Suburban Dammit

End of the Century.

Shortly after the release of We Nearly Killed Each Other, we graduated and got conscripted into the army.

During this period, we hardly contacted one another, all of us constricted by what precious little civilian time we had. Our jamming frequency hit an all time low, getting together in the studio only when we have gigs to play and rushing our rehearsals through a few days before the shows. There must have been instances where we did not see each other for several months, despite me being in a cavalry camp near a certain graveyard and Aaron being in a foot-soldier camp three bustops away.

We hardly hung out at all. Those few times we did were accompanied by beer and screaming into the empty park about our lost freedom.

We were getting stale. The same songs, the same routines, the same sound. No one was churning out new material and I guess even we were bored of ourselves playing the same things a few shows in a row. Something snapped.

I have a snapshot in my head of Aaron and I on board a bus at night. We were discussing what to say in hushed tones and feeling the nervousness of breaking the news. The news to Justin that we have decided to call it quits and to pursue a new sound with a new guitarist.

To his credit, Justin was totally cool. He had felt the cracks coming around anyways and wished us the best. That was the last time I would see Justin for a number of years until I met him by chance at the Adam Road food centre. By then, we were very different people.

During his service, Aaron was billeted into the same platoon as Shahrul, a like-minded guitarist and the frontman for Cesspit. I remember Cesspit as a ska band and not too many degrees removed from what we do. As we were looking for a new guitarist, Shahrul agreed to fill in for us.

I remember the many Sundays where I had to pull myself out of bed in the morning to go practice with our new guitarist. Given that we book out of camp on Saturday afternoons tired, and having to book back in on Sunday evenings, Sunday mornings seemed to be the only time good for the three of us.

With Shahrul we started to jam at a studio out in Geylang, along a sideroad that deadends. The studio stares across the sideroad into an open field, an anomaly for construction-crazy Singapore. We must have started jamming here simply because few studios want to open and accept bookings for 10 or 11 in the morning!

Aaron wrote on our old website:

"Shahrul (Cesspit) was our second guitarist, he was acting as a filler while we searched for a new guitar player. He is very talented and skillfull, but he didn't realy fit our style, nevertheless it was a good experience. The whole band was still slaving in the army at this point, i happened to be in the same platoon as Shahrul, kita hari hari dekat camp macam "six string samaurai" ."

We played one gig with Shahrul - AKS Upbeat at the Youth Park.

At the Youth Park 2001. Look at the hair. It will obviously pass muster.

Shahrul with his hair powdered up. I think he was playing for Canine Dizeez, his project band, as well.

Beginning with Shahrul, we will begin to see a number of project guitarists in our shows. Aaron himself became one in the not too distant future.

Aaron had become very close to Jeremy of the Jade Adversaries fame over the years. It definitely helped that they were in the same class at school and were on very similar, if not same, electives.

Jeremy was a tinkerer with the six strings and would be trying all sorts of sounds and feel. He was technically very competent and we thought he could bring a refined melodious sound to the band, a smoother and finer side, to temper our natural aggression.

Aaron had a word with mama and in 2002, Jeremy joined us.