
(All views expressed are my own. Its only the facts that I got from somewhere else. And the band did not make me write this.)
So a few nights ago I was hanging with some friends and we bumped into members of Wicked Aura. Don’t know who they are? They are Singpore’s only samba band. Go have look at their schedule and show up with your family. It might be a disconcerting when grandma starts shakin her thang to the samba beats. But thats what happens when you can feel the music. The infectious energy of the band is one of their biggest draws.
So back to shooting the shit with the Wicked Aurian. He was talking about their upcoming shows. Shit. I am impressed. They got on the WOMAD tour. (WOMAD is a festival that showcases World Music Arts and D ance. And it is very respected event throughout the world.) Yes and a Singapore band is on the Womad world tour. They are flying the Singapore flag in Spain, UK and Sri Lanka this year. I think they are the only Singapore band of any sort invited to play on this tour.
They seem to have solid plans for the future. I was really happy for them. Looking at their past achievements and their future goals I almost get a glimmer of hope that maybe Arts in Singapore might have hope. But no, not really.
I was told of the difficulties they had in getting money. This is not money to be rockstars. All the international festivals where they perform, they only get token sums of money. It doesn’t cover all the expenses. International flights and accomodation can get expensive. Especially when you have 13 band members. So they have to cover some of the expenses as well as get sponsorships to fund the rest of the expenses. Most of the artists on the womad tours are artists with record labels that cover their expenses or they are artists where their home governments are enthusiatically supporting them. You know, expose their homegrown talents to the world, put the name of their country on the world map blah blah.
Getting money is not easy for anyone. Even I have to work for it. (damn it!) But that wasn’t the least of the problems they faced. Its the atitudes. A unique Singapore band that tours internationally with renowned artists seems ripe for support from the local companies and organisations right? Wrong!
The reasons they were given pissed me off the most. The were obliquely told that they do not truly represent Singapore. They are a bunch of Malay guys and two white people! This was from official organisations whose job it is to sell Singapore overseas as well as by organisations who are supposed to promote the Arts in Singapore*. ( I leave it to you to figure out which those arganisations are.) Hmm lets think of another local musical troupe that gets boatloads of money from the same organisations, the SSO. The amount of official money that pours into them would mean that they representative of Singapore right? There must be Indians and Malays right? Wrong! (I just looked at the line-up.) Wicked Aura are also told Samba isn’t very Singaporean. Mmm.. When the T’ang Quartet rocks out with Shostakovich’s String Quartet No 9 in E flat Major, that must be very Singaporean!
(I think that the SSO and the T’ang quartet are worthy of every bit of support they get. I give a lot of respect to people pursue their passion. And they are cool too.)
*They do receive some $$ support from some of these organisations. But the support is tiny. They would have trouble going to JB to perform with the money they reveive from them.
He recounted how they almost could not confirm the international WOMAD dates because they couldn’t raise airfare. A senior person in WOMAD was cheesed off with the local organisations and got them in touch with a foreign embassy and airline which decided to support and make their tour happen. I guess our Embassy and Airline are too poor to support them.
The organisations that are not supporting them now will be the ones that will proudly co-opt Wicked Aura once they become popular. They will also trumpet how they supported the band throughout its history. Fucking lamers. Sim Wong Hoo and the EDB come to mind. Now he is a poster child for EDB and its efforts at helping local companies. But the reality is that Mr Sim hates them. They shooed him out the door and told him his idea sucked when he sought their help when he had a crazy idea of making soundcards for computers. Only after he made his billions did they offer to help and also used him for their image.
A few things piss me off about the whole thing. First and foremost the *racism*. (How can a bunch of mats do Singapore proud?) The fact that people can’t see a good thing and support it amazes me. And these are people whose jobs it is to identify these things. Do I really want people who are blind to talent run these organisations? They also mentioned that they get paid like local amatuers to play at events in Singapore. The same event will also have mediocre foreign bands that cost the organisers insane amounts of money. Guess who gets the crowd up and jumping?
But Wicked Aura is still in good spirits. They love the music. They love getting a crowd worked up. They don’t mind the scarifices they make for their passion. (Although they wish it could be easier. ) They still have their day jobs to pay the bills and fund their passion.
All so that they get your grandmas booty shakin.