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‘Actions speak louder than words for music support’

The Dirt Radicals: Matt Cooper, Masashi Kimura, Sam Cooper (Photo courtesy of The Dirt Radicals)
The Dirt Radicals: Matt Cooper, Masashi Kimura, Sam Cooper (Photo courtesy of The Dirt Radicals)

Every first and third Wednesday of the month, Yahoo! MusicScene shines the spotlight on talented, up-and-coming bands or musicians in Singapore. In our final installment in a series of features on Baybeats bands, we speak to The Dirt Radicals.

The Dirt Radicals believe that Singaporeans should put their money where their mouth is, and support local musicians in action and not just words.

Speaking to Yahoo Singapore, Sam Cooper, 26, said, "Something that bugs me about the Sinagpore music scene is that people say they support it, but they don't do anything to show it, like buy a CD or go to a show."

"If you support it then support it; if you don't then don't say so," added the bassist.

The trio have a wealth of experience playing overseas, in addition to having spent 13 years in Singapore, to compare the support in different markets.

Drummer Matt added, "The support for local musicians here is probably not so dynamic as the people prefer pop music more."

The Dirt Radicals are a punk rock band that came about last year when brothers Sam and Matt Cooper, 26 and 24 respectively, and Masashi Kimura, 27, decided to start a new band.

The three of them had been playing together in various projects in the past decade -- one of which was the band Pug Jelly -- and played in music festivals in Japan, Taiwan and, more recently, Indonesia's Java Rockin' Land with the likes of Good Charlotte, 30 Seconds to Mars and We the Scientists.

Sam and Matt, who met Masashi in high school here, said that the fun factor is of utmost importance in the music they play.

"We really want to focus on the 'fun' factor for Dirt Radicals. We want to go back to our roots as a DIY kind of punk rock band and have fun as friends. We find that we write the best music when we're having fun together," said Matt.

Sam added, ""Our last band, we tried to take it seriously, and when we took it seriously, it just went horribly wrong. It's when you focus on it as a career that it screws up."

Watch the music video of their song, Choose:

Living in different countries -- Sam lives in Singapore while Matt is in the UK and Masashi lives in Japan -- has not stopped them from touring and dishing out entertaining music.

"We meet up an average of around four times a year for tours and gigs. It's really tough when it comes to band practice but it's not such a big problem as we've been playing together for over 10 years," said Matt.

"We've also just started writing again and we'll be looking forward to releasing another album later this year," added older brother Sam.

Playing at Baybeats, where they got their first big break in 2002, the punk rockers admitted that they look like they are becoming more of a festival band, which is something they are not particularly proud of.

Looking at the bright side, Sam said, "I think in a way it's a good thing, because it means that we must be good enough."

Catch The Dirt Radicals in action at Baybeats 2011 at the Powerhouse stage on Friday, 19 August at 9.30pm.