Suburban Dammit

Adam and I go quite a distance back. I must have met him when I was just 13 or 14 years old, and he was perhaps 15 or 16. This is around the time Metallica came out with the black album which triggered countless arguments over whether there was a picture of a snake in black hidden within the cover of darkness.

We were introduced by Jin, a secondary schoolmate. Jin plays the bass and was into the satanic heavy stuff. He tried getting me hooked on the gory gothic-norse-scandinavian album pictures and creepy chanting tunes that I could not comprehend. I guess that dish was not for me.

However, it was still heavy metal days for me at that time and I guess we weren't too many degrees away to hang out.

When I met him, Adam was trying to form a band. A punk band, and he was looking for a drummer. He told me he is styled against the the Sex Pistols and Misfits. That sounds right-on for me, glad to hear it wasn't Firehouse or something dovey. I still played drums at the time and I agreed to go audition for him.

A few evenings later, we caught a bus from somewhere all the long way to what is today the Jurong Entertainment Centre. Bringing my drumsticks with me, we searched high and low for a jamming studio named Tornado. It was found located on the second storey of some block nestled within a maze of blocks.

We hooked up and ran through several Sex Pistols covers, and I remember playing Anarchy in the UK, God Save the Queen amongst some other Misfits tunes, all of which were pretty straightforward. But I guess we didn't gel too well and we left it at that.

Over the next few years, I would bump into Adam in various places, from gigs to jamming studios and even Swee Lee, one of the biggest musical instruments shop in town, where I bought my bass guitars.

Adam had a hand when I bought my Ibanez Soundgear bass. He was working there and when I was fixing to get a new bass, I went to Swee Lee to speak to him. I was looking for something with a thinner neck for my stumpy fingers.

Fast forward another few years and Adam's band was Objection Overule. We often met him at shows and even played a couple of gigs together. Right about this time, Adam started a label named Mohegan Records and he was working on a compilation of local rock acts. He asked whether we would be interested to contribute 2 songs for the compilation and of course we agreed.

We already had a bunch of new songs then and were planning to record a new album. We decided that contributing 2 songs would be no problem.

And Adam made Kiss My Act happen.

And note again, we're alongside Kate of Kale!

Kiss My Act Compilation Album, 2003

The two songs we contributed to the compilation were:

1. Rock and Roll Star
2. I've Got Angela in My Arms Tonight