All images and video courtesy of Forests
“Oh, fuck.” That was Daniel’s reaction when he found out his band got robbed just days into their weeks-long tour across America.
Daniel is the guitarist for Forests, a Singaporean emo band garnering regional and international attention since 2015. But you wouldn’t know about them if you’re not already entrenched in the local music scene.
On the global stage, however, the band is consistently mentioned as one of the top emo bands in the world. ‘Tamago’, described by Vulture as a “head-bobbing breakdown” fuelled by their “infectious spirit”, is considered one of the best emo songs of all time, right alongside tunes by revered legends of the genre.
So it’s not surprising that Forests fans are a niche but die-hard bunch. Their local shows are sensory overloads. Typically, barely two songs in, fans would be hoisting themselves above the crowd and riding the waves of hands. Others would be shaking their fists (and middle fingers) to rowdy chants of Forests’ irreverent—yet oddly heartfelt—lyrics.
Their musical presence, which has smashed far beyond the boundaries of our Little Red Dot, has brought them across places like Malaysia, Indonesia and Japan. Their latest in a long line of achievements? An 18-day tour across the United States, where fans have been clamouring for them for years.
Band members Niki (drummer), Daniel (guitarist), and Darell (bassist, vocalist) only recently returned from the tour on May 19. They’re back in town, but not before getting robbed and getting featured in The New York Times about their escapades.
The members of Forests, an emo rock band from Singapore, were robbed of their instruments in California on their first…
Posted by The New York Times on Thursday, May 18, 2023
We recently baited the trio to the RICE office with a carton of Strong Zeroes. Fuelled by chūhai and their penchant for never taking things seriously, they regaled an unfiltered recollection of what it’s like to be a independent Singaporean band making their way across America.
Now that we’re two Strong Zeroes in, introduce yourselves.
Darell Sungkono
I am Darell. I’m 36. My pronouns are I don’t give a fuck. You can call me whatever, haha. I work as a warehouse coordinator.
Daniel Lim
I’m Daniel. I’m 29. I am a UX researcher.
Darell
For Elon Musk’s company.
Daniel
No, that’s not true.
Niki Koh
I’m Niki. I run a maker space in a school.
Darell
Together we are… Forests. Yeah, we are currently the top band in Singapore.
Are you really?
Darell
No lah, fuck.
As a globally recognised emo band, what does emo mean to you guys?
Daniel
I guess I’ll talk about the first to fifth wave [of emo music]. Let’s go.
Darell
To me, it’s just a genre and the lyrics.
Daniel
It’s a genre to exploit.
Darell
It’s the genre and the content of your songs. But every song is emo if you think about it. Every song is emotional. Ariana Grande’s ’34+35′, also emotional.
Quite emotional. For those who don’t know their Forests lore, how did ‘Singapore’s top band’ start?
Darell
I started the band with my previous guitarist. I wanted to play emo in a three-piece band. I wanted a band that you can play in small venues because Singapore venues are very small.
After our first jam together, we had chemistry, and we realised the mindset was very similar; we didn’t want to play covers. After our first jam, we already wrote something. I wanted Forests to be a band. Not a local band.
Niki
I have a pet peeve about “Support local”.
Darell
I want you to support us because you like it, not because we’re local. From the start, my mindset was about whether we could make it internationally. Will I sink if I am in an international band?
I actually discovered what type of music was missing—the type of music I wanted to listen to. That’s why when Forests came out, our music was familiar, but they couldn’t pinpoint who we sounded like.
Your most recent exploits in the US got so big that you made it to The New York Times. How did you set up the US tour in the first place?
Darell
A guy from [Oklahoma emo band] The Others Like Us reached out to Forests’ Twitter account. He asked, “Hey, do you guys want to tour?”
I said, “Yes, I want”.
Daniel
It was the right time.
Darell
We were lucky to know somebody who wanted to organise this tour for us. Usually other people just ask only. But they never make any effort.
