It’s hard to impress us these days but Kevin Lester, frontman of hip hop band Sixx, has been shaking up the otherwise staid local music industry with some daring feats, including the viral “Rockstar” video (check it out on YouTube) and his latest release “Kidhood.” We cozy up to Lester for a little têtê-à-têtê as he gears the group up for Roktober.

Fame or fortune? Fame. As a musician, all you want is for your great sounds to always be remembered. Money can just disappear.

Favorite local acts? I’ve got diverse favorites, including Sonofa, Dharni, Michaela Therese and DJ J-Stylez.

Favorite gig? Definitely Sunburst KL, where I got to hang out with Korn. It was one of those times when I felt very appreciated as a musician. People brought me around and all I had to do was think about my music.

What’s your biggest pet peeve? Crocs—I hate them. Nobody can tell me they look nice in Crocs. I’m sure they’re comfortable but man, socks and Crocs suck.

Favorite thing ever? A cold glass of Heineken.

I hate… Durians. I can’t take it at all. I’ve done the whole travel-to-Malacca-just-for-durians thing and I still can’t do it. My aunt grows a durian tree and I don’t go near it.
 

I love… being a full-time musician. I just made the leap. I was a marketing manager for an IT company but I gave that up. It’s a bit difficult and it’s rarely been done but the support has been amazing. It wasn’t a calculated risk that I made but sometimes you just have to enjoy what you do. That’s the important thing.

I’m ashamed to admit that… I know how to sing the chorus to “Everybody” by the Backstreet Boys.

Sixx will hit the stage at Roktober from Oct 22-24, 6:30pm. Timbre@Substation, 45 Armenian St., 6338-8277.

My moniker is made up of … the Korean word "toki," which means "rabbit," and "monsta," which was just a silly way I decided to write "monster." It originally started off as an instant messenger screen name, but it remained something that I could identify with. A rabbit and a monster are polar opposites, but that describes my music and who I am.

LA’s music scene is … extremely inspiring with so many creative souls expressing themselves in their own unique way. The scene allowed me to express myself musically without feeling obligated to fit in a mold.

With the proliferation of Internet based music sites and blogs … it only takes one click to discover a new sound emerging from anywhere in the world. It's really an amazing age.

The downfalls of globalized music exist … but I suppose it's best to accept that music is going to be shared no matter what.  

I first got into music … as a young child when I took piano lessons at the age of six. From there, my passion for music grew and I found a big passion for all things hip hop.

I am definitely influenced … by hip hop producers such as RZA, Dilla, Pete Rock, Dre and trip hop producers such as DJ Krush and DJ Shadow.  However, I listen to a lot of bossa nova, free jazz, soul, 60s prog/pysch rock and electronics, which are very apparent in my music.

I'm extremely excited to be playing in Singapore and you can expect ... a lot of leftfield music with a fun and upbeat twist. I love quality music and I love having a great time, so I really try to bring the two together.

Satisfy your discerning musical taste buds at Syndicate 10 presents TOKiMONSTA on Oct 16, 10pm. Home Club, #B1-01/06 The Riverwalk, 20 Upper Circular Rd. 6538-2928. $15 at the door.

Alongside the three As (Annie Mac, Annie Nightingale and Anne Hobbs) representing the lead female hosts on BBC Radio 1, Canadian born Heidi Van Den Amstel also holds her own monthly hosting duties on her show In New DJ’s We Trust.

If there’s an international DJ that has recently gained prominence, there’s a good chance they’ll have been filtered through her show. Heidi’s energetic and characteristic personality and her knack for introducing newer music to a largely mainstream demographic have gotten everyone’s attention. “The majority of the listeners don't have a clue about underground dance music,” she says. “But I'm glad I can showcase it to a more commercial audience in my show. It has been two years now, and it’s really a great platform to deliver different styles of music.”

Her diverse taste in music was sealed by a move to London from her hometown in Ontario, Canada, in 2000. Back home, “Motor City” Detroit was just across the border and indie music was her sound of choice, but it was London that stole her heart. “My love for music was sort of waning when I left Ontario and Detroit, but when I arrived in London, the love was in full effect. The city opened my eyes to the underground electronic music scene; the parties were electric and the crowd was encompassing,” she says.

“Three years later, I opened up Phonica records with Simon Rigg and you could say that I just fell into the whole dance music scene. It was an unplanned move,” she adds. “I grew to love dance music although I didn't think it would end up taking over my life. I'm glad it did.”

