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When I first got hired at IAAS and heard about the live music coverage, I pulled up Google and typed “Singapore indie music festivals”. The Rock and Indie Festival by LASALLE, better known as RIF, was the first result to serendipitously appear almost exactly a month before the first day. It felt fitting for one of Singapore’s specialised tertiary art institutions to be a bastion and supporter of independent arts, putting down the money and logistics needed to host an event like this and uplift our local independent artists.
RIF was my first-ever music festival, on top of being my first-ever time being on the ground to cover live music for IAAS. These two huge milestones wrapped into one event added to the nervous excitement I felt in the weeks leading up. Now that I look back, I do think I could have skipped the nervousness and just focused on the excitement – and I’ll talk about why in just a minute.
Perhaps the most important thing to note for our Singaporean readers is RIF’s central location in LASALLE’s McNally campus. And for readers outside Singapore, one thing to know about our country is that it’s quite small. Distances that I wouldn’t bat an eye at overseas raise eyebrows in Singapore – like anything over half an hour by car.
Those taking cabs or private-hire vehicles will be dropped off right in the Campus Green, in the heart of the Festival. If public transport is your mode of choice, LASALLE is well-connected with multiple MRT and bus stations around the area. (I should know – I’m far too acquainted with this area, having to pass the high school I just graduated a few months ago on my way in and out.)
Stepping into the Campus Green, I was greeted with an ongoing soundcheck and a thriving Festival Village. That was definitely something new for me – I’d been to great concerts before, which were very much in-and-out experiences with a merch stand or two. At RIF, I’d expected the al fresco stage in the Campus Green and another indoor, air-conditioned venue known as the Flexible Performance Space. Somehow, I found myself instead wishing I’d brought my guitar down for the free service booth by Wax Guitar Services (alas, this was a working trip), doodling my own custom guitar pick keychain at a small booth, and running to take a selfie with the polar bear mascot.
F&B was available within the Village, and LASALLE’s central location meant that you could simply cross the street to access a huge variety of affordable – and fancier – food options. On Day 1, I ordered a $6 (3.48 GBP) strawberry mojito from Habibtea. Usually I can’t take boba pearls, but I loved the popping lychee ones included. It was refreshing and not too sweet, with a very reasonable portion size for the price – I sipped the drink slowly over the course of a few hours as we went from set-to-set covering artists. Next to the drinks stall were bento boxes and finger foods for sale, though I unfortunately didn’t have the chance to sample any. My photographer and I ended up walking to Tipo nearby to satisfy a pasta craving – my truffle Alfredo was delicious and yes, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.
A small merch table was strategically placed between the Campus Green and Flexible Performance Stage – people rushing between sets like I was would definitely pass it more than once. It was a friendly and laidback atmosphere, with nearly all the artists I observed sticking around to chat with fans. Merch was very reasonably priced as well, with the priciest item I knew of being $12 (7 GBP).
Amazingly, as I learnt while Stella Ong [Head of Festival] generously showed us around, a lot of what was offered this year was brand-new to the Festival as well. I wouldn’t have known, looking at how well everything was organised and running – but I won’t say too much about that just yet, as our exclusive behind-the-scenes interview with her drops next week!
Speaking of her, I’m going to round off this short recap with a sincere thank-you to the student, faculty and PR team from LASALLE. The festival experience was overwhelmingly positive – at no point did I ever feel unsafe. Liaising was incredibly smooth, despite the layers of approval I’m sure everything must pass through at these events. Shoutout to the people I directly interacted with: Clement and Stella from the student team, and Hakim and Theodore from Pinpoint PR.
The media passes the team were able to procure for my photographer and I enabled us to catch so many more acts than the 6 we planned for – we ended up with 11 artists, or essentially half the festival lineup of 22 artists! As such, this article has drastically ballooned in size from the original plan. For everyone’s sanity (including mine), I’ve chopped this article up into 2 parts by day – so keep an eye out for next coverage in the next few days, and in the coming weeks exclusive artist interviews and images! Keep an eye out for our Instagram @iaas_music too for crystal-clear fancams and other performance clips too.
RIF was just two straight days of wonderful music, during which I discovered many new artists I’m excited to share with you now. So without further ado, here are my takes on the actual artist performances.
Masha Nyanna & More People
I was actually finishing up my interview with Stella when I heard her set begin. Even muffled through the door of the campus building used as a makeshift green room, I was very intrigued. Luckily, we were already wrapping up, and so I arrived about halfway through the first song.
