strange lullabies

by K. Vicious

Photos Courtesy of The Observatory, Nurul, Ed The Tech Guy and Aging Youth

It is not without reason that Time Of Rebirth, the debut album from The Observatory, has been greeted with much fanfare in the local press. The inventiveness and sophistication of their music fly in the face of those folks who continue to marginalize the local scene because of the assumption that homegrown talents are immediately inferior.

Indeed The Observatory – band lineup: Leslie Low (vocals, guitars, programming), Vivian Wang (vocals, piano, keyboards), Dharma (guitars), Evan Tan (programming, keyboards) and Victor Low (guitars) – has an awesome sound (perhaps a bit mystifying to some), and there is an adventurous streak to their music that critics would have some difficulties describing.

Ominous keyboards or melodica, the fragile echo of guitars, programming innovations and ethereal vocals: these elements slide comfortably into a warm, melancholic album of diary songs and strange lullabies. And let’s just say that it will probably take many listens before the deep intricacies of Time Of Rebirth can be fully unmasked.

Incidentally, the band members have each spoken of their intentions to blend their collective influences and musical background in an experimental-friendly setting without any rules or clear definitions to the type of music they are trying to create. The Observatory started off from the songs Leslie and Vivian were writing together, and things really took off once the other members came into the fray. Songs were arranged, ideas got improvised, and the album was recorded (both individually and together in the studio) over a rough period of two years. Time Of Rebirth is the result of their endeavors.

Can you briefly describe for us how the band first got together?

Dharma : Leslie, Vivian, Evan and me were hanging out quite a bit in 2002. That time Evan was playing keyboards for Throb and we were also working together on Inverse stuff. Les and Viv were working out songs for what is known as Time of Rebirth now. We’d talk a lot about music (among other things) which eventually led to talks of collaborating someday. When Les & Viv got an invitation to play Baybeats 2002, they felt they needed more musicians to perform live. Naturally I volunteered. Being the kinda folks that we are, there were thoughts and ambitions to push the music even further, and Evan was the choice to do so. As for Victor, he used to come for some of the gigs that we did as a four-piece. And we thought, this guy is musically, single and available, and we all liked his musical style. So it was only natural that we asked him to join the band. So here we are today…

Victor : I joined the band around the mid of last year. Before that I've seen Leslie, Vivian and Dharma perform and I was very impressed by their material. Then I heard the recording of their demo. I was even more impressed.

Vivian : All of us just got together to help pull off some of the songs Leslie and I had co-written for live gigs. We got together in bits and pieces, with Dharma joining us first. We were all exploring and listening and our conversations were mostly about our individual music interests. It's hard to find a bunch of people at our age (where most have found families, settled down, started playing golf, ventured on to buying unit trusts and what have you) who share a deep, insatiable appetite for music, books, film, particularly music.

I guess the sound of the album can be characterized as rather eclectic. Did the members of the band made a conscious decision, going into the studio, that this record is going to sound pretty loose and not 'pre-planned' in terms of song ideas or did you already have a strong sense of what you want the album to sound like? How does the band strike that fine balance between wanting to experiment and not robbing the songwriting of its intimacy?

Dharma : I don’t think we particularly went for a certain sound. I guess in a way it all just comes out subconsciously based on the music that we were listening to and were influenced by.

Vivian : There wasn’t any clear direction from the onset, just a vibe that we didn’t want the music structure to follow the usual verse-chorus-bridge-verse i.e. conventional song structure. We ended up just work-shopping musical ideas for fun, seeing how each one member's perception can change the whole feel of the track, and it was just fun to keep playing around and coming up with new arrangements, a new feel each time. To answer your question, no, we didn’t know where we were heading. We just went with our instincts, with the moment.

Leslie : We don't really have a formula. It's an instinctive process. I guess if anyone of us cringes at something then we know that it's bad. So we just use each other as ‘OB markers’!

And of these songs that started as collaboration between Vivian and Leslie: what kind of shape did these songs? Were they more in the singer-songwriter vein than how they eventually sounded on the album?

Vivian : We started off writing songs on the premise that we had to be able to perform them live, so you could say a lot of the songs were more acoustic-bass, no drums, occasionally with bass, mostly acoustic guitar, piano, bass. Very singer-songwriter based but with long instrumental interludes. Still, we played around with different styles, some more orchestrated (strings/vibes), others more pared down, even country-ish in a song called ‘And So’. Then we decided to just take it where the music led us, being more instinctive than structured from the onset.

Which were some of the oldest songs from this record?

Vivian : ‘Killing Time’, ‘Time of Rebirth’, ‘Fishbowl Flag’ and ‘Waste Your Life’ were earlier songs, mostly written in 2002. ‘Fishbowl Flag’ was one of the first few songs Leslie had written, dating back to his mid-teens, I think. According to Les, it was just instrumental then, he had picked it out on his casiotone. We decided to resurrect it and put some lyrics to it for the fun of it and liked it enough to include it.

