The band members of Singapore are laughing at you, right now, behind your back. They’re watching what you do, and as soon as you leave the room they’re going to write a song making fun of you. Oh hey, just kidding, they’re not like that. But they do like to have a good time, and you don’t want to bring them home to Mom.
Josh (vocals), Jay (guitar) and Jack (bass and drums) make catchy throwback pop, plush with the softer side of classic rock. Beach Boys meets "Sympathy for the Devil" attached to a stick and dipped in a crispy batter of certifiable insanity. If that sounds delicious, you can catch them at the Horseshoe Tavern tonight. They’ll also be releasing a new song to their Tumblr today.
I spoke briefly over the phone with Josh, whose crooning, leering, sneering and rapping steer the band’s sound squarely into a strange nation of which he is president.
Singapore is a band without extremely obvious influences (to me). Where are you guys coming from?
Our songwriting process is collaborative, so we come from a lot of different places. Jack (drums, bass), Jay (guitar) and I will just stand in a room and work off of one another. Personally speaking, I grew up listening to grunge, Nirvana and the like, then explored classic rock as deeply as I could. The Rolling Stones are probably my favourite band, and I like the Strokes. The other guys like The Band, Beatles, Brian Wilson.
I was going to say Brian Wilson, but I wasn’t sure.
Mostly these days I listen to hip-hop. I write the lyrics and everything, so it makes sense.
What rappers do you like?
Biggie. And Lil Wayne. Lil Wayne is like the Dylan of our generation.
In terms of not making sense.
It does make sense though, if you really listen to it.
Your songs exist in that weird place where I can’t tell if you’re joking or serious. Do you know what I mean?
I don’t know, to me there’s truth in every joke. And sometimes the truth is a joke. I definitely like music like that, like the Rolling Stones—it’s got a very warm feeling, very fun, but also dark. Our song “Brian Elder” (warning: contains NSFW lyrics) basically came from a joke between Jay and I. Jack and I played in a band before called The Boo, which Jay joined as a keyboardist shortly before it died. We started off on our own and that was the first song we recorded.
Your voice is very distinct. How did you find that? Did you sing higher before and then discovered you had this great instrument below that?
I’ve always had this voice. When I was a kid, people made fun of me for it. I’ve tried to sing as high as I can, but, you know, I can only get so high.
You’re going to be dropping a new song sometime today. What’s it about?
“Vampire Teeth” came from two or three lines that I had floating around. Everyone always has parts floating around; that’s part of how we work. I sang these lines for them a few months ago, and they immediately said no. Then I sang it again a month later, when I knew they’d forgotten about it, and they liked it. I do sort of a crooning, forsaken lover thing.
Do you play guitar, or do you write songs a capella?
I play guitar a bit. For “Vampire Teeth” I just sort of had a cadence, a rhythm to the words — but sort of not even that. I try to keep it loose while we’re writing, let it grow on its own.
What’s in the future for Singapore? A full-length? I’ve heard that Jack has a music school where you record.
We’ve been recording there a lot lately, and Jay is setting up a studio in his place, as well. We’ve been doing EPs thus far, and maybe at some point we’ll package the best songs from them in a full length. I don’t know, the “album” as a thing sort of came about because of the running time of an LP. Before that it was just singles.
I try to avoid this question, but I have to ask: the name, Singapore, why?
We went through a bunch of different names for about a year. Finally I just saw the word somewhere and liked it. It sort of grew on us and stuck.
Singapore, Horseshoe Tavern, August 9
