Catch the techno wizard Timo Maas as he lays down an aural assault at Zouk.

Ask someone to Opera in the Park and listen to Mozart, Verdi and Bizet under the stars—trés romantic.

Celebrate the best of the reggaeton era with The Wailers at Hard Rock Hotel.

Participate in Asia’s largest karaoke session and Singapore’s biggest flash mob, or see the world’s oldest DJ Grandma Ruth Flowers blowin’ the decks at this mega outdoor dance festival.

Get spun “Right Round” with badass rapper Flo Rida as he returns to Singapore this month.

Catch rare lithographs and prints from iconic British artist David Hockney at the Singapore Tyler Print Institute.

Marvel at the diverse and prolific oeuvre of the great Catalan Surrealist at Dali: Mind of a Genius.

Can't get enough of rom coms, how about checking out I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change.

Don't forget your goggles as you imbibe the parade of over 250 beers at Beerfest Asia 2011.  

Catch one of Indonesia’s best-loved divas Ruth Sahanaya live in concert as she performs her greatest hits.

When you think about his road to becoming one of the most popular living British artists (little wonder that postcards reproduced with his 1971 masterpiece Mr& Mrs Clark and Percy are hot sellers at the Tate Museum), you won't be surprised to discover that during his childhood, David Hockney drew cartoons of Jesus much to his Sunday school teacher’s consternation.

This exhibition features rare lithographs and prints from the Singapore Art Museum’s Tyler Collection. The effervescently hued works delve into the 72-year-old icon’s personal experiences with family, close friends and his living environment.

As much as it sheds light on the artist’s personal narrative and signature techniques of layering multiple perspectives and mixing mediums, it also celebrates the influential role of his collaborator, master printmaker Kenneth E. Tyler.

Expect to gawp at Hockney’s oeuvre from the 1980s, which includes the impressive Images of Celia (1984), a stylistic mash-up of lithography, screenprinting and collage, paying homage to Cubism.

Clever observers will also notice that the model for the work was Celia Birtwell, a popular British fashion designer from the Swinging London era and a close friend of the artist, was also heavily influenced by Pablo Picasso.

And to cap it all off, there is also an inkjet print of Hockney’s recent dabbling with Apple's iPhone and iPad, showcasing the innovative spirit of this grand master.

Catch David Hockney: Through the Eyes of the Artist through Jul 30 at Singapore Tyler Print Institute, 41 Robertson Quay, 6336-3663. Free.

What exactly is this 100 percent clean comedy of yours?
I crack the type of jokes that my parents can enjoy; this is very different from the usual self-loathing and cynicism in contemporary comedy.

You used to be a corporate man. Does that help or hinder you on the comedy circuit?
Getting up at 7am is a major advantage I have over most comedians. Most people don’t realize that auditions in the entertainment industry usually take place in the morning. And most comedians are stupid to miss out on such opportunities because they are boozing and taking drugs.

You have performed for FBI and LAPD agents, what were the experiences like?
If I wasn’t funny, I probably wouldn’t have walked out of that room alive.

Being an American of Japanese-Indian descent, how was it growing up in 1980s?
School was a torture; I was physically and emotionally abused because of racial reasons. In hindsight, I am so fortunate to have gone through such turmoil—it was great for character building. I read The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth, and agree with its central thesis that people who end up anywhere in life were usually outcasts in school.

How well do you think your material will translate to a Singaporean audience?
There are so many folks around the world who are familiar with American culture, politicians and life and I guess that helps me to connect with the audience. Sadly, Americans can be an ignorant bunch; I mean 20 percent of them can’t even locate their country on a map.

Ethnic comedy—your take on it?
It’s amazing. If not for a huge South Asian Diaspora, I wouldn’t be playing sell-out gigs around the world. In fact I make more money than most white stand-ups because they don’t have the global connection which brown folks like Russell Peters and I share.

As a seasoned globetrotter, who is the funniest nationality in the world?
Indians are fantastic because they love laughing at themselves.

Catch Dan Nainan on Jun 15 and 17, 8pm. DBS Arts Centre, 20 Merbau Rd., 6733-8166. $52 from Sistic.

