is this the new?

by Lounge Lizard

Photos Courtesy of I Am David Sparkle

Being one of the first few Singapore bands which dabbled in post-rock, I Am David Sparkle has just recently released a new EP This Is The New under KittyWu Records. Currently made up of Amran Khamis (guitars), Johnny Mo (guitars and keyboards), Zahir Sanosi (drums) and newbie The Plague (bass), the band has undergone numerous line-up changes and long moments of inactivity before settling into its current line-up.

Aging Youth sits Johnny Mo and The Plague down for a heart-to-heart session about their new EP, their new musical direction and PS2.

This Is The New covers a broader spectrum than 2006’s ‘Apocalypse Of Your Heart’. In the press statement, the band mentioned that it had always expressed a strong interest in expanding its sonic palette.

Johnny Mo : I think it’s safe to say that every band has in its agenda an interest to push its song writing abilities, moving out of their comfort zones, trying to incorporate various influences while at the same time fighting the main challenge to make the blend sound right.

The general sentiment of several fans when producer Nick Chan joined the group last year was the worry that he would stamp his signature in the group like his previous stint with Astreal. With the introduction of electronica and IDM in I Am David Sparkle’s repertoire, that fear was actually affirmed by many.

Johnny Mo : It’s surprising that people see it as a worry because I Am David Sparkle always had an affection with electronic music, even though it wasn’t as evident as it is now. If you traced back to our first show, we had Edryan (Hakim) whose main repertoire was to come up with beats and glitches.

Nick is one of the best here in what he does. We have been fans of his work in MUON and TheDeath Of Cinema and the appreciation we share for electronic music, Bernard Butler and The Verve just eased the transition. Haha.

His knowledge and expertise in the electronic side of things were warmly welcomed in the camp because as said earlier, we have always wanted to incorporate that aspect of music in us. Nick's presence, not just in the electronic side, but also in the guitar work he came up with and in his production, took the band to another level in terms of how we approached the song writing process. It was the breath of fresh air we all needed.

Interestingly, along with the change in line-up, you guys made a change in your producer as well. Previously, I Am David Sparkle recorded with Leonard Soosay. Why did you guys get Nick to produce the album, besides he probably came free? Ahem.

Johnny Mo : Contrary to popular belief, the recording didn’ t come free. Nick has always been interested in working with the band. With the great stuff he did with MUON and Astreal, he was pretty much the obvious choice. And also being part of the band, he has a better understanding of where we’re coming from and where we’re heading.

And you guys left your previous record label Wallwork Records to join KittyWu Records. Why the change as well?

Johnny Mo : Wallwork wasn’t really a record label. It was a group of friends who’d like to hang out at the coffeeshop. It’s just a name given because we like the crew aspect of things. Like the Cabal 315 in Syracuse.

Actually, I thought it was great to have all these elements added. It broke away from the dirge-like nature of the debut EP.

Johnny Mo : On my part, I felt that we needed to get that EP out of the way so we could progress on to other things. It’s sort of a stepping stone - I like some of the songs there. But I think now if we were to revisit the songs, many of those parts would be rewritten, shortened, etc.

We’re quite proud of This Is The New: the mix of electronic elements involved blended well with the usual guitar driven stuff we do. I also feel that with this release, it was a showcase of the band’s initial intent and to have it realized in this release is just amazing.

The Plague : I’ve always been a fan of the old EP. But I guess the act of playing epic songs just began to take its toll on the band... Haha! I’ve never had the pleasure of playing any of the old songs although I would love to, at least, take on ‘2024’ (hint, hint) but I personally think that This Is The New is just showing how much the band has matured. It’s less of beating around the bush and more of getting straight to the point.

Electronica or not, it’s safe to say that I Am David Sparkle has always tried to stay true to what the band believed in - and that beats the whole notion of doing something that is expected of them any day, but rather more of the band doing what we do because we want to.

You guys were probably one of the first few acts who started playing the genre of post-rock in Singapore a few years back. And you have remained as the most popular act amongst your peers. What do you think separates you from the rest of your peers?

Johnny Mo : The most popular act? Wow, we don’t have anything to say about that because many of our peers are brilliant. I think bands (I take it that we’re talking about instrumental bands) like Documentary In Amber, Amateur Takes Control, MUON, Elise and many more are brilliant and may be better-versed in their instruments. Hahaha. If there is a line of separation between us and these great bands, I guess it boils down to our band name, because if you think about it, it’s not even ours to begin with!

The Plague : I was at a recent Amateur Takes Control show the other day, and they were so awesome and so intense. All the bands that were mentioned before are all great bands in their own right. We’ve had the honour of knowing them and having the chance to hang out with them, so I don’t think it’s about separation but more our similarities that keep it fresh. But our common goal in trying to make good music has always been the number one priority for the band and it’s awesome to find out what each of us can bring to the table.

Talking about instrumental skills, post-rockers are renowned for their extensive use of equipment to create atmosphere and dynamics. What kind of gear are you guys using?

Johnny Mo : I have bad or zero understanding of pedals. I’d be more than glad to have just a tuner on stage. But unfortunately that’s not the case. I run my SG through a TU2 (the most important of the lot), a Super Overdrive, Holy Grail, Pulsar, Echo/Delay and a MXR Micro Amp as a booster. Also when I’m feeling “techy”, I’d bring my mom’s laptop along for beats and stuff.

