It certainly would be lengthy even to put these in point-form, considering the emotions played a critical role in shaping the course of events and even if personal point of views were excluded, it would still have been long enough for readers to get bored over. Length notwithstanding, this would be the simples way (I believe), to put things as quickly in a nutshell, since a number of people working on the upcoming projects would need the following for their research and understanding. Archival or not, this would be at least a minor starting point.

PALE EYES MARIANNE

1998 was the year we all entered the film school with minimal knowledge of production in all aspects. Prior to my personal entrance, work with Jester Killers sort of made me a notch above the rest in terms of experience in the music production field. After all, 2 albums must count for some.

The brief meeting between Joshua and myself was through some classmates as we were all some kind of band people. And aptly so, as the conversations that followed in the days were about forming a new band. Joshua at that time was, as I heard, one of those runaway lead guitarists who had no discipline whatsoever in being part of a band. His band had no originals, and they were playing plain canto covers - much like a beng band.

As it goes, we jammed some, and thought maybe something might work out. At that time, we got Alan, Joshua's drummer, into the band, and later Julien, to fill the bass, formally forming Deep Silence. The aim was to just play, record, gig and be happy, but who knows, after writing a few crappy songs, we thought it could actually work out.

By the following year, Deep Silence already had a few songs firmed up. We started recording briefly at TNT, but it didn't last long. Alan and Julien jumped the band, and it just went into a hiatus. The days wore on, and on a particular occasion, Alicia appeared, commented I was really tall, asked me to help out with their shoot, and Alicia, Sabrina, and myself got acquainted. About the same time, a class project involving a slideshow sequence saw a music video born out of Pale Eyes Marianne, the only fully recorded song for Deep Silence at that time. It kicked started Joshua's photography interests, and things moved from there.

Sometime in August '99, the girls got me to help with another project, I got Joshua in, and we were introduced. By the year's end, with Sabrina and Ling, we were discussing the possibilities of producing a brand new album under Deep Silence. As time passed, projects were heating up for the two of us - I directed a student documentary titled In The Grey Area, produced by Senthil, and got Joshua to join is as the sound recordist. Strangely, perhaps most of the production stretched deep into the night, the production name was just plainly tagged as Night Films.

Shortly after production ended, Deep Silence got in Paul on drums and Mark on bass. Ling and Sabrina produced the album, and a total of 9 songs were recorded at Polydox. Before the album was published, cash ran dry, and after the first performance as a band together at a new year's bash, the band broke. It ended as quickly as it started, and without much hesitation and with much bad blood, everybody went their way. We continued to toil over school extensively over 1999 and 2000. By year end of 2000, Angel, QX and Shin were formally roped in to help us in our projects, and thus, forming firmly, Nightsound - a spin-of from the film production name.

Shin left shortly after, but Nightsound was later joined by Serena and Jaz, forming a largely irregular group of audio engineers working on audio and music. All through to the first half of 2001 we were identified as the Nightsound Team, working on a 12-track concept album Strangers, using none of the materials that were recorded by Deep Silence's One Man's Thoughts. This was largely due to the complications in using non-in-house produced music to submit as our project work. At the same time, film scoring for the film Rain, directed by Glenn, was concurrently being done. In between, we continued to lobby for Deep Silence's existence, with Julien rejoining on the bass and Don on guitars. That, though, still did not work anything out.

By the time we graduated, Angel, QX, Joshua and myself were already working on way too many projects, all of which we assisted one another in some ways, but eventually crediting Nightsound as a whole. As I started work at Yellowbox, Joshua entered the army, Angel, QX, Shin, Serena and Jaz went into their final year, and Sabrina left for London. The team just naturally took a break.

APART

I revived the project work in the end of 2001, and started with the song It Ain't Easy. I got Joshua in to do the guitar parts, and Angel to progressively engineer the songs. By the time the rest graduated, I only had Angel and Joshua to work with. While the rest were on their own things, we were desperately trying to get something done under the team name.

After the first song was done, we continued to explore different sounds, largely due to the fact that there were too few of us to do anything major. In the beginning of 2002, I got QX and Angel to help with the audio post production of Talking Cock - The Movie, which credited Wayne as the audio in-charge, and the rest of us as assistants. That kinda resurrected the dying team, and Apart was directly finished because of that. With 5 songs written, the EP was some kind of a start, as well as a memoir of our time together back then. Sabrina did the artwork, and about 500 copies were printed and distributed for free - the idea of sharing the works for free was not unanimous, but with the majority going along that idea, it was made so.

