Their music has been described as a bag of aural lollipops, to be chewed and sucked on endlessly. Having performed at various nightspots in Singapore to having a weekly radio guest spot and of course launching their first album “In Stores Now”, Jack and Rai have come a long way from being just a cover band. In fact, with their increasing popularity, it won’t be long before aspiring local talents are singing Jack and Rai’s songs in quiet bedrooms and noisy bars.
In this edition of Style Personalities, Style Council members, Elliott Danker and Kenneth Wong chat with the nicest guys in the local music scene to find out about their beginnings, inspirations and their own definition of style.
1. Tell us how you both met?
It was somewhat by serendipity that we met. We played at the same bar but on different nights as solo acts. An occasional mix-up in schedules saw us bumping into each other once in a while.
A couple of impromptu jam sessions later (in front of a live audience by the way), we got our break as a duo at Wala Wala on Sunday nights in May 2002. And as they say, the rest is history.
2. What or who are your music inspirations?
Our influences span across a number of genres of music. Most significantly, we listen to a lot of artistes from the 60s and 70s, like The Beatles, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors all the way till present artistes like the Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer, Jason Mraz, Jack Johnson and Sting. There are really too many musical heroes and heroines for us to name.
We also find inspiration in the environment around us; our songs are about life, love and what they all have to offer. Occasionally other people inspire our songs too.... like our track “Fiona” which was a tribute to Fiona Xie and her *ahem* qualities...Haha
3. If you weren’t in music, what would you be doing?
We'd probably be like the lead characters from the Harold and Kumar movie installments. Come to think of it, we have been occasionally mistaken for them, under darker lighting. That might have been a possible career opportunity or maybe we can be in the home video follow-up movie? *hint hint*
But seriously, we've all had day jobs before in other careers. Jack was a marketing executive, and I was a PE & English teacher in a junior college before we both decided to explore a full-time career in music. So it's likely we might have followed those initial career paths.
4. What goes on in your mind before a gig?
1) "Did we have too much to drink?"
2) "Where's the nearest bar that we can go to during our breaks?"
Haha! That aside, usually our main concerns when we arrive to a gig are the technical stuff, like “are all the necessary amps/cables/guitars in place”, “do we have our picks, guitar tuners and other essentials etc”. Then we assess our audience and determine what kind of repertoire would best suit them. After that we just get ready to have a rockin’ good time!
5. For most people their dress sense is based on their personality. So what's your typical dress style?
Frenchman Buffon said in his famous discourse on style that 'Style is the man himself'. Similarly, our styles are basically extensions of our own personalities.
Jack is a laid-back, cheerful chap, so he tends to wear simple t-shirts, jeans and sneakers. Even the t-shirts have got a 'Jack' imprint on them. Usually they are plain t-shirts with simple, easy-on-the-eye designs, or clever and sometimes funny, motifs. Overall it gives you a light-hearted, cosy sort of feeling.
As for me, I’m the slightly more moody, just a bit edgy one, so the t-shirts tend to be a little louder in terms of design, a bit more 'rock' and I love accessories like bracelets or some simple chains, with bootcut jeans and boots to go but nothing too over-the-top.
6. As an artiste myself, I know it's not easy especially when you're starting. You both are pretty established now but do you remember any tough times you could share or perhaps have any inspirational words for young musicians who have just started?
It's always tough at the beginning of things. When we first started, we played to 2 tables at Wala Wala on Sunday nights. It took about 8 months to a year before we started gathering a good, strong following at the bars and the best part is, 9 years later, we still see the same faces on Sunday nights. So, sometimes it takes a great deal of patience, and to persevere even when things seem bleak at the start.
It's also good to not take on a defensive stance and question why people don't come to watch you. We believe you will be appreciated when you are good enough to be appreciated, so your job is to make yourself that much better at what you do. Till today, we sometimes see recordings of ourselves doing our stuff on stage and we're still not happy, and wish to get better.
7. What is style to you?
Style is an extension of one's personality. It is not really just what a person wears, but how confident he or she is in pulling it off. A person can wear the most expensive, fanciest, loudest clothes but if the individual's personality can't pull it off, then he or she becomes just another wannabe. It's a combination of charisma, confidence and good taste.
Well, these 2 blokes were beaming with charisma as they stood in front of a crowd at a private showcase. And while we’ve seen many international artistes own the stage when they’re performing, we were drawn to the “feel good” aura that Jack and Rai brought to their performance.
Capturing the best sides of them was challenging but not all that difficult once you understand the capabilities of the IXUS 300 HS and how to use them to your advantage.
So here’s a quick tutorial. For the stage performances, the dark ambient lighting can be discouraging especially if it’s held outdoors. So what we did was to take advantage of the fact that the IXUS 300 HS could handle higher ISO settings and bumped it up all the way.
Another thing we took note of was that there were some stage lights aimed at the duo so we had to take that into consideration.
The solution was to dial in the correct exposure compensation into the camera's setting to about -1 EV. This ensures that the camera would get the right exposure on both Jack and Rai while they were on stage.
The stage lights that night were rather bright and this could have caused both of them to be overly exposed thus the -1 EV setting on the IXUS cuts its exposure rating by 1 EV.
So in future, if you’re at a private party and your friend is on stage receiving an award or giving a speech in similar lighting conditions, you’ll know how to tweak the settings on your Canon IXUS to capture those moments.
To find out more about Jack and Rai you can check out their website at www.jackandrai.com
Another IXUS Experience brought to you by the Canon IXUS Style Council