Strikeout

Singapore has a music industry smaller than its relatively size on the world map. Thus it is easy to overlook local talent, which is ironic, since they are the ones closest (distance wise) to us. Like many others, I too tend to look out for artistes from bigger markets but there are also local artistes who I do keep up with.

Clarence Liew (aka CLO) started uploading videos on YouTube since two years ago but it wasn't till The YouTube Stars Concert that he started to gain exposure. It was only then that I knew of him as well.

This is one of my favourite covers from him. He has such a gentle voice, and the guitar accompanies his voice perfectly. If you like acoustic guitar-styled songs, his videos are definitely worth your time. Check out his channel here.

Quick Quick Danger has gotta be on your list if you're into more upbeat songs, or powerpop, as I'd like to call it.

How can one not like all these songs that make you wanna party? I personally prefer Love Electric but I really dig Party Like a Rockstar as well. Besides all their originals, their covers really appeal to me as well - my personal favourites are Britney Spears' Hold It Against Me and One Direction's Gotta Be You. And because I'm trying not to embed too many YouTube videos on this post you can check them out on Soundcloud here.
Unfortunately the band is not as active as I'd like them to be. In the meantime though, frontman Marc has been busy with a couple of projects with other Singaporean artistes.

What perfect summer jams these songs are! I can already see these songs being played on the radio airwaves. Hello Singapore radio stations where art thou? PLAY THEM.

The Dirt Radicals, formerly known as Pug Jelly and Saw Losers is a punk rock band based out of Singapore (I got that last part from Wikipedia). They were originally based in Singapore, thus were considered a 'local band' even though none of the members are Singapore nationals. Not that it matters.. to me, at least.
I already knew of them since a pretty long time back but I never got around to listening to their music until I watched them live when they opened for All Time Low.

This is my favourite song from them. All I can say is that they were awesome live as well. The drummer was sick!
Check out their YouTube channel here. Hope to hear new material from them soon!

There are definitely more local talents that I have missed out, so don't sue me. I really hope that these artistes will be able to break into the international music industry in the near future. For now, it seems bleak but hey, people can dream. :)