Merry Christmas! Love, 53A.

2011 has been awesome.

HELLOOO!!!

WOW, we seriously have not updated this in way too long. Our apologies! How is everyone doing?! It’s definitely been hectic the past few months (to put it lightly) but it’s always nice to come back and check in so y’all know what we’ve been up to (and that we’re still alive haha)!

We did a promotional video for PUMA Faas, the new shoe from PUMA that is designed to be more lightweight and streamlined to make you insanely FAAAASSSSTTT! So the video was supposed to show us doing something really really fast as a band, but we figured it’d be too cliched if we just played really fast on our instruments. Alvin came up with the brilliant plan to shove a burger each in our mouths as quickly as we could, so that’s what we did. I’m only shoving half a burger in my mouth cause 1. I’m a girl and 2. I’m not gonna open up a platform for y’all to throw “That’s What She Said” type jokes my way. LOL

Join them on Facebook here: PUMA FAAS

On a sadder note, we’ve recently left our weekly stint on Power 98 called the Wednesday Brew Crew cause my 1 year part-timer’s contract with them was up.

Right click HERE to listen to a snippet of us doing Rolling In The Deep on our final show as the Wednesday Brew Crew on Power 98.

It was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had, and if the opportunity comes up again, I’d definitely give DJ-ing another shot. Unless you guys majorly oppose to it, then I’ll know for sure why they didn’t renew my contract. hahaha

We’re in the midst of writing for our new album, and it’s really been heartwarming and very encouraging to know that the people who bought Settle The Kettle love it. We’re still getting orders for it on our website http://www.53Aband.com, so if you haven’t gotten it yet, GO GET ONE NOW!!!

Alright, rather than yabbering on about random things, I’m just gonna upload a whole bunch of photos to show y’all what we’ve been doing all year. \m/

53A + SIXX = A whole lotta people in a photo.

The boys in their Nike outfits for our first Nike Goddess Run.

Suited up for a wedding gig.

With our brother band Jack & Rai when we designed Evian tees for charity.

When Bani heard that Megan Fox was married.

Playing our 3rd Beerfest Asia event.

At our soundcheck for Family Day at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital.

We're such serious musicians onstage, evidently.

Aren't we pretty?

Playing at the DBS Remix Blog Party at Scape.

Backstage at Timbre Music Fest at NUS.

Our last show on air as the Wednesday Brew Crew.

Saving the hor douvres for Bani to try when it's time to break fast at a Levi's Strauss & Co. show.

Sometimes we take photos of our lovely audience.

Y U NOOO SMILE?!

Even Patrick comes to watch us sing.

Waiting our turn at a School Invasion show.

Ying - The newest addition to the band.

The REAL Alvin, Bani and Wan.

The super happening office people dancing to our music at a corporate event in Sentosa.

Cause we're all a little mad, sometimes.

Earliest gig we've ever played for Nike's We Run SG.

This is what happens when we wake up at 6.30am for a gig.

The HTC Sensation XE booth with Beats headphones where you could listen to us play live!

At the People's Association for our rock climbing gig. No, we did not rock climb. We hazzz no muscklezz.

We were kept in a huge HTC phone and made to sing everytime someone called the Big Friendly Giant.

When our Timbre soundmen Asmat and Yaz hijacked my phone.

Power 98's Halloween party at Cafe Del Mar.

Bani was one of Cleo's 50 Most Eligible Bachelors.

Newly weds backstage at Timbre Rock & Roots trying to iron our their problems.

With Mang from The Goodfellas who sang "We Should Be Together" with us at Timbre Rock & Roots.

School (Campus) Invasion at NUS.

The Goons.

Playing on the pool deck at Tanjong Beach Club for a charity dinner.

Playing for a fashion show by Daniel Boey at the Volkswaagen GTI's 35th Birthday event. Stole this off Mr Brown's blog, thanks for the awesome shot! http://www.mrbrown.com

Gambling at Diageo's Year End Party at Da Paolo.

