News & Event Updates
September 2018’s Feature – M1LDL1FE
Formerly known as Take Two, M1LDL1FE cuts across the indie-pop grain, weaving together lush electronic textures and eclectic dance grooves into the pop sensibilities of guitar-driven indie music of the early 2000s. They debuted their first EP, “PAIRS” in 2015, receiving critical acclaim from the local press and were slated to be “one of the most exhilarating new acts to emerge from the burgeoning indie-pop scene”. In 2017, following the departure of guitarist Johnathan Lim, the quartet rechristened themselves M1LDL1FE. Armed with a fresh and grittier sonic palette, the band released their eponymous EP in July 2017, followed by a sold out EP Launch show in August 2017.
COMPASS: How did you guys meet each other and what ignited the formation of the band?
M1LDL1FE: Paddy and David were in rival bands back in junior college. David was the snobbish band that could play jazz and funk, and Paddy was in the rock band that was popular with all the girls. In an amazing twist of fate, we all ended up meeting again during our university days, with Peng Sing, David, and Jeryl meeting each other during Orientation Camp. They later roped Paddy (who was studying in NTU) in as the frontman. Together. we started doing a bunch of covers of our favourite indie bands and after a while, tried our hand at writing our own music. Been bitten by the songwriting bug ever since!
COMPASS: Did you guys have different music styles and how have you learnt to accommodate each other’s styles being together as a band?
Peng Sing: David (bassist) and I had a bit of background in classical and jazz band during our younger days, while Paddy and Jeryl were like the more pop-rock music guys. The band came about because we all got into the same kind of indie pop or indie rock music – guitar-driven stuff like Two Door Cinema Club and Last Dinosaurs, and more recently learning about synths, sampling, and other digital things.
Musically we actually work together quite well; it helps that we’re all good friends and communicate our ideas properly. Increasingly though, we’re learning to think less about the music theory aspects and focusing on a particular feel or idea, and use our instruments to express it.
COMPASS: Of all the songs that you guys have written, any favourite song and why?
David: Luna, because it perfectly represents us as humans. It’s written about the night (our preferred time to be active), has some restraint in its groove (we like to move but not dance), is transformable in nature (we ourselves evolve over time), yet has a bite to it (we sometimes bear our teeth).
COMPASS: What challenges do you face as songwriters, and how do you determine what songs were suitable for the band did the band faced and how did you guys overcome them?
M1LDL1FE: It is kind of like being cooks with a fridge full of random ingredients sometimes. Sometimes we have a snippet of something and it sounds really cool but doesn’t sound like it will go along with anything. So, we put it back into the fridge, maybe in the freezer for a long while. Some of these ingredients end up being thawed, and added into something else or gets thrown away when we’re not into it. It’s still a constant learning process and our fridge still needs a lot of filling up.
COMPASS: If you had a chance to re-do your music path, what would you do differently (musically)
M1LDL1FE: We heard getai bands make the most money out of all the musicians in Singapore haha. But all jokes aside, we don’t see the path as something linear. Every piece of work is merely a stepping stone to the next piece of work. We are happy enough to be able to stay on the path, wherever it may lead.
David: We’d spend a lot more time together. In an ideal world we’d live in a 5 bedroom bungalow (with a pool) together where we could write whenever we wanted to! Oh and we’d have a few dogs and massage chairs as well.
Where to find M1LDL1FE:
Twitter/Instagram: @m1ldl1fe
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/m1ldl1fe
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/c/m1ldl1fe
Soundcloud: http://www.soundcloud.com/m1ldl1fe