What inspired you to become a globetrotting documentary photographer?
I grew up in Germany on the countryside and enjoyed traveling with my parents. Beyond the European borders, we also travelled around Asia in the early 1980s. Back in the day, this was a rare, almost revolutionary travel destination. Since I was a child, I have always been fascinated by other cultures, largely because of my parents’ influence. When a culture is more different, closed or unknown to me, the more I am attracted to it.

What was it like working with KITC (Korean International Company)?
We started each day at the break of dawn and travelled extensively through the country, where the prevailing late summer guaranteed excellent photographic conditions. During the week, we covered miles on three-laned motorways seemingly reserved for us. We featured the cities: Pyongyang, Kaesong, Nampo, Wonsan and connected those places with their ancient historical monuments. These were wonderful crossroads of cultural interest and untouched nature—entirely unknown to the West.

How different are your images to the stereotypes perpetuated by the media about North Korea?
I feel they are very different. In contrast to the international perception of North Korea because of harsh images conveyed by international media, I tried to observe and mirror the country as it is without judgement. I tried to show pictures that featured everyday life, pleasures and incidences. This way, my style allowed me to reflect the country’s very own and special composition of colours, space and dimensions in a neutral way, thus leaving the judgment to the eyes of the beholder. And that is where beauty is supposed to be.

Your favorite image?
Episodes of a Revolutionary Past 2. I like the intensity of the color, the mass, the unity and the power of beauty by details. Over a thousand dancers fascinated me with their synchroncity and precision, as well as the controversy—how far the motive is shown in a plausible context, situation or background.

Inga Beckmann’s photography exhibition is on from Jun 2-30 at Vue Privée, 20 Cairnhill Rd., 6338-7821. Free.

Van Gogh Alive

The Buzz: The Dutch expressionist’s most prolific works from 1880-1890, are presented through a combination of animation and stellar audio-visual technology. With a battalion of over 40 high-definition projectors blasting larger than life images onto the roofs, walls, columns and floors of the gallery, together with an accompanying leitmotif of evocative classical music and sound effects, the sensory feast would even engage a novice museum virgin.

Our verdict: Definitely a notch up from tacky replicas and insipid supporting text copped from an art sourcebook, but we overheard some folks claiming a couple of choice images from Google Art and some maudlin music on the iPod would achieve the same emotional mood and can't help but agree with them.

Dali: Mind of a Genius

The Buzz: This exhibition features over 250 original artworks from the legendary Catalan surrealist, making it the first time ever that such a large number of his masterpieces are shown within a single venue on our shores. Divided into three themed areas- “Femininity and Sensuality”, “Religion and Mythology” and “Dreams and Fantasy,” the artworks explore the quirkily ‘stached genius, broad artistic oeuvre ranging from paintings to sculptures. Expect to see classic artworks like "Spellbound," a large oil painting, which has only been displayed to the public for the third time since its existence.

Our Verdict: The sheer prolific output on display here is worth more than a visit; from furniture decked onto an elevated platform to the intricate bronze statues like Woman Aflame. This exhibition could kickstart a Freudian revival.

Besides the obvious Mahabharata influence in Franz Orsten’s Throw of Dice, what else attracted you to provide a live score for the film?
Well, firstly it is a stunning epic film which features a German director’s otherworldly take on an Indian narrative. Unlike a typical Indian film, this allows me to approach the score with more creative license.

Genre mish-mashing and the cross-pollination of different cultures has always been your trademark; have you ever felt that your ideas have been exhausted?
Since I was a kid, I have always been influenced by various musical influences running in my household— from the classical Indian music played by my mum to the punk—rock that my brother was into. That’s why I probably ended up playing in youth orchestras, jazz quartets and punk—rock bands. It’s still a fertile ground for me, I tend to take my musical ideas from various sources like books, mythology, religion, current affairs and politics.

What are some of the challenges of providing a live score compared to composing a soundtrack for a film?
It’s tricky; not only do I need to convey the mood to the musicians involved, I must also make sure that everybody is in time, even if one of the musicians isn’t in sync, we would be in trouble because the audience is sensitive to such thing. Whereas if I am in a studio composing a film soundtrack, I can toy around with the programming and effects.

