How did you become Whatcharawalee?
Pum: A friend, Tum, who is an ex-member of the band, asked me to write a song for his bride to surprise her at the wedding. I’d known the couple for a long time, so he just gave me a picture of them on a memorable trip to the mountains. Based on that, I wrote a song about love and the stars. Then I called some friends to help me record the song.
Milk: We managed to record it in just one night, and used the bride’s name as the title, “Look Om.” Then Pum, who owns [music production company] Tinnamou, posted it on YouTube and it became popular. People kept asking who we are. So we decided to use the real name of the bride, Whatcharawalee, as our band name.

What about your second single “Jeep”?
Pum: It’s a very similar story. A friend, who I hadn’t seen in 15 years, asked me to write a song for his bride. Her name is Jeep.

So do people ask you for songs for their brides all the time?
Pum: Yes, but I have to turn them down. Sometimes they can’t afford my fee, because I am quite expensive. Writing songs about love really sucks up all my energy. For my friends, I can do it easily because I know them and I want them to be happy.

Do you guys have another music project?
Milk: We’re doing a single as a proper band. Two of the six members pulled out. Tum has to raise his kids and Art is busy teaching, so we now have just four members.
Pum: The music will be more varied, not just about happiness and love, but also broken hearts as well. Our new single is based on a heartbreak experienced by New.

What are your day jobs?
Pum: I’m running Tinnamou, a music production company that produces music for ads and films. Before this, I used to work at RS.
Milk: I’m a guitar teacher at Meefah Music School. I used to play in a back-up band at Workpoint too.
Joop: I’m a drum teacher at Kitti Gun Guitar school.
New: I am a sound engineer at Key To Success advertising agency which handles music and jingles for advertising.

Where is your most romantic place?
Pum: I like the atmosphere and weather especially in Chiang Mai. It’s really an art town. I love Nimmanhemin Road. There are a lot of galleries there.
Joop: I think my home. It has everything. You can do everything without anyone disturbing you.
New: I love the beach. I really love to see girls walking along the sand with the wind blowing back their hair. It’s really sexy.
Milk: I like crowded places like pubs. I love to be in the middle of lots of people where I can meet someone to be romantic with.
 
Check out their first single below. The band can also be reached at their Facebook fan page.

Yeo’s have been busy: Reusing, redefining, reinventing and recycling. Back in July, they launched an art sculpture display by Singaporean artist Akira Takahashi made from 100% recycled materials (with the rather long-winded title “Yeo’s Cares for Singapore—Recycling with a Heart”). At the same time, they announced a new charity project promoting youth development, in association with CARE Singapore, encouraging the public to make donations. We spoke to their head of marketing to find out more.

Where did the idea for this initiative come from?
Well, Yeo’s is a truly Singaporean brand. And, since 1984, we’ve been a supporter of National Day celebrations. Every National Day a lot of waste is generated: We sponsor close to 800,000 packs; so you can imagine the amount of waste. People just consume and then they throw away. So the NEA has been propagating that people do recycling. We thought it was a good initiative to tie in with. We’re a traditional brand, but we want to show that we can retain our heritage and also move with the times.

Coincidentally it’s also Yeo’s 111th anniversary; so we tried to fit everything together: To celebrate National Day (Aug 9) and Yeo’s birthday, to promote recycling and we also wanted to throw in a charitable element, to raise funds for needy people.

Do Singaporeans really care about recycling?
I think the Singaporean government still needs to pump in a good deal of effort to promote recycling. Compared to the rest of the world, we’re still not there yet. We’ve progressed; at least people do now recycle. But when Singaporeans do recycling they want something to motivate them! So I think we need everybody to come together to start propagating and promoting this effort.

The educational part hasn’t sunk in to peoples’ minds. Look at the amount of plastic bags in supermarkets! When we do exhibitions, for example, we wanted to do away with plastic bags. But we got a lot of verbal abuse from consumers! So we had no choice; we had to keep printing plastic bags.

What other charitable work has Yeo’s been involved with?
Last year we worked with Halfway House, as well as Singapore Prisons, to create handicrafts using packaging material.

Each year, we collect whatever waste the NDP participants create. We have to manually sort it out; including myself as a volunteer, digging out all the rubbish. Even the cleaners don’t want to do it! It sits there until the parade is over, and it smells horrible.