Hope you guys have had as much fun in 2011 as we have!

Love,

saleeloo.

Time by 53A.

Wow. We’re really bums when it comes to blogging huh? haha

When the youtube videos for the concert we did came out, one of the favourites (other than WSBT) was Time. Got quite a lot of tweets requesting I explain the song, so here goes.

What I’m about to divulge is really personal, and the person in question is a really dear friend and was an awesome partner. It was just cause of differences that things had to happen and end the way they did, so please do not judge him for what I’m about to tell you.

Time by 53A.

Don’t watch me cry, don’t ask me why
Some things we say may be too hard to explain
Don’t feed my pain, it puts me to shame
Pressing on, pressing on in vain.

Oh no I have to go
Away from anything that you have to say

So don’t take too long
My heart’s not that strong
You need to help me hold on
Hold on to you

Oh no I have to go
Away from anything that you have to say
Say it to me now

Do you need more time
Do you need more time
Do you need more time
Mmmm..

Wake up…….

Oh no I have to go
Away from anything that you have to say
Say it to me now

Do you need more time (don’t watch me cry)
Do you need more time (don’t ask me why)
Do you need more time (don’t feed my pain)

Mmmm…

Basically I was the other woman for a long time, and I tried to leave a few times, but I was always drawn back to him and the relationship. (kinda like “gravity” by Sara Bareilles) It was very bittersweet, and as happy as I was, I was also very affected by the situation we were in. It makes him sound like an ass, but I knew how hard it was for him to be in that position as well (That’s What She Said). We did get to be together eventually, but it was marred by a lot of hidden resentment (mostly on my part I have to say) that never came up till the end of the relationship.

So now that you know the story behind the song, I think everything else is pretty much self-explanatory. The funny thing is that the relationship only fell apart when he left the country to work in a nearby country, but I guess everything happens for a reason eh? I know a lot of people relate to this song in their own way, this is just my version of your story.

What’s yours?

saleeloo.

Love from Shanghai.

This isn’t new for the people who follow me on Twitter, but for those of you who don’t, my ass is lovingly covered by Denizen jeans. I’m like the annoying sales person who follows you around the shop recommending you what clothes to buy, only that I do it via social network platforms, and I do it cause I truly love and believe in the product.

If you haven’t already heard, dENiZEN is a new line created by the guys from Levi Strauss & Co., and their jeans are just as amazing at a fraction of the price. It is also the first line by the company to be launched outside of the US, and I was one of the lucky 10 to have been chosen to be part of that historic moment in Shanghai.

10 young adults from all over Asia were handpicked by the dENiZEN team to be brand ambassadors before being whisked away to China for the one day event – *drumroll please*

From China,

Wang Yinuo – film student.

Zhu Yiqing – media and entertainment journalist.

Yan Wei – freelance artist.

Ditto Wang – fashion blogger.

From Korea,

Ziggy Yoon – student.

From India,

Bright Raj – writer and dancer.

Saurabh Seroo – IT analyst.

From Hong Kong,

Stanley Sze – dENiZEN designer.

From Singapore,

Sara Wee (ME!) – musician.

Brad Lau – food blogger.

(All footage in this blog entry was taken on a Flip MinoHD Camera given to us by the awesome guys from Levi’s.)

Meet a few of the dENiZEN 10.

Brad and I met at Changi Airport at “I can’t remember what time cause it was so damn early” and we were put up in the gorgeous The Langham Yangtze Boutique Hotel in Shanghai where we met all the other dENiZEN ambassadors. After lunch we went straight to a briefing and fitting where they revealed the brand to us (at this point we were the only people other than the Levis guys who knew the brand’s name), and can I please say that THESE JEANS MAKE OUR ASSES LOOK GOOD.

dENiZEN fitting.

So straight after the fitting we were started on the photoshoot which went on for a few hours, but it was really fun seeing everyone in their model element. LOL

dENiZEN 10 photoshoot.

peace.