We loved your last concert in Singapore, what’s in store for us this time round?
Unlike my club set in last year’s festival where the crowd was bouncing around, my club gig for Last Days of Meaning in this year’s fest will be a more somber and contemplative affair. That comes naturally as I am dealing with themes like xenophobia in modern day Britain, which I am quite sure are universal themes which will engage as well as entertain the audience.

Catch Nitin Sawhney and the Singapore Festival Orchestra in A Throw of Dice, May 20, 7:30pm. Esplanade Concert Hall, 1 Esplanade Dr., 6828-8377. $20-100 from Sistic.

As our society becomes more affluent and cosmopolitan, there is a palpable sense of growing consciousness in terms of design, culture and arts in the local creative circle. Does it really herald a coming of age for the scene or is it merely a passing fad for our fickle trend-spotting posse? Despite the pessimistic mainstream press reports about the underwhelming attendance at the recent Singapore Biennale, our calendar is loaded with arts and cultural events all year round.

According to the National Arts Council Singapore’s (NAC) Cultural Statistics from 2003-2009, there are more than 80 events taking place in the city on a daily basis. But does a packed calendar really mean quality productions, events and activities?

We decided it was time to take a closer look, to talk to some experts and come up with our own plan for taking things forward.

The Arts Blueprint

In his Budget 2011 speech, Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam mentioned that over the next five years, spending on arts and culture will average $365 million per year. This is a whopping 50 per cent increase from the current level. These changes have been largely attributed to the burgeoning international interest in arts and cultural events like Art Stage, The Affordable Art Fair, Singapore Biennale, Mosaic Music Festival and Singapore Arts Festival.

From the new budget, the Ministry of Information, Communication and the Arts (MICA) plans to pump about $80 million into new initiatives for cultural development under the Arts and Culture Strategic Review Steering Committee (ACSR) annually through 2025. Formed in September 2010, the ACSR comprises 70 members from the private and public sectors, including practitioners from the arts and creative industries. The ACSR’s proposal to create a vibrant local arts scene is a three-pronged plan: “Arts and culture for everyone, everyday,” “Arts and culture everywhere” and “Building capabilities and raising new peaks of excellence.” But local arts practitioners feel that this preliminary proposal is too broad, and there are problems on the ground that need to be addressed first.

In land-scarce Singapore, affordable studio space and housing has always been a major concern for the local arts and culture communities. Currently local artists, including Cultural Medallion winners like Lee Wen, have difficulty finding conducive working environments. A significant portion of the budget should therefore be used to procure proper housing for and work spaces for these and future artists.

“This is definitely not the responsibility of any one organization, but a collective consciousness on the value of art, and importantly the value of the artist as the key producer of art and the studio as the birthplace of art in society,” says Substation’s artistic director Noor Effendy Ibrahim. “If we as a society do not have that collective consciousness, then it will be impossible—or at the very least cause the objectives to be severely flawed—to protect affordable spaces for the processes of artistic creations. Shouldn't we look at this in the same way we think of affordable housing for all Singaporeans?”

Another key body in that process is The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), which provides incentives to privately-run commercial developers to incorporate more arts and cultural elements into their developments in the city area. Joining the 5,600 sq. ft. ION Art Gallery is the beautifully restored Capitol Theatre, which will provide artist-in-residence facilities for theater companies.

Developments like these are essential for the bourgeoning arts scene; artists can focus on honing their works in a suitable environment (the romanticized ideal of being a struggling, poor young artist to create your best early works is certainly something that is lost in our hospitable climate).

Given the growing importance of the arts and creative industries in the past decade, there is also a pressing need to nurture the professional development of artists, administrators, technical personnel and support staff; something that's currently missing in a terrain dominated by numerous organizations and companies, which are usually small-scale and lack the resources to support staff development. Many would-be artists are freelancers who do not receive regular CPF contributions or earn a regular income, thus affecting their career path, often for the worse.