This guy really made an effort to contact another organiser. From there, it was a long process of about six to seven months of preparation—the talking stage. There was lots of talking.
Niki
The whole thing was a gamble from the start.
Daniel
To be honest, after the first five months, it was still up in the air. It might happen, might not happen. They were talking, but it was all very up in the air.
We used band funds for the flight. After booking everything, I think the hardest thing to secure was the [performance] visa. It was only two weeks before the flight that we got the confirmation that we could tour and play.
Darell
We couldn’t apply for the visa because we didn’t know how confirmed the tour was. It was still up in the air in January. When the guy started showing the dates, there was this Excel sheet with all the dates and performance venues. It started getting real. So we asked a friend to design a poster for us.
How did you guys prepare for the tour? Must have been busy balancing preparations and day jobs.
Darell
I didn’t have a job at the time.
Daniel
I was unemployed for a while. In March, I got a new job. When they offered me the role, I was like, “Hey, by the way, I need to be away for one month.” It was cool. They worked something out.
Darell
He was supposed to work on tour, but it was tiring.
Niki
I nearly used up all my annual leave. I’m only left with two days of leave this year.
Do you mind if we ask how much you spent in total?
Darell
Ok, can. I don’t mind.
Daniel
The visa itself was $5,000.
Darell
Actually, it could have been $2,500. We had to pay extra to rush the process. We could have gotten the visa earlier, but we weren’t sure yet. Flight tickets were about $1,600 per person.
Daniel
Mine was $2,000.
Darell
Our pocket money was from our Spotify streams. Each person got about $1,000. Our band fund is from selling merch, performing shows and Spotify streams. The band fund helped with performance visas and the flight. That’s all. These two things are already a lot. We didn’t use our own money. It was all from our band fund. I didn’t spend anything.
What did you guys pack for the month-long road trip?
Darell
Disposable underwear. Half disposable underwear, half organic underwear. Sleeping bag.
Daniel
Pi Pa Gao and our instruments. That’s about it.
Niki
Instruments. I bought a cheap snare over there.
Darell
We got like 40 kg per person. It was quite crazy.
What was the first thing you did when you landed?
Darell
We met the guy that organised our first show. We took an Uber to his house. He couldn’t pick us up because he didn’t own a car.
We explored Seattle because we had four free days. It was pretty chill; the guy brought us around to meet his friends.
We got in trouble a bit because we got on the public transport without paying—there wasn’t any turnstile like here. Apparently, they work on an honour system.
Daniel
We actually had three free days.
Darell
I booked it one day earlier. I was wrong.
Niki
The guy was nice. He was in a band called Some Fucking Vegan. None of them are vegan.
What was the feeling after playing your first show in Seattle?
Darell
It was great. Epic.
Daniel
The turnout was great. Energy was great.
Niki
I was nervous, so I drank a lot. After the first show, I started drinking. Whatever I could get my hands on. White Claw. PBR. Anything I could get my hands on.
Daniel
Niki went hard. He didn’t give his liver any chance.
Let’s talk about the US tour. Highlights, lowlights…
Daniel
Being in a band with Darell is a lowlight.
Darell
I guess one of my lows was that my bass guitar was stolen a few days after we started the tour.
Niki
It was funny because the night it happened, the van pulled up to the hotel in Oakland, we actually decided whether we should park in front or behind the hotel. If we parked in front, the plus side would be it’s very well-lit, there’s CCTV.
The downside is that people travelling on the main road can see the van being left there in the open. Behind, it’s dark but nobody will know the van is there. So both bands decided that maybe we would park in front.
Darell
But the next morning, our friend thought that the van felt a bit empty. Usually, we stack our instruments to the top so the van is always packed with our equipment. But when he opened the door that morning, it seemed a bit emptier.
Daniel
There was merch lying everywhere it was not supposed to be.
Darell
The only consolation is that they didn’t smash the glass because if they smashed the glass, the tour would be over because you cannot drive with a broken window. So, the thief was very nice. The thief unlocked the van from the middle door.