How much songwriting was done in the studio, where the band starts to collaborate on the songs?

Evan : We contributed more to instrumentation and arrangements to the originally recorded songs in the album during weekly rehearsals and the occasional gigs when the band was formed.  It would become more standardized as time passed. As we have our own recording gear, we would later record our parts in our respective homes and passed it on to Les and Viv for collating and more mixing. Sometimes newer ideas were tried out during the recording process. More were talked out during the final mix in Yellow Box Studios. Some songs had so many layers we had trouble taking a few out.

Dharma : All the songs went through different versions since we first started working them out. Not radically different, but we all had much more things that we were doing. Later we realized that the songs needed space to breathe, so we started making it less dense.

Victor : The arrangement of the songs changed over time as the members increased, where each of us would add our parts and change the mood here and there over time, resulting in what you hear now in this album. Most of the songs in the album were created in this way, so to speak. I would say that the chemistry of the band was very strong.

There seem to be a strong thematic flow between the songs. What is your own sense or perspective of the songs and what the themes of the album are, how they hang together as a whole?

Vivian : I think the strong thematic connection between songs come from two places. For one, the songs lyrics address similar themes. Secondly, the musical focus/direction. Leslie's lyrics are essentially about questioning life, themes of displacement, disillusionment, apathy, solitude, social rejection vis-à-vis acceptance, vulnerability, hope, desire, a personal hunger for something more, for a lasting meaning, so on and so forth. Issues that matter so much to us on a personal level, yet not at all easy to talk about in the social/work environments we currently live in. Musically, we felt our challenge would be to make a song work within the context of an unconventional blend of electronic and classic elements. The idea of combining electronic with classical instrumentation has already been attempted and successfully as well but we wanted to try integrating a song with experimental electro-acoustic elements while still maintaining integrity without it being avant-garde for the sake of being different. To make it subtle and so natural for a song to sit in what you might call an 'eclectic' arrangement.

Evan : Leslie wrote the lyrics so it’s about how he feels about things around him. Generally, it's about questioning and reflections of whom we humans are. And maybe somehow we can be better people. The band carries the same attitude and emotions about life. Musically, we are trying to break out of the mould of a regular band by trying different arrangements and sounds and by combining both new and old instruments and different genres of music we love.

You guys all come from different musical backgrounds. Was it difficult for all the members to get their ideas across?

Evan : No at all. We are open to all ideas. Sometimes we do get too enthusiastic about doing something really different and if it's too ‘out there’, we will either talk it out or try toning down the ideas to see if it fits.

Victor : I think everyone in the band respects the different influences surrounding us all. I think it’s important to respect and try out different perspectives. In fact, everyone in the band is very open about it. This definitely helps us try to so call ‘push the musical envelope’ as far as we can. That's why in the album one can hear more than one distinct style.

The production of the album sounds good. How long did you take to finish the album in the studio, and is there anything you might have wanted to improve – if you guys had more time?

Dharma : Thanks. We did recordings at the studio and at our homes. Some were recorded as early as 2002 maybe, so it was a long period.  We’ve played and rehearsed the songs so much that by the time it was released we were dying to move on and do new tunes. Personally I feel that maybe some of my guitar tones could have been warmer, but it was difficult at that time cause I was having many hum problems from my single coil Strat. But it’s not like I’m losing sleep over it right now (anyway it’s hard to be totally satisfied with anything, isn’t it?). Other than that I think it came out sounding pretty well.

Evan and Vivian, the two of you shared most of the keyboard duties. How would you distinguish between the two playing styles?

Evan : Viv is an accomplished piano/keyboard player with a degree in music. So she does all the complicated lines and chords while I do the simpler ones. Nowadays we would sometimes write lines together for the new material and she would help me out on the difficult parts. "Relax your shoulders or lose those knuckles!” she said, with metal ruler in hand... kidding.

Vivian : Utter bollocks... I don’t just use the metal ruler. I threaten to erase all his plugins as well!!!! But seriously, I have all this 'classical' training since young but it's all hogwash if you can’t feel the music. I've been trying so hard to erase my rote learning tendencies and just go with the flow. But it's not easy. I'm so totally insecure without my makeshift scores, well they're no longer proper sheet music, just sketchings of chord bases and melodic riffs. Evan doesn’t know squat about real notes but he's so naturally gifted with rhythm and plays with so much feel it makes me envious, even though he could do with a bit more practice!!

Who played most of the bass, Victor or Leslie?

Victor : During live performances, bass playing would usually be split up between Evan and myself. Leslie was responsible for writing most of the bass lines for the songs in Time of Rebirth initially. Evan then took over the programming and modifications of these bass lines. I wrote a bass line for ‘Another Passerby’

Victor, on which particular tracks did you play classical guitars on?

