We caught up with Famie, who fronts a rock n roll quartet from Singapore called The Pinholes. They’re one of the acts playing our special showcase at The New Colossus Festival in New York City next month, alongside Tia Gostelow, Wolfjay, Knife Wife, Safer and more!
Tell us a little bit about how The Pinholes came together.
We are a Singapore-based group and have been playing music together since 2002, but only played our first serious show the following year. We called ourselves Pinholechio as a tribute to liar-liar-pants-on-fire character, Pinocchio. But after entering a school band competition, we decided to change it to just The Pinholes. We were never serious photographers, but we are amazed of the concept behind the pinhole camera where the smaller the hole is, the finer the resolution of the image.
As for our music, we pay homage to our homegrown legends from the 60’s to the 90’s that comes before us like The Straydogs,The Quests, Pest Infested, The Antartics, Ismail Haron, October Cherries, The Lovehunters, Stoned Revivals, Force Vomit, The Padres just to name a few, that has influenced our music.
How would you best describe the music scene in Singapore?
It’s a mild music scene, but always growing.
What excites you most about coming to / getting play in New York City? (If you’re based in NYC you can skip this question).
It’s going to be our 1st time in New York City, a lot of artist/bands that we admire came from NY. We are thrilled and at the same time, blessed to be able to showcase our music to newer crowd and also get to watch more great acts from all over the globe. On a serious note, hope to learn more about the music business, too.
How would you best describe the music to someone who hasn’t heard it before?
“Uniquely Singapura” with echoing classic sounds of Southeast Asia’s 60s Rock n Roll, Surf and Alternative Pop.
What’s your latest release?
We are releasing a new version of our single “Bring Back The Vibe” today, Valentine’s Day, and its available on all digital music platforms for the first time. This will be followed up by a video for the single, too.
What else do you have coming up?
We will continue our next destination to Austin, for SXSW and LA for a mini venue circuit after that. We have a lot of plans going on at the back of our mind but at this point, we just wanted to explore more avenues and meet more people in the US.
Who else should punters check out at The New Colossus?
I am looking forward to watch Blizzard Blizzard Blizzard (Wales) set. I think you you should too!
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The New Colossus Festival’s 2nd edition takes place on the Lower East Side of Manhattan from March 11-15, 2020. For more details about the event, and to grab a badge for $100 – which gives you access to all showcases (including ours!), happy hour mixers panels and more – head to their official website HERE. For more about our event on Friday 13th March at Lola, head HERE.
Standalone tickets for this event are $10 and you can grab them HERE.