Niki
There was a car parked right beside the van, and the door opened, and that’s all we know. We don’t know what happened after that because when the car door was open, it blocked the CCTV.
Daniel
Most likely, he entered in the middle. All the guitars stored at the back were untouched.
Darell
He only took what he could from the middle. He stole some shoes, two bass guitars, one guitar, and money from a pedal box.
How did you guys react?
Darell
For me, it was more like, “Oh, what a pity.”
Niki
The fact that we were in America playing shows, it’s good enough. Even if we got robbed at knifepoint, I would still be fine.
Daniel
My reaction was, “Oh fuck.”
Niki
I found my cymbals. I was like, “Fuck you guys.”
Darell
I joked about being robbed. Back in Singapore I said that getting robbed is a rite of passage for every legit band. Maybe I jinxed it. Maybe that’s why I was robbed. The joke is that now we’re a more legitimate band. New York Times!
What about your bass guitar? Surely you had some sentimental value with it.
Darell
I don’t know. It’s already lost. It’s like, ‘What can I do?’ I got it from Peninsula Plaza in 2015.
Niki
It’s ok; he upgraded his bass guitar.
Darell
When I saw that bass, it was love at first sight. When I first saw it, I knew I wanted the bass guitar; the colour; the touch. I got the bass specifically for Forests. So on the day we got robbed, Forests had a show. We borrowed another band’s bass. The next day we went gear shopping.
We actually had an Air Tag with the bass. We knew where it was.
Daniel
But we can’t use Air Tags as evidence in the US.
Niki
The cops needed a search warrant.
Why didn’t y’all go look for the robber?
Daniel
We’re not strapped bro.
Niki
If we approached the thief at this apartment, they would see us coming. After all, they know what the van looks like since they robbed it. They can very easily hide the bass guitar and we can’t do anything about it. Plus, we had no time to find the thief. We needed to travel to our next show.
What was it like playing a show right after the robbery?
Darell
By that time, we had a crowdfunding thing set up, so we felt good.
Daniel
Plus the weather was good so we were happier.
Tell me more about the GoFundMe campaign you guys had.
Niki
Ben Quad, the band we were touring with, started a GoFundMe to raise some money. Initially, the target was $6,000. We hit $6,000 in three hours.
Daniel
And we blew it all in Vegas, baby. Kidding.
Niki
The $6,000 was already raised when Singapore was still asleep.
Did you expect to be raising over US$9,000 when you set up the GoFundMe?
Darell
Yes. This was what I expected. Kidding.
We made it a point to end the campaign after we hit the target.
Niki
It was about 5 PM in the US when we put up the GoFundMe campaign. By the time we hit the $6,000, it was evening time in the US. And then it died down before the rest of Asia woke up and started donating.
Darell
We had to stop it at midnight because we were blowing past the target.
Niki
Yeah, we didn’t expect the fundraiser [to do so well], so that was a bonus. Our accommodations were a little better. We could afford to stay in cleaner places instead of crashing in people’s houses.
How safe did you guys feel while touring?
Niki
Actually, if you don’t stare at people, it’s fine.
Darell
I had this fear of drive-by shootings. There are some gangs that need you to do a drive-by shooting to initiate you into the gang. So, when I was walking on the street, I was ready to get shot.
Daniel
I saw someone comment on Forests’ Instagram, “I’m waiting for you outside.” I went to his Instagram, and there was a picture of him with an AK-47.
When you guys got robbed, Coconuts Singapore was the first to report about Forests, before it got reposted on Yahoo Singapore. The Facebook comments are pretty insane.
Darell
The comments were like, “Why didn’t you buy insurance? Why did you start a GoFundMe?”
To be honest, we cannot even file for insurance coverage. We didn’t have a police report.
A standard comment is that “I’ve never heard of this band”. I’m like, “Okay”.
Daniel
We didn’t know Oakland was gonna be like that. After the incident, people started telling us that it was common in Oakland to get robbed.