Victor : ‘How's Life’, ‘Killing Time’, ‘Ask’, ‘Relationships With Sin’ and ‘Time Of Rebirth’.

I guess you could say that the three guitarists in the band each has a rather distinctive style. So Dharma, how would you describe your personal playing style?

Dharma : I can’t really answer this question because I’m not really sure. Sometimes I think my playing is quite satisfactory but most of the time I feel it needs lots more practicing and improving. About my style I don’t have much to say but I can tell you some of the guitar players that I like listening to at this moment. They would be John McLaughlin, Nels Cline, Frank Zappa, Carlos Santana (the older stuff), Jeff Parker, Neil Young, Jeff Beck… that’s some of them.

Victor : The sound that we wish to achieve will always evolve over time. For example, there'll be a point in time whereby I'd like my guitar to sound brighter or warmer than it is today...this can change with a different recording environment, or through a change in guitars that are being recorded.

On the album itself, there are a lot of different things going on in the arrangement. Leslie, is there ever a temptation on your part to strip the songs down to their bare bones?

Leslie : Not really. With the Obs, the converse is true. We were constantly trying to don our arranger hat. Constantly playing with textures and different instruments. To hear the songs grow when everyone adds their parts makes the whole process quite a lot of fun actually. Quite a lot of songs were written with that in mind rather than keeping them bare-boned.

There seem to be some demo versions of the songs downloadable and there's an EP of demos. Are the band thinking of pulling a Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, putting different versions of the album out on the net to excite the 'bootleggers'?

Leslie : Not that I know of. Our website just went live. There will be some clips of tracks that all of us have been working on, either together or individually. I'm not sure if it is available yet. Just trying to create another platform for us to communicate our music to our fans. Bootleggers are true music fans trying to make a buck. I don't think we will be pulling a Wilco on you all.

To come up with the sound effects that grace Time Of Rebirth, much time has obviously been spent in the studio or during rehearsals for the members to get a decent grip of the song arrangements. Yet a few members have commented that one of the high points of the album actually came on ‘Waste Your Life’, a song pretty much done live on the take and, well, almost completely improvised.

The Observatory is obviously a band that thrives on experimenting and it is not surprising that live performances are the time where the band really cuts loose with their musical instincts and love for experimenting. “For live gigs, Time Of Rebirth is slow and quite bare so it has a lot of space which we do improvise during gigs,” explained Evan. “For this reason, sometimes slow songs are more fun to play live.”

Through the course of their experimentation, The Observatory sometimes sounds like they are conjuring up their own nocturama. There is a distant menace and dark moods imbibed in these songs, while the stylistic footprints of some of their chief influences (to list just a few: post-rock, jazz, 4AD Records, IDM) are palpable. And because each member in the band has such a strong desire to put their ideas across and yet be willing to accommodate each others’ contribution, it’s interesting to listen to what The Observatory make of the weird shapes their songs took on.

How much of what we hear on Time Of Rebirth are the result of improvisation?

Dharma : Not much. The intro to ‘Waste Your Life’ was. My solos in ‘Relationship with Sin’ and ‘Another Passerby’ were in bits. I generally have a certain structure to it but it’s not always done entirely the same. That makes it partially improvised, I think.

Leslie : We pretty much improvise until we are happy with our parts, then we kind of stick to it and record it. We are not jazz musicians so we are not in the position to improvise and perform at the same time. So we normally do our improvisations behind closed doors. The intro to ‘Waste Your Life’ was improvised though. We are always happy to do noise improvs anytime. Evan : I know some of the melody lines or instrument solos are improvisations from the jams. I can't remember which though because sometimes the lines get blurred, whether one of us does something totally new by just playing along or it was planned. Sometimes it’s a ‘remix’ on an old part. Ultimately, these parts were later to become permanent lines in the album.

And what’s with this nocturnal vibe in the songs on Time Of Rebirth? Is it a result of the band’s sonic experiments and how they hang together in the studio to create this dark, bad-dream vibe as part of your sound?

Vivian : I'm not sure what you mean by this... the Time Of Rebirth songs as a whole certainly has a nocturnal vibe, (though you should try listening to ‘How's Life?’ and ‘This Sad Song’ during the day while you're on the road), but I never thought of the sonic experiments as having a bad-dream vibe. More like stream-of-consciousness, visual imagery played out in the form of musical soundscapes.

But to clarify, what anyone makes of it is purely interpretative. We didn’t set out deliberately with a grand scheme to make it such, we weren’t systematically trying to make everything thematic lyrically or musically. It was very much based on the collective result of five people's instincts interacting and letting this follow its course naturally.

