LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WE HAVE MOVED TO 

53Aband.wordpress.com

PLEASE BOOKMARK IT!!! This blog will still be kept, but we won't be updating here anymore. Loads of pictures and videos in the WP blog, so hop on over!

LOVE (for one last time on LJ),

BANI, ALVIN, SARA and WAN.

GUYS!!! Tickets are now officially on sale for our Late Night Concert at the Esplanade on 4th March 2010.

CLICK HERE TO BUY TICKETS!

Hope to see you there!!!

Love,

Bani, Wan, Sara and Alv.

There's a thing Bani always says, and it's that I look like Dave Grohl (lead singer of Foo Fighters, drummer for Nirvana). A few months after we started the band, he noticed the supposed similarities in our features and insists that I'm his long lost twin. I, personally, cannot see the resemblance. But I have been told that I look like other "celebrities" of our time, like Kristin Kreuk (I WISH!!!), Stitch of Lilo and Stitch, Smeagol of LOTR (you have NO idea how many people have said that, it's even my nickname amongst the EIC guys). So I've decided to do a couple of photo comparisons, just for the heck of it. (Plus it's the first saturday afternoon in months that I'm not working.)

Let's start with Dave Grohl. Bani says I look a lot like him when I laugh, especially when I part my hair to the side.


I had a good time laughing while doing this post, hope you guys laugh as much too. 

Omg, Irwan. HAHAHAHAHAHA.

Who do you think we look like?

peace. 

saleeloo.

This is completely band unrelated, but what the hell.

For those of you who are my Facebook friends, you would've noticed that I recently posted a status update that said "Nur Athif and I are trying to make our own 3D glasses at home so we can watch "Coraline" in 3D on his computer." Quite a number of people later asked eh how, did it work ah? No it did not. 

How To Make Your Own 3D Glasses.

We went to this site in hopes of creating a miracle, and a miracle it promised us. It said to print out the cardboard outline of the eye wear frame, but alas, Athif's printer has been dead for the last 3 yrs. Undeterred by the impending failure of our mission, our inner MacGyvers got the better of us and we improvised, badly.

"What do you do with an unwanted envelope?"



"Make it into a 3D glass lens."




"Make sure it's camwhore worthy"

"Get your hands on one of your boyfriend's ex-ah beng glasses (trust me, they've all had one)"



"Stick red on the left and blue on the right (btw this is a lot more tedious than it looks)"



"Then camwhore for a little more before watching film"



"Not his most glamorous moment, but I love this shot"



I really thought this would work!!! Well it kinda did, but not as well as I hoped it would. The images did seem slightly 3D, but I was so disoriented by the weird colours it made me slightly giddy. We ended up taking off the glasses after 5mins and went on to watch Mall Cop instead, which means..

I still haven't watched Coraline yet. =(((

Anyone wanna buy me 3D glasses?

peace.

saleeloo.

 Why do I seem to be the only posting entries in here?!

Anyway, it is now mid Jan and we are fast approaching our album due date (read: JUNE) and we're all getting a little jittery. Why? Cause it seems like just last year (wait it was last year just 2 weeks ago) that we were talking about it and we're a little in over our heads trying to get everything done in the next 4 months or so. BUT, that being said, I must say that it is really really really exciting for us and I honestly can't wait for the finished product. 

We feel like such proper business people going around for meetings all week, but our meetings usually involve a bit of alcohol, a lot of snacks, t-shirts and shorts and a whole lot of joking around before getting down to the real stuff. "Who are these people you're having meetings with?", one might ask.  Well, I believe it's time we did an album role call, don't you?

MR GO TO GUY: KEITH TAN, aka Long Hair.

No he's not an alcoholic. (or is he?)

Keith is the best thing that's happened to us since we decided to make this album, and I honestly think we'd be completely lost in this whole process without him. No, he's not our manager, we're too grunge to have a manager really. But he is the man who has been guiding us through everything and has helped us meet tons of people in the industry, all without asking for anything in return. He does it solely because of his love for music and we now owe him our lives. Seriously.