Saleeloo.

I’ve been working like a dog.

I’ve always wondered why that saying exists. I mean, do dogs really work very hard?

Anyway, we’re into our last weekend of our Great Starbucks Tour!!! *round of applause* A big big big thank you to Ruth Yam and the rest of the Starbucks family for supporting us and the album and letting us invade 50 outlets islandwide! And also a big thank you to the people who’ve been coming down to hang out with us at the many Starbucks outlets, you guys rule. It’s been a crazy, tiring but really fun 2 months for us, and I have to say it helped us reach out to a lot more people than we had imagined!

Okay I’m too lazy to type, photo time!

Starbucks Tour Day 1

Starbucks Tour Day 2

Starbucks Tour Day 3

Starbucks Tour Day 5

Starbucks Tour Day 5

Starbucks Tour Day 6

These aren’t all the photos yet, will post the rest once the tour is over.

peace.

Saleeloo.

Hahaha!!

alright. Bani here. Rock on!

Once in a Blue Moon

It’s 5am and I can’t sleep.So I figured i drop by for a moment of emo-ness to write on.

Well to start of it’s almost coming to year end and a lot of things have happened for the past few months.Some ups and downs and looking back I thought how did I even got through them.

Of course the main highlight of it was that I almost lost a friend,yes a friend..not girlfriend but a friend which is the second most important after girlfriend (pardon me its 5am in the morning for god sake)ahahahaha..but thank god everything turned out pretty okay.I shall not go into detail coz I made a promise not to say about reeet!Of course things are not the same like it was before and I pray and hope that it will someday.(yessss this is how emo I can be hahahah!!)
Lesson learnt folks,treasure your friends!!
Oh for some of you may know I took a month break from gigs due to my shoulder injury.The doc diagnosed me with cervical rib(whatever that means).It was pretty bad initially coz there were times i ever thought of quitting my day job and even 53A for that matter.I’ve been diligently going for my physio ever since and it’s getting better each day.I do feel the pain here and there but it’s manageable.Well there are times when the rest of the guys didnt even know I was in pain during gigs!!

But you know seeing them having fun on stage sometimes makes the pain go away…(or rather i kinda ignore it coz i would’nt wanna be out of time while banging the drums.heh!)
Okayy so everything’s good for now,we just got the album out.And dare I say all of us felt pretty awesome and relieved after the launch.
Thanks a million for those who have been supporting us!

hmmmm okayy there are alot of things that I would love to rant about but im kinda sleepy oredi.Oh by the way,Alv is bunking in my apartment for the night and he’s sleeping soundly like a baby.(We’re not sharing bed if thats what you think,I had to opt for the futon in the living room coz I know how Alv cant survived without air-con..heehehe!)

Alritey off to bed i go.Good nite/morning!

bye!

Irwan Wiss

To 53A, with love.

I was just telling one of our regulars (who is now a dear friend of ours) June that I still have the note she wrote us when she first watched us at Acid Bar more than 2 years ago, and she was pleasantly surprised that I actually kept it. I admit, I’m quite a hoarder. Not cause I have a problem with throwing stuff away, but cause I’m too damn sentimental. (No I don’t have a cluttered room, my room is really quite neat and clear thank you very much.)

I’ve actually been keeping notes and requests since Alvin and I started gigging 7 years ago, but I don’t know where my old file’s gone to. What a waste. =( It’s not that we wanna boost our egos by keeping requests that say “oh we love your songs/we think you’re great” blah blah blah (though it really does help looking through them when we’re feeling really jaded about our jobs), but every single one of the requests I keep, I remember. I remember the venue, the people, the moment and how I felt reading the request. Most of them are personal messages, some are just random notes, others are sketches and drawings people doodle on napkins. Love ‘em all.

See if you can spot yours here. =)

From Sam the birthday girl at Timbre Art House this week, she was a real sport and came up to sing with us.

