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The Vault

In The Vault, you'll find a collection of old feature pieces from our back issues. Beta started in June 1999, so you'll find a veritable history here.

The smart kids of Serenaide

Singaporean band Serenaide may be relative newcomers to the island state's music scene. But they're not wet-behind-the-ears pups. With an impressive debut album The Other Side of The Receiver to their name, these are kids with big plans. They launched their record in January, toured Kuala Lumpur and Indonesia, and played a wonderful set at Baybeats 2005. Their songs display a sense of confidence beginning artists seldom exude, and they're good with the technical side of things as well. They've got viewpoints, too--they say no to Singapore's casino. Serenaide's Mimi, Pheyroz and Remy talk to Beta's Lee Chung Horn

How and when did you all start in music?

Pheyroz: When I was 17, I found an old, discarded acoustic guitar at my void deck. I’d always wanted to learn to play the guitar, so I picked it up, and asked a friend to fix the broken parts. From then on, I bought myself self-help books and taught myself to play the guitar.

Mimi: I hated music lessons when I was young. I quit violins when I was 8 and I never stayed on in the brass band in secondary school. But I was twelve when my brother taught me my first three guitar chords, and that felt enjoyable. I don’t quite remember the process but I remembered picking up his bass guitar once in a while and all of a sudden, I’m in a band. Well Serenaide is the first band that I gave a lot of commitment to.

Remy: My first foray into music was with my secondary school band, after which I got into the stage band section where I played bass guitar. I did bass for a couple of metal and rock outfits through my secondary and JC days. After a friend passed me Suede’s Dog Man Star, I got inspired to play guitars in my own band. So I purchased a spanking clean Epiphone Sheraton and roped in Mimi among others to start this new project in ’98.

"The Other End of the Receiver" is quite a stunning debut. It sounds very accomplished, very confident. Are you happy with the way it turned out?

Pheyroz: I think overall we are very happy with the release, but there are a few areas which could have been improved on. We are not complaining because we learned so much from the experience.

Mimi: After the amount of work we put it, we should be happy. At the same time, we’re looking forward to working on the next one, hoping it will be more polished.

Remy: Yeah, we’re grateful for the way the record turned out, and we had great fun recording at ‘The Loft’ with Kevin. The ten tunes in the album are pretty much a good reflection of the way we'd wanted them to sound, and we’re aiming for a better sophomore effort.

Pheyroz, you are the main songwriter. We detect a very heavy Pulp influence. You sing like Jarvis Cocker, your subject matter deals with love and sex, the music leans more towards British pop than American rock. Tell us, do you have all the Pulp albums? Which is your favorite?

Pheyroz: Yes I own up to having all of Pulp’s album and my favorite is His and Hers and of course everybody’s favorite is Different Class. We try not to tie down the songs to a certain subject as we want listeners to input their own meaning to the songs. The reason we sound more like British pop is because all of us in the band share a common interest in the early ‘Madchester’ scene. We grew up listening to the bands from that era.

Mimi: My favorite Pulp record would have to be Different Class. Pulp is always fun to listen to even though some albums, especially the earlier ones, can be quite nonsensical and laughable.

Remy: Hey, I kinda like Separations; it’s got ‘Don’t You Want Me Anymore’ and ‘My Legendary Girlfriend’. I guess Pulp were quirkier and rawer during their early Fire years. But overall, we do enjoy the good ol’ Britpop sound and feel of bands from that era.

What other bands do you like? We wonder if the Smiths would be in your list.

Pheyroz: Wow, the list could go on and on. Yes, The Smiths definitely! They’re legendary along with The Stone Roses. I’m also into bands like Lightning Seeds, New Order, Franz Ferdinand, Depeche Mode, Stereo MC.. basically, stuff that makes me want to put on my dancing shoes!

Mimi: My top three all-time are The Smiths, The Cure and The Stone Roses. I also listened to a lot of Ride, James and The Velvet Underground. But now, I have a ‘jukebox’ friend who got me into Architecture In Helsinki and The Rakes.

Remy: For me, early Suede was the original inspiration from which all these started. And my record player had heavy rotation of The Smiths, Morrissey, Belle and Sebastian, and so on. Right now, I’m having a ball of a time plugging in to The Arcade Fire’s superbly crafted Funeral and of course Interpol’s Antics.

How difficult was it to make this record?

Pheyroz: Difficult in a sense that we only got six months to finish the whole album. All of us have day jobs, and we only record during the weekend. So there were sacrifices we had to make.

Remy: It's different from playing live because live, you’re only playing your single part for the songs. When it comes to recording, you’re faced with many many more possibilities: of adding sounds, melody lines, effects and you really got to limit yourself from making a whole mumbo-jumbo of a tune!

How did you get signed to Fruit? Who runs Fruit?

Pheyroz: Fruit Records is run by Isman Tanuri and Elisa Bakri. There are the ones who inspired us to come out with the album.

Complete the sentence. The local music scene in Singapore is -----.

Pheyroz: Is on the rise! More and more bands are coming up, and it’s pleasing to see that they are given support and opportunities by gig organizers and the media.

Mimi: Promising. I hear many new bands are recording, so I’m looking forward to seeing more local releases.

Remy: The local music scene in Singapore is going abroad and international. Just take a look at the recent MTV Asian awards.

Are you touring behind the record?

Pheyroz: We’d like to think we are! We’ve done a series of gigs to promote the debut release all over Singapore, and now we are looking to secure gigs abroad through the help of our label. Our first stop will be Kuala Lumpur this June! Hopefully we’ll get to tour Indonesia after that.

Remy: Maybe after that, we’ll reach Japan!

How do you keep the peace in a band?

Pheyroz: We’d get married and never split up! We're basically very happy people and keeping the peace was never a question for us. Maybe once in a while we try to strangle each other just to make the relationship real.

Mimi: We simply don’t stay displeased for long.

Remy: Or sometimes we’d just force peace through the barrel of a gun! Kidding!

What are your plans for 2005?

Pheyroz: We're going to promote our debut release extensively and along the way we hope to get new material for a second album! We're also going to start a campaign to put a stop to any ‘Project Casino’ ideas that the government have in mind. There're already too many people jumping off buildings to run away from debts. We don’t need to see increase in death figures and families being broken. We’re lovers, not gamblers!

Remy: And hopefully tour Japan! He-he!