Theirs is a story almost fit for the silver screen: 3 childhood friends, whose friendship blossomed into young adulthood, strike it big at a nation-wide competition. Chan Weiqi, 22, Samuel Wong (Sam), 21, and Nicodemus Lee (Nic), 23, have known each other as kids in Sunday school. Now, they’re celebrating the release of their first album, and a dream come true.

Cliché? Maybe for the movies, but this is the true story of MiLu Bing, the winner of 2005’s SuperBand competition, and if things go as planned, the band’s career set to be anything but ordinary.

What the band has accomplished so far can be deemed as impressive. To validate this point, you’ll have to be brought back to the starting point that gave the band its name, MiLu Bing, which literally translates as Lost Soldiers in Mandarin.

Apparently, the boys were contemplating names for their band on the eve the SuperBand competition over glasses of iced milo and that instigated them to name themselves after the beverage. However, they were also caught at a crossroads in their lives, unsure of where their next step would bring them. Weiqi had just completed his National Service (NS) and didn’t know which university to go to, or what to study. Sam, armed with merely a secondary school education, had no idea what he could do after NS, and as for Nic, having just come out of a boys’ home, was pretty much as clueless as the other 2.

Today, though, the boys have fared better than they could ever imagine. They’ve just began their music career while most of their peers sadly remain as bathroom singers.

Perhaps their humble beginning has helped them remain grounded and down-to-earth despite the sudden fame and success. While I was still groggy and waiting impatiently for the morning caffeine to kick in on an early Saturday morning, MiLu Bing rained me with shouts of “Good Morning!” and “Hello!” that sent energy reverberating through the phone cord during our phone interview. Well, almost anyway.

Not surprisingly, Weiqi shared that his favourite track on their new self-titled album is “Get A Life”, a song that he “holds on to” when things get “tiring and stressful” – especially now, when he’s back in the Nanyang Technological University’s (NTU) School of Art, Design and Media and has to juggle between schoolwork his music career.

Apparently one who sympathises with his bandmate, Nic pipes in that the main message that he’d like to get through to listeners with their new album can be found in “Get A Life”, which, he says, is really about “perseverance despite challenges, through life’s journey and making friends and all that”. For that mere couple of seconds, the usually laughter-infused conversation died down and one wonders if the boys were lost in reminiscence of the past 2 years and the trials that they had overcome to get to where they are today.

But really, you wouldn’t think that a friendship woe is one of the things that would bother the members of MiLu Bing. When assessing himself as the group leader of the band, Weiqi reflects that he doesn’t exactly behave as the outright and obvious leader among the 3 of them. He adds that instead, “It’s the way we function, we just complement each other”.

As if to illustrate the point, Sam supports the latter’s claim with an example: “Like last night, Weiqi reminded us on what we have to bring, I’ll say ‘Everybody, don’t be late’, and Nic will get breakfast.”

Apparently, the boys complement each other even in their music-making. Sam adds, “Even in terms of composing, we make sure that everyone is happy,” which includes thrashing an idea so long as even 1 member of the group disagrees.

Even though the boys do display signs of maturity, you know what they say, that boys will always be boys. This should undoubtedly be one of the signatures of MiLu Bing. Through the half-hour interview, the mindless and silly jokes were innumerable, but even I’ve got to admit (though reluctantly) that they are indeed rather funny in a roll-your-eyes and chuckle manner.

For instance, when quizzed on who’s the most responsible of the 3, they all replied unanimously with murmurs of “Weiqi”. After a mere second, Nic went on to say, “Actually Sam’s also very responsible… for eating.”

Err, and how so?

“He’ll always ask, ‘Where to eat?’”

Right, if only responsibility can be an excuse for gluttony. Not to imply that Sam is a glutton, of course.

And the boyish humour goes on. Usually, when you ask a celebrity typical questions like, “What is the downside of fame?” you tend to receive a typical answer like, “There’s no more privacy.”

When I pose this question to them anyway, count on Nic to say something like, “Cannot wear boxer shorts to Orchard Road,” which means the same thing as “no more privacy because I am now a public figure”, but is so much more quotable.

Whether or not MiLu Bing may have realised it yet, their amiable and friendly nature might just be their signature trait. Yes, they’ve definitely got a good thing right here. So, do the boys think of this as a permanent career path, or just a fun thing that they’ll dabble in for just a bit?

To this, Weiqi says, “We wish that this thing will last. Wouldn’t you like to have your best friend as your colleague?”

On any other day, I’d hate getting questions as answers to my own questions, but to this I say, “Damn right.”

Their debut album is out in all major record stores now.