From Andy. The “enlightenment” was Bryan Adams – Andy had no idea who Bryan Adams was and had never heard of him till we played “Heaven” that night. LOL

One of the many requests from the awesome INSEAD group who were with us a whole year in SG, they followed us from Wala Wala to St James to Timbre.

Kickass drawing of me at Timbre @ Old School, done by the amazing Gobbs.

Request for a 53A original on a polaroid, from our lovely friend Maya.

Got this from a lovely couple, Denise and Han Wei, when we were playing at St James Lobby Bar. They followed us all the way to St James from Timbre and we played them “Sway” by Bic Runga.

In case you can’t read it, “The reasons why we’re here – because of you, 53A!!” From a bunch of crazy peeps at Timbre Substation.

The marker ink’s kinda rubbed off, but it says “No request, just $$ for being awesome.” Uh, actually it’s illegal to write on our SGD right?

This is one of my faves, drawn by Hana, made me laugh out loud onstage. HAHAHA Malay guy – Bani, Chinese always wear red shirt guy – Alvin.

Another one from the INSEAD gang, written by Kimberley. The guys got me off work on Monday for my birthday, so this was a week after.

Another request from Maya at Acid Bar!

The message from June that sparked off this blog post. =)

From a bunch of Filipino visitors at Timbre Substation. We’re 538. LOL They wanted to draw us another one with the right name but we said it’s okay.

Drawn at Wala Wala by Kimberley.

Another one from Hana.

I’m gonna keep collecting all these special requests, so keep sending them in yeah?

peace.

saleeloo.

We Should Be Together, no?

A lot of people have been asking us to post up our song lyrics for the album, and I’m a bit hesitant to do this because I’d rather save everything for the album. Then again, the album sleeve will just have the words and not the story behind the song right?

The Process.

The general favourite from the album right now is “We Should Be Together”, and I love that song too. The selling point I guess is the fact that it’s a duet between Bani and I, even though we’re not in love (Wan might get jealous), plus the string quartet just makes people wanna cry. I’ve always wanted to write a song that has Bani and I singing an octave apart on the whole song and eventually progress into him doing a screamo thing while I just sing, and WSBT kinda started off as that, then I don’t know how but I think I got a little sappy (and a tad sleepy) and it suddenly started becoming a love song. That’s when I decided that this song needed an extra bit of oomph, so I got the amazing Bang Wenfu to arrange the string parts for us, and Artsylum String Quartet awesome-ly (is that even a term?) agreed to play for us.

We actually did a whole bunch of demo recordings at Alvin’s place before we even did the concert at the Esplanade, and if you listen to the version we recorded it sounds kinda different.

*click here to listen to demo version*

Firstly cause it’s just 2 of me singing the parts (this was when Bani was still learning the song), secondly it’s a whole key down. I was supposed to sing all the higher parts and Bani the lower parts, but because our vocal ranges were rather weird at certain parts of the songs, we decided to swap around here and there. That led to the YouTube video of us in the jamming studio singing WSBT, we spent a good 90mins trying to rearrange the song. I think it was the only song that made all four of us really sit down, tear it apart and put it back together, I think that’s why I love it even more. And I’m sure Alvin wishes he had his camera on him when we rehearsed it for the first time with Artsylum, cause I started crying like an idiot when they joined in just before the first chorus.

The Meaning.

I guess this song applies to anyone in any type of situation where the love between two people is “forbidden” for whatever reason, and you can’t seem to get past it. My personal account of this song is quite a sensitive one, and I hope that I will not be judged for saying what I’m about to say. My boyfriend is the most amazing person I have ever been with, and I’ve never been happier. Yet, we may not be able to be together because he’s Muslim, I’m Christian. Trust me, I’ve been through this over and over in my head a million times – “what’re we going to do?” We’re all Singaporean (well mostly), so I don’t really need to go into details about why this is an issue. I’ve even had someone send me a Facebook message asking for advice because she’s in the same situation, and I didn’t really reply not cause I was trying to be rude, but I really had no idea what to tell her. So basically, WSBT is my outlet to say that even though we’re having our own personal struggles with this, everyone else’s opinions don’t really help and we shouldn’t let them get to us. At the end of the day, Athif and I have an amazing connection going on between us, and it just really sucks that something like religion is standing between us. What is even worse is that religion is very important for the both of us, so in the words of Russel Peters, “WE GOT STUCK.”

