Going Big

Introduce yourself!
My name is Mitch, and I play guitar and sing in my band Bellied Star.

Cool! How did you get into music?
When I was young, I had an uncle who played guitar. I always wanted to play guitar because of the movie School of Rock, so I took some lessons from him. But all he did was teach me how to play scales, which made me not want to play the guitar anymore (laughs). So I stopped for two years after that.

I eventually got back into it because I got this acoustic guitar when I was in secondary one, which got me back to learning how to play. But I only actually started playing it proper when I discovered ABBA—I really like them! So then I started trying to learn every song from ABBA, and also from Nirvana. And then slowly, I realised that I could write music too.

As for singing, I naturally started when I started picking up the guitar properly. I’ve wanted to form a band for the longest time, but then I remember thinking to myself, “Am I a singer? Or a guitarist?” I felt like I had to pick one at the time, but then I realised that I could just do both. That said, I sucked at singing for the first two years, but I practised and eventually got better.

We’re glad that you stuck with it! Did you have any artist that you looked up to when you first started playing music?
When I first started out playing guitar, it was Kurt Cobain, and then Jeff Mangum from Neutral Milk Hotel. I remember I was really into ACDC as a 13 year old kid, but I just couldn’t play in sync with the guitar in their songs, but hey, I tried (laughs).

Yeah, it’s all about taking the first step. Have there been any bands that have caught your eye recently?
Mostly Singaporean bands, especially Roxie. They’re a relatively new band, so they don’t have anything out yet, but they’re really good. That and PK Records’ bands in general: Curb, Subsonic Eye, all the local bands.

But if you’re talking international bands, I’ve been really getting into The Ladybug Transistor. They’re not new, but I just got into them not too long ago, and they’re part of this collective called The Elephant 6, which is a recording company that houses a bunch of bands that all live in one house and play experimental stuff.

Interesting! Given your varied taste in music, do you think that our local bands have a unique Singaporean sound as compared to bands abroad?
Yeah, I think Singaporean music has its own sound. Bands like Subsonic Eye with their album Nature of Things, in my opinion, is the most Singaporean album I can ever think of because of its nature and greenery theme. And every band that is coming out of Singapore these days has their own unique sound—their own genre. No Singaporean band sounds like another band from overseas.

On the topic of unique sounds, what’s the most memorable gig you thinks Bellied Star has played to date?
I think the most memorable one was probably Music Day Out. It was at The Ground Theatre at *SCAPE, and there were many bands playing. It was just so crazy seeing so many people there because back then, we were still relatively new to the music scene in Singapore, so to see such an amazing turn out—especially Singaporeans enjoying local music—was just insane!

Looking ahead, what would be the dream gig for Bellied Star?
If you’re talking about a dream gig then I guess it would be the Formula 1 stage. It’s farfetched, but the members and I have talked about it—it’s something in the back of our heads. It was really cool seeing Smashing Pumpkins and Foo Fighters and those kind of bands playing in Singapore, so we want to hopefully be on that stage too.