Her jet-setting career spans dancefloors in clubs like Space Ibiza, Fabric and Womb to festivals like UltraFest, Bestival and Electric Zoo; and has taken her on a journey which she willingly embraces. “I’ve seen beautiful and horrible places; eaten the best and the worst food; met the most amazing and most ridiculous people; and played in front of 20 to 20,000 people,” she says. “I wouldn't change any of it. It’s all a learning experience. I will have many stories to tell when I’m old and gray and um... deaf.”

Catch Heidi and partner in crime Heartthrob as they tear up the floor on Oct 16, 10pm. Velvet Underground, 17 Jiak Kim St., 6738-2988. $28-35.

Technique & Medium: Sculpture, molding, fiberglass and cement.

What inspired you to create this piece?
I was inspired by those magical moments when the sky is approaching dusk and the moon is about to emerge from the horizon. I just let my imagination run wild.

Can you tell us the process that went into this piece?
Well I took the concept I had in mind and translated it into a model. Then I started to work with clay, sculpting it into shape. After that I used a plaster mold to shape up the fiberglass structure. I finished the piece off by spraying it with car lacquer.

What does the little pink figure on the big man’s shoulder represent?
It represents the woman that I love and who I took along with me to my world of imagination. She embodies desire and happiness.

What is the idea behind the use of soft colors?
The color palette I used is based on the sky from dusk, all the way to dawn.

How does this piece reflect your exhibition as a whole?
This exhibition is all about letting yourself go with imagination. The moon and the nighttime are a great source of creativity for most artists, and this sculpture helps portray that.

Artid Poonyasiri's solo exhibition portrays night time name "Man & The Moon"

How did this production come about?
Starman was initially an excerpt I put together for Read for Peace, held by Crescent Moon Theater last year. Although it was short, the piece received so much positive feedback that I decided to develop and expand it into a proper production. It’s inspired by an article I wrote about a Thai organization who claimed to have successfully contacted aliens as well as Tinnakorn Hutangkoon’s novel Jood Tud Bon Sen XY and David Bowie’s song of the same name.
 

Why aliens?
I’ve always been intrigued by the notion of an extraterrestrial life. As a writer, I find myself constantly writing about it. Do you really think we’re alone in this vast universe? It’s just one of those unsolved mysteries I find fascinating and would like to explore further.
 

B-Floor Theater’s productions have always been experimental, what can we expect to see in this one?
We will employ a lot of shadow techniques to mesh together the story. Since it’s experimental, we’re still ironing out the kinks in our rehearsals. However I think it’s going to be quite a memorable piece.

Catch starman at  B-Floor Theater

Fashion was never my dream career. I was an illustrator when a senior from my university, Silapakorn, told me to apply for the job at Greyhound.

I wasn’t sure if it would work out. I like fashion, yes, but designing fashion is another thing.

It took a couple of years for me to earn the respect of the sewers and tailors. I didn’t have any background in tailoring. I just had to stick to talking about what I was good at. I might not know how to sew difficult stitches, but they don’t know about art and color matching. We are all experts at what we do.

The fashion world is like any other world. I thought that the industry was full of people with big egos and bitchy designers. But then I realized that the fine art world I come from is also full of egos and competitive people. If you want to be somebody, you need to win at least one award. In fashion, you need to compete with other brands, other designers.

I didn’t care about the market until the economic crisis in 1997. That’s when I had to start combining art and marketing so that we could survive. Since then, you can see that Greyhound and Playhound clothes never feature complicated patterns—just detailing and prints. We just can’t do things like deconstruction or superfine tailoring.

Playhound is more me. I switched to the line in 2002. It’s my wildly experimental project where I can try combining techniques and styles to create different, or sometimes weird, looks.

I don’t wear my own designs. It doesn’t mean I don’t respect what I do, but I am just too shy to be in my own creations. I think other designers are like me, like McQueen or Marc Jacobs. The people are the ones who should like and wear my designs. That’ll make me happy.

I want to go where others don’t. I always look for things that are fun, that people don’t wear. That might explain why I like school uniforms, although I’m too old to wear one.

I like that people try to be naew [hip]. It makes society more fun. It’s fun seeing people trying to express individuality. They dress naew fashion, get naew hair, drive naew cars, ride naew motorcycles. And they end up all doing the same thing. Naew is now mass.

Stop wearing nude-colored underwear with outfits that aim to show some flesh. If you want to show something, show it.

Guys should stop wearing short socks, too. They’re vague. Either wear proper ones or just don’t wear them at all.

I prefer being a dog’s head to a lion’s tail. It’s been 15 years, thanks to my bosses who allow me to do what I want to.

I don’t have designer’s block. I have opportunities to do my own art projects which are then used for inspiration for Playhound’s fashion collections. I also allow my juniors to work on their own projects too, to generate new ideas. I don’t limit them to the Greyhound and Playhound’s image but I harmonize their ideas with the brand’s identity so we are always fresh.