Leslie : To a certain extent it is very nocturnal. A lot of the songs were developed at night. In fact the initial demo album was called Middle Night. There wasn't a deliberate attempt to make it sound nocturnal or dark. We just kind of went with our gut, experimented with sounds and for some reason or other, we all tend to like what was being created. Now looking back, we all must have been trying to release our demons in one way or another, ha ha.

Evan : Maybe it’s because we are all night people? I dunno. Leslie's songwriting has always had that mellow vibe. He plays a major role in the album. Also I think as we become older and more mature, we tend to feel less angst about things, so the sound directions follow. I don't think we have any bad dream vibe at all actually, save for ‘Waste Your Life’.

I like to talk a bit more on the programming side of things. My favorite track on the album is ‘Ask’ and to me, it would have sounded like a straight folkie tune until the band adds that cool percussion to the intro and then the horns. Tell me about how the band put that track together?

Evan : When Leslie passed us the demo, it already had the horns and both Vivian and his parts in it. I thought of programming the drums with a latin/bossa nova rhythm because it gave me that vibe. Dharma gave it an eerie cowboy slide guitar touch. Later, Victor added classical guitars. He even wrote a very brilliant guitar solo to it . We thought it sounded quite Godfather when the melodica line was thrown in.

Is it fair to say that it was Evan that brought most of that certain exotic flavor to ‘Ask’ and ‘Relationship With Sin’?

Vivian : Evan likes what he calls 'voodoo' drums/percussions. You can hear this distinctly on ‘Failed Recollections Of A Fool’, which isn't on the album but we've played it a few times at our gigs, though never quite to our satisfaction. ‘Ask’ was originally written, arranged and programmed entirely by Leslie. We went through this process of adding and subtracting.

Depending on what you mean by 'exotic', I think it's a combination of the trombone, the drum sound, and Victor's classical that makes it a little more exotic. As for ‘Relationships’, that one was something that Evan programmed something more bunga, more sexy but the lyrics are far from it. The exotica element is more in the tonal coloring than instrumentation.

Who/what are some of the musicians/albums that you thought might have influenced your contribution to The Observatory, especially during the recording of the album?

Vivian : I think because of how long it took for us to make this – we didn’t want to hurry it – at various stages of our writing process, different artists made an impression. For each song, all our individual influences would be different so it's very difficult to answer this one. You know how it's always somewhere in your subconscious, a strange mix of stuff you dig, though never something quite that calculated.

Dharma : I would say maybe the post-rock, jazz and funk side of things. It’s not like I can play jazz, but I’m really into it and I try to pull off some jazz styles when I hear a need for it in the tune. Maybe even all the other electronic stuff I listen to as well has its contributions. We are all great fans of Radiohead and what is known as the Chicago post-rock scene today (Chicago Underground, Tortoise, etc) and their affiliates (Stereolab, Radian, etc.) But we are also great fans of many other artistes.

Victor : I think one distinct element could be the classical guitar included in the repertoire of instruments used in the album. Classical guitar music is also a big influence for me and I sometimes try to incorporate this classical element into our music.

Vivian : It varies for each one of us, and our personal taste bears down on the songs and how we interpret them very differently, hence the unpredictability of how we work, it's more fun this way.

Evan : (aside from the musicians listed on our website) I am also inspired by Stone Roses (pop sensibilities), Brian Eno (read Ambient), Pink Floyd, The Doors which I didn't put in the site. All this contributes to my playing in the band. Like Fennesz for his sounds, Tortoise for their sense of melody, Arto for his rhythm experimentation on his different albums, Eno for soothiness, Pink Floyd for their psychedelia and madness, etc. It thrills me when musicians go out of their way to experiment and it turns out well. Of course, song content is also very important. Without song content, you can give it a lot of form & ideas but it will still lack that something.

What about this specific 4AD influence (Cocteau Twins, Red House Painters, His Name Is Alive) I can hear on the album?

Vivian : I'm guessing that the guitar sounds of Victor could be close. He's very influenced by Cocteau Twins. And then, you could say Leslie's songwriting and singing style also has some of the hallmarks of Red House Painters and American Music Club. But we all listen to stuff from way back, Nick Drake, The Beatles, early funk and soul, etc.

Victor : Cocteau Twins is definitely a big influence on me. It’s hard to really point out what it is specifically that draws me to their music, but to say the least, I really love the sound of their instrumentation. I guess this influence is reflected on the album, but I would like to think that it is a reflection of this influence that has been expressed in my own way in terms of both sound and melody.

Let’s talk about radio airplay. / Is the new album getting any airplay at all in the local airwaves? which song do you think is 'commercial' enough to be worth a plug? – a song like ‘Ask’ certainly does. And does it ever bother you that a local album like Time Of Rebirth would not get the amount of attention it deserve from the radio stations?

