art jam - Nanyang Technological University

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art jam 26 personality West Grand Boulevard West Grand Boulevard is a local band that’s been around for the last five years. Comprised of members Jude Lee (Bass), Bryan Gamboa (Vocals), Syed Hyder (Drums) Erik Evangelista (Guitars) and Dharma Sadasivan – (Guitars/Vocals) this 5-person band has been around the circuit long enough to have acquired a healthy fanbase. Known for their lively, energetic gigs, adrenalinepumping alt-rock beats, and subsequent mosh pits, WGB’s earned the heavyweight street-cred that makes them a band to reckon with. Text: Abha Apte Photos: West Grand Boulevard ArtJam: Which genre of music would you say your work belonged to, and what are your major influences? Dharma: We were all always absolutely sure that we didn’t want to label our music as a particular kind. If I’d to answer that I’d say we don’t belong to any particular genre, because we don’t want to limit ourselves by being slotted into only one category. I guess our fans, though, would say we’re alternative pop-rock. But then we’re still growing as a band and we hope our musical style evolves continuously. And one of the main reasons being in WGB is fun is because of the freedom we allow ourselves, by playing exactly the kind of music we feel like playing, without giving in to genre classifications. Jude: As for musical preferences - I like metal, Dharma was a classical violinist, Erik’s into ska-punk – we have different inclinations, but a lot of similar tastes which our music’s influenced by. The Foo Fighters – they’re a huge inspiration; they’re an amazing band. ArtJam: How long have you all known each other and how did you meet and decide to form a band? Bryan: We’d all been playing in different bands, actually, before WGB was formed. Our previous lead – Daphne Cook – and Jude knew each other since they were what, fifteen? And then they sort of started playing together. Syed joined us recently on drums and Bryan on vocals. As far as deciding to form WGB, we had sort of started playing together for fun. Jude: We didn’t even have a proper name in the beginning. But after a while, the five of us had gotten pretty settled it, and WGB just fell to place. ArtJam: How was your experience right when you had just begun your music career? Was it very hard breaking into the music scene? Jude: This is a funny story, because we never really thought we’d get to where we are now. And things were crazy when we started, because first we used to jam together, and then we hooked up with organizers and things started happening.
Dharma: Our sound engineer, Leonard Soosay, he’s a brilliant guy. He helped us out a lot. And then suddenly we were playing shows back to back. It was crazy, and really hectic, because we’d finish one show and we’d have to leave and pack up to reach the next one, and this used to go on continuously. But getting a break was something we hadn’t planned or expected, and since then it’s been good, though maybe a little slow. Jude: It’s taken five years to release this new album, but the sound of it’s really huge, it’s a lot of growth since we first started out. ArtJam: You’re releasing a full length album this year, right? And it’s your second album? Bryan: Yes, that’s right. We’re five years old now, our first album was called ‘Waiting for You’, we released that four years ago in 2006. We’re going to be releasing our second album very soon now. We’re almost done with it, actually, and it’ll be out in the next, what, three weeks? ArtJam: Can you tell me a little about your new album? Dharma: Content-wise, it’s quite different, from our old album. It sounds really, really fresh. It deals with a lot of very diverse themes - there are some political themes. Jude: Yes, Dharma’s the one who can get political subjects right without going too far into things. Dharma: And then there are themes of social perspectives, of positivity in life, of death – this album is about a lot of different things, and they mainly centered around human condition. ArtJam: How would you describe your growth from your first album – “Waiting For You” to the one you’ve just come out with? Jude: We’ve changed a lot since we started out and made that album, we’ve become so much more mature. I think that this new album reflects that, lyrically and otherwise. Bryan: When we started out things were different, but after such a long time of being together we’ve all grown as persons, and we’ve definitely let this influence the album. So yes, maturity is the one thing that’ll be most evident if you check out our new album. Dharma: But it definitely has that energetic, loud, dancefriendly feel to it. We’ve always wanted to make music that we really believed in, regardless of anything else, and we think we’ve achieved that pretty well here. ArtJam: What are the main themes or topics of most of your songs? Dharma: Well, it depends. Our first album had a track I wrote for my ex, another Daphne wrote for her ex. It had this breakup feel going on. But we still retain the loud, catchy sounds and personality work them into our songs. And with our new album, things have gotten amazingly fresh, it sounds huge. There’s no other word for it. Jude: I think we sound much better, and so much bigger. The long break definitely helped us get a very new feel for this album. ArtJam: Which tracks to you perform most at shows, and which ones do the crowds respond to the best? Jude: DKNY, without a doubt. It always gets the energy going, and somehow the crowd always responds the best to that. Now We Will is pretty popular too. Come to think of it, the way people react with the name DKNY is funny, because we never really had a meaning for it. Dharma decided to call it that, and he has no clue what it means, either! ArtJam: Which were your best and worst stage performances so far? Jude: Philippines, it’s got to be Philippines. Philippines and Baybeats, actually. Everything was fantastic, and the crowds! Dharma: The crowds there actually appreciate what the music’s all about and there’s so much energy; they were fabulous places to play at. And the worst, well, we’ve had some bad experiences, with technical failures and stuff, but nothing really stands out as awful. Jude: We’d played in NUS a long time ago, for example, and that was pretty bad. It was an acoustic set, and Bryan’s microphone stopped working, Dharma had problems with the equipment. And then there was this one time when Bryan – he gets really into it when he sings – he was doing this spin and he just toppled over, it was hilarious. So yeah, we occasionally have moments like these. ArtJam: Other than being part of this band, what other work do you do? Dharma: I’m studying law in SMU right now, actually, I’m a grad student there. I used to do research before, for this health care company. Jude teaches guitar at Timbre Music Academy, Bryan works at an events firm. Syed’s actually a businessman, you could call him that. And Eric, he’s into freelance broadcasting. ArtJam: The best thing about being a locally well-known band? Jude: I don’t know about that, ‘well-known’? (laughs) But we always thought that the best thing we could achieve as a band was people liking us for WGB’s music, not its band members. Compared to some other bands, perhaps, we’re all pretty lowkey, and being known for our work instead of our personal lives or anything like that – it’s the best appreciation we could receive. And I dare say that we might have even achieved this in a way. 27 art jam
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Page 5 and 6: If you enjoyed the Opening Ceremony
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Page 27: Text: Audrey Lim Photo: RCGNTN head
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art jam - Nanyang Technological University

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