Major changes are coming to Singapore’s beloved den of subculture — The Substation. The art centre’s new artistic director Alan Oei is now at the helm, and he wants to transform the establishment into a respectable “research and development space”.
Artist residency programmes, exhibitions and a stricter focus on the arts are being lined up in Oei’s vision for The Substation — but that vision isn’t exactly being shared by many in the music scene.
The Substation has always been the steadfast, go-to venue for live music for years, a non-prejudiced space for hosting all sorts gigs — whether big or small, international artists or local newbies. It’s a place where punks, metalheads, hipsters and sonic experimentalists can call home.
Oei however has assured that this role will no longer be played by The Substation. “While there is a value for having a cheap venue space where artists can come freely and experiment, I don’t think that’s The Substation’s role,” he remarked to TODAY, pointing out the existence of many other venues to do so.
What this means is that The Substation aren’t doing venue rentals anymore, and that means another medium-scale live music venue bites the dust.
Such is the outrage over The Substation’s resetting of values that a petition is being spread around among the music scene. The open letter implores the National Arts Council for an establishment of an independent performance venue for the public, and managed by the music scene.
“With The Substation joining the ranks of now-defunct performance venues such as Crawlspace, Blackhole212, and more recently Pink Noize and The Lithe Paralogue, we are left with little to no options for holding gigs,” says Ierfan Lufti, the man behind the petition.
“While the Goodman and Aliwal arts centres do provide a more-than-decent venue, the costs for renting such places are not practical for us. The two venues mentioned do not include the necessary equipment for performances and that would mean additional rental fees for bands and promoters and with the scale of the gigs we hold, we rarely (if ever) break even. We’re really not in it for the money, but nobody would like to make a loss.”
In an interview with Atmos.sg, regular gig organiser at The Substation Shaiful Risan (and self-proclaimed ‘Punk Person’) has harsher words for the dearth of live music spaces in the country.
“Singapore is anti-art. Singapore just doesn’t have enough space for original works and crafts. Singapore is gentrified to a point where something truly original is a rarity. As such there aren’t enough physical spaces to let the fun and noisy stuff happen. And when they do they get shut down so fast, mainly due to complications from circumstances.”
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