MR MUSIC MAN: DON RICHMOND, aka Donzy/Cuddles.



Some of you might be familiar with this guy, but don't be fooled by his extremely serious picture, he's the reason why we're always digressing and making bad jokes and cracks at random things during our meetings. Don is one half of the dynamic duo Don and Drew, ex-radio jockey, full-time music man and the nicest guy you'll ever meet. He produced Mark Bonafide's debut album, works with Vanessa Fernandez and writes amazing songs, so we know we're definitely in good hands. Don's gonna be the guy engineering and producing our album, and I really can't wait to get into the studio.

MR DESIGNER: JET AW, aka Jetstar7.



I've known Jet since I was a stupid little girl and I remember the first time I saw one of his sketches, I fell in love with his work. I still have one of the drawings he gave me over 10 years ago, and I'm so stoked we're gonna be featuring his artwork in our album. Unfortunately what we're asking of him doesn't do his artistic abilities any justice, but we do hope you're gonna enjoy the concept we've created with Jet for our album sleeve/album cover/band mascot! I'll also have you know that he's as much a guitar fanatic as Alvin is, and it makes everything so easy having music lovers in our production team.

Speaking of band mascot, as most of you know, our album name is gonna be called Settle The Kettle. Some people have asked why, well it's because of Bani. Every time any of us messages the whole band something that needs a confirmation reply, Bani will reply "Settle the kettle", and before long we all started saying it too. Our band mascot is gonna be Kettle The Cat, so Kettle needs to be Settled. Get what I mean?

A little sneak peak at Kettle without giving away too much.



Can you even figure out where he begins and where he ends?? hahaha

Before I sign off, can I please say again how excited I am about this album?

OMG.

peace.

saleeloo.

HELLOOOOOO!!!

I believe most of you have read this on Facebook already, but I'm gonna copy and paste and add on to it here because I really didn't have enough space on Facebook to include everyone. So here goes..

On behalf of the band, I wanna take this time to be emo and sentimental and thank everyone who's been supporting us as a band, as friends, as partners and as everyday people you guys can relate to. 2009 has been an amazing year for us, having old friends still around, and of course having so many familiar faces become good pals. To everyone we've called out to at our gigs, said hi to, sat down and chatted with, thank you for keeping 53A's name alive. We're nothing without you guys.

To all our parents. Leander, George, Ying, Ju, Belle, Leo, E-Hern, Aisyah, Joan, Shan, Larry, Felix and Kah Wai, you guys have been with us from day one screaming your asses off. We love you all to bits.

To Siraaj and Luqman, thank you for always helping us out when we need help!!! Esp Raj, for helping us out when Bani was in BMT. I love your shoes.

To Goodfellas and EIC, you guys are our brother bands and we look up to you as fellow musicians and best friends. Your success in the music industry is exactly why we strive to be a better band every day and I can't think of better people to be with us through it all. Plus Athif is a bonus. HA!!!

To Fandy, Niza, Aznie, Sham, Arin, Rozz, Dina, Kenneth and Jasmin, we met all of you through the Goodfellas and I couldn't have asked for a better second family. It's always great to see you guys walk in to Timbre on a Friday night and we really need to get Fandy and Arin up to sing.

To Vivian and Chai Li, I can't think of two better people to call our friends now, and to think it took us this long to talk to you guys!!! May we always see you guys at our gigs and Vivian always swimming in our pool.

To the Friday group, Joshua, Khai, Angela, Joline, Alex, Jay Got Soul, Lynn, AJ, Sadat and Gretel, I know we hardly see you guys now and we miss you all!! But we really appreciate you guys following us to new outlets, even though they're at inconvenient locations. You guys made Pretender the band's theme song, and I wanna see Jay dance on his birthday again.

To the Legion Adam, Ian, Smily, Sheryl, Sophia, Ryan and Justin, "Sway" and "Hot n Cold" were never mambo songs till we met you guys. May we forever keep the memory of HIBYE and free beer alive and may you all become rich, successful business people who can fund the band's needs forever and ever.

