Lunarin

Lunarin is a band from Singapore who enjoy playing music in the alternative rock vein, and are often described as "heavy yet lyrical". Their style of music has earned them much recognition in Singapore's local music scene. The members of Lunarin were all classmates in Secondary School. Their common love for music, disenchantment with the world and morbid sense of humour gave rise to a tripartite friendship that would in time last for more than 12 years. Kurt Cobain died the year they turned 16. That same year, they decided it would be fun to form a band.

The members of Lunarin were all classmates in Secondary School. Their common love for music, disenchantment with the world and morbid sense of humour gave rise to a tripartite friendship that would in time last for more than 12 years. Kurt Cobain died the year they turned 16. That same year, they decided it would be fun to form a band. So they did. They roped in a fourth member, Shawn Grosse, when they were in Junior College and called themselves Fuzzbox. Eventually, however, the original trio found themselves questioning their roles in Fuzzbox - they were bored with the manner that Fuzzbox were progressing and missed the initial joys of creating songs and playing music. They therefore began writing songs in secret. Eventually however, the burden of the songs became too much to bear. They therefore disbanded Fuzzbox and created Lunarin.

Lunarin consists of Ho Kah Wye (Guitars), Loo Eng Teck (Drums) and Linda Joelle Ong (Bass, Vocals). All 3 members of Lunarin were schoolmates in Dunman High School, Victoria Junior College and the National University of Singapore. Kah Wye holds a Masters degree in Chemical Engineering and is currently a chemical engineer. Both Eng Teck and Linda pursued law and are both litigation lawyers in litigation-based law firms in Singapore.

Although all 3 members are professionally qualified and trained in their respective jobs, the same cannot be said for their roles as musicians - in truth, none of them (other than Eng Teck who was trained in piano) received any form of formal music training. This perhaps could be the reason why they create and play their current brand of music in the manner that they do - there are no fixed structures or forms in the songs they write. More often than not, the time signatures and song tempos change at various junctures in their music. The band enjoys the concept of blending melodic vocal harmonies with a heavy guitar riff. They also think it is fun to change key halfway through a song. In short, they enjoy challenging themselves in the material that they write and believe in always pushing the envelope.

Observers have described their style of music as heavy rock, art rock, prog metal and alternative metal. The band itself however prefers the more generic tag of alternative rock for the simple reason that their influences extend beyond specific genres. The trio enjoys the heavy sounds of artistes such as Tool, A Perfect Circle, Alice in Chains and Soundgarden. At the same time, they are also supporters of the lyrics and melodies of singer-songwriters such as Tori Amos, Kate Bush, Jeff Buckley, Elliott Smith and Iron & Wine.

What is important to understand about Lunarin is the fact that they are firm believers in the existence of the muse. As far as they are concerned, the songs are entities in their own rights. It is the band's philosophy that through the help of the muse, they are able to become conduits for the sonic shapes that come into being. The band is the channel and never the source. How else can they explain the fact that every song is created only when all three members are present together? There is no single leading songwriter in the band. No one dictates how a sonic idea should end up - more often than not the songs write themselves.

Viewed in that context, it is not difficult to see why the band embarked on an arduous two-year journey to have their songs recorded for their debut album. With the help of veteran underground sound engineer KK Wong (more affectionately known in the scene as Ah Boy), the trio painstakingly sought to transpose the sonic shapes into songs, captured in a manner consistent with their own vision of how the songs should be. Sparing no expense, they traveled to Los Angeles in order for the album to be mastered by acclaimed mastering engineer Eddy Schreyer. The end product is a concept album styled in the form of a collection of short stories. The Chrysalis is that collection.

The Chrysalis is fully produced by Lunarin. It took the band two years and approximately $12,000 to turn the idea of the album into a reality. The band gingerly approached Universal Music with a business plan in September/October 2005 for a distribution agreement for the album. Universal Music was open to the proposal and has since agreed to distribute the album within Singapore.