Couple months after, Passion radio picked up the songs, and I was personally asked for a quick recorded interview on Singer & Song. I didn't like the idea of attending it as if I was the only one who worked on it, but as the program was featuring songwriters, I went. Barely 2 weeks later, the songs went on air in a different show. Sounds Of Asia (I think) featured music from the region. An interview was requested, and I pulled Angel and Joshua along. That would have been the formal Nightsound pilot interview that would preceed the next album.

By the time the music was frequently played on Singapore Jam, more songs were written and a new album was in the works. Up till then, the team also jumped onto Dreams, directed by Daniel, a production with Jaz, and belted a full score for the short film. About that time, Nightsound officially collaborated with mizeryFree on Broken Wings (Fallen Angel), which also received airplay subsequently on Passion, and somewhat propelled mizeryFree into some fame.

WINDS OF MAY

Aptly, by May 2003, the new album was in a tussle to be completed. And when it did, everyone was debating over why it should be released. There were a lot of arguments over its birth, and more over its commercial sale, partially due to the fact that as much as we were picking up some faithful supporters, there were more hate-mails than greetings. By the time everyone met to discuss its fate, Singapore Jam received a couple more songs from the new album, and had it on rotation. The choice even though it was as obvious, was never made together and the decision to release Bleed was never unanimous. By August 9th that year, Angel, Joshua and myself released Bleed commercially. Backed by strong airplay over Passion, we felt consoled and confident it was an opportunity.

Alas, we were gravely wrong. Not only did Bleed crashed in the markets, we drew more flak than support: the album couldn't sell as it was Singaporean (as we were told by staff at the record stores who witnessed prospective customers returning the discs to the shelves after being informed that it was Singapore-made), and the credentials listed on the then Nightalive were inviting even more hate-mails.

As the title, Nightsound bled vigorously with a failed album and dying namesake in the music arena. Around the same time, One Man's Thoughts was picked up by Sun through Shin, and was used, in almost its entirety, on Running With Scissors. Although that helped with the promotions, it never did save Bleed. Notably, One Man's Thoughts was then absorbed under Nightsound's archive list of songs, especially after Winds Of May appeared on Bleed itself.

Interestingly, we were picked to appear on the final segment of Singapore Jam to end Passion's run as a station. It was a significant moment since we not only spent the last moments with the station, we were only getting started. As the station ceased broadcast, so did Bleed.

Nevertheless, with the album's release, more projects were envisioned: music videos were added to the pipeline of productions, with Jessie Don't Cry and And It Was actually committed for production. Around the same time before 2003 ended, the team gathered once more as a full audio post production outfit to work on The Last Wedding directed by Edwin and 9 Peanuts directed by Linghooi, with the former scored by myself, and the latter by Angel and Joshua.

Jessie Don't Cry and And It Was had their time, although started with a bang, both productions crashed incredibly hard. By the start of 2004, the team was as energised as was jaded. Factors were pulling it apart and putting it back together. With Cherisse now on board, we thought things would be better.

WHAT ABOUT US?

As much as I hate to admit, there were some things in the whole framework that just didn't quite fit: for one, I was consistently spear-heading the projects, while the rest were beginning to fade into their own themes. QX and Angel by this time was already fimly into their jobs, Jaz had exited the country, Shin took to other aspects of productions, Sabrina was on the return, and the rest just simply lost contact. I chatted intensely and at length with Cherisse over the prospects of doing some sort of a story on Nightsound, and although the ideas ping-ponged for the longest time, it was set in motion.

With clips from the various productions, we set up specific interviews with members of the group around the island, aimed at gathering as much information as possible, into a short collection of clips in a narrative way. At this juncture, Home was set up, and personal agendas took a shift. Weight on past-experiences began to leverage against the current fight for survival in the real world. As much as we dared to dream, reality did somewhat rubbed itself off quickly and ferociously: we were all headed for the beggar's route.

It was thus through enormous efforts that we got photoshoots of some of us going, to put into publicity materials - this was mainly handled by Joshua after being relieved of active tour of duty. Despite the odds, there were some great pictures and footages. I personally derived a collection of thoughts on video in 2 series called Apart and Travels, both of which were simply distributed amongst ourselves. But the most daunting project up till then would have been the What About Us? video, where resources were pulled together in scrapes, and a whole war of ideas about Nightsound was erupted.

By the time we got too lost in the interviews, everything ground to a halt, and nobody wanted to proceed with putting all the clips together. Even the most faithful of us lot, Angel and Joshua, were at a lost with all that footage. I finally re-organised the script originally written by Cherisse, and cut the footage bit by bit into Wild Night.

JESSIE DON'T CRY

Just as we thought we ought to let Nightsound go, we managed to pull Mark, Patrick, Wayne, and Christine together to play at Hard Rock Cafe for a one night only performance. We sort of packed the house even though we were the last of 3 bands to play, but the support was certainly overwhelming and heart-felt. At the same time, Mario picked up Jessie Don't Cry as one of the covers he would do on his own album. With that strange twist, Nightsound got a little limelight, and again, focus on Bleed became apparent, whether or not it was for the better.