Last year, we then sent the waste to the Halfway House, to clean and sun it. Then we brought it to the prisons for the prisoners to work on. We actually engaged trainers from Malaysia to teach the prisoners skills in creating handicrafts. All proceeds went to the Yellow Ribbon Project.

No sane man can have the manic energy you possess. Any pacts with the devil?
All this is God-given brother. I’m actually a very spiritual person. I pray every day. Read my Bible almost every day. When I am in New York, I go to Church every Sunday. In return, I get the sex-driven energy of 16 Viagra-popping old men!

If you could collaborate with anyone living or dead, who would it be?
Elvis Presley. He is one of my inspirations as not only a musician, but as a person. I love the way he pushed the limits in his time. He took what was unacceptable and turned it into something everybody does. Shout out to Bruce Lee and Wilt Chamberlain, my other heroes too.

Your riddims are simply wicked, what's your secret?
My secret is to have Diplo and Switch make everything, then take all the credit. HA!

What are you gonna drop on us in the near future?
We got tons of stuff dropping under the Major Lazer umbrella. Biggest would be the cartoon currently in development. We’ve got one episode in the bag so far. And we gotta finish 11 more so we could start the season. We are aiming for Spring 2012.

As the chief daggerer of the Major Lazer 'hood, are you gonna go wild in Zirca?
The real question is "how wild could Zirca get?" This will not be a normal DJ set at all. The night is gonna be filled with action, adventure and more daggering than you could fit in a condom. I put on a show. I want the people to go as wild as possible, then go over that. By the end of the night, we gonna be dancing on the celling and throwing up liquor in the garbage cans. This will be a historical event not to be missed!

Daggering pandemonium time with Skerritt Bwoy on September 9 at Zirca.

What is style?
It’s really a big f*cking joke but aren’t some folks suckers for it. I could never understand why.

What can you not do without?
Throat Coat tea and ear plugs. I reckon they are more essential than posh togs.

Who are your style icons?
I don’t really have one, but if push comes to shove, my choices are Charlie Chaplin and a fat dominatrix.

Can money buy style?
Absolutely not. But it can buy you a stylist.

High street or haute couture.  
Why bother? You are all gonna die anyway, maybe a nice suit to meet your maker.

Favorite fashion tip?
Never follow fashion. It’s more pointless than wonkily dubious spiritual books.

I was born in Canada but lived in Africa until I was 12 years old, so a lot of my childhood memories are of Africa.

One of my favorites was the weekly trip to the bookstore with my parents when I was allowed to pick any five books I wanted.

To this day, I’m still excited whenever I walk into a bookstore. The closing of Borders at Wheelock was sad news!

My children are still babies. When they get old enough, they will definitely be doing martial arts.

Like me, my wife Carmen is a black belt in Taekwondo. She’s my greatest fan and the person from whom I get all the secrets to success in life.

Strength to me is an unbreakable will. In martial arts, you learn to develop this. It is so important for life, business and school. If you have an unbreakable will, you can conquer any adversity in life.

Life is about how you react to tough times and adversity. If you can treat victory and defeat, as well as success and failure, with the same unbreakable spirit and enthusiasm, you are strong.

If you live honorably and speak and live the truth, good things happen.

In today’s fast paced world, people are too caught up in the value of material things, like a beautiful home and nice cars. But the real bedrock of society, of a country, of a company and of a person, is integrity.

Integrity is everything to me.

I believe in continuous improvement. The key to success is to improve, progress, evolve, learn and grow… always and forever.

I can’t stand rude car drivers. Hey—we’re all trying to get somewhere safely OK? Be courteous; it’s contagious.

My worst childhood memory was when I had to abandon my plans to become an international superstar rapper due to my inability to rhyme.

One of the best decisions I’ve ever made was to have my business headquartered in Singapore.

It’s a great place to raise a family—you’ve got a safe and healthy environment, every type of food you can think of and friends from around the world are always asking to come visit!

I would like to become a volunteer Haagen-Dazs ice-cream tester.

I am also open to any freelance modeling gigs but my fees start at a reasonable $500,000 per hour.

I want my epitaph to read: Cool papa, awesome husband, retired billionaire and secret ninja.

