Singapore's Sobs Is Taking Over Pop Music

We just can’t get enough of pop music. Especially coming from a band whose specialty is different shades of bright, playful, twee sounds from different parts and zeitgeists in pop culture. 

Pop trio Sobs has been at it for almost five years. The members have toured Southeast Asia just months after meeting each other on the internet and coming together as a band. Their perpetually online fanbase packed dive bars in their first ever time playing Manila in 2018 (thanks to independent production outfit Almost Crimes) as well Esplanade in Singapore earlier this year. 

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Not long after releasing their seminal debut EP Catflap in 2017 and their full-length debut album Telltale Signs a year later years ago, the trio is gunning for an international audience this year. In fact, the band will be making their U.S. debut in the Noise Pop Festival co-headlined by slowcore legends Duster, New Romanticism revivalists Boy Harsher, and noise pop veterans Yo La Tengo around February 2023. Shortly after the festival, in March, they’ll be heading to SXSW (South by Southwest).  

What looked like a laborious two months for the trio turned out to be one of the most overwhelming experiences in their entire career as a band with a cult following here in Southeast Asia. But tracing their origins back to when the band was hibernating from lockdown, the three-year wait ended with the surprise release of their sophomore record Air Guitar, their first under American label called Topshelf Records. Traversing Weezer-obsessed Power Pop to the twee and electronica mashups of Darla Records, the band is bringing their brand of pop music even before being noticed by the internet.

Looking closer into each members’ nuances, we find Celine Autumn performing under her electronic pop solo project Cayenne Forever; Jared Lim plays guitars for outdoor math-y, noise rock outfit Subsonic Eye, which also toured in the United States earlier in 2022; while Raphael Ong helps promote bands across the region, supporting acts like Megumi Acorda in the Philippines, Hariguem Zaboy in Thailand, and Grrrl Gang in Indonesia. Together they make the ideal trio for a pop band whose backgrounds differ from one another, but with their DIY upbringing helping them understand their scenes and contemporaries in their home country and elsewhere in Southeast Asia.  

Esquire Philippines sat down and chatted with the Singapore-based band about what releasing Air Guitar to the world felt like. 

“I’ve had nightmares about RYM,” Lim jokingly says.

He's referring to RateYourMusic.com. The three confessed that they had different ways of discovering new inspirations or other music platforms. It became a full circle moment when Sobs discovered their music circulating online. 

“The coolest part about the RYM reception is reading the reviews,” Ong says. “There are like 12 reviews on it and some of them managed to spot or catch the references we’re trying to make. It was just generally really sweet of them taking their time of the day to write about the album.” 

For Sobs, writing music doesn’t only come in threes. Lead vocalist Autumn describes her unique ways in writing solo material both for Cayenne and for Sobs. 

“It’s easier for me to flesh out the idea because I don't need to play the instrument,” she says. “I write better when I have a loop that you make with cymbals et cetera. I feel like without the limitations of instruments, I can actually do more.” 

This process eventually led Autumn to release her solo EP under the moniker Cayenne Forever, which was also produced by her fellow Sobs bandmate Lim. 

“‘Driving Away’” was the song where I got it,” she says. “I get how to write in that sound now. That was the song where I had a Eureka! moment. It was all just figuring out writing in this persona and I just hit up Jared to flesh it out for me.”

Sobs traces its origins online, even if the band members live hundreds or even thousands of miles away from their fanbase–from Lim’s solo work on Soundcloud to Autumn’s explosive debut solo single, one can see the progress in the years passing by through streaming platforms. 

Over the past two or so years, you’d think the band took a time out, but the band members were just gearing up to release “Air Guitar.” Lim also teases more music from their own respective projects with Autumn and the band next year. 

“I really enjoy pop music or pop production [in general],” he says. “Like getting used to those skills on a different thing felt really natural and I'm really proud of the new stuff that’s gonna come out next year.” 

Autumn herself wouldn’t forget the time when she and her band visited Manila for the first time, saying that it was a time where she was able to meet many of her online friends in the flesh and becoming overwhelmed from the whole experience.  

“I wasn’t expecting that energy from the crowd,” she says. “Like going to this first ever Southeast Asian tour and, at that point we didn’t know we had those listeners because everything was happening online. I was really shocked when i went there and people were singing to unreleased songs at the time.”

Ong also shares what Filipino band he wants to see live the next time he and his band stops by Manila. 

“I think (Formerly Maryknoll) is interesting,” Ong says. “I love Megumi Acorda so much. She came to Singapore a couple months ago and a friend of ours had beers with them. If we move back deeper in the indie rabbit hole I would love to see Moscow Olympics, if they’re still a band.” 

“Ena Mori, she’s cool,” Autumn interjects. “I wanna see Zild. I wanna see their solo stuff live.” 

“The new Zild is cool,” Lip replies. “New Blaster is cool, as well.” 

“The ‘OPM’ in Manila is kinda nice,” Autumn adds. “They make so many familiar melodies.”

Photo by sobs.

The band also talks about their issues about playing for audiences in Singapore.  

“There’s definitely larger venues for international acts,” Ong explains. “But in terms of newer bands, it's going to be really tough to play in front of 50 to 100 people kind of thing. It's because of zoning rules in Singapore, like noise restrictions or even generally renting tenants are not too keen on having music-related stuff. It’s usually like studios or some smaller venues and not being in seedy places but oftentimes [it’s] out of necessity.” 

Autumn mentions playing at the Esplanade in October last year and being pleasantly surprised at the number of younger audiences getting into Sobs. 

“A lot of new faces, a lot of young people,” she exclaims. “Because I feel like back then when we used to play shows really often, we used to see the same faces and I get to recognize all those coming in, but not as often with the scene of new kids. It’s cool to see them like the new Sobs.”

Ong then proceeds to explain what their current live setup is like as well as the band’s priorities in their current sound, especially to complement or be up to par with the grandiosity of “Air Guitar” and its sound palette.

“We just kind of focus on getting things to sound right,” he says. “Just with the current setup, I think we all grew as musicians, where all of us know how to make a well-produced [live] set. Recently, we figured out the whole backing track plus like cue and guide system me and our drummer worked out. So it's like trying to hone that craft right now in the live set.” 

Lim shares his own take of influences throughout the process of “Air Guitar,” citing so much for Ong with his Darla Records electronica-indie rock fixation and Autumn’s knack for anything pop. 

“There’s a lot of great power pop that came out recently,” Lim says. “I guess this album’s songwriting and production choices are taking from a lot of music that we listened to growing up. For me it was Weezer, for Celine it was Disney Channel pop-rock Demi Lovato, stuff like that.”

“I think the older releases are power pop as well,” Autumn adds. “It's just how the melodies work [in general] but I think we are…a power pop band.” 

“Jared generally just likes Weezer,” Ong adds, to which all the members start laughing.  

Clearly Sobs are clear about where they want to go as a band. As for a part three of their Southeast Asian tour, Ong shares the possibility of another show in Manila. 

“Definitely, if we get to do a show we’re more than happy to,” he says. “I talked to Mariah from The Buildings here about maybe doing a show in The Philippines and seeing what options are there right now and what venues are available. And I’m more than happy to come by whenever. Just very excited to see everyone again.” 

Check out Sobs’ sophomore release “Air Guitar,” out now.