I know the lyrics are cheesy, but I’m cheesy (HAHA), and they’re supposed to be like a conversation between Bani and I. Some people get confused by the lead in to the chorus, cause they think that “but if everyone says hold on we should be together” is a whole phrase, but it’s not. It’s like I’m saying “but if everyone says…” and I get cut off with “hold on, we should be together”. It’s just my way of playing with phrasing and confusing people so that the meaning isn’t so in-your-face clear cut.

Well, hope all that makes you understand the song a little better and hear it with different ears the next time you play it on your computer.

“WE SHOULD BE TOGETHER” by 53A.

I don’t ever want to let you go
I don’t ever want you hurt
I don’t ever want another guy
Baby don’t even try

Maybe if I stay
Why would you wanna leave
Will we ever agree?
Will we ever agree.
But if everyone says

Hold on we should be together
If that’s wrong I don’t wanna be right
If you love me then stay on
Just tell me to be strong
Cause no one else
Will understand

Why I have a smile when you’re around
Y’know it’s hard to see that
Lately I have been in a daze
Baby everything stays

Maybe if I stay
Why would you wanna leave
Will we ever agree?
Will we ever agree.
But if everyone says

Hold on we should be together
If that’s wrong I don’t wanna be right
If you love me then stay on
Just tell me to be strong
Cause no one else
Will understand

That we’re in love
That we’re in love.

peace.

saleeloo.

Of Birthdays and Such.

Again, 3 months late, but I thought it’d be funny to let you guys in on what happened at my birthday this year. My darling sister Julia actually planned a whole picnic thingy, but then it started pouring, so our buddy Leander offered his awesome place instead. I’m too lazy to go into detail about what happened that night, so I’ll let the photos do the talking for me instead.

All I can say is, I was surrounded by loved ones, and that’s all that mattered.

The huge spread for not a lot of people.

The naked mole rat w/o her sippy cup (I'll explain later)

The awesome host, Mr Leander Yohanes.

Ju aka Juich, Jules, Juicy, Jubabomb. My favourite (only) sister. That's my sippy cup btw.

The bobo Athif, my boypreeennnn.

The giant leprechaun of a cousin, Shanando.

Tika, my soon to be cousin-in-law.

Bestie #1: YeahYeahYing and Phil.

My awesome strawberry cheesecake baked by bestie #2 Belle.

I just realised I didn't take of photo of Belle, so that's her on my right, Leo (in grey) her boyfriend and George (in white) my sister's boyfriend.

Mr photographer for the night (and most other nights), Fandy (Athif's best friend/life partner).

Nal and Mang, my Goodfellas boys. Best friends/life partners as well.

Alv and darling Noodle (Suf's girlfriend).

Wan wan!

I was kinda happy. That's the gorgeous NIza on the right, Fandy's wife.

Like a kid in a candy store.

Rozzie and Dina. Love this photo of the both of you.

Dina got me a Lomo, so I started snapping right away.

Dina, who insisted the first shot be of her cause she bought the camera. LOL

The Mangsta.

Mucho lovo for Rozzie

Arbor!

My sippy cup!

Sexay.

Sexay no. 2

My sexay man.

Nal, me and a ginosaurus rex behind.

Sombong sia muka.

Sally or Noodle?

Eeeee.......

Rafi, the most energetic person you'll ever meet. NOT.

And of course, my larling Suffy.

Okay, enough photos.

Peace.

saleeloo.