And the music was good
And the music was loud
And the singer turned and he said to the crowd
Let there be rock!— Let There Be Rock; AC/DC
Dreamt of melting the faces off hundreds of screaming fans with your playing? Or of holding an audience spellbound with the sound of your voice? Then Raffles Rock might just be for you! As Chairman Gordon Kang puts it,
“There’s no better feeling than performing music on stage with your friends and watching the crowd go nuts.”
Raffles Rock is all about making good music and having fun, and we work towards those things during our weekly practice sessions in the jamming studios along the Computer Lab corridor. Tuesday is our designated CCA day, when everyone will come down from 4pm – 7pm and practice in their respective band. Other practices may also be scheduled within bands as and when needed. When we’re not pressed for time to rehearse for a gig, we usually either try out new songs so that we’re more familiar with them should we want to play them for future gigs, or just have fun jamming and making music! This is when the varying musical tastes of our members really make things interesting, with styles such as those of Dream Theater (Progressive Rock/Metal), McFly (Pop), and even Disney music influencing the improvised product.
But of course, Raffles Rock is about so much more than our weekly practices or the music we make; it’s more than a CCA; it’s a family, the product of shared creativity, dedication to and passion for music.
As a CCA, we also hold an annual concert; this year’s being the second edition of ROCKOUT – Extremely Close and Incredibly Loud. Held at the SCAPE Warehouse, over 700 tickets were sold this year! Though the venue may vary from year to year, you can be sure that the same spirit and dedication to give the hundreds of audience members who turn up a reason to Rock Out will remain the same. We also perform for school events, such as Take 5 and National Day, and even events such as New Years’ Countdowns or charity gigs from external organizations. Joining Rock provides an opportunity to perform on a big stage several times a year, and also to gain performing experience in front of a variety of crowds.
To get into Rock, there will be a live audition, and an interview. The live audition will be for you to impress the panel of Rock members (as well as our teacher in-charge, Mr. Steffen Toh) with their technical and musical prowess on their respective instruments (including the vocal chords!). A musical background or having been from a musical CCA are not requirements, a good number of current Rock members don’t fulfil either of those requirements and are nonetheless spectacular at what they do! The interview is important for us as well to get to know you a little better, so we know who we’re accepting into the CCA!