To the demanding group (TOO MANY OF YOU TO NAME), may you always be demanding because we love having our sets planned out by you guys.

To Maya and gang, you guys are our favourite Indons and we hope you stay in Singapore forever! Maya, you're always there with your camera and I still have everyone single one of the polaroids you've taken for/with us, as do the boys. I want more polaroids!!!  Can't wait to have you in the studio with us to help us take photos. =)

To Glenn, Tim, Lucas, David, Paul/Agai, Nan, Nick, Diana, Audrey, James, Stewie, Ryan + gang and Clare, it is through the power of Facebook that we've come to know and love all of you, and your support for the band is nothing short of heartwarming. We hope you guys will stick around for many more years, even if the band's no longer around.

To everyone who reads us on livejournal, if we haven't met you yet, I really hope we do soon. It's hard to identify with your usernames, so please always leave your real name so that we can meet you and greet you by your real names, not your LJ nicks. =)

To Danny Loong, Edward Chia, Bernard Ang and Ice Ice Baby, we thank you for your continued support and for giving us jobs!!! It's always great to have bosses we can also call friends, and we're all very happy at all our venues, so we hope you're happy with us too. hahahaha

To Timbre + Wala staff, our working environments are made better because of you guys. Bartenders dancing behind the bar while making drinks and kitchen staff screaming from the hot hot kitchen? It doesn't get any better than that.

To Jenny, Darius, Harry and the Power 98 Crew, radio has been so much fun for us and you guys have been so generous this past year. We love you Harry!!!

To Keith, you're a blessing to every single band you come into contact with. We'd be completely lost doing the album without you, and we wouldn't get to meet all the cool people we've been meeting all year!! We should put your face on Kettle The Cat's body, then you can be 53A's official mascot. hahaha!

To Bani, Alv and Wan, I can't think of better friends/people/musicians to be playing with. Every gig with you guys gets better and better, and you guys make this the least job-feeling work ever. I love the three of you to bits.

To everyone else we didn't mention, you're not forgotten, I'm just seriously running out of space to type.

2010 is gonna be a challenging year for us with the album due in June, but we really look forward to seeing everyone in the New Year.

peace.

saleeloo.

 MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!!!!!! 


Loads of love from the 4 busketeers!


p.s: what's your favourite gift this year?

love,

barnee ikbal, alpeen schlong, shara dolphin and urwan distinction.

HIIIIIII!!!!! We're baaaaaaack!!!!

It's been an amazing 2 weeks vacay for all of us, and we were all itching to get back to our gigs by the end of it. So it's good to be back, and so good to have seen many of you at our gigs again. I'll be posting photos up soon, and my brag-worthy moment of my holiday is that I got to watch the Script live in NYC. How cool is that?!

On another note, my dream come true guys.

PARAMORE IN SINGAPORE 7th MARCH 2010. *click here*

Have you bought your tickets yet?

p.s: IF we get a chance to be the opening band for Paramore, you guys have to vote for us! There might be an online poll coming up soon. =)

peace.

saleeloo.

I'm literally dozing off at my keyboard while typing this, but it's a post now or never kinda situation you know.

WE WILL BE TAKING A TWO WEEK BREAK!!! From the 30th of November till the 14th of December! Alvin's heading to L.A to go visit his awesome buddy Kevin Au, I'm going to NYC and Tokyo with the boyfriend and a couple of other friends and Wan and Bani will be staying at Rasa Sentosa for a few days cause Bani can't go on holiday yet and Wan is saving up for a major holiday in 2010. That means they might still be around to do a couple of the gigs without us, and I know for certain they're doing 11th Dec (Fri) with Mang from the Goodfellas!

I'll leave Alv to tell you about his L.A adventures, and I'll bring my lappy along to update everyone on what we're doing in NYC.

Okay, now time to sleep.

We'll see you all in 2 weeks!!!