The Campus Green is a cozy atmosphere, with little tarps taped down over the synthetic grass hill. The incline allowed for a great view of the stage no matter where you sat or stood; given that it was about 3pm on a Friday, I had my pick of front-row seats. My photographer and I settled in towards the right in a tarp that would end up becoming our usual haunt for the rest of the festival.
Masha played an acoustic guitar while doing vocals, with a clean chorused electric guitar playing lead to back her up. While adjusting her capo, she shared that electric guitarist Shafiq was actually from her polytechnic’s music co-curricular, and was her go-to for all gigs.
The entire set was a display of songwriting and performance excellence. In the span of just about half an hour, Masha brought us through falling in love, to people praying on your downfall, to dreaming alone. I was very intrigued by the vocal-and-guitar multi-effects pedal that provided gorgeous harmonies, rounding the sound out with more depth. (My notes say they were “heavenly and very acoustic”.) Either way, the guitar playing and pedalwork were both very clean; it’s clear that Masha is a musician who knows her setup and set like the back of her hand.
My personal favourite was “Changing Seasons”, especially the lead guitar. I actually have no notes on this one, because I got completely lost in the music. It’s wistful and melancholic, the type of sound you could just live in – and I was devastated to discover that it’s unreleased, though Masha was quick to assure the audience that the song would likely drop later this year.
I’d also like to briefly mention her styling, as someone who’s not particularly inclined to fashion. There was a consistent pink-and-gold colour scheme, with a white blouse and khaki bermudas to visually balance and complete the look.
Overall, her set was the epitome of singer-songwriter intimate and a fantastic first act to kick off the Festival. You can find her on Instagram at @mashanyanna, and keep an eye out for her upcoming releases on Spotify!
slump
slump is a five-piece “post-punk/dreampop” band. They were my first set in the Flexible Performance Space, which required advance bookings but might take walk-ins. Just as any other Singaporean would be, my first reaction to walking in and waiting for their set to begin was air-conditioned relief from the heat – though admittedly it wasn’t too bad that day.
The set opened with an atmospheric, slow ballad. slump all have varying levels of movement onstage – the lead guitarist wanders, the singer stayed close to croon into the mic, while the bassist and keyboardist moved their heads to the beat… but somehow, they make it work to look like a unit onstage. It’s worth mentioning that the bassist does backup vocals, as well.
They delivered an energetic, youthful rock vibe with great onstage chemistry. Lots of eye contact, instinctive mic-sharing to talk, no awkward pauses, and fun crowd work to banter with the familiar faces of old fans or loved ones. They let us in on the inside jokes behind each song, and projected an unbothered, comfortable energy the whole set. Though, I regret to report that we were Weezer-ed after the first song – and also Jurassic Park-ed later in the set. At the time of writing, I’m still not sure whether to be amused or affronted.
Honestly, I was shocked to hear that they’d formed last year. They perform with gravitas, with tight transitions, exquisite build-ups and rich instrumentals. Including one song they presented with an off-hand, “oh yeah we wrote this two hours before the set”. And a fake encore, which I hadn’t expected to see so early into RIF.
I’d say slump is a band to watch. You can keep an eye on their Instagram at @slumpbband, and find their Spotify here.
Marian Carmel
Marian Carmel is an artist moving between the Philippines and Singapore across many genres, though I’d class her latest EP what if nobody kisses me? as romantic indie pop.
I’m very pleased to announce that IAAS has an interview with them in the works – so keep an eye out for that!
Marian is a performer who knows how to draw attention, starting with her hype entrance after some build-up. Though there’s a live band consisting of drums and one electric guitar, a backtrack fills in the bass and other backings nicely to enrich the sound.
Happily, the set opened with my favourite song from Marian: what if nobody kisses me?, from her latest EP titled the same. It’s incredibly catchy, and will be stuck in your head for a while. (My typed notes from this set say “MY FAVVVGVV”, in case you needed any further endorsement.)
There’s lots of crowd work, and an ease to which she shrugs off interruptions with comedy – like a stray notification coming from the laptop playing the backing track. Also from my notes, I wrote that she’s “extremely good at parasocial crowd work”; sitting in the audience between songs, it almost feels like we’re one big friend group spilling the tea (gossiping) about the circumstances or sad/bad dates each song was inspired by.
The set made us all move, including “well, well, isn’t that convenient” – a refrain the crowd echoed together. Marian put her Philippines heritage on display as well, proudly performing wanted you, a lively yet bittersweet bilingual English-Tagalog song. I personally love it when artists are able to capitalise on the medium of playing live and its authenticity to connect us all through music.
