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By Victoria Barker
COME March 20 , home-grown post-rock band I Am David Sparkle will officially be the latest Singapore indie band to venture overseas.
The quartet will play the hotly- anticipated annual South By Southwest (SXSW) Festival in Austin, Texas, next month. In the line-up are acts like Primal Scream and Ben Harper.
It's a huge leg up for the eight-year-old band, since only 400 out of 1,800 bands at the festival are from outside the United States.
"Being chosen out of so many bands was so unexpected," guitarist Amran Khamis, 30, told my paper in a recent interview.
"We hope it will bring us a bit more recognition here."
THE WOW FACTOR
SINGAPORE bands Electrico and The Great Spy Experiment (GSE) (pictured above) both performed at SXSW in 2007.
While bands don't get paid at the festival - David Sparkle is forking out $30,000 on flights and accommodation - their rewards lie in getting experience that could impact their future.
"Once a band tours, they'll have more exposure and experience than a band that hasn't," said Universal Music marketing director Lim Teck Kheng.
Added Saiful Idris, 29, GSE's guitarist: "Being the first Singapore band along with Electrico to play at the festival really caught the eye of a lot of people here."
While popular even before they hit SXSW, the three-yearold band said people tend to take them more seriously now, knowing they have played to a Western audience.
Electrico drummer William Lim Jr, 31, added that the band - which is next set to open for Kaiser Chiefs in April - said that performing at SXSW has given them "an extra wow factor".
But above all that, such tours expose the bands to a larger industry.
Former member of Electrico Daniel Sassoon, 33, said: "Realising there's so much good music out there helped us push boundaries when it came to our own music."
The guitarist now fronts instrumental- metal band, In Each Hand A Cutlass. PAVING THE WAY TOURING in the West certainly raises the bar for bands here. But Mr Willy Tan of Aging Youth Records said that what labels still look at first is the artiste's fan base to see if they "will be able to sell albums and shows in their home territories".
Universal's Mr Lim also said that tour experience is "a bonus" but not a deciding factor when it comes to getting signed.
But producer Leonard Soosay of Snakeweed Studios said that ultimately, these bands are paving the way for the future.
"It's a whole new world of possibilities for the younger generation of musicians," he said.
"They can actually live the dream of playing overseas."
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