Though I am older, my ideas are still young and fresh. I’m always open to new ideas, getting ideas from others and learning from younger generations. You probably complained about the dinosaur folks when you were young, so don’t behave like them when you’re older.

I never planned on having my own label. I’ve never thought of becoming a designer in my own name. I am just happy with what I am doing.

Owning a vintage clothes store is one of my dreams. I want to mix and match looks from cool vintage items. I’d also like to have a gallery and focus on my art. But I always have new projects coming so I don’t know when I’ll do this.

I don’t plan ahead. Just be ready when the opportunity comes.

I wish to be remembered as a person who has made changes, good changes, either in art, fashion or anything.

I grew up in a neighborhood that was full of alpha males. We were all about the same age and they were all pretty competitive. All of us were straight-A students and competitive in sports. Everyday after school, we’d be cycling around the estate and playing badminton. I clearly remember how we used to circle one another on our bicycles, arguing about who did better in class.

I was a socially awkward kid. The kids in my predominantly male neighborhood in Thomson were all like that; we weren’t very socially savvy.

The fierce competition I faced when I was growing up has rubbed off on me. People were always comparing notes about who did better and I was determined to be a top student.

I didn’t grow up with girls except with my sister, who is now a socialite. She’s always been that way since she was young. Our personalities are totally different. 

Back in the day, I played practically every sport. I started narrowing my interests down to what I really liked when I entered secondary school. I started out in athletics but when I tore my ligament, I joined the school swimming team. I also played squash.

I was in National Junior College but I was very playful so my mom made me go to Hwa Chong instead. It was kind of like a punishment for me.

When I was in the university, I formed a rock band with a couple of people including David Rasif, who’s now Singapore’s number one fugitive. He was my lead singer and I was the keyboardist. We played music by Led Zeppelin and Journey. I felt more inclined toward contemporary music although we learnt a lot of classical music in school.

Growing up in all-girl schools like St. Nicholas, there were all these schoolgirl crushes. It’s like this: When you go to school and you open up your desk, chances are you’ll see a present like a handwritten card or something in there. Instead of having boyfriends, I’d have girls following me around. I was a pretty butch girl. These crushes didn’t really go very far because I didn’t know what to make of them. My experience in school might explain why I have so many gay friends.

I used to collect watches. I enjoyed hunting down classic watches you can’t really find in stores. I went for auctions and spent time on eBay to find that really unique Rolex. The watch I’m wearing now is quite unusual because the strap is plain and has shiny and matte accents. Right now I have about 20 to 30 watches from brands like Bvlgari and Rolex.

My favorite fashion brands may seem pretty unlikely. I like Spanish labels like Bershka and Pull & Bear. I also love H&M!

Banking is pretty much a pressure cooker environment because when you start lending money to companies, you are responsible for making sure the money gets paid back. In the case of managing a client’s portfolio, you want to make sure the client doesn’t lose money. That can be very stressful.

I’ve been offered banking jobs quite a bit in the past 10 years but I enjoy what I’m doing right now too much.

I think the word “socialite” is a real word that defines people. I know a lot of them. I wouldn’t call myself one though.

Don’t underestimate the potential of a low-paying day job because it might just make you famous—or at least that’s what we learnt from the success story of indie pop duo An Horse. Guitarist-vocalist Kate Cooper talks to I-S about the group’s musical journey so far and how she’s looking forward to having some chili in Singapore.

That’s quite a name … It was the result of a grammar dispute between me and my next-door neighbor, who eventually gave me a sweater with the phrase “An Horse” on it to prove a point.

How did you guys hit it off musically? We (Cooper and guitarist Damon Cox) were working together at a record store in 2006 and got along really well. We always thought it’d be quite fun to make music together. We went back and forth about it for over a year, mucking around on text before realizing we really clicked musically and personality wise. We got really lucky.

What has the journey to greatness been like? Oh, we’ve gone quite a way. At first, I didn’t want to give Damon the songs I wrote because I thought they were pretty silly. But hey, we opened for Tegan and Sara in Cincinnati and that was pretty amazing. The crowd was insane. We also played with Death Cab for Cutie, which was really cool.

We know you musicians need to be constantly inspired. How do you maintain that? Oddly enough, I’ve never experienced a creative block. When I’m not on tour and at home, all I do is sit by myself in the kitchen and write. It’s easy for me to just be relaxed. If I wanted to head off someplace, I’d visit tropical islands. I like cities too.

