I felt a buzz of excitement in me when I woke up that morning. This is incredibly unusual, as I had awakened in an army camp. The first thing I see are the uniformly gray-green surroundings and the quiet hustle and bustle of the other 10 guys I slept with as they went about their ablutions.
Today is the day Suburban Dammit is going to be heard on public radio for the first time!
Aaron called me weeks before, informing me that we are going to be on air this Tuesday at 10.20am or thereabouts. I went about my morning chores with both eyes on my watch and by 10.10am, I was done with canteen break and sitting excitedly in the soldier's musky non-airconed office and tuning the radio's knob in an attempt to log onto Singapore Jam.
At that time, there was a new radio channel called Singapore Jam. If I remember correctly, between certain timings, they ran exclusively local bands on the airwaves. Aaron had been contacted and Singapore Jam wanted to play a song or two from We Nearly Killed Each Other. Obviously I don't remember which song/s.
Today is the day Suburban Dammit is going to be heard on public radio for the first time!
Aaron called me weeks before, informing me that we are going to be on air this Tuesday at 10.20am or thereabouts. I went about my morning chores with both eyes on my watch and by 10.10am, I was done with canteen break and sitting excitedly in the soldier's musky non-airconed office and tuning the radio's knob in an attempt to log onto Singapore Jam.
At that time, there was a new radio channel called Singapore Jam. If I remember correctly, between certain timings, they ran exclusively local bands on the airwaves. Aaron had been contacted and Singapore Jam wanted to play a song or two from We Nearly Killed Each Other. Obviously I don't remember which song/s.
The problem with these antique boombox radios complete with a damn long antenna was that there was no display, just this red vertical line that moves as you turn the knob, indicating approximately which frequency you are on. Damn the numbers are so fine and the line so thick. A problem especially when our channels are all 90-something.
I ended up having to finish hearing whatever song is being played to get to the universal "This is 'whatever at number point number' FM, your favourite radios station" message to figure out whether I am actually on Singapore Jam. You see, the pangolin sitting nearest the radio normally listens to the Mandarin channel.
Time was marching on. I don't seem to be at the right station.
When I finally got to it, our song was already playing halfway. But still heartening to hear the DJ speak our name out after the song. At least I caught that.
I ended up having to finish hearing whatever song is being played to get to the universal "This is 'whatever at number point number' FM, your favourite radios station" message to figure out whether I am actually on Singapore Jam. You see, the pangolin sitting nearest the radio normally listens to the Mandarin channel.
Time was marching on. I don't seem to be at the right station.
When I finally got to it, our song was already playing halfway. But still heartening to hear the DJ speak our name out after the song. At least I caught that.
Two years later was the second time (that I know of) we came on radio. And they were going to interview us too!
Aaron wrote on the old site:
Suburban Dammit/Live Interview on Passion 99.5FM
/morning/13th Aug/2003
*New song 'Julie Run Run!' will be air-played as a sample to our new album
titled 'Let's Cross'.
I remember that we had selected Mirage II, Julie Run Run, Foreign Talent and We Nearly Killed Each Other to be played as interludes during the interview.
It did not appear to me that the DJ was aware of the selection. She had left the choice to us, so long as we brought along a CD with the track.
"So remember guys, this is public radio so we can't have any swear words or obscene stuff going on air." DJ said with a cheek in her voice.
A: "Don't worry lah, these songs wouldn't have obscene stuff and swear words."
J: "Wait, wait. Mirage and Julie sure don't have but Foreign Talent..."
L: "Yeah hor, your that kind of song sure got..."
The three of us went dead quiet right there and ran the lyrics with accompanying music on fast forward in our heads.
A: "Stick it up his arse can or not?"
DJ: "Of course not! This is public radio!"
A: "Ok, like that play something else."
And of course, the offending song got switched with Andre and Anthony's Lifelong Enrichment Program. Foreign Talent does indeed contain the phrase 'stick it up his arse'.
And for the full version of artists' verbiage:
It did not appear to me that the DJ was aware of the selection. She had left the choice to us, so long as we brought along a CD with the track.
"So remember guys, this is public radio so we can't have any swear words or obscene stuff going on air." DJ said with a cheek in her voice.
A: "Don't worry lah, these songs wouldn't have obscene stuff and swear words."
J: "Wait, wait. Mirage and Julie sure don't have but Foreign Talent..."
L: "Yeah hor, your that kind of song sure got..."
The three of us went dead quiet right there and ran the lyrics with accompanying music on fast forward in our heads.
A: "Stick it up his arse can or not?"
DJ: "Of course not! This is public radio!"
A: "Ok, like that play something else."
And of course, the offending song got switched with Andre and Anthony's Lifelong Enrichment Program. Foreign Talent does indeed contain the phrase 'stick it up his arse'.
And for the full version of artists' verbiage:
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