Dharma : Yeah, ‘Ask’ should be worth. Maybe even ‘How’s Life?’ and ‘Time Of Rebirth’. I hardly watch TV or listen to radio but I do know that ‘This Sad Song’ was the first (and only!) song we tried to push on the airwaves. I heard that it gets played once in a while. Thanks. I think it is accessible. Not to a big vast audience though. But there are quite a number of people that do like our music. These are the people whom we owe it to.

Victor : As far as I know, there are a couple of songs in circulation these days. ‘This Sad Song’ and ‘Killing Time’, if I'm not wrong. We have also prepared other radio edits (much to our disappointment), such as ‘Ask’ and ‘How's Life?’ to name a few.... I don’t know if these songs will ever get airplay (or have been getting airplay), but I certainly hope so.

Evan : All the tracks on the album are radio-friendly. It's most of the local radio stations' mindset that's unfriendly. Open minded DJs and radio stations play everything from death metal to free jazz to create awareness and promote artistes. Look at John Peel.

Leslie : Thanks to some DJs who have been supportive of us. We have been given some coverage on radio to date. So that's been pretty good. Local music of our generation started out being a ‘fringe’ thing. Then progressed into a something that might have commercial value. Then subsequently died a natural death because it didn't. Now it's become a fringe thing again. Ebbing and flowing. Sometimes it bothers me. Sometimes it doesn't.

Looking ahead, what are some of the songwriting styles or themes that you might be interested in exploring for the Observatory’s music? What is the future direction of the band?

Evan : We noticed that Time of Rebirth had a lot of arrangements and instrumentation going on. So now we are trying to make our music more minimal. It's tough to take away things rather than put in more because you want to be involved. So we are learning how to step back a little.  We are doing this very slowly so we know where we are going. We reckon we will get the idea when the time comes through more jamming and experimenting. Takes a lot of patience and discipline. And a drum set maybe...

Leslie : Actually we have been writing new songs already. And we will be playing them at our upcoming gigs. We have been experimenting with different song structures and styles. Also breaking away from the 4/4 mould of songwriting a bit. Just about anything to keep the music interesting and keeping us interested as well. The songs are a lot more moodier. So there you go.

When you talk about local songwriters, Leslie Low is someone who needs no introduction. If the Observatory as a musical entity is a wholly different beast from the albums he made with Humpback Oak, the songs still bear the distinctive touch of the well-respected songwriter. ‘Cause no matter how much the songs get tricked up, there’s still no mistaking that the restless voice speaking through the Observatory’s songs is Leslie’s. Hearing the new songs, one has the sense that he is now less the pained balladeer that he was before.

In a subtle way on Time Of Rebirth, his songwriting no longer exposes the dark veins inside his head as some of the Humpback Oak material did. And in a way, his songwriting has arguably become less personal, less close to the bone – well, actually Leslie might be slightly miffed to hear suggestions that the Observatory material is any less personal (read below). One of the most rewarding aspects of Time Of Rebirth is to hear Leslie Low evolving as a songwriter, into one more open to challenging his signature songwriting style with uninhibited song forms and experiments.

“Leslie generally does write sad songs, but not in a depressing sort of way,” Dharma commented on the new songs. “There is subtle optimism behind the sadness and melancholy. As compared with his older stuff, I’d say the newer stuff is less sad and more reflective in a more mature sort of way.” “ I don’t know if I speak for the local fans here, but Leslie's compositions grow on you,” added Victor. “Maybe it’s because his songs carry a lot of depth both lyrically and musically that's missing in quite a lot of music these days.”

So Leslie, it's been some five years or so since (Humpback Oak’s swansong) SideASideB, and you are back with a new band that offers a musical dynamic obviously different from Humpback Oak. Do you think the new album, as hinted by the title, perhaps reflect a new perspective of life on your part?

Leslie : To a certain extent, it is a new perspective of life. But it is not a complete 180 shift, you know. To begin with, the songs on the album were written during a period when I was trying to keep making music despite the odds. The odds being a regular job, a not so happening music scene for English singing bands like us and the pressure of growing up and moving up in life the Singaporean way. I guess once I figured out what my odds were and suddenly finding the conviction to overcome them, it ended up being the main focus. This so-called rebirth. Everyone goes through it at some point.

Is it fair to say that the lyrics on the new record are less personal? And well, you sound more contented...

Leslie : On the contrary, it is very personal. It's just that the approach is quite different from the Humpback Oakie that I was before. As for being contented, I think not quite so yet. I'm still harboring the belief that the world's gone wrong in many ways. So maybe a bit of between-the-line reading is adequate here.

For you to put it succinctly, what do you think are the main themes (lyrical, narrative, and musical) of Time Of Rebirth?

Leslie : A few key words come to mind. World, Life, People, Humility, Forgiveness, Happiness, Sadness and Hope.

