Above The Depth is a five-man band that claims ‘they are what they play’.. which is plain hard core. The Urban Ignite team had a good time with these boys who were not shy to share of their own quirks. Check out this interview to find out how Above The Depth plays poker and the weirdest-looking body part that one of them has and more!
How and when did you guys get together as a
band? Did you guys have intention to form a band and make music?
Don: It all started when I met Joshua in school. We were classmates so
we wanted to make music together, but we were still not too sure what kind of
genre we wanted to do. After a few months we decided to get others, so Suraj
came in as the drummer at first and there were the three of us. Actually it’s a
long story but here we are now.
When was the first time you guys started
writing songs and making music?
Midyear of 2010.
Does any of the songs by Above the Depth
tell any story about the band?
Joshua: I think the songs are about what we feel inside us instead of
the band itself. It’s more about life itself and what happens at that point of
time.
How would you guys describe your music?
Joshua: I would label it as aggressive angry music, because I can’t
sing.
Suraj: If I had to put a genre on it I think it would have to be metal
core towards hardcore. Not soft music, it’s very angry. No Justin Bieber!
So do you guys look at your music as a way
of venting your frustrations on or?
All: Sort of yeah.
Joshua: Whenever we play, I always try to portray my feelings to our
performance, it’s like, we’re playing our feelings out.
Wei Hao (aka Bom): We’d be working with NOISE Singapore, it’s an arts
and music event and we just want to showcase collaborations like tango and
Natalie’s Plight (local band) and then we are doing ours with skaters.
Joshua: We also might get a chance to tour Australia in Feb-March, but
it’s not confirmed yet. But we hope to do it. If that comes true we’d be going
to Australia for a week to perform.
Advice you’d give to bands starting out?
Don’t give up! As a band we also had alot of setbacks but it’s not as
we took it to heart and made it a problem but we took it for the better. We
would always sit down and talk after jamming to talk about it.
Joshua: Just don’t give up, put
in as much hard work and you gotta sacrifice alot of time and effort if you
want any success at all.
You need to be thick-skinned and luck. Most importantly it’s commitment. How you have to sacrifice time for the band.
You need to be thick-skinned and luck. Most importantly it’s commitment. How you have to sacrifice time for the band.
Opinion on local music.
It can’t be compared to other countries out there but for a small
place like Singapore it’s picking up pretty fast, alot of bands are performing
and not just being confined in the jamming studio.
People are getting exposure and the local scene could be better
definitely but everyone is just trying to our best. If we all can work together we can make this
happen.
Suraj: We opened for Alesana in Singapore at SCAPE warehouse . It was
a very surreal feeling to know that we got it. But the thing about it was that
we only had one week to prepare and we haven’t been jamming for awhile. That
one week almost everyday jam jam jam, practice. And on that day we were all
sick with fever and everything but on stage it was amazing.
Joshua: It was amazing, we played to like 500 people.
Is there anyone who inspires the band that
you guys would want to collaborate with?
Joshua: There are alot of people who inspire us and alot of them come
from the local scene itself like Wicked Productions. Our friends from Ruins and
Remains, Avalanche, Monsters in Living Flesh. We’re all just trying to do our
best.
We’re collaborating with Melvin
Ong from Ruins and Remains.
Share quirky things about each other.
Joshua: There was once me and Suraj played texas poker and we ran out
of money, so we used slaps and had like mega slaps. One time I slapped him so
hard he cried.
Suraj: Trust me, it was so hard the prints were there. Every time I
put water on my face it was stinging.
Joshua: Yarh my handprint was on his face.
Suraj: Yarh we do a lot of stupid things.
Suraj : Sometimes when Joshua talks, he will have this weird accent.
Because he lived in Hawaii for awhile when he was really small, so I don’t know
how the accent stuck to him.
Joshua: Don has really big teeth and no gum. It’s not normal. Whenever
he smiles or laughs he just gets us.
Suraj: He also knows scientific names for birds.
Bom : He choose Bird Park over Australia tour.
Joshua: And he has dumbo ears, like satellite ears. And his ear has no
cartilage; it’s fucking weird to touch!
Joshua to Sham: He is quiet and disgusting at times. He is not as
unhygienic as now la but last time, he used to be pretty unhygenic, like last
time he would dig his nose and eat it in front of us. And he is like really
into it la last time. And he has ALOT of expired beer at home.
Suraj to Bom: He’s a fat kid, HAHA! Actually he is basically an animal
lah.
What do you guys do outside of ATD?
Suraj : I work at a chocolate bar.
Don: I work at the Bird Park for internship.
Bom: I work at USS (Universal Studios Singapore) as a VIP tour guide.
Joshua: I work at USS!
Sham: I play Skyrim all night.
Suraj: We all work la basically, but other than that most of the times
we’re getting drunk, hanging out, playing games, chilling.
Joshua: We’re just normal teenagers.
Perform with anyone out there, who would it
be?
All: Parkway drive and Vans Warped Tour. the Big