Peace.

saleeloo.

But I just did my eyelash extensions!!! =)))))))

Very girly post, but I'm really loving it this time. She made my lashes damn thick and not too long (that's what she kinda said?) so I don't really need to do any eye makeup now. I'm a very low-maintenance person and I really hate having to come home after a long day of teaching and gigs and still have to remove a whole face of makeup, so this really is the lazy person's alternative to looking good everyday!

I know most people are used to seeing me with quite a bit of makeup, and it used to annoy me when people would ask why I'm so made up all the time. It's a very conflicting issue for me, because I'm very pro women's rights and not believing in how "sex sells", but I do realise that for entertainers, it is as important to be visually appealing as it is to be good at what you do. So if you ever do see me without makeup, please don't run in the opposite direction, just get over the shock and pretend like you're completely unfazed by my eyebags. HAHAHAHA.


Okay, end of girly post. Back to the music.

Peace.

saleeloo.

First things first, I'd like to say a big THANK YOU to all the folks who came to hang out with us at Timbre Substation on the 6th of November 2009. EPIC!!! I've never seen a whole crowd of locals get to their feet and dance with us, and I must say I'm very very very happy! INSEAD played a big part in getting everyone into the mood, so Kim, Ibrahim, Philippe, Mauricio, Thomas, Michael and gang, you guys rock our world. Huibin and Amanda, you guys are very cute dancers. hahahaha!

The band's been doing a whole bunch of interviews/photo shoots lately, and it's definitely been loads of fun. Stuff to look out for in the coming months:

- Bani and Sara at bus stops ad screens and on bus walls.
- Bani in CLEO magazine
- Sara in Men's Health magazine
- The whole band in August Men magazine
- Sara in HotStuff magazine

And most recently, our spread in ST's weekly Digital Life section (wednesdays). A big hello and thank you to Sherwin Loh for the great spread and interview AND MY SISTER FOR THE HOOKUP, everyone who saw it said it was really really good. =)

I also recently discovered an interview we did quite a while back for inSing.com, I remember having to answer all the questions via email at 4am after one of our gigs, so you can tell I was a bit loopy. 

click HERE for interview.

And just in case you didn't get to see the ST Digital Life spread...



Remember folks, we're ALWAYS AVAILABLE!!! Follow Sara, Bani and Alvin on Twitter! (Note to Wan: Time to start tweeting.)

=)))

peace.

saleeloo.

Hi All!!

Come Join us this Saturday at the Padang for some great rugby action and live Music with 53A, EIC and several other bands!  GEt your tix from SISTIC!



AlfV, Bani, Irwan and Sara

Hi guys!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Words can't describe the shock/horror/amusement I felt seeing everyone in their costumes, but it was a whole lot of fun. Alv and Bani were playing at Acid Bar, so I went to hang out with them for a set before heading down to watch the Goodfellas. Wan was nowhere to be found, he went on a movie date with Raaj.

TSK.

 Thank you all for your songs requests!!!

Some of your lists were LOOONG and some were just funny (THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!!!), but we're gonna take all of your lists seriously because at the end of the day, you guys are the ones that make us matter. Okay so we don't leave anyone out and we don't overwhelm ourselves, we're gonna do 1 song from EACH list so everyone's happy! I think that sounds fair enough. =) 

On a separate note, look out for us in next Wednesday's (nov 4th) issue of Digital Life in Straits Times, we're doing a smartphones feature and I think you're gonna have a good laugh at our poses and stupid faces. We just had our shoot yesterday in the superbly complicated building that is SPH (hello Sherwin!), then all 4 of us rushed down to Timbre Old School to eat and sing. haha!

Photos from Wed at Timbre Mobile, if you were there, see if you can spot yourself!

This is gonna be a short one.

We still always have trouble deciding what songs to do at gigs, so please tell us what you wanna hear, or we'll just keep playing stuff we wanna play!

hahahahahahaha.

Love,

saleeloo.

BANIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



22 already. So old. But we still love you!