And Singapore’s both a tropical island and a city. Have you been here? My mom has spent quite a lot of time in Singapore so I have a lot of stories. I hear the food is amazing; I look forward to eating some spicy stuff. I actually have a very high tolerance for chili.

Experience the unique, beat-driven sound of An Horse on Oct 15, 8pm. TAB, #02-29, 442 Orchard Rd., 6493-6952. $32-39 at the door.

These days one can either be a straight-up DJ or a DJ/producer/rock star/trendsetter/entrepreneur (a hipster, if the word doesn't make you cringe). Twenty eight-year-old Alexander Ridha is firmly one of the latter—as Boys Noize he's a hit around the world.

His is the same route followed by other commercial successes like Steve Aoki, Bloody Beetroots and Crookers; although Ridha admits he wasn’t all that cool as a kid growing up in a tough area of Hamburg, Germany, where punk music was his biggest influence. “The city I grew up in has the biggest red light district in Europe and we had a big punk culture,” he says. “We even have our own punk football team, St. Pauli, which I was a big fan of.” At 13, he traded playing drums in a punk band for vinyl collecting and soon that grew into an addiction. “My elder brother had all the first acid house and rap records. I grew up listening to them when he played them in his room. From there, I started my own collection. I had two jobs to fund my vinyl collection and one of the jobs was in a record store.”

Alex was only 14 when he began sending out his mixtapes to friends. He even tried selling them in the record store where he worked. “The store manager found out that I was sneakily trying to sell my mixes,” he says, “but was nice enough to give them a listen. A few days later, he surprised me by asking if I would like to do a warm-up set for about 500 people in a proper club. I was only 16 and played deep and old-school house. Suddenly the whole of Germany heard about me because I was the youngest DJ ever to play!”

Not one to rest on his laurels, he went on to learn music engineering from German DJ/Producer D.I.M and started production work at 16. Five years later, he was reincarnated as Boys Noize and moved on to Berlin, immediately becoming a household name under the wings of French label Kitsuné, Tiga’s Turbo Recordings and DJ Hell’s International Deejay Gigolos. And what about now? How does Boys Noize keep his sound fresh? “I take the best elements of electro, techno and house, and mix it with modern stuff,” he explains. “I love the jacking sounds! Although the music I started with in 2004 got bigger, there are some really stupid 'noisy’ records out there that I can’t stand at all. Today, everyone is a DJ without even knowing how to beat-match because the laptop does it for them, which is ridiculous! That said, there are also great young talents out there and amazing new fresh productions.”

Boys Noize will bring the house down on Oct 8, 10pm. Zouk, 17 Jiak Kim St. 6738-2988. $30 inclusive of two drinks.

How did your journey begin?

Elaine Ee: I began practicing yoga under the tutelage of my former university lecturer, who was also a yoga instructor. Sometime later, Diane Lee of Bikram Yoga City Hall introduced me to Bikram Yoga. She persuaded me to take on the 30-day challenge, which requires you to attend a Bikram class everyday for 30 consecutive days. For some insane reason, I decided to do it. It was a really tough but really good experience.

Tara Moralez: My story is much simpler. I was accompanying my aunt who was too nervous to try it on her own; and I loved it, right from the very first class.

We hear practicing yoga regularly brings great benefits. What positive changes have you seen in your body?

EE: What positive changes haven’t I seen! I have so much more strength, flexibility and stamina. My lung capacity has improved tremendously and my breathing is more powerful. I have gained muscle tone and improved my upper body strength, balance and control. My spine and hips are also more aligned. Perhaps the best change is this: Since I started practicing Bikram yoga, my metabolism has been like a furnace; it just burns up everything I eat!

TM: My body is in better shape than it’s ever been my whole life. As a dancer, I was physically fit but still suffered from joint pains. With yoga, I am more aware of my body and know exactly what to do to “fix” the discomfort.

What does it do for your mind?

EE: It’s made me more confident and positive, with a stronger sense of self belief. Rather than see strength as something external that I need to gain, I see it as something already in me that I just need to harness—that’s a powerful perception shift.

And now, both of you are participating in a yoga competition! What does it take to win it?

TM: In order to win, one must perform a posture to their maximum with grace, focus and concentration. Each posture must performed so that their characteristics are prominently displayed, which is what the judges look for.

What do you hope to achieve next on this journey?

EE: This is my second yoga competition. My next step is to train to be a yoga teacher, which I hope to be able to do as soon as time and money allow!

Find out what it takes to be a yoga champion at the 4th Annual Yoga Asana Championship on Oct 30, 1pm at Willow Stream Spa, 6/F Fairmont Singapore, 80 Bras Basah Rd., 6339-7777.