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  • Vocalist of 靈骸乐团 LA DIES (Singapore)

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  • La'Dies Interviewed by TODAY (Singapore)

    Friday, Feb 5, 2010 2:32PM / Standard Entry / Members only



    First things first, can we get a list of who's now in the band and what they play? Can you also give a brief history of the band and why you call yourselves La'Dies?

    La’Dies was made of Rui Ang on Vocal (La'Dies), Alfe Kim on Drums (ex-Livonia, Opposition Party), Kenny Png on Bass (ex-Meltgsnow, IEHAC), David Baptista on Guitars (UITM) and Noel Ong on Guitars (UITM). La’Dies (pronounced “La Dice”) is probably the first Mandarin punk metal band to emerge from the tight lipped city of Singapore. Merging different styles and experimentation, La' Dies gives the audience a hard dark mirror into their own lives as mannequins in the urban city.

    2009
    May - "Dongtaidu II" at Chinese Assembly Hall / KL Malaysia
    June - "Double Six Movement" at ART Museum, Glass Hall / SG
    Aug - "Yo Park Festival Final Gig" at Yo Park / HK
    Aug - “La’Dies 8 year Anniversary Concert” at Home Club / SG
    Nov - "Singapore Chinese Indie Music Festival" at Home Club / SG
    Dec - "La'Dies Taiwan Tour" at Sound Live House, Taichung
    Dec - "La'Dies Taiwan Tour" at Underworld, Taipei
    2008
    Feb - "SHOW!" at House of Rock / SG
    Mar to Jun - "SHOW!" at Home Club / SG
    Jun - "Psyche" EP release at Timbre / SG
    Aug- "Acoustic" at MAAD / SG
    Aug - "Sundowner" at Sentosa Siloso beach / SG
    Sep - "Uprising" at Home Club / SG
    Oct - "The October Movement/PLAYSpeak EP" at Home Club / SG
    2007
    Jan to Mar - "Exposure" at Gashaus / SG
    April to July - "Exposure" at House of Rock / SG
    July - “Guitar77 Heaven” at Timbre / SG
    July - "Stamp out Stigma" Silver Ribbon Project at Youth Park / SG
    2003
    Mar - "Rockfest" by Exxon Mobil at Youth Park / SG
    May - "Extreme Metal" at Ginza, Holiday Inn / Johore MY
    Jun - "Singapore Street Festival" at Youth Park / SG
    2001
    Jun to July - "Visual Shockwave" at Club Oosh!.. / SG
    Sep - “Spiritual” EP release at Club Oosh!../ SG


    Q1. Last time you said, playing Chinese subgenre rock was like being a minority of a minority. There has been some interest in local Chinese rock and pop music recently, with scape's confessions series, etc, do you think this will help you guys get more notice?

    Answered by Rui:

    Yes, i think its gonna help us!! As you can see, for La'Dies, our music genre is most people couldn't hardly accept even till now. therefore with such events it will boost up the local Singapore Chinese Indie Music scene (in short "SCIM") as well as the band. if we can grab the media's attention it will be a bonus. and we realised, Esplanade had been carrying out the same events every year for music festivals. We do not have a chance for us yet to be on that stage. Esplanade is a wonderful place for us to step on, its like a stepping stone for all the bands in Singapore. Esplanade had focus too much on the pop music and neglected the rest so much thats why there will never be a chance for us to be noticed. adding us on to their programme list can actually add colours to the nights by the bay.

    Q2. How often does your band do overseas gigs? What is the response there (is it better than SG)? Do you think it's viable for the band?

    Answered by Noel:

    1. How often does your band do overseas gigs?
    As often as we can. we played overseas 3 times last year in KL, HK and Taiwan, if we had more opportunity to play overseas, we most definitely would. We're looking into trying to play in China too.

    2.    What is the response there (is it better than SG)?
    Definitely better, I feel that our situation is unique in that we play mandarin(occasionally cantonese) music, yet our genre of music is quite aggressive and heavy, so the mandarin pop/xinyao people here won't touch us, and the guys who organise heavy/metal.thrash type gigs or festivals won't touch a chinese music band. So if we stuck to playing here, we'd play maybe 1 gig a decade. In the cities we've played, there is no bias against mandarin music and there is a thriving underground chinese heavy metal scene that has no equivalent here. Response has been awesome and better yet, we sell more CDs there than at any gig here.