The most important thing for me is to teach my kids to be good human beings so that they can make this world a better place.

Professionally, I’m living my dream right now.

One Fighting Championship is happening on Sept 3 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

How would you describe Fear of Writing?
Tan Tarn How (TTH): It is simply an experimental and self-reflexive play about what is the point of theater in this country.

What was it like collaborating with Tarn How after a decade?
Ong Keng Sen (OKS): We have constantly been in touch as we work together with young writers in The Writers’ Lab programmes. It was on Christmas Eve in 2006 when he started talking to me about the desire to write a play. Since then, I have been encouraging him to produce one and we finally have an excellent piece that focuses on a writer’s crisis.

How is the play different from recent works like Singapore and Cooling Off Day?
OKS: Most Singaporeans still deal with politics from a consumer’s perspective; it’s always about who is giving a better deal despite the political awakening in this year’s General Elections. This is not what Fear of Writing is about; instead it’s all about invisible borders, what we are afraid to say and the fear of control in a society that has Big Brother watching every little move that you make. It’s about the self as opposed to the other plays which are more concerned about the collective.

What is one thing that you have learnt while working on this play?
OKS: A straw poll about censorship in Singapore was conducted as part of the play’s research, which revealed that locals are unanimous in their support for censorship. I guess we are a damaged brood because the ruling government has imparted to us a certain kind of ethos.

What do you think are some challenges in the local arts scene?
TTH: I think that writing of all sorts remains a weak point in Singapore’s arts scene. It’s crucial to introduce kids to quality literary works at a young age. Besides, Singaporeans don’t generally read much fiction, let alone local works; all we have is a nation which sustains itself on self-help and motivational books. The other major challenges to being a local writer are self-censorship and being faithful to our language, especially when it comes to writing dialogue. And not forgetting there are simply not enough writers here.

Fear of Writing runs through Sep 3, Sep 6-10.

Using effervescent colors like a Bollywood film mural is one of your trademarks. How do you address the traditional notions of quite a myopic and chauvinistic Bollywood cinema?
Yes, the gender roles in Bollywood films are often fixed but you have to think about the function of them, which is to raise the morale of thousands of poor people who have very little to look forward to. The fairytale romance of the prince and princess is sociologically important. My work references the glitz, glamour and iconicity of Bollywood but from there on the similarities depart—my work subverts and problematizes simplistic representations of identity and gender.

Your work incorporates a lot of your personal experiences…
My work may start from the self but in the process of making, it departs to explore broader issues about post-colonialist identity. Although I use images and artifacts that are autobiographical, in that they are from my life, my work is easily relatable and makes people think about their identity in general.

What are some of your fondest memories?
Simple things from my childhood like going to grammar school, dressing up to go to temple functions and playing hopscotch on the streets of Liverpool. Then there are fond memories from my work such as working with lovely feminist women on Mukti, the first Asian women’s magazine in Britain, collaborating with my late little brother MAGIC on various art projects and exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1981.

How do you decide what is worth an artistic representation?
As an artist there are issues that you feel strongly about, themes that define you. Mine include my personal family history, Punjabi roots, Asian femininity and the impact and consequences of modern day consumption patterns. The references to ice-cream in my work are related to my identity because my dad used to own an ice-cream van but also the ice cream van culture that is inherent to the UK.

Other than your personal experience, what else inspires your work?
I am inspired by mythologies and stories from different traditions, especially Indian mythology. I am influenced by art traditions, especially Dada and Surrealism.

Briefly describe your artistic process.
My artist process is constantly developing. I work experimentally across a variety of mediums including print, photography, sculpture and paint. I hand treat each piece—embellishing them with gems, stickers, paint, glitter, bindis. Layering and experimentalism has informed my work throughout my career as has the relationship between image and text.

Check out Paradox Art Gallery at www.paradoxsingapore.com or visit Burman's show, Fragments of the Imagination.

How does it feel being a Thai artist performing with a Brit band?
I wouldn’t say that The Standards are a British band, just like we’re not really a Thai band. Sure we have members from each country; one of us even has American citizenship. It just feels great being in The Standards because we’re a great band.

What do you normally listen to? Do you guys favor UK indie music?
When I was a teenager, bands like Suede and Blur inspired me to be in a band and The Chemical Brothers made me want to make noise on a synth. I mostly listen to electronic music and indie but not specifically UK indie.

