Chen Shuyi
An energetic band, screaming, intoxicated fans and striking strobe light effects were what predominated the ambience at St James Power Station’s biggest venue PowerHouse on May 16.
If you’ve not heard of The Drums, it’s about time you did. Currently on their 25-stop world tour, they delivered an impressive and sincere performance during their 60-min gig at the Singapore’s renowned youth-centric nightclub.
Drumming to the Beats
This indie-pop quintet ensemble, formed in 2006, claimed to fame in the States in 2009 with their fresh music and distinctive self-written compositions.
Made up of 5 all-rounded and skilled musicians, The Drums consist of vocalist Jonathan Pierce, Jacob Graham (guitarist-cum-keyboardist), Connor Hanwick (drummer-cum-guitarist) as well as 2 others who only participate in the band’s live performances, Myles Matheny (guitarist-cum-bassist) and Chris Stein (drummer).
Being crowned the ‘Best Hope for 2010’ in a readers’ poll from Pitchfork Media, The Drums has been hailed by magazines and critics since 2009 as one of the most notable groups foreseen to be the next big thing.
Live and Loaded
The band kicked off the night with ‘What You Were’, a track from their upcoming album, slated to be released at the end of the year. From Jonathan’s melodramatic vocals to Jacob’s upbeat keyboard prowess, and even to Chris’s deep immersion in the performances, The Drums successfully executed 15 songs, including their hit singles ‘Let’s Go Surfing’, ‘Best Friend’ and ‘Forever and Ever Amen”. In the midst of the concert, the band also performed another unreleased track entitled ‘Money’.
But what kept the audience enthralled throughout the 1-hour concert was probably lead vocalist Jonathan’s signature dance moves, emotional singing and outlandish behavior – rolling his eyes, playing with his ‘air keyboard and guitar’, swaying his body as if he was tipsy; you name it, he did it. Perhaps he was just too engrossed. Nevertheless, you have to give him major points for his candid and unfeigned personality as he poured out his heart and soul for pieces such as ‘We Tried’.
Into the 45th minute of the show, The Drums earned many disappointed groans from the fans as they announced ‘Forever and Ever Amen’ to be the final song of the night. Nevertheless, die-hard fans called for an encore by chanting, ‘We want more! We want more!’ in perfect unison. When that didn’t work out, they belted out a choir version of ‘Down By The Water’. Eventually, they erupted into cheers when The Drums reappeared onto the stage, rewarding the fans’ dedication with an encore performance of 3 more songs – ‘Skippin Town’, ‘Down By The Water’ and ‘The Future’.
It’s Not the End Yet
Devoted fans who missed the band’s performance, don’t have to kick themselves, the band’s promised to return to Singapore for another show. With their forthcoming new album due out in several months it may not be much longer…
Urbanwire snagged an exclusive interview with drummer-guitarist Connor Hanwick before the gig at Curious Teepee.
Q: How do you find Singapore?
Connor: “It’s really cool. This is the first time we (The Drums) have been here and it’s a really distinct city. It doesn’t really look like anywhere else we’ve been. Statically, it looks different, and it feels different. It feels like Japan in the summer, but it looks really modern, almost like Brazil. It’s just like a crazy mash of a lot of places.”
Q: Recently, Urbanwire did a phone interview with Jacob, and he said that ‘Book of Stories’ is the song that represents the band. Out of all the songs, why this one?
Connor: “I guess it’s just the sensibilities in that song. It’s like dance-y, yet the lyrics are very miserable. If we are not completely one-sided, it has all the sides that are incorporated in The Drums, I guess.”
Q: Are there any music festivals that you guys really want to play at? Any specific countries you guys would like to go?
Connor: “I’m pretty excited to go to China. I was excited to come here (Singapore), and now we’re here. Festivals, I actually like go to watch that, and if there were any I’d like to perform at, it would be All Tomorrow’s Parties (ATP). I don’t go to a lot of festivals to hang out but I actually go to the festival if there’s somebody I like.”
Q: Which bands inspire you and whom you’d love to play alongside?
Connor: “We’ve been lucky enough to play with a lot of really good bands… There’s a ton of bands that inspire me I guess. The Pastels, Beat Happening, Beastie Boys, Dulite, Joe Smooth.”
Q: What were you guys doing before the band formed, and how did you meet?
Connor: “I was a cook at a restaurant (laughs). It wasn’t very good though. I’d probably got fired really quickly if it wasn’t my friend’s restaurant, but I worked there for 4 years. Jon and Jacob were working at different shops. They met a long time ago when they were kids but I met them about 2 weeks before we started the band.”
Q: Have The Drums gotten into any conflicts while touring?
Connor: “Yeah (laughs). We definitely have, but probably not as many as other bands. I think our touring lives are pretty tame compared to any other bands.”
Q: Do you guys prefer to party or chill out?
Connor: “I guess it goes in phases, depending on the kind of mood. Usually if it’s a long tour, we’re not going to have the energy to party hard. But we like to have drinks before and after shows. It’s hard when you are on a long tour. Some bands can do it, we’ve been on tours with bands and I was just amazed at how they are really good with partying (laughs). I could never keep up with that.”
Q: Will there be any surprises during tonight’s show at St. James Power Station?
Connor: “For this tour, we’ve been trying out some new songs since we just finished recording a record. So tonight, we’re going to play some new songs from the album that will come out at the end of the year. We had some friends of ours (Myles and Chris) come up and play with us because we couldn’t pull off the song with just 3 of us. So we kind of moved around, I used to be playing drums, now I’m playing the guitar and Jacob moved to keyboards. ”
Q: Which is your favourite song to play live?
Connor: “The song called ‘The Future’, it’s pretty fun to play. I like playing ‘Best Friend’, ‘It Will All End in Tears’, and I like playing the new songs because they’re new and we (Jonathan, Jacob and Conner) have been playing for 2 years (laughs).
Q: Speaking of ‘Best Friend’, did you really have a best friend who died? Are the lyrics of the song based on a true story?
Connor: Nah. It was about Jon and Jacob. They’re really together before I met them. It was about them being best friends. They thought it was kind of a boring thing to write a song so they just made a dramatic effect – they said one of them died (laughs).
Q: So far, what is the best part of your music career?
Connor: “I see a lot of people who are really like delusional, and they sort of like invent a bubble to live within. They are really affected by reality and lose any self-awareness that they ever had. I think it’s kind of like the opposite for me. I feel pretty grounded. When I was young, that was all I ever wanted to do. I think the best thing that my music career has done for myself is to reach the goal by doing what I wanted to do for a long time, without working in a kitchen (laughs).”
Were you rocking with The Drums at St. James Power Station? Share your experiences below!
Additional reporting by Francesca Tay.
Photo courtesy of Ryan Chang, Aloysius Lim and Tay Wan Lin (Kilix Photography).