    3.     Do you think it's viable for the band?
    I believe it differs from band to band, there is no blueprint that promises instant success even if you get to play big festivals overseas. It's really viable for our band cos of the language that our lyrics are in, and the size of the mandarin music market inevitably makes playing overseas increasingly attractive to us. At the end of the day, the fact that we play chinese metal means that mainstream success is really a pipe dream, even in the HK/Taiwan market. Metal, Chinese or English, is never going to have the radio appeal that pop music does. So, for us, as long as we get to play in fun and new places, with great audience reaction and better CD sales than we get here, then we're going to keep on doing it.

    Q3. I understand that David Baptista and Noel Ong from UTM are in the band. Why get them to do it? Is there any language barrier?

    Answered by kenny Png:

    UITM and La'Dies have traditionally shared very close ties due to collaborations between members of both outfits over the last 6 years. It was only natural for a tight knit band like La' Dies to look within a community they are both familiar and personal with to take the place of our guitarist who is leaving for a better life in Melbourne.

    There are no real language barriers given that this is Singapore, but the biggest hurdle was to get both Noel and David to rethink music from the perspective of hard music rather than funk which is what they have been playing all along. Fortunately, La' Dies takes a very varied approach to the traditional notion of metal and in this respect, Noel and David's foundation in groove has actually become a very nice touch to the band's diverse sound.

    2. What is the biggest challenge for Chinese rock bands in Singapore?

    Answered by kenny Png:
    Chinese rock as a genre is very much a marginalized sub culture in this country. Musicians from the English-speaking (another misnomer; we all speak English too, all the time) scene tend to thumb their noses at Chinese rock bands because they think these bands do not belong to a Westernized indie community. Meanwhile, mainstream Chinese acts do not see Chinese rock bands as their own either as they do not possess that marketable sound that mandarin pop is so proud of. As a result, its hard to get an audience much less a stage to play in Singapore. And this is rock we are talking about, imagine what it is like for a hard sounding outfit like La' Dies.

    Which is why La' Dies has been spending more time doing the underground circuits in cities like Hong Kong, Taipei and KL, not only because the audiences are more receptive, but also because to them indie Chinese rock bands with no affiliations to the mainstream are part and parcel of their indie communities.

    Answered by Rui:

    The biggest challenge for the bands are getting on the platform of media coverage. eg, newspaper, magazines and especially radio stations. the Chinese rock bands in Singapore had actually made a big step out. many bands had even release their EPs or albums overseas but we dont see the local radio stations putting them on. it doesn't sound bad isn't it. if our very own radio stations don't even promote our Chinese rock music, how could people from other parts of the world even notice about us. Singapore had made itself a city of culture and arts. Singapore promotes Art.Music is also a form art. if our local radio stations only sees the music they promote as a piece of art. why cant they do the same for our music. Our songs had been use in a Hongkong online drama series titled "Lumina" as soundtrack and had been aired on a Seoul Radio station. we will appreciate if local radio stations could show more supports on our local rock bands music.

    Q4. When's your next gig for the band? Is it in SG or overseas? Will there be a new album/EP?

    Answered by David Baptista

    Well our next confirmed gig is in May in KL. The event is called
    Dong Tai Du Festival and this is the second time that La'Dies will be
    playing this awesome festival! We really enjoy doing shows overseas because
    it really gives us a chance to showcase our original music and at the same
    time make friends and valuable contacts in these places. It is really a
    very enriching experience..not to say that the local(SG) crowd isn't
    supportive because they are and we love playing to them, but overseas shows
    have a very different feel.

    Yes there will be a new album coming soon! It's being recorded as we speak.
    There'll be about 10 tracks. At the moment it's still untitled but we
    promise it's gonna ROCK!!

    Q5.
    1. What can those who have not seen La'Dies expect from your live gigs?

    Answered by Alfe Kim;

    MONDAY NIGHT RAW!! Happening Any Day Of The Week!!! COME ON AND GET SOME!!!!

    2. What do you hope for the band in the future?

     HOPE is not the right word. BRING on the despair! DIE!!

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