For the very first time in Timbre Rock & Roots’ three-year history, the festival joins hands with Yahoo! Southeast Asia to hunt for the most popular bands in the Philippines and Indonesia with the help of the online popular voting.
The search is now on for the next two bands to complete the full artists line-up. Starting from today, netizens can go online to Yahoo! Indonesia OMG! and Yahoo! Philippines OMG! to check out the ten bands narrowed down in each country, and vote for their choice of bands to perform at the festival. By mid-March 2012, one band from both Indonesia and The Philippines will be selected to perform at Timbre Rock & Roots 2012.
“We deliberately held off selecting Asian bands for our first artists announcement in order to activate this programme with Yahoo! Timbre Rock & Roots has annually featured Asian bands but this time round, the selection is purely through online voting. We want to put the power of selection into the people’s hands and let them decide which band or artist should fly their national flags on our stage alongside music legends.” said Mr. Edward Chia, Co-festival director.
Indonesia and the Philippines were selected to be the activation bases of this programme due to each country’s strong musical roots and their people’s unwavering pride and trust in their own talents.
With one of the largest online footprints in the region, Yahoo! – the Premier Digital Media Company, believes that music is the bridge between the diverse cultures and languages of Southeast Asia.
Speaking on behalf of the company, Alan Soon, Managing Editor and Head of Audience for Yahoo! Southeast Asia said, “Music is a big part of Yahoo! In keeping with this tradition and in partnership with Timbre Rock & Roots, we hope to remove barriers and create opportunities for up-and-coming musicians to collaborate with established mainstream artistes.”
This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for up and coming acts to play at the festival in 2012 in Singapore alongside Earth Wind and Fire, Buddy Guy and The Specials. It will be the gig of their musical careers - to do their country proud performing at a major international music event and rubbing shoulders with some of the best in the business.
The twenty shortlisted bands are:
From Indonesia - The SIGIT; SORE; Andre Harihandoyo and Sonic People; Navicula; Stereocase; Adhitya Sofyan; The Hydrant; The Experience Brothers; Leonardo and L’Alphalpha
From The Philippines - Urbandub; Franco; Parokya ni Edgar; Kamikazee; Chicosci; Typecast; Wolfgang; General Luna; Callalily and The Bleu Rascals.
Two of these bands will join the artists line up of soul-funk superband Earth, Wind & Fire, the greatest rocksteady two-tone ska band of all times The Specials, multiple Grammy award winner Keb’ Mo’, music legend Buddy Guy, the return of explosive Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Malaysia’s Dasha Logan and Singapore’s very own Goodfellas.
“Timbre Rock & Roots is fast becoming a prominent fixture in Singapore’s live music calendar, adding to our vibrant tourism landscape as part of a quality destination experience to visitors. With the kind of quality acts that the festival has been delivering year on year, coupled with the organisers’ constant desire to innovate and explore new concepts, it is clear that Timbre Rock & Roots is well poised for long-term success as it continues to entice fans from both Singapore and the region,” said Ms Lynette Pang, Executive Director, Arts & Entertainment and F1 & Sports, Singapore Tourism Board.
Tickets to Timbre Rock & Roots 2012 are on sale now from SISTIC (website: www.sistic.com.sg; hotline: +65 6348 5555).
This festival is jointly organised by Timbre Music and Bluesfest Pty Ltd.