I think the songwriting on ‘Queen Of Fate’ is particularly awesome, and a song where I can really hear the Dylan influence on your songwriting. Agree? Can you tell me a bit more about the rather sinister imagery you were going for that song?

Leslie : Thank you. Yes, that was very Dylan inspired lyrically. Musically, I can't say though. If you look around the world these days, is ‘Queen of Fate’ still sinister? I was just trying to write something of epic proportions, that's all.

I gathered from Vivian that there’s a bit of history about the song Fishbowl Flag. Can you tell me a bit more about this particular track? It sounds to me that there’s might a longer version of the song you got somewhere?

Leslie : ‘Fishbowl Flag’ was originally an instrumental piece written when I started playing guitar around 1986. It was just floating around for many years until I wrote a vocal part to it in 1994 and recorded it during the time (Humpback Oak’s 2 nd LP)Ghostfather was recorded. I actually still have a version of it with me on vocals. This version has some bars of whistling and keys jingling on the outro. Then the song floated into oblivion again as I wasn't completely happy with it. When Vivian and I started collaborating, I thought it would be perfect for her to sing it. That's the history.

What do you think are some of the specific influences that you can hear on this new record?

Leslie : I can't really say. I'm too close to the music to comment on this.

Well as old fans of Humpback Oak, we all (sort of) know the few songwriters that have influenced you and your music. What is it about these few songwriters that so inspire or stir you to write in the way you do? Are there any of the newer songwriters out there these days that you really enjoy too?

Leslie : Yes. I'm always trying to listen widely whenever I can. Now with the band having so many different influences, it has been quite fulfilling exchanging CDs with them. Recently I have discovered how talented some of these people are: Neil Hannon, Perry Blake, Jonny Greenwood, Mark Hollis, Paul Webb, Lee Hazelwood, Tortoise, Davey Ray Moor, Baden Powell, Jaga Jazzist.... But all these people have been around for a while. As for young songwriters, Kings of Convenience comes to mind. It normally takes me about three or four albums to really like a band.

I'm looking at the presentation of the album itself: the self-made inlay, graphics and notes of that sort. I mean, basically the whole presentation of the music evokes a sense of paranoia, confusion, and erm, a really bad dream? Your take?

Leslie : The album presentation was really the way I wrote the songs. So it does look messy, huh? The way I work. In a way, you're right. I am often a paranoid and confused person. And I think life is often like a bad dream.

I hope you don't mind the next question. I know some fans of your old stuff who find the Observatory hard to warm to – maybe it’s because these folks feel an extremely close affinity with Humpback Oak. While I enjoyed the Observatory very much myself, I kinda can see their point. Have anyone made similar remarks about Time Of Rebirth? And how do you feel about this sort of reactions to your work?

Leslie : It is after all a different band. I'm not expecting people to like The Observatory because of Humpback Oak. They are separate entities. All I can say is that by our third or fourth album, these fans of ours might then warm up to it, maybe?

This question might seem a bit tacky. Do you consider songwriting as something that's therapeutic for your emotions? Do you subscribe to the notion of curative powers in the songwriting process?

Leslie : I do find writing songs like writing a diary. I'm not sure of its curative powers. I do feel release of some sort when I perform the songs. But I never feel completely healed.

I like the lyrics on the title track, "Learn, we will learn to admit defeat/ Time understands when it wants to". Does that reflect how you feel about life in general these days?

Leslie : Yes. Very much so. Admitting that you're wrong is a very hard thing to do.

Time of Rebirth

The Observatory chats with Aging Youth about Time Of Rebirth and discusses what the songs on their debut album mean to them.

HOW’S LIFE?
Evan : ‘How's Life?’ was programmed by Les and  it had a very organic, ‘lazy’ groove to it which was very nice. Les did the programming before Victor, Dharma and myself came into the picture. And ‘How's Life?’ was one of the first songs I programmed but Leslie's version was so much better. For gigs, we use my version as an alternate take. Not as good though.

Leslie : A song based on phrases that are commonly used amongst us. But I’m kinda questioning myself in this song. More like talking to myself.

KILLING TIME
Vivian : Haunting, love the interplay during the chorus bit where Leslie comes in. For me, still a song I haven’t yet gotten tired of playing.

Evan : It was the first song I tried applying a more electronic sound to the jazzy dirge feel of the song and it sort of worked itself out. It gave me a picture of what other different sounds could come into the picture without it sounding jarring.

QUEEN OF FATE
Dharma : About an autocratic tyrant. This one could be about any of the modern political leaders these days who operate under the mask of ‘democracy’. How they slash their rivals mercilessly and oppress the citizens without them being aware of it. My contributions would be the funk strumming and the some dreamy wah-wah parts.

Leslie : Long ass song inspired by Dylan’s songs. Quite a workout performing it. This song is about a bad dream. Wink.