Halfway into 2004, Wild Night was completed, and was, along with What About Us?, submitted to festivals. However, Wild Night in nature was a documentary, and local festivals rejected it flat. What About Us? on the contrary, got a compassionate screening at Silverscreen, which promoted the band slightly thereafter.

What followed was a time of mis-communications. Everything went on hold, and my focused was gradually drawn away from Nightsound onto more tangible things. I personally couldn't resist the temptation to write a new album, and work on the new album, after Lady was finished and used at length on Wild Night, haphazardly grew. By the time Christmas came in 2004, I was longing for more songs.

HEART

The festivities got the better of me in a way, I begged Dave from Electrico to sing on Summer Christmas, worked double time on Larry's Merry Christmas, and somehow, convinced Mario to record Praise. Incidentally, Kevin brought over half of 12:17, and we finished it in a day. All the Christmas songs were released on goodwill under Home's sake, but directly under Nightsound's name.

And because of the Christmas songs, 12:17 eventually got its on story made into film - shot by Kenny over 4 days, 12:17 received awards and accolades beyond our wildest imaginations. It was at this time that the tension within the team has already surpassed tolerable levels, I called the team quits, with Joshua and Angel in tow, thus, releasing officially the obligations from all members of Nightsound.

All tangible resources and assets were consolidated, despite its hearsay announcement of a break in April 2004, for real. By then, it was only Joshua and myself left to run the band. With that notion, work on I became even more significant: the story of Nightsound in an album form.

The progressive work on I was hard and fast, with very little discussions and exchange of ideas. After all, tension was already accumulating and brewing all that while, and there was very little to talk about anymore. Hence, swiftly, by June 2005, the band broke altogether after I was done. I foresaw, and dedicated the last song to be written, Heart, as the single spokes-song to call it a day. It was already apparent; it was only a matter of time.

And as quickly, June passed, and all resources and assets were quickly liquidated - I took all the recordings, Joshua kept all the pictures and what ever else he had, all unspokenly. That effectively ended the longest partnership within Nightsound. Nightalive was revived shortly after, with Apart, Bleed, and I, all put on sale at ridiculous (rocket-fuel) prices to completely end Nightsound's years of work, promotions and publicity. At that time, it was a complete thrashing of sorts, and any revival of the team, or the band, was impossible, or at least, that was what everyone intended it to be. Needless to say, all past materials fell miserably short of being seen or heard, ever again.

A total of 10 copies of I was produced by hand and distributed, with an additional copy produced for sale at a whopping USD50.00, sold to a friend Kenneth. Embarassingly, I died the most horrible death of all Nightsound's works, even though it contained the most significant, as well as in numbers with a total of 17 songs recorded and produced. Beyond that, Nightsound's days were seemingly over.

CIRCUS IN MOTION

Perhaps my own desire to keep writing kept part of Nightsound alive. After writing at random paces and vibes, work on the film Our Last Day directed by Kenny somewhat created a small pocket of hope in getting Nightsound back in shape. It wasn't meant as a revival, but more of a rebirth or sorts. The line-up of songs were incredulous both creatively and value-wise, and the maturity of the materials were in some ways, experienced.

Even though working through mizeryFree's and both of Mistaken Identity's albums did invoke my interests to produce a new album, it was not till late last year that a new album could be a reality. The timeline from Nightsound's impending death to it's current launch plans was really short, if we were to consider the amount of time it took to put the songs together, whereas, it certainly had been the longest wait for any new materials to be born.

Heart won Song of the Year on CNET Asia in 2005 end, and progressively, along with 9 other older materials, got some airplay on the web. 12:17 was consistently on broadcast largely due to the film itself, over television and radio stations such as Power98 and NewsRadio938, and What About Us? also had its own moments and could still be on rotation over Gold90.5 and Class95. Till date, I would estimate the playtime for Nightsound overshadowing its estimates to be actually so.

Whatever the case may be, with Polar being done as an animation, You And I and Remember Me added along the soundtrack of Our Last Day, Heart with its own award, and an album launch in the plans, I think there is much more left than I would personally think it be. The results are unknown, but the process certainly did add more text to the overall history.

For all it's worth, Sabrina and myself are working on the animation, Angel is again establishing the contacts for Circus In Motion's print, and I'm still looking for the others to work together again with. Needless to say, it would still be impossible to work with some, considering the political and commercial implications, as well as the best regard over the band's needs at this point. Still, with the current new line-up, it certainly is an exciting time to look forward to.

I hope this helps.