The Sway Of Syndicate: How A Collective’s Ambition Is Reshaping Culture As We Know It

As a collective, Syndicate has revolutionised music and art in the city since 2010 (Credit: Courtesy of Syndicate)

It’s obtuse to ever think that music exists in a silo. It can be a language, a lubricant, a gateway or a conduit that brings communities together. Recognising this astutely is Syndicate, the stalwart collective that’s been a pillar of the scene since its inception in 2010. It’s been a firm advocate of the ideal that music, much like other creative fields, forms the fabric of a city’s culture. While music is its primary mouthpiece, the discipline of art is interlaced seamlessly in Syndicate’s myriad antics. And when fused together, these initiatives become instant head-turners that inspire conversation and spur on experimentation. With Syndicate, things are never just black or white.

To grasp the ingenuity and influence of Syndicate, one must look at its eclectic team – starting with its co-founders, Cherry Chan and Kiat. One is a celebrated alumna of the Red Bull Music Academy and one of the chieftains behind the renowned FFF Girl DJ Bootcamp. The other is a multi-disciplinary creative with a knack for bass-inclined productions, with releases landing on Metalheadz and Defrostatica. Aside from the duo who also run their own studio, System Sovereign, Syndicate also comprises a motley crew of selectors, producers, photographers, multimedia artists, art managers and other formula-shunning creatives; a gang of mavericks who have the wisdom and gumption to turn any vision – even odd ones – into reality. 

Syndicate has always been defined by its diverse crew of creatives (Credit: Courtesy of Syndicate)

Syndicate showed their hand early on with a slew of events that gave them an authoritative edge in the music space, exhibiting sounds that ranged from altronica and hip-hop to dubstep and jungle. Highlights include showcases for the Gilles Peterson Worldwide Festival in Sete, France as well as Low End Theory and Brainfeeder in Los Angeles. They teamed up with lifestyle brands such as OBEY and Heineken to book international acts like Strangeloop and Om Unit respectively. Their Syndicate Subsessions series focused on promoting homegrown talents (and labelmates) like Vandetta, Intriguant, and Weish. In 2016, Syndicate grandly introduced a fourth stage at Laneway Festival Singapore that also pushed local acts. And flying the city’s flag high, Syndicate even collaborated with the Singapore Tourism Board for Singapore: Inside Out, a roaming showcase that flaunted the pride of local talents in Beijing, London and New York City.

With such a studded portfolio, it’s easy to see why an entity like Syndicate holds sway. They’ve maintained this level of top-tier professionalism and curveball eccentricity through the years, and one can spot this in their art forays in the past year alone. For Arts In Your Neighbourhood, they arranged sound projects that complemented street murals. They conceptualised A N T I N O D E S, a visual art exhibition that marked their debut for Singapore Art Week. And more recently, they landed a milestone partnership with the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA 2022), presenting programmes spanning audio-visual poems and NFT drops.

A Syndicate showcase at the iLight Marina Bay Festival (Credit: Cheng Kiang Ng)

The sky’s the limit with Syndicate’s amorphous modes of expression, and that’s why folks will keep on looking up to them. The nurturing of culture is a way of compensating for Singapore’s short history, and culture is a seed that should grow naturally without inhibition. With Syndicate’s relentless and unapologetic stance on pushing oft-alternative narratives through music and art, and the persuasive (and sometimes flummoxing) impact they leave behind, it lets culture take shape freely and authentically. And in a nation so often blighted by the rigmarole of restrictions, this process of cultural liberation is what it needs now more than ever. When Syndicate speaks, the city listens – as it should.

To uncover the evolution of Syndicate as one of the scene’s most prominent and important collectives, I speak to both Kiat and Cherry in this insightful catch-up. They paint a picture as custodians of culture.

Kiat and Cherry Chan steer the ship of Syndicate (Credit: Courtesy of Syndicate)

Moving with the tides of the scene in these tumultuous times, Syndicate has shown great resilience and ingenuity in its adaptation. Do you feel it’s been an arduous transition through the years, or is the Syndicate of today fundamentally the same as it’s ever been?

Thanks for the kind words. I think we are just like everyone else during challenging times. We all cycle through days of ups and downs. Often, we’ll just try our best to remind ourselves of what’s truly important to us. Most of our artists have been fortunate enough to be able to adapt and move through the years. Fundamentally, the spirit has always been the same – to keep evolving. There’s always an intent though to keep it more on the organic side, supporting artists whilst enjoying each other’s work at the same time. 

Syndicate has become an entity that’s not just synonymous with music, but the world of art. To you, what is it about art that lets you spread your wings as a creative community?