Fine arts graduate Khalid Abdullah, 29, ended up joining the offshore marine engineering industry a couple of years ago. “Being a practicing artist has always been an uphill struggle,” he says. “I love it and will probably pursue my projects when I retire, but at the moment my job in the offshore industry helps me to make a more lucrative and sustainable living for a brighter future.”

Providing working space and support for our current crop of artists is one thing, but to sustain our creative arts industry we certainly need a more focused and inter-disciplinary strategy aimed at nurturing artists and audiences from a young age.

Audrey Wong, Nominated Member of Parliament, lecturer at LaSalle College of the Arts and key member of the ACSR says, “These programs should go beyond mere ‘exposure’ programs to broader, cross-disciplinary approaches that enable students and the public to see arts and culture as part of a greater whole—this could mean equipping arts-in-education and community arts practitioners with the knowledge of best practices and skills, as well as the development of more sophisticated educational programs combined with other subject domains like physics, chemistry or geography.”

Veteran theater director Alvin Tan from The Necessary Stage adds that “It would be sensible if more money goes into Research and Development (R&D). As an industry, R&D is essential for the production of new works. This is a laborious process which involves time, effort, funds and resources. With added funding, we can pay for more cutting-edge works, less run-of-the-mill productions and even commercial failures.” So we say "Enough!" to commercially driven plays that are more about putting bums on seats; or worse, passing off tired old Chinese opera, as the best we have to offer to the international arts world. It’s about time we reconsider the global image that we want to project.

Alvin Tan shares this sentiment, “Singapore Tourism Board-endorsed art festivals in foreign cities like London and Beijing, are a joke because the program is largely traditional arts-based events that exotic-ize Asia and do not engage and challenge the audience. The world doesn’t know of a more diverse and pluralistic Singapore that has works that challenge the status quo and provoke intellectual curiosity. I am quite sure that an international audience can learn more from our plays which are truer reflection of what really happens in our society.”

The Design Blueprint

The Design Singapore Council (DSC), formed in August 2003, is the national agency that aims to develop Singapore into a global city for design.

Among its major projects in recent years is the DesignSingapore Initiative Phase 2 (Dsg- II), a blueprint stretched over 2009-2015 to foster creativity and innovation and sharpen our competitive edge, with a budget of $55 million.

Djohan Johari, a graphic designer, cautions, “Although money would definitely facilitate the growth of the arts and design community in terms of the liberty to experiment with various mediums, it should never be the core of progress. For a lack of a better analogy, there's no way Manchester City, with all their money, could play football as beautiful as Barcelona, by just pumping money into the equation. The process and the chemistry involved would take precedence over financial input in producing articulate art and creative solutions.”

But boy has the design sector grown. If the 7.5 percent annual revenue growth is maintained, the design sector is estimated to contribute about $4.6 billion to Singapore’s GDP in 2015.

And they mean serious business in the international sphere, which is reflected by the spate of Design Memoranda of Understandings (MOU) signed with design-centric nations like Denmark and Korea in recent years.

With the added international chutzpah and know-how from these mutual exchanges, it will certainly help us improve on our position of 16 in the top 50 list of Design Competitiveness Ranking in 2005.

But league tables are not everything. Johari says, “I think the Singapore design community has grown tremendously and it still is growing as we speak. I'm not too sure if we've reached an ideal state and if we should even consider having an end goal because design is as much about the process as much it is about the final product or solution. It is dangerous and foolhardy to quantify everything in numbers or rankings.”

Certainly, the scene has seen quite a few hits and misses (remember the mammoth failure of the Singapore Design Festival in 2009?), even if it has matured tremendously. While more schemes and grants have been made available to designers over the years (such as the Overseas Promotion Partnership Programme Scholarship, Overseas Development Grant and Professional Development Grant), there is still too much red tape in doling these out. :Phunk Studio’s Alvin Tan testifies, “The schemes are good for certain things like a fashion brand, a season of clothes, furthering education for the best students and studio-based projects. But most of the schemes have stringent criteria, are not flexible and I hope that they will be further developed, improved and should be more expansive in the near future.”

The DSC itself is less forthcoming on the subject of what effect it is having, and when asked when it thinks we will come of age as a design destination, simply says this is a question "best judged by the public."

