Jammerz Arena | Arts Platter: Fire It Up!

by Ariani bte Adam

A Jammerz Arena performance during Jam & Hop 2013 in Republic Polytechnic

Rebuilt in 2009, Jammerz Arena (JA) went through a lot to get them where they are now. The CREATE.Club Interest Group (IG) was on the verge of closing down when the number of members were deteriorating. However, that did not stop a group of passionate musicians from restructuring the IG. Lim Teck Kiang, Uthaiyan Kumanan, Mark Spencer and their group of friends put in their utmost hard work in bringing up the IG’s name. Indeed, their efforts paid off.

From having no practice room to owning their very own jamming room. Their number of members even grew over the years. Now, the current batch of JA has a total of five senior bands namely Black Cat, Downtown Grace, Deaf Sentence, Maple Chapel and KeepStill.

“With the characters that we have, I can see JA in the local scene. There will eventually come a time where JA will be known outside than inside,” said Neshy Hale, 21, a student advisor of Jammerz Arena.

After five generations, JA has produced successful bands like Bear Culture, FINZ and also Thunder Band Slam’s 2nd runner-up, Tell Lie Vision. These bands have performed at Baybeats, *SCAPE, Noise Singapore and not forgetting our very own IGNITE! Music Festival. Inspired by these few bands, the current generation of JA also hopes to make it big.

“I admire FINZ because of their fighting spirit. They have gone through a lot but that didn’t stop them from being who they are today. I hope that every JA band will always have that undying determination in them,” said Istifarah Puteri Kudsi binte Dzulkifli, 21, vocalist of KeepStill.

Every year, the IG is given the opportunity of producing their own show at one of IGNITE!’s Fringe events. With their own production called “Fire it Up!”, JA celebrates local music by playing songs made popular by bands like Plainsunset, Youthwreck and also Caracal who will be headlining this year’s festival. Not only that, JA will also be performing covers from your favourite international bands.

“We want to create a kind of awareness where IGNITE! features local bands so we want to honour them by covering their music,” said Vera Lau, 19, drummer of KeepStill and Maple Chapel.

Not only will they be playing at the Fringe event but they will also be bringing the stage down on festival day itself on the 23rd of August. Want a sneak peak of what Jammerz Arena is all about? Be sure to come down to South Agora at 5PM on the 13th of August to catch them live in action!