Still Sunrise: reaching a musical milestone

The stage at Esplanade Theatre studio was all set for Still Sunrise’s EP launch. The whole event looked like a concert. I realised it was starting soon when a clique of friends started to take their seats and more followed suit as the lights were switched off. I was thinking, “Who sits down at a concert? I shall not sit.”

It was the first concert I have attended that the audience sat down. I did not know if it was peer pressure or feeling out of place as I was alone, but I sat down like everyone else after awhile.

When the band came out however, I realised why everyone sat down ­— Still Sunrise’s acoustic indie folk music had such a chill vibe you did not have to be standing to enjoy it.

Still Sunrise is comprised of Glen Wee and Yuresh Balakrishnan, who met at Channel 5’s The Final One, and mutual friends, Winston Koh and Johnson Cheung. All of the band members are multi-instrumentalists and can play more than just the guitar. Glen brought out a drum for one of the songs, Johnson played the violin for the event and Winston played both the bass guitar and piano for the performance of Doctor.

The band only played original songs from their EP, their singles and some unreleased original songs.

Their seven-track EP, ‘Colours in Black’, stayed true to its theme of “finding hope in darkness”. The melancholic vocal and instrumental arrangements coupled with empowering lyrics delivered just that. The lyrics spoke about overcoming adversity and the accompanying dark mood was established by the vocals and instrumentals.

“I think Singaporean musicians should not focus only on making covers. If you keep doing covers, you will just be a copycat and not add any value to Singapore music, in a cultural sense. We should push more original works out,” said Glen Wee, 22, their vocalist.

The quality of their originals should not be underestimated. I thought their song, Stars, was a cover of a popular song so I went to google its lyrics to acquire the title of the track but Glen told me that it was an unreleased track. I felt that their songs were also worthy enough to be featured in films, suited as soundtracks for dramatic scenes. Still Sunrise’s songs have the sound and lyrics that invoke emotions and reflective thoughts, along with the relaxing indie vibe. Michelle Chong also felt the same and Still Sunrise’s single, Untitled (video below), was used in her film Three Peas in a Pod.

Other than playing their hits like Untitled, Choices and Doctor, the band also took time to invite up on stage their sponsor, Mr Michael Chng, to thank him for helping them with their music financially and for the logistics of the launch.

Still Sunrise’s EP launch was a laidback affair filled with plenty amazing original music. I am sure that somewhere in the near future, Still Sunrise will be playing to many more sold out crowds; the one that turned up at the EP launch in the Esplanade Theatre studio was just the beginning.

Ending off with an original song from Still Sunrise: the lyrics speak about the fact we have to make hard choices everyday. It is my favourite song as the heavy lyrics are balanced nicely by the catchy accoustic melody and my pick of the day.