But, all things considered, with the National Design Centre slated to open in 2013, our design scene looks like it’s heading in the right direction.

The Fashion Blueprint

On the surface, the local fashion scene seems to be thriving more than ever: New local brands continue to emerge out of the woodwork, with the support of numerous standalone boutiques as well as collective efforts like the Parco next NEXT initiative, all which act as counter sales points to potential local buyers. Add to that the fact that we are the only Southeast Asian city with three major fashion festivals in a year—Men’s Fashion Week in March, Asia Fashion Exchange (AFX) in May, and the upcoming Women’s Fashion Week in October.

And we’re not even taking into account the countless private and self-sustainable showcases that are held throughout the year by independent local labels. Never mind the fact that there isn’t one government organization to hold the industry together like we have for the arts and design (well, there is the Textile and Fashion Federation (TaFf), a coalition of textile and garment associations, but it has since shifted its focus from manufacturing to regional marketing efforts); our local fashion industry seems self-sufficiently well-oiled.

The cool fashion festivals for example, which cost between $1-3 million to stage, are funded mostly through private sponsorships with the support of the Singapore Tourism Board and Spring Singapore. Not just a platform for international labels, these festivals also act as a conduit for local designers to show and sell.

But underneath all that sheen and glamour, local fashion designers will have you know that there are still quite a few problems at hand within the industry that need addressing. The fact that Singapore still lacks a sustainable manufacturing industry means that most brands have to venture overseas to make their clothes.

“Manufacturing is tricky and next to impossible here,” says Sifr’s Suraj Melwani, who manufactures his clothes in Indonesia where factories will accept small-scale jobs. “Piecing together so many different things is tough. We don't have access to fabrics and trims and garment washing companies, you can't swatch here, and not many sellers will provide us fabric by the roll or even, three rolls. If they do, they will charge you retail prices. Also, making patterns is far too costly considering they always have to be changed.” Our local designers do hope to see more opportunities for them to produce their creations at home as close proximity enables them to exercise more control over their work. After all, a fashion presentation is only as good as the clothes it shows.

Veteran designer Wykidd Song also feels that the local fashion scene needs to be pushed from the ground up; from the early stages of fashion education, and not as the rah-rah showcase that it is now where glamour takes precedence over real substance. “One of the most important points is pushing up the ante—starting from the schools, creating a competitive edge between students from all our design schools,” he says. “Currently, they don’t compete and are in their own world; our design schools just don’t push them enough. We should model ourselves after the London Graduate week, a great competition from the graduates of all the different institutions, and a few graduates from each cohort are bestowed with honors in the various departments like menswear, womenswear and kidswear to further hone their craft.”

But one of the biggest problems, some designers feel, is TaFf itself, which has somehow lost its focus over the years, concentrating on regional marketing efforts rather than developing the scene from home ground. Design competitions like Star Creation under TaFf may be noble efforts to boost the confidence of young emerging local designers, but are short-lived and do not sustain the scene in the long run. Sifr’s Melwani adds, “TAFf should hold more talks, guidance workshops, open up an online forum or start an open house where they can bring together all the different participants in the local industry like manufacturers and fabric suppliers. Opening up an online forum and other forms of social media engagement will be great tools for folks in the industry to work and collaborate together and understand what’s really happening in the scene. People will get involved this way.”

Still, there are those like Tjin Lee, festival director of Audi Fashion festival, part of the AFX, who believe that our central location, infrastructure and business nous will eventually help us stamp our mark in the rag trade.

Lee says, “Once we create a buzz for local and Asian designers, and once these names make it on the regional and international levels, Singapore will quickly become the place to go for anyone who wants to tap into Asian fashion and all its aspects—from design to trade and retail. With the world's top fashion influencers coming to Asia, this can only translate into bigger and better things—definitely huge exposure—for local and Asian designers in Singapore.

It is a gradual process which will not happen overnight. But I am confident that it will happen.”

What were the main reasons for you to pursue the Lovebomb project?

