whether a singer is good or not?"
or
F-king Smart.
"What makes Epic Meal Time worthy to judge that whether a Bacon Flip is well done or not?"
A lot of gigs in recent times requires the band to go through a series of audition before we can actually be allowed to perform. So it's equal to saying that as long as your band sucks, you can't perform... which can work in both ways:
1. You will strive hard to make the band work harder with a new founded sense of purpose coming from nowhere.
2. Your band sucks, just accept it and quit the band.
Well of course if your band can enter scenario 1, good for you. But it takes an already founded sense of commitment and friendship in the band for them to be able to go through the transition period that easily. Also the truth has already hit you that "hey you suck...", it's not that easy for any musicians, no matter how prideful or prideless aka NO PRIDE to get through that kinda period easily.
When the news kicked in, I immediately responded by putting in those encouraging kind of messages in for both bands in Whatsapp. Of course it can only help for just a bit and it's obvious the morale for both Resonance and Marukyu is low now.
Then again, you look at the organizer's point of view. It's not that they purposely want to cause this kind of dejection, but they can only allow a limited amount of performers into for a performance and no one would want a lousy band up there, so they have to hold auditions to see who's good enough to go. Then seriously who's the better judge? For such a low budget event it can only be done by a committee of fellow musicians who are considered one of the top few in the circle; after all they are the ones putting in money and effort in it! If you are not happy, you hold your own D'J party event!
Flip ah flip!
Ultimately it's understandable, not everyone would be happy with the decisions made by a person, especially when it involves disappointment after much effort and time. Therefore there should be no finger pointing or outlandish insulting comments done to anyone. Don't blame PAP for everything also, they never do anything wrong.
Anyways, there's another gig for Japanese bands coming up if I'm not wrong; Jam Fest by AMG.
Resonance and Marukyu interested? ;)
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