What is the hardest part and the best part about being in a band?
When we write a song, I try to put my signature sound into it. The hardest thing is to judge what sits perfectly in a song and try not to overproduce it. The best thing is that we play good music to people who know what good music is and we all enjoy doing it.

Is there a difference between British crowds and Thai crowds?
In England, people come to see a band, stand up, pay attention and really listen. They don’t sit down, enjoy a meal or talk to friends while the band is playing.

How was your England tour? See anything good?
I learned a few good tips from a brilliant soundman, small but very important details. He actually ended up coming on half the tour with us. I also saw other bands there do different things and use different techniques, which I would never have known otherwise. I also had a chance to see huge acts attended by thousands of people, which is something that doesn’t happen here. Arcade Fire, The Vaccines, The Chemical Brothers, The Streets, all at different festivals. The music scene there is so inspiring.

What are your thoughts on the Thai music scene?
Bands we played with in England all play their own songs. They might have one cover in their set, but in Thailand it is the opposite. Most, if not all, Thai bands play covers and play a few of their own songs if any. Every venue we played there, big or small, always sounded big. The bass pumped into your heart, the middle and treble are loud and clear and the vocals sit well in the mix. Some venue owners here only think about what can reduce costs. The Thai music scene is getting better. There are more alternative bands and there are parties to enjoy different types of music. But these things need serious support and respect from Thai audiences.

Which has been your best gig?
The one at Alan Mcgee’s Greasy Lips at Brixton Jamm in London. He’s a legend and he danced to our music. Lots of people turned up to see us play and we didn’t let them down. It was the second to last gig of the tour—we were exhausted but we gave it 110%. Everyone smiled, everyone sang and everyone loved it.

What’s next? Any plans on your next album?
We’ve started writing new songs for our second album. We’ve got a few things lined up in Bangkok over the next few months; then we hit the road again to play Manila and Hanoi in January. Vasachol Quadri

Check out the band's YouTube channel at 
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheStandardsOfficial.

As a child: I loved peanut butter and wanted to become a pilot.
First job: Newspaper delivery boy.
Rule for life: “The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens.” We’re all equal no matter what.
Stupidest trend: Tight jeans and emo.
Happiest moment: Completing all the items on the list of life goals I wrote at 18.
Last thing that made me stop and think: How we are more connected to each other than ever before.
Can’t live without: Music or Captain Crunch cereal.
Hum this tune in the shower: “Somebody I Used to Know,” by Goyte featuring Kimbra, or Dr. Dre’s Chronic 2001 LP.
People always assume I’m: intimidating and hard to approach.
But I’m really: welcoming and easy to talk to and get along with.
Best gig I have ever been to: Origin Festival, New Year’s Eve 2010/2011, Perth.
Last lie: I’ll be home before the gig finishes.
Most inspirational person: My dad.
Most annoying thing I have to encounter everyday: The toaster not giving me the perfect toast.
Would like to be remembered as: Passionate, positive and inspiring.
In 20 years: I hope to still be living and following my dream with music and sharing it with a wonderful family of my own.

This is your first film?
Yes, and a new studio, Ork Pai Dern. Previously, I was involved with a short film competition, along with Change Fusion, which allowed teenagers to study film with our team and communicate their ideas through filmmaking. And now, we have the chance to make a film on a bigger scale, to be screened in a normal theater.

How did the project start?
From the short films, we saw a lot of potential directors. There were so many meaningful shorts from talented filmmakers, so we came up with the idea to make a new film with them. And in our work with NGOs, sex among teenagers came up a lot as an issue. So we grabbed the subject and let our director team interpret it from their perspective.

How is it different from other teen movies?
I believe we’re the first ones to take this subject and treat it very seriously, and the hope is to create awareness among everyone who comes to watch. We let the teenage perspective speak for itself, showing that in teenage life, we can do something that is wrong and we can get through it.

Do you think sex is a theme that should be present in the public and in film?
There are people who do think we shouldn’t present this subject to teenagers, but the truth is that teenagers know already, for whatever reason. I believe that teenage pregnancy is a problem partly because we try not to touch the subject of teen sexuality. If we talk about this issue straightforwardly, it might help reduce the problem.