Budding Brilliantly: A Chat With Coming Up Roses

From left to right, Coming Up Roses is Bruce Tan (drums), Darius Oon (guitar), Emily Sera (vocals/bass) and Lorenzo Romero (guitar) [Credit: Ethan Hariyono]

To be on the forefront of a guitar revival in today’s electronic-dominant landscape; to find courage in pursuing songs of their own; and to show inklings of being something monumental in the scene not long from now. This quartet checks all those boxes.

Coming Up Roses caught my attention when they landed a coveted slot on Baybeats 2018, brandishing an energising alt-rock sound with heart-on-sleeve lyrics, mosh-inciting outbursts, and dense, guitar-swirling textures that’ve made the shoegaze comparisons understandable. Not long after, the burgeoning outfit landed on the radar of indie party authority, Eatmepoptart, which played out the band’s early demos to an impressionable batch of scene kids, hungry for more. And now, with their debut mini album soon to be out – produced by none other than industry icon, Leonard Soosay – the future of Coming Up Roses certainly seems to be blooming outstandingly.

In this interview, I check in with the band about their remarkable and relentless growth.

Coming Up Roses started out as an acoustic duo doing covers. What was the impetus to get out of that comfort zone?

We wanted to venture into writing more originals, and those we had come up with fit better in the context of a band with bass and drums.

How has studying music at LASALLE helped you as a band?

It enabled three of us to meet! (Emily, Darius and Lorenzo; Darius and Bruce met in Secondary School and played in another band together) Also, studying music at LASALLE has helped us understand what we do musically a bit better. We don’t really write music with the technical aspect in mind, so our songwriting is a lot more affective than cognitive by default. It’s also connected us with our lecturers, many of whom are senior musicians in the scene who’ve given us tonnes of advice on music and the scene.

Any homegrown heroes and heroines growing up?

Some of the bands that we look up to are Astreal, who were one of the first shoegaze bands in Singapore; and Wormrot, as they were the first Singaporean band to play Glastonbury, which is a dream of ours as well. We’re also big fans of other local bands like B-Quartet and Subsonic Eye.

Your past demos had nature-inclined titles such as “Sky” and “Waters”. Does this theme inspire your songwriting?

Our songs also aren’t really inspired by nature per se. We use such song titles as a metaphor for their subject matters. Our lyrics are inspired by our own experiences venturing into young adulthood. Most of them involve topics that we find difficult to bring up in regular conversations. So, we turn them into songs that allow us to convey how we feel without needing to be upfront about it. Also, since we turn to sad songs to feel better when we’re upset, we hope our songs can do the same for others.

With a lot of artistes veering into electronic territory lately, what do you think of the current state of ‘guitar music’ in the scene?

From our observations, the popular music scene is cyclic. While guitar music is currently not at the forefront, we believe that it will have a revival if it can bring something new to the table. At the same time, we believe that there is nothing wrong with including electronic elements in guitar music as well, and we’ve implemented that into our sound through the use of pads and samples.

**One of your big breaks was playing at Baybeats in 2018. How was that experience for all of you?**

While we were really excited and honoured to play at such a big festival, we were also really nervous before the performance as it was our first time playing on such a big stage. With that said, once we performed, all our nerves went out the door and we found it really thrilling to play to such a big audience. To date, it is one of the most memorable experiences for us.

Many years ago, the folks from Eatmepoptart would tell me how there’d be a lack of local bands that they could play out in their indie-centric sets. Fast forward to today, and they’re bashing out your tracks in their sets, exposing them to a new generation of indie kids. What do you make of it all?

It was pretty surreal when we found out that they played our song in their set. At the same time, we were quite surprised with how the songs were received, as the ones that we released then were demos. We are really grateful for their support nonetheless and we appreciate how they are doing their part in promoting local music.

Outside of the music, what do all of you like to do in your free time?

We play a game called Rocket League together sometimes. But to be honest, outside of our school and music, we don’t have much time to do other things. We do go out to watch other local gigs whenever we can.

Your mini-album is well on the way, which includes its first single, “Lies”. Why opt for a mini-album approach instead of a full-length?

We decided to go for a mini-album as we didn't feel that we were at the stage to do a full-length. At the same time, we wanted to have something cohesive rather than a bunch of songs thrown together, hence the mini-album. We're looking forward to writing and making LP1 though!

How has it been working with the legendary Leonard Soosay on its production?

It was awesome! Leonard is one of the nicest guys you'll meet and he was really helpful throughout the entire creative process! We were very lucky to have him around as it was our first time in a studio; he was super patient and insightful and that helped us to get through the different stages of the recording sessions.

Feeling any pressure on its release, considering your hype?

We aren't sure if we have hype, so we don’t really feel much pressure. But either way, we would put in the same amount of effort in our music!

And lastly, what are some personal pick-me-ups amongst all of you?

Emily: Usually I would either sing and write a song (it’s how I came up with some of our stuff), or I’d watch a TV series to make me feel better. My all-time favourite is Once Upon A Time!

Darius: For me, I usually turn to music no matter the situation. But sometimes when you're feeling down, it's good to just let it out and listen to like, the Cure and The Smiths or something.

Lorenzo: I scroll through Instagram and look at memes.

Bruce: I watch anime.

For more information on Coming Up Roses

https://www.facebook.com/cominguprosessg/