ASK
Leslie : Another song where I’m talking to myself again. Mumbling about helplessness.

Dharma : About apathy.

Victor : The rest of the guys suggested that I do a solo in this song. The opening notes of the solo were based on the old demo recording that Leslie and Vivian had done. I kept those sliding notes (with their octaves) and used it as a theme in the solo, so you can hear that it starts and ends with that motif.

WASTE YOUR LIFE
Vivian : I love Evan's hantu sound. I'm not doing much other than keeping rhythm on the harpsichord, but I think the front bit's the most constructive bit of noise we've ever done. Usually, we just wank off but this one has shape.

Victor : The beginning of the song was very interesting for us. We really let ourselves go. I thought it captured a very unique expression from the band and also it was very well engineered.

Dharma : Well, most of this song was recorded live. I think it was the second or third take, I can’t remember. The intro was done totally live without any overdubs. The intro to ‘Waste Your Life’ had us all making weird sounds from our goldmines. We were like improvising on the sounds that we were hearing of each other.

THIS SAD SONG
Leslie : A sad song about a sad life in a sad world.

Dharma : About feeling sad and the sad people in this world, the loneliness and emptiness within. I played the guitar pluckings and some lines towards the end.

TIME OF REBIRTH
Leslie : Song about admitting defeat, humility and forgiveness. And then starting anew.

Victor : Originally it has some glockenspiel lines, but that was later replaced with the classical guitar. The classical guitar seemed to gel better with the song than the glockenspiel.

Evan : Time of Rebirth was incidentally the last song on the album that I worked on after having experimented on the other songs. I tried to do it with a more subtle sense of rhythm with some noises to suit the mood of the song and it too worked out.

RELATIONSHIPS WITH SIN
Evan : The most ‘club friendly’ tune on the album!

Vivian : Quite a fun one to sing, and I definitely love the bridge bit where Dharma's solo follows Victor's classical. You know how it's nice to pass it a line on and see it develop further.

Victor : This track has got a bit of the bossa vibe. Great solo from Dharma.

HEARTS AND SOULS 
Leslie : An observation about how we often reflect about our own lives. And questioning if we actually have been following our hearts. And yet forever being confused that if by following our hearts, are we being true to our souls?

Vivian : We all like playing this one cause it's so laidback, and Rennie, our mixer, he really brought out the 'crickets' electronic sound which I love. The interplay between the three guitarists, Leslie, Dharma and Victor, is lovely. Always makes me smile when they play lines in harmony!

ANOTHER PASSER-BY
Evan : It’s the newest song on the album. This song has Victor on bass playing melody lines. Victor : I originally wanted to write a normal bassline for it. But when I was working it out, I can’t help but write melody lines for the bass to be played on the higher strings, only becoming more subtle during Dharma's solo at the end.

FISHBOWL FLAG
Leslie : Originally an instrumental piece written when I started playing guitar around 1986. It was just floating around for many years until I wrote a vocal part to it in 1994 and recorded it during the time Ghostfather was recorded.

Evan : Mama lemon lime.

Vivian : It's a sort of lullaby for the end of the night.

The Workmen's Tools

The Observatory reveals to Aging Youth what equipment they use to play their tunes and induces yet another round of G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) among the entire team.

Leslie Low (vocals, guitars, bass, melodica, programming)

Leslie, your electrics are all hollowbodies. What special appeal do they have over you?

Leslie : I just like the mellow sound at the moment. I play mostly rhythm guitar and therefore the mellow, rounded-ness of it doesn't get in the way and just sits pretty well in a band situation. But I am toying with the idea of a Telecaster at some point. So I am not particularly fixed on a certain sound for long.

What sort of effects do you run the guitars through? What's the signal chain like?

Leslie : My effects have been increasing since the band started. But I'm really not the effect pedals guy to talk to. But anyway, I’m currently using in this order, rotovibe+tremelo+microvibe+supershifter(with pedal)+equalizer+digital delay+sparkle drive+wah pedal and straight into an amp. My acoustic guitars bypass this chain.

What's the string gauge and brand of strings you use?

Leslie : I prefer heavier gauged strings. Because I tend to get carried away and whack the guitar when I'm playing rhythm. So I like a little bit of resistance. Again, I'm quite hopeless with keeping track of stuff like that. Most of my acoustic guitars are 11s whereas my electric geets are 10s. Can't remember what brands I used last. Probably Gibson or Ernie Ball for my electrics.

Is that a vintage Gibson ES-140 Archtop that you are using?

Leslie : Yes it is. It has some problems with tuning so I don't use it very often for live gigs. But some tracks on our album were recorded using that guitar, like ‘Hearts And Souls’, ‘Ask’ and ‘Time Of Rebirth’. Sounds like something off some old jazz records...

Victor Low (guitars, bass, glockenspiel, vocals)

Victor, besides using the e-bow, what sort of effects do you run the Jazzmaster through?