Niki
Actually, I kinda knew. Everybody was just too tired to bring their gear up.
What I was told is that in the Bay Area, people would leave their car windows down to prevent their windows from getting smashed.
Because it happens so often, people usually leave their windows down and take out all valuables when they park their cars.
Some bands got it way worse. A band we know lost their whole van. If we lost our whole van, we would just come back to Singapore.
I guess if you guys didn’t get robbed, Forests wouldn’t have made it to the New York Times.
Daniel
[Mike Ives from New York Times] reached out. He was trying to tie the story together with our New York show, but he released it before the New York show. I mean, it’s cool, it’s New York Times, but it’s just another interview.
Darell
I felt like he was trying to see whether we were lying. He was trying to poke holes in our story.
Niki
He wanted to see our police report. We didn’t file a police report.
Daniel
It’s fine, maybe he just wanted to verify the story.
Niki
The funny thing is he kept asking questions about the robbery in Oakland. He doesn’t even know that getting robbed is common in Oakland. He’s based in Korea, but he’s American. So I felt like he was a bit out of touch.
Other than getting robbed, any particularly interesting moments that happened on tour?
Daniel
We played at this place called Dante’s in Portland, Oregon. There was a ‘murder shower’ in the toilet. The shower looked like blood; everything was red. Oh, and we saw poop—human poop—right outside the venue.
Niki
Someone got hurt and bled all over the shower. If you go inside the shower, it is still dirty.
Daniel
Someone called me slurs. “This is not some Nintendo video game, you Asian fucking [redacted].”
I was just walking, carrying gear into the van. I was like, “Woah, humbled.”
But, the best thing that was shouted at us was, “You guys are a bunch of United Nations Rainbow Coalition.” This was in Chicago.
[Together with Ben Quad] we were quite a diverse group—Chinese, Mexican, Native American. This was after I gave him a bunch of cigarettes. I thought he was gonna be nice to us. Then he calls us the “Rainbow Coalition”.
Did you have any crazy fan encounters during the Forests tour?
Darell
US fans are appreciative. They thought about going to Singapore to see us. I really appreciate all the fans that have supported us.
Daniel
Yeah, some guy drove down from Canada to watch us three times. We saw him in Salt Lake City, New Jersey, and Chicago.
Niki
Someone customised a Game Boy Colour for us. It was our [Sun Eat Moon Grave Party] album cover on the Game Boy. We saw a picture of the Game Boy about three years ago. The guy who did it finally passed it to us when we were there.
Darell
He watched us twice—two separate shows.
How different is the crowd over there compared to the fans here?
Niki
It’s quite similar.
Darell
Except in Singapore, they actually know more of our lyrics. Down there, they only know certain songs. And I realised down there, the most popular Forests album is our second album.
Niki
[Spending Eternity in a Japanese Convenience Store] was released right before the lockdown. I guess it got them through COVID.
Any culture shock?
Daniel
In Seattle, we were going down the stairs. It was a really long flight of stairs. This lady next to us just threw her luggage down the stairs.
Niki
Have you seen the viral video of a lady putting her luggage down the escalator and sliding it down? But instead of the escalator, she threw it down the stairs.
Daniel
There was once we were on a tram. Some guy came onto the tram, and he started singing. After 10 minutes of singing and dancing, he suddenly shouted, “Joe Biden sucks.” Then some random guy from the opposite side started doing L sit-ups.
Darell
I didn’t know what was going on.
Daniel
Then he said, “I am going to shoot you. I am wealthy and exhausted.”
We were both scared and amused. We kept quiet. But very amusing.
Darell
I really wanted to take a video, but I was afraid. The guy talked like a secret agent.
Now that the American tour is done, what’s next for Forests?
Darell
To be honest, I want to play in Europe. We haven’t done it before.
Niki
[Darell and Daniel] are going to Japan soon to play more shows. I can’t make it, so someone’s covering drum duties.
Time to get into trouble on tour abroad again?
Niki
Honestly, Darell should get robbed every time we go on tour.