I have always been a movie buff and film censorship has changed from the time I was a kid. In the past, they couldn’t show blood, you had actors grabbing their chests and the camera panning to a little hole on their chests, but Sam Peckinpah revolutionized Hollywood with his violent and bloody shootouts in the 1970s.

In the current TV industry, shows like CSI are grotesque and have a tendency to titillate with their explicit violent imagery and reworking of crime scenes, but isn’t it hypocritical that you can’t show a woman being brutally raped as long as the nipple isn’t revealed while the mere sight of a female breast and nipple is considered offensive and a huge no (even a mother breastfeeding her child) on public television. This doesn’t make sense at all to me.

This issue still puzzles me: Why are people not as uncomfortable about violence as they are about nudity that is not even meant to be arousing in the first place? In fact violent, gory images have become part of the mainstream and appear in the news, movies and various entertainment programmes. I guess that’s my main reason for pursuing this project.

Do you think that depiction of violence and sexuality is different in Singaporean and European media?

I don’t think there are many differences. It is pretty much a global reaction: Violence is ok but nudity is not. On a Saturday afternoon, kids can watch with their parents in the comfort of their homes, a re-run of Cobra where Sylvester Stallone goes on a killing rampage and blows up everything in sight, which the powers that be consider alright, but if Stallone kisses another guy on the lips, the scene would certainly be censored before the broadcast.

It seems odd and disturbing to me that people don’t blink their eyes when a baby is brutally murdered on screen but when they see a couple showing physical affection, for example a male lover rubbing his partner’s breast, we notice something different from the crowd.

Having said that, Holland is a very liberal nation and we have a strong belief that everyone has a right to make up their minds and all voices must be heard as long as there is respect for everyone. There is even a kid’s programme that explains what a nudist beach is to children, but it appears on the channel which caters to people who have liberal value systems.

As a future parent, what will some of your ground rules be when it comes to media consumption?

I wouldn’t allow my children to watch CSI when they are young. Obviously, I wouldn’t want my children to become murderers because the graphic nature of the shows can easily qualify as a great how-to-murder guide. As for nudity, I think it’s fine that they can be exposed to images that are natural and are not meant to titillate. Having mentioned that, there is a distinction between nudity and pornography. I would never want my kids to be exposed to the unsavory and unrealistic images that abound in that genre. Oh yeah, they can certainly see my artwork because it wouldn’t make them depraved killers.

Anything else about nudity that piques you?

Everybody is comfortable at home about nudity, but not in public, so it’s not the question about nudity but more about how other people think of you. Put a naked body in a gallery and most people wouldn’t even sneak a second look.

I am from Europe, where there are beaches for nudists, and believe it or not, when I was a teen, I was easily embarrassed by my mum who frequented such beaches.

What’s your work about?

Visually my work is meant to amuse, not shock. How can it shock when you are looking at such bright colors? Isn’t the bomb scarier than the puffed up pink boob? And aren’t breasts meant to convey a sense of love and security?

I don’t want my work to be intellectually challenging, instead of being about what the artist is trying to convey, the visitors should make up their own minds about the works as well as derive a sense of amusement and pleasure from their day out.

Check out the uber cool lovebomb sculptures and paintings from May 13-21at The Substation Gallery, 45 Armenian St., 6337- 7535.

What do you like best about being part of Mono?
Being able to do what we love to do for a living and meeting friends around the world. There was a time when touring internationally and releasing records was just a small dream. We're very grateful for the opportunity to spend our lives making music.

Pick one : Playing live or recording? Playing live.
There is an interchanging of energy during a live show that just cannot be imitated during the recording process.

We can feel so much emotional depth in your music and a great cinematic vision in songs like “Ashes in the Snow” and “The Battle to Heaven” from Hymn to the Immortal Wind; what makes a great song great?
The approach for Hymn to the Immortal Wind was different because the songs and the story chapters are based on one another. In my opinion, songs that I have grown to love are the ones that make me feel, visualize and empathize with its creator. Some of the greatest songs in history demonstrate the kind of human resonance we seek in a good book, film or spiritual experience.