There isn’t really a separation in our head between the two worlds. We don’t think about these labels but rather move along with the thought of “what and how can we contribute through these collective experiences?”.

Recently, we had the chance to present digital works through SIFA’s Life Profusion platform - titled +EAT. It was a great opportunity for us to explore the idea of performance if performers have to create with a screen-first approach, and in the void of a live event. +EAT had many firsts for us.

It was the first time that Brandon Tay and Anise collaborated, and in Non-Breaking Space, they made five different virtual experiences in which they hid her music tracks. It was a first-time collaboration for American artist Looop and Kiat, with our first NFT drop which was successfully auctioned off upon seconds of launch. We had a first-time collaboration between deformed, cybercesspool and Claude Glass resulting in a meme-inspired 20-min video piece. Weish and Phua Juan Yong delightfully chose to use Instagram as their stage to present a very endearing audio-visual poem, The Paiseh Piece. And we also got to finally work with the very amazing yeule , shielhel, lenne chai feat. BGourd – all artists whom we’ve been waiting on a right project to come along and connect with.

Art for us is often about an intimate sharing; a window into the artist’s world. Each of the artist’s stories and the emotions they hold in their works are so different, and so would the individual’s encounter with it. Art can evoke various reactions in a person, and it doesn’t have to be some super epiphany. It could be a realisation of a specific issue, connecting with fears or joys, invoking a few seconds of escapism, or allowing your body to taste the freedom of instinctive dance. It’s that momentary doorway to imagination.

The art domain has accepted the ways of Syndicate with open arms, and this can be seen in your recent partnership with SIFA 2022 as you mentioned. What are your thoughts about landing such an honour, and what does this endeavour mean for Syndicate?

Syndicate artists have always been active, collaborating with various arts groups as solos, performing in museums, art and culture festivals and beyond. However, being part of SIFA 2022 had a very different and specific thrill about it since it was the inaugural year, helmed by Natalie Hennedige as festival director.

We’ve experienced her experimental theatrical productions at Cake Theatre and love how one can come away, filled with this intriguing sense of unknowability, making us feel a little more alive and somewhat surreal at the same time. We were very encouraged by how she held the Life Profusion space for us, given the exploratory nature of +EAT. It’s not without the pressure though, so we hope we managed to mould a body of digital work that the audience enjoyed in their own ways. Putting the occasion aside, we focus on it like any other project – by curating a lineup that excites us, with artists that we believe in.

Prior to SIFA, Syndicate’s recent initiatives span the likes of Synema, A N T I N O D E S, and projects with Arts In Your Neighbourhood. What are some key takeaways you’ve grasped from organising these experiences?

The projects are all rather different from each other. SYNEMA was an audio-visual concert in Tampines Hub for the residents; A N T I N O D E S, a visual art exhibition for Singapore Art Week 2022; and Brilliant Corners were mural and sound projects for Arts In Your Neighbourhood in Bukit Merah and Geylang. The feedback we received has been very positive and extremely encouraging. I think the public is actually really open-minded and has an appetite for the unexpected. 

We got DMs for SYNEMA on how much they enjoyed the show and they appreciated that we didn’t try to “tone it down” even though we knew the crowd would be a mixed bag of residents including seniors and children. A N T I N O D E S was rather nerve-wracking. We were debuting for the first time at Singapore Art Week 2022 and the space was huge. We were short on money, short on manpower, short on time and no one really knew if the work would be received well until the opening day. Thankfully, the show was a great success and people really liked it. Please show love to all independent full-time artists, curators and gallerists. It’s really tough.

How do you go about conceptualising each project? And what would you say is the special Syndicate touch that leaves its mark?

We didn’t really set out to try and be special. It’s always a friendly and open conversation with the artists, sharing our thoughts and theirs before they respond and develop their own creations. The work organically grows as there’s an unspoken trust that the end result would be something fresh. We do try to find out if they are curious about any specific issues or have something in mind that they want to try. It's important for us that the artists either get to evolve their body of works or foster new collaborations, and also have some fun whilst having a go at it.

Click on each artwork to listen to the album.

Let’s now bounce back to music. As a record label, what kind of sounds do you look out for today? Would you say it’s remained consistent with the original musical direction of Syndicate?

As a label, we are always focused on the artist, rather than tracking to a particular sound or keeping with the trends. It’s not really a transactional relationship; more like artists and friends gathering together, and whenever that happens, certain influences or themes may arise subconsciously. We can have different tastes in music but somehow we just vibe things out. As with the case of deførmed, we all just agreed that he’s a breath of fresh air, and so we started chatting with him and things just fell into place. 

As seen with deførmed, Syndicate continues to discover and push a new breed of artistes that are bending the norm. What can you tell us about this rising generation of talent?

