Singapore isn’t a nation traditionally associated with Heavy music, but after listening to the boys in Villes you are immediately left with a taste of things to come. Just a group of friends who became a band over MSN messenger, Villes provide listeners with a metalcore sound similar to overseas acts such as Secrets and Issues. Fronted by the eager front man Dominic Tan, Villes brought their enthusiastic outlooks to Australia to play a bunch of shows alongside Australia’s own Elegist and Void of Vision.
Off the back of their EP ‘I’ve seen the World’ which was mastered by the famous Joey Sturgis, Asia’s newest exports are currently running off the hype of their newest single City of Gold. This single demonstrates an improvement in overall musicality and maturity in Villes songwriting and is an amazing sneak peak of the future for Villes.
PEARL was extremely privileged to meet and Villes at the OLP, in Ringwood with the complete band on board including Bryan Ulric (guitar/vox), Harith Shah (guitar), Aiman Azhar (drums), Dominic Tan (vox) and Agung Anakagunggde on bass.
PEARL: How did Villes come to be?
TAN: There was just this one day where I wanted to scream so I used MSN messenger and asked Bryan if he wanted to start something and he just laughed in my face because I was like the clown of the group.
ULRIC: We were all secondary school mates together so none of us really expected Dom to want to do that and we were all heavy music listeners so we just thought we might try some things out. At first it was just for fun, we just wanted to see Dom scream.
PEARL: How would you guys describe the heavy music scene in Singapore?
TAN: Its small, but its growing.
ULRIC: It has definitely improved since we started playing more shows, we can even see it growing from the time when we used to go to shows. There is a different vibe coming through and it’s only going to get better.
PEARL: What has been the best experience being in a band has given you?
ALL: This.
PEARL: Your songs are primarily about resilience in the face of adversity; do you feel like when faced with hard times your turn to your own music?
TAN: For me especially with songs such as ‘The Levy’ because it is about my Ex girlfriend every time I get a bit angry or whatever I usually turn to that song.
ULRIC: Definitely, especially since growing up in Singapore there are these pre conceived things from your parents that you need to get a stable job and to support your family and it doesn’t give you the opportunity to live for yourself so personally a lot of the songs are from my kind of perspective of the way things are.
PEARL: Can we expect new music at all this year?
TAN: A new EP is coming, I cant say when but there is something coming in the works.
PEARL: How have the reactions been so far in Australia?
SHAH: Awesome!
TAN: So fun, the Australian scene is the best man.
ULRIC: Everybody is so friendly, like every time after we play people just come up to us and start talking to us, everything happens so naturally.
ANAKAGUNGGDE: Yeah it’s so much different than South- East Asia.
PEARL: What bands personally would you all like to tour with?
ALL (Shouting): Slipknot, Secrets, Crossfaith, Linkin Park, Northlane.
TAN: I’ve actually wanting to do a show with Prepared Like a Bride for the longest time and now today it’s going to happen. YES!
PEARL: Do you guys have any final words you want to say to the fans reading this?
ANAKAGUNGGDE: Yeah check us out.
ULRIC: Look out for later in the year for a couple of singles and an EP.
JESSE LANE
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