Amran is the guy with much better understanding of gadgets and utilizes his arsenal really well. He has a slew of cool looking ones but I’m not too sure what they are. Farizwan runs his Yamaha bass through a tuner, a SansAmp Bass Driver, I think and an Ibanez Modulation pedal if I’m not wrong.

The Plague: I’m using a Yamaha BB614, which I’m pretty proud of. It’s a pretty solid bass good enough to throw around and stuff. Haha!

Within a span of 12 months, I Am David Sparkle released 2 EPs and faced a line-up change. Both new member Nick and old stalwart Yamani quitted the band at the same period of time. Why the sudden departure?

Johnny Mo : These 12 months had been brilliant. Unfortunately, both of them had to go because of personal reasons and we just got to adapt and let go.

What made you guys decide to get Farizwan (The Plague) to help out on bass duties?

Johnny Mo : Because he plays any of the instruments better than any of us. Seriously. He’s been around with us since day one. So it made perfect sense for him to carry on the bass duties. And as mentioned earlier, he’s a brilliant musician.

My personal favourites are ‘Do You Cry While You Sleep?’ and ‘Jaded Afghan’. How does the songwriting process take place? Is it a collaborative process or someone brings in an idea to allow the rest to jam on it?

Johnny Mo : Yeah, usually it’d be someone with an idea and we’d jam around it. Most of our songs have stories behind them, sort of a narrative. For ‘Do You Cry While You Sleep?’, the narration, for a lack of a better word, ‘inspired’ the piano line in the song. ‘Jaded Afghan’ has an interesting story to its title too but we’ve made a pact to keep it confidential. This is out of context but if you listen closely, you can hear gunshots by the Gestapo.

The Plague : And for me, the new songs that I have been involved in writing (outside of tracks from This Is The New ) have also been different in terms of where the band was heading towards before… It seems harder and heavier and for that even, the songwriting is a natural process - Sometimes, one of us would come up with a mood, or a riff and we’ll work on it and there are other times when we’ll be fooling around and a pretty nice tune would just come up and then we’ll work on that.

The collaborative process is quite an interesting thought. You guys also played in different bands before coming together to form I Am David Sparkle.

Johnny Mo : Oh yea, hmm, Zahir was in Kindread which was simply amazing. Farizwan did time in Dyfectra and Sugarflies among the slew of bands he’s played in, and is now playing in this awesome hardcore band Dear Arson and of course the mighty Concave Scream. Amran was in the great Return To Fall, Stroll and The Moderates to name a few. Playing in bands was second nature to us. I remember a time where some of us would be in numerous bands at the same time. I don’t think I can cope with that now. Haha.

The Plague: I think it’s cool how all of us came from different bands. I mean I wouldn’t have known Amran if he didn’t have played in Stroll, or Djohan, if he hadn’t played in Anaconda, or Zahir if he hadn’t been the vocalist of Kindread. And I’ve known these guys close to ten years, I think. So when I joined I Am David Sparkle, it felt so natural because I know these guys pretty well. I’ve worked with them in different bands and projects in the past and it was such a relief to be able to skip that whole awkward phase when you embark onto something new. And plus, we all pretty much listen to the same kinda stuff so it’s easier to communicate on that kind of level.

How is it to juggle between another high-profile indie act Concave Scream and I Am David Sparkle?

The Plague : I've never really thought of it as "juggling", honestly. There was a time when I had like six bands going on at the same time but that was eons ago. The thing is: I love playing in I Am David Sparkle as much as I love playing for the (Concave) Screamers. So it's never really a chore.

So far, the schedules have never clashed. I practice with Concave Scream on Sunday afternoons (sometimes in the morning) and I Am David Sparkle usually practices on weekday nights. And when we have shows, the former would opt for the earlier time slots, since everyone in the band are married with kids (excluding me) and the latter would usually get the late night slots. So it's been pretty awesome so far.

There’s a recent surge of activities from the band. I Am David Sparkle started playing more shows and some of the shows are pretty high-profile. The band seems to be very active these days. Are you making up for lost times?

Johnny Mo : After Nick came in, we got more shows and I guess it built on that. We are fortunate enough to have guys who believed in us enough to trust us with slots in some of these big events. For example, the Kinemat team has been fantastic to us the past year. Things have fallen to place due to their (and others’) belief and we’ll always be grateful.

It is also safe to say that we are much more productive nowadays. Who knows - maybe it is a conscious effort to make up for lost time. We’ve been around for about 5 to 6 years and the number of releases we have just doesn’t justify our years of presence, so to speak. We just hope that in our case it could be translated as a matter of quality rather then quantity.

The Plague : On my end, I’ve been a huge fan of the band since I first heard them play at the Substation years ago and talking about the band now is a funny thing cause it’s harder to talk about the music when you are actually a part of it. I mean, before (I joined the band), it was so easy. People would ask me about I Am David Sparkle and I would say, “Damn. They are such an awesome band!” Now, I’m just trying to keep up with everything.

The first show I’ve played for I Am David Sparkle was for the recent Recharge Revelation 5 Global Gathering festival in Malacca. And I had a blast. And I’m definitely looking forward to the band being more active and in rocking out with them in the years to come!

I understand that the band went through a tiring time during the recording session where drummer Zahir would be obsessed with playing Tony Hawks on the PS2 more than recording. Comment?

Johnny Mo :Recording sessions are always tough. Zahir got his parts done way before us, so he comes in to give support. So his time would be spent in front of the TV playing Tony Hawk on PS2. We would occasionally join him too. But truth be told, we’d spend more time in the studio if there wasn’t Winning 11. Hahaha.