Any fans – or prospective new fans – reading can look forward to new music this year and next year, as Marian has been busy in the studio. You can find her on Instagram at @mariancarmelmusic and on Spotify.
sun cell
I unfortunately came in halfway to sun cell, and caught the last quarter of the set. Nevertheless, those songs were enough to establish their sound as atmospheric rock I found almost reminiscent of The Script.
The crowd really swelled from when I’d initially walked into festival grounds; this set had the artificial hill packed. Despite the full house, sun cell remained nonchalant. I will say that it was a great set, especially with the very fitting sunset behind sun cell as the evening wore on.
My notes for this set are fairly minimal as I got lost in the music. I’d done my research and listened through some of their music prior to the Festival, of course, but the soundscape was rendered gorgeously on the PA system. It truly felt different, particularly as I noticed a few arrangement changes to accommodate the live setup. For instance, what I’d heard of sun cell’s studio sound felt very synthesiser-centric; their live set featured a lot more guitars. (Which I definitely appreciated, as a guitarist myself.)
Fans of Djo and Bleachers will definitely enjoy sun cell’s sound, which you can find on Spotify here and on Instagram at @sun__cell.
nosedive
nosedive wasted no time getting onstage and doing what they do best, eschewing a longer spoken introduction in favour of simply blasting their song second guessing. It’s atmospheric with a lush soundscape I’d compare to shoegaze – I’m informed by day 2 artist IMAN that people who grew up in the 90s would know this genre as ‘alternative rock’ instead. Either way, it’s easy to shut your eyes and just let wash over you like a gentle tide.
As a consequence of the crowd filling in, I found the sound system louder than earlier. The bass drum rattled my bones, adding to the vibes but pushing the volume a little on the loud side for me even as I was wearing concert earplugs. (I must take a moment here to endorse the use of earplugs at festivals to protect your hearing; I wore mine pretty much the whole 2 days. No ringing ears, though the world did feel a little softer for maybe ten to fifteen minutes after some of the louder sets.)
I’d originally planned to catch half of nosedive and dip out to cover the headliner, but ended up staying the entire set because they were just that good. They sang in two languages as well, with one song in Malay and the rest in English. Being a mixed group, they had the advantage of a wider vocal range to pad out the arrangements nicely and at times duet.
I’d call them Singapore’s answer to wave to earth. Or perhaps wave to earth.’s rock project The Poles would be more apt, with how cohesively each song sat in a set and their discography while remaining distinct. Either way, it was clear why they were the first headliner of the night.
You can find nosedive on Instagram at @nosedivedive and on Spotify here.
LAYYI
LAYYI was the other headliner of Day 1, with her performance taking place in the Campus Green instead. This was even more packed than sun cell’s; I ended up just sitting on the grass as a lot of the tarps were taken by the time we rushed over.
We caught her set beginning from i’ll be blue, her comforting breakout R&B track. While setting up for the next song, LAYYI shared a little more about this song and how her format of asking stranger what made them blue and then performing this song blew her up on social media. With archetypal smooth electric guitar and chill drum groove, this ethereal track had the crowd gently swaying. I’d call this song a warm hug on a cold day – fitting for a song declaring that “I’ll be blue in a life plagued with grey”!
The next song was literal whiplash; LAYYI wrapped up i’ll be blue, got up from her stool, and hyped the crowd up to “get on your feet for this pop-punk breakup anthem”!
Honestly, I was still processing i’ll be blue. My notes read: “pop punk ????? standing up now ?????????”.
Interestingly, LAYYI had opted for a drum backtrack and two live guitarists. This was a decision that made sense once I JUST CUT MY HAIR began – and it didn’t disappoint in the least. LAYYI delivered energy high enough to match this high-octane track, and her guitarists matched the vibes well. A definite highlight for me was getting noticed – you can see the video live on our Instagram now.
I’ll be honest and say that she spoiled the track for me, because as great as it is, the studio version simply couldn’t compare to the live performance I was lucky to witness at RIF.
I’ll be keeping an eye out for LAYYI’s work, as you should be too. You can find her on Instagram at @layyimusic and her music on Spotify.
Conclusions
Day 1 of RIF was unreal, and I honestly will start going to more Singaporean indie festivals if they’re all like this. Day 2 had a tough act to follow – so keep an eye out for Part 2 of this article series!
Once again, I have nothing but sincere appreciation for all the students, staff and faculty that moved to make this event happen. More of this, and Singapore’s burgeoning arts – especially indie! – scene will definitely continue to grow for sure.
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