Can’t say we’ve seen a lot due to the sheer amount of new artists coming through on all platforms, in different areas of craft. We have noticed that there is an openness in their approaches as well as the ability to take things forward technically through the use of digital tools. That always excites us. This also emerged in a chat we had with Intriguant about the next gen. Social media has liberated access to the world. It's so easy to expand one’s music influences and libraries. You can now check out parties and link with scenes in other parts of the world, get absorbed into it and just make your own up.

Syndicate introduced a fourth stage to Laneway Festival Singapore in 2016 (Credit: Cliff Yeo)

Is it also difficult to strike a balance between unleashing your creativity and compromising for the masses that generally digest more conventional communication?

We believe that in an increasingly hyper-informative world where there are a lot more polarising tendencies, art and culture can bring diverse groups of people together, even if they have very different interpretations of the world or of the piece itself. Art is universal in that way. It's not about everyone getting to a singular message like a marketing campaign. Instead, art realises an opportunity for everyone to step into a piece of work or performance, engage with it, and accept the disagreements we might have with it or with others about it; to embrace or even celebrate the differences and of one another. We just want to make what we want to make.

On the side, we also operate a design and branding studio for commercial clients so we’re sidestepping into the world of marketers – we think it’s a fallacy to assume that the masses require compromising. Assuming a more conventional stance for communications is more likely to lead to lower brand recall as it would only be reflecting category norms. Better use of that big media budget to stand out with a highly creative idea, delivered cleverly and succinctly.  

Kiat and Cherry Chan performing at The Pigeonhole (Credit: Courtesy of Syndicate)

Are the two of you still working on any original music projects by any chance?

Kiat is finally wrapping up his next album drop featuring design pioneer, Theseus Chan, on guitar.  They began work on this at the start of the pandemic. It stemmed from a musical conversation during Phase One of the so-called lockdown situation when they reconnected online through sharing of music. Apart from that, Kiat is also writing a drum & bass album for Digital (UK) on the very well-respected Function Records, as well as finishing up a project for the Berlin-based Midnight Shift.

Cherry recently wrote a dub ambient soundtrack to accompany the painting of graffiti artist, BAKED, as part of their collaborative piece, “Becoming Still”, which was exhibited in Toa Payoh.

Aside from you both, has the core team of Syndicate pretty much stayed together through the years? How important is this dynamic?

We don’t really view ourselves as a team but really more as friends who collaborate creatively on art projects or performances. The dynamics haven’t changed much except that some of us have gotten a lot busier as careers progress and family responsibilities increase, so naturally that’s less time to meet up and more phone calls to catch up. For us, it’s always friends before all else. The well-being of each other is the most important.

A Syndicate performance at Gem Bar featuring TEEBS (Credit: Courtesy of Syndicate)

Syndicate has fostered the growth of local beatmakers like Intriguant (Credit: Courtesy of Syndicate)

Some of my favourite events over the last 12 years have been Syndicate events. What are some of your personal standouts and why?

Kiat: This is a very tough question to answer as there has been such a wide range of events we’ve done.  Without any biases, we would pick the very first gig we did as everything was so raw and we had no idea what would happen in time to come. Touring gigs with the crew were fun too, like being in Sete, France for Giles Peterson’s Worldwide Festival, as well as Brainfeeder in L.A. But honestly, everything has been such a ride that it would be impossible to pick out a few. With each show, there’s always a different energy to each presentation it wouldn’t be fair to compare.

Cherry: I have fond memories of the nights with Africa Hitech, DJ Nobody, Daddy Kev & D-Styles, Monopoly, Strangeloop, Teebs, Kidkanevil & Daisuke Tanabe, Tokimonsta and the Subsessions@Substation series, especially with Jon Hopkins and NADA. I think there was a point where the Syndicate fam and audience morphed into what we call (music) “headz”. It was a really discerning music-savvy floor which had a great vibe. I remember telling Kiat this, “It isn’t even about the anthems anymore, but everyone just being excited and so open-minded to hear new music ideas. Everyone is connected to this same incredible music energy. I’m so moved and inspired by everyone in the room, I am gonna go cry now”. Good times.

And lastly with the evolution of Syndicate, do you feel that the two of you have also grown as creatives, collective owners and human beans?

Kiat: With all things good and not so good, we try to take the positive lessons out of it. We are grateful for the privilege of doing this and to be able to cross paths with so many talented individuals from all sorts of backgrounds. It keeps us inspired and gives us the energy to go on.

Cherry: Older, calmer human bean. Still not the collective owner, just one of its players.

Follow the activities of Syndicate on their website and Instagram page, and listen to its repertoire on Bandcamp.