Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
This band has no press
Discography
November 2003 - The Ocean Band Volume One (a live recording, currently sold out and out of print)
mp3s of the band's original music are available at www.theoceanband.com . The site is updated frequently, so watch the space!
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
On stage, The Ocean Band is a dynamic, passionate and engaging band, which plays tight and loud (mostly, at any rate) and improvises freely and often without losing it.
This was put to the test on their Europe tour in July, 2004; and the band proved its worth on the road and back again in Singapore in August, when they opened for Hoobastank.
The Ocean Band's music is the schizophrenic result of the fact that none of the members agree with the others' tastes in performers and songwriters.
The band covers acts like Led Zeppelin, Pearl Jam, The Police, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jeff Buckley, Neil Young, Ben Harper and Soundgarden and we're hard pressed to find a common thread between all of them.
With covers, a trademark of the band is their consistent avoiding of Top 40 material. We pick equally good, or better, lesser-known material, and a lot of people come to our shows for just that... to hear music that nobody else does, in a way nobody else plays it.
The number of original songs in the set is increasing by the day too, to very encouraging audience response.
The ultimate goal of the band is to become an all-originals act, performing only covers that they REALLY like, or that, in a feat of rearrangement, they've succeeded in making entirely their own.
The history of the Ocean Band, such as these things go, is fairly packed, so we've summarized it all into a short timeline...
- June 2003. The members run into each other at the Crazy Elephant, then home of rock 'n' roll in Singapore and decide that a band would save their lives.
- July 2003. Having sketchily rehearsed a set, they get their first paid gig at the Voodoo Shack with bassplayer Wendy Phua. Soon they're the regular band there.
- August 2003. They land a gig at the prestigious Crazy Elephant and the prospects of glamour, fame and eternal happiness lure them into becoming a very tight and competent band.
- October 2003. They stand in as the in-house band at the Elephant for a month.
- November 2003. To cash in on their new found public status, they release a compilation of live recordings titled "Volume 1". The CD is now sold out and out of print.
- March and April 2004. The Ocean Band is the house band at the Elephant yet again, and by now they're a formidable act in Singapore's rock 'n' roll circuit.
- April 2004. The band starts work on what is now due for release as "BARCODES", their debut all-original album.
- July 2004. The band tours Europe with bassplayer David d'Aranjo, travelling from Holland to France, and going beserk at every opportunity.
- August 2004. The Ocean Band opens for chart-topping American band Hoobastank here in Singapore.
- November 2004 till so far. They continue to gig relentlessly at Zombie (off Orchard Road) with new member Darren on the bass, with a completely revamped setlist and sound, proving irrevocably that you can financially cripple a rock 'n' roll band, but you can't keep 'em from trying.
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