We enjoyed your first gig in here in 2008, what can the Singapore crowd expect from your upcoming one?
We really enjoyed visiting Singapore in 2008. In our first gig, we could not play songs from Hymn to the Immortal Wind because we were still working on it. We hope to play all the songs from that album as well as a couple of older songs. We hope the crowd will have a great time.

Catch Mono on May 6, 7pm. Zouk, 17 Jiak Kim St., 6738- 2988. $70 from venue.

The Drums D.I.Y blogosphere roots—whose crafty idea was it?
Johnny (Pierce, The Drum’s vocalist) and I are culpable for that. It was born out of sheer necessity because we felt that it was the best way to promote our songs, and it all fits our hands-on approach to music making.

How’s the songwriting process like for the band?
The songs come together in different ways. Johnny locks himself in a room and does his thing while Connor (Hanwick, drummer) and I are cooped in our respective rooms, coming up with the sounds that would work with the lyrics. None of us are technically good, to be honest we are bad musicians, but we make it up with love and just try really hard. We don’t think too much about the process, and usually spend about two days writing a song. It’s a short and sweet process that best captures our original excitement and intent.

Melancholia whisked together with effervescent melodies and a generous sprinkling of catchy handclaps why this irony?

It was never conscious, it just happened naturally because it sounds like the sort of music that we grew up it with. We are big fans of The Smiths, Joy Division and Orange Juice, and I guess their influence rubs onto us. Our lyrics are sad and dark, and reflect what we naturally are. But the upbeat sound is our f*ck it coping mechanism, might as well deal with it and put some fun in the gloominess.

What’s with the religious undertones in songs like “Down by the Water” and “I’ll Never Drop My Sword”?

I think they could be due to the way Johnny and I were as kids, we grew up in very Christian households, and if you are raised in a certain way, you will be affected by it one way or another.

How does the hectic touring schedule affect The Drums?
Of course, our bodies take some time recovering from the busy schedule, but we are grateful that we can do something we always wanted to do. Before the band started, I didn’t travel a lot, now I am out of US for 11 months of the year, and love experiencing the warmth of our fans in far-flung places of the world like Japan. It’s not the main reason why The Drums are currently a trio, but the touring did take its toil on our former guitarist Adam (Kessler).

The three of you look too fey to be surfers, so why “Let’s Go Surfing”?

To us, the song is not about surfing at all, but more about the fun of being a teenager. Having said that, it just so happened that we rode on a wave that included good bands like Surfer Blood, who work on similar themes like us. It’s a shame that we aren’t as closely knit as we should be.

Are you tired of playing it at gigs?
There is certainly a love-hate relationship with it for me. When we recorded the songs for our debut album in 2010, “Let’s Go Surfing” stood out from the record because it sounded the least like us. We don’t mind playing it in large festivals, but the reaction from the crowd is similar to any other song that we are playing.

If Morrissey could cover one of your songs, which one should it be?
“The Saddest Summer” from our Summertime! EP is an obvious choice

Did you anticipate the success of your debut album and the post-hype surrounding it?
We didn’t expect anything from the release of the album, all we wanted to do was to make a record, something that we have been hooked to since we were teenagers, playing in bands. It becomes part of your lifestyle and we couldn’t get away from the scene, even when we were working in horrible jobs, stealing food and straining to get by. Living in near poverty with four people and a dog cramped in a tiny one bedroom apartment prepares you to not to take the hype seriously at all. All of us are in our mid to late twenties and have an idea of how life works, if everything is going to fall apart this moment, it’s really out of our control and all we can do is to seize the moments while it lasts.

What can we expect from your sophomore album?
Actually, we completed the recording yesterday. Well, we can’t tell you what it’s called yet but you can expect the same mentality and infecticious energy from our debut.

Can we expect a new song or two in your gig in Singapore?
Of course, we can’t wait to play songs like my new personal favorite “We Tried” from the upcoming album. More importantly, we would promise to make it a really fun night for everyone in the crowd.

Make an indie date with the Brooklyn trio, The Drums on May 16, 8pm at Powerhouse, 1/F St. James Power Station, 3 Sentosa Gateway, 6270-7676. $65 from Sistic includes club entry and one drink.