Victor : I run them through a Sonic Maximizer/DI, Boss Chorus, Giga Delay, Pitch Shifter, Phaser, Flanger, Reverb, EQ, a Cry Baby and a couple of Distortion units (Boss Dual distortion and Electro Harmonix's Big Muff).

What's the signal chain like?

Victor : They sort of change every now and then, for now they are all contained within my noise suppressor, more for routing purposes and power distribution than to actually suppress any noise...

It's interesting to note that you pull out a Takamine classical guitar for certain tunes. What fuels your classical music fascination?

Victor : I've always liked the sound of the classical guitar. I'm also taking lessons, and I try to apply what I learn from these lessons to the music the band makes.

Where did the idea of adding the glockenspiel to certain tracks come about?

Victor : Everyone in the band loves using different instruments. Vivian had a glockenspiel and they suggested one day that I try to muck around with it for a couple of songs. I think it’s good too because for some songs, Leslie and Dharma's guitar parts are very nice and well covered and thought out, so if I were to add in another guitar, it will only crowd that space and will work against the song. Using other instruments like the glockenspiel adds a new layer of sound yet not disturbing that balance.

What's the string gauge and brand of strings you use?

Victor : I usually use D'Addarios and they are usually of normal gauge...not too thin, not too heavy (ha!).

Dharma (guitars, vocals)

Dharma, you play both a Fender Stratocaster and a Gibson ES-335. Why the switch from Strats to ES-335s?

Dharma : Been playing the Strat for many years now. Great guitar. Was the guitar of my original guitar hero - Jimi Hendrix, I couldn’t go wrong. But through the years I felt a need for a fatter warm tone. The kind like the jazz guitarists would get. And the clean sound on the Strat does get a bit thinny at times. So I bought the 335. I can’t say which is better because it depends on what the song needs. I switch between the two depending on the song. It’s difficult having to lug two guitars around, but if Victor and Les can lug four guitars each, I guess no one will accept my excuse!

I'm aware that you are an avid Boss guitar effects pedals fan. Could you share what's on your pedalboard?

Dharma : Well it’s not just Boss. Victor has got more Boss pedals than me.

The signal chain: Guitar- Line 6 Filter Modeller, MXR Envelope Filter, Boss Digital Delay (DD6), Boss Trem/Pan, Boss Delay,/Pitch Shifter, Boss Flanger, Ibanez Tube Screamer(TS-10)- Amp. I will be using Moogerfooger Ring Modulator on the new songs very soon.

What's the string gauge and brand of strings you use?

Dharma : D’Addario / GHS (10s)

Evan Tan (programming, synths, vocals)

Evan, You are the guy who supplies beats and programmed basslines on your G4. Why a G4 over Windows-based notebooks?

Evan : It’s just a case that I am just more familiar with the Mac OS. Somehow, I find it simpler to use.

What software do you use to create the programmed stuff?

Evan : I use Propellerheads' Reason combined with Ableton Live and sometimes free stuff from the web for processing.  I don't have any specific preference for any software though. They are tools. Each has their own character sounds. Like NI-Reaktor . It actually sounds better but its very CPU intensive so it has limited use on my old laptop. Also, the freeware nowadays on the web are either very CPU intensive as well or the learning curve is very steep. All these take money to buy a better computer and time to learn so maybe not just yet. The band has been very busy.

You play the occasional bass. What do you use?

Evan : I used to own a Yamaha Motion B bass but I sold that away a few years back. Nowadays, thanks to Victor, I share his Fender Precision bass with him during jams and gigs because he also has bass duties for different songs.

Vivian Wang (vocals, electric piano, synths)

Vivian, why the preference for the Yamaha P120S Electric Piano?

Vivian : I did some research to find an electric piano with a decent piano sound, preferably one that was modeled after real grand piano samples. I had my eye set on a GEM model but it cost way, way too much. The Yamaha PS120 was the next best option. I didn’t want too many soundbanks or loads of functionality, just decent piano and vibraphone sound and I got it in this Yamaha.

How does the KORG MicroKorg complement the Observatory's style of music?

Vivian : An analogue synth has the appeal of being able to create and tweak sounds on the fly with real knobs and a keyboard to play out lines. And the sounds are really fat for something so small. It's just fun and a little unpredictable. Evan has the more mature MS2000, which has even more knobs and parameters to play around with.

During live performances, you use a G4 Powerbook. So, what are you running at that point of time? A soft synth?

Vivian : I'm quite an illiterate when it comes to this. I'm only just discovering the things I can do with a powerbook. It's like having 10 different keyboards and tons of sound modules available at your fingertips. Currently, I run a virtual sampler on the G4 using a USB keyboard controller to play lines. Plus it's great for quick reference in case I forget lyrics!