Love forever and ever,

Elpeen, Shara and Huan. 

We played Timbre Mobile for the first time tonight and it really was a novel experience:)  The place looks insanely chilled out and the only word I can use the describe the venue is organic. You guys should really come down to check it out for yourselves.  I meant to take a picture but I forgot coz' I was busy trying to reschedule some stuff.  

It was brilliant to see Kenneth, Joyce and the rest of the boat people there coz' as always, they make the nights pretty fun wherever the venue. 

SAra came over today and we did some work on our album.  It was brilliant and maybe we might put up some leaks soon  if the recordings sound good enough:) 

I think i'll not do any music just for tonight and just really relax.  Been having weird disturbed sleep patterns of late but I'm sure it'll be over soon.

Alrighty, nite nite.
AlfV

HELLOOO everybody!!!

Sorry, I realize it's been more than a week that we've checked in, but we've all been crazy busy the past week. I really should be sleeping now cause I gotta wake up for church in the morning, but who am I kidding, I can't sleep at this time. Whoever told you musicians are nocturnal is telling you the truth, we can't sleep before 5am. So this is what's been happening so far..

We've left St James Lobby Bar on  Wednesdays, the gig on 7th Oct was the last gig for us. They're gonna be moving everything around again, ie Barnone back to Marriot Hotel, though I'm not entirely sure what's happening. So if you wanna keep up with the St James schedules, let us know and we'll try to help you find out more information about their changes. Alternatively, you could go check out their Facebook pages and online site for details. And with that, we're moving to TIMBRE MOBILE on Wednesdays starting 14th Oct!!! 

Timbre Mobile is the newest Timbre outlet to be opened, and why it's called "mobile" is because the outlet is on wheels and will change location every 6 months! It is now located at East Coast Park (beside carpark C1), so if you live in the East or you have a car, no excuse for you not to check it out!

On a different (but somewhat related) note, do keep your eyes open for certain familiar faces on the walls at bus stops and in buses starting November. And by certain familiar faces, I mean Bani and I. We just did an exhausting 6 HOUR shoot on Monday for Timbre, but I won't go into detail until the "thing" has been launched. The photo shoot  was a kickass load of fun for the both of us, and I have to say, Bani is really really photogenic! What was really unfair was that my hair and makeup took a total of 2 hrs while Bani's took 15mins. Why do the men always have it so easy?! I think you guys will especially love the shots we took together. It was kinda odd shooting them cause we felt very "couple-ish", but the pictures turned out amazing.  Oh man, can't wait to see the posters!!! Hopefully they use some of the shots at the Timbre outlets so we can have our "excuse me, are you a model?" moment. hahahahaha!

Okay time to sleep.

Btw, I don't mind being called an auntie if it's in reference to me feeding the stray cats in Singapore, as long as it's not mooncake related.

Peace.

saleeloo.

Click HERE to view full picture. 




peace.

saleeloo.

We're a very very conservative country, be it our principles and morales or behaviour. I was at Timbre @ Arts House watching the Goodfellas last night, and there was a group of ang mohs dancing in front of them, a very common sight at Timbre Substation nowadays. Whether we're playing "American Boy" or "Viva La Vida" or even "Always Be My Baby", you can always count on them ang mohs to get up and provide the rest of the crowd with visual entertainment. Sad thing is, I have never seen a local Singaporean in the midst of that dancing group. Even I'm too shy to go join them.

But why? Why're we so shy to dance in front of other people? 60% of Singaporean youth club on a regular basis, so why can't all this dancing at clubs be brought to a different venue? It's pretty much the same thing - alcohol + music.

I say we start being more adventurous and let loose once in a while. We don't have to run to the front of the stage and dance there, let's just stand up where our tables are and let that music take us from feet tapping finger snapping to full on hip-swivelling gyrating!

WE NEED TO STOP BEING SO DAMNED SHY!!!!!!!!

peace.

saleeloo.

edited one day after:

here's proof of me and Fandy trying to start being more proactive!!!!!