Electric Boogaloo

We understand you’re in the band Bellied Star. Tell us more about how you guys came together!
Long story short, I met the band’s three other members separately. I met Mitch on Carousell, then Ethan when I was starting at a new school. Initially, I was the band’s bassist, so we were looking for a drummer. But then somehow Ethan ended up on bass, and we still needed a drummer, so that’s when I switched over to drums.

Later on, Audrey joined us; at first she was on guitar while Ethan was on bass, so there was quite a bit of switching around lah. The only one who’s been consistent this whole time is Mitch—he’s always been the lead singer. But yeah, that’s pretty much how it all happened. So now, I play drums (laughs).

What a ride! How did you first get into music, then?
I used to listen to a lot of Skrillex when I was a kid. I love Skrillex—Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites is a fantastic song. But ,y interest in instruments, as much as I hate to say, started with the Bohemian Rhapsody movie. As a kid I grew up listening to pop punk and a bit of Nirvana, but it never really hit me until I turned 13.

My dad had this old record player that I found and wanted to use, so I went into Mustafa Centre and I got the In Utero vinyl from Nirvana—at this point I only knew like three songs from them. That was the first album I ever listened to from start to finish. And then ever since that day, I’ve wanted to be a guitarist. But you know, looking back on it, there were actually a few signs that pointed me towards drumming.

What were the signs?
I used to be in a shitty cover band in my old school. It was basically the same situation as Bellied Star, where everyone took all the cool positions and we needed a drummer, so I just volunteered to do it.

Maybe it’s just meant to be! Now back to Bellied Star—how would you describe your band and your music?
I know the other band members will agree when I say that we really don’t like the grunge label. I mean, even the very word just makes me cringe sia. I don’t know what it is. But I guess alternative rock is a bit closer. Shit, like even pop lah, and fun fact: I think Nirvana was a pop band (laughs).

But if you ask me, I’d say we just make music. Electric boogaloo and funk.

We respect that! So what has your experience been like being a part of the local music scene?
It’s been great! I think the music scene is very welcoming and supportive. I mean, it goes without saying, every gathering of people is gonna have a few bad apples, but I think the local music scene i is generally hopeful. It’s very nice to see kids younger than us picking up instruments.

Not too long ago, these kids joined PK records, and we saw a lot of similarities between them and us, especially the positions that they were in. It was kind of eerie because it was the first time we saw a band with members that were all younger than us, because we were one of the youngest in the scene when we first started out. But it’s nice to see this, and we hope we can see more of that nowadays—more kids picking up instruments, forming bands. Doesn’t matter whether you can play well or not, because I think that’s such a small aspect. If you have that passion to do what you love, then eventually things like getting better at your instrument will just come naturally lah.