Singaporean rock band Cactus Cactus just released their much-awaited debut EP Shoutout Water on Friday, 20 May.

Prior to the EP’s release, Cactus Cactus were selected as the Top 5 Singaporean Artists for Vans Musicians Wanted and performed at the 2021 Baybeats Festival. While the band previewed songs from the EP at Baybeats to much fanfare, Shoutout Water marks the official studio release of these songs.

We caught up with the rock quartet, comprising vocalist-guitarist King Aloe (Isaac Chiew), bassist Duke Diso (John Paul Kwan), drummer Bitch Echino (Julian Stewart), and guitarist Emperor Saguaro (Daniel Seah) as they let us in on the creative insights in making Shoutout Water, as well as thoughts on performing for a live audience and future plans as a band.

Congratulations on the release on your debut EP, Shoutout Water. For our Bandwagon readers, please introduce yourselves and tell us more about Cactus Cactus.

King Aloe: Thanks, Fidel! Cactus Cactus is a rock band that sounds like if Kanye West discovered Bad Brains before Run-DMC.

Bitch Echino: And we’re (King) Aloe Vera who makes mouth and guitar sounds, King Saguaro who treats the guitar like its an elliptical machine, Duke Diso who makes low frequency sounds sound sexy on the bass and me without a false sense of royalty, pokes sticks into wood cylinders with plastic on them.

You’ve previously previewed songs from the EP live at your Baybeats set. How does it feel to officially release a studio version of the songs and put it out to the world?

Emperor Saguaro: It's a pleasure, like watching your children grow up, go to college and enter the world, I imagine.

King Aloe: Feels good to finally have music out, somehow it feels like the tracks sound even better to me now that it’s actually up on Spotify and Bandcamp and all. I’m also super excited to start recording our next EP, the next batch of songs (which are already in the works) will really take things up a notch.

Bitch Echino: Yeah, we’ve had these songs with us for a while now and really we’re just happy to put these songs out there to mark a point in our lives as a band. We started this with 0 material and now to have 4 songs we’re really proud of out there and for me at least, knowing the songs we’ve yet to release there’s only gonna be more for us to be proud of, and I hope as we go along, our songs are also appreciated by anyone who crosses paths with them.

What was the overarching vision of Shoutout Water and how important was it for the songs to come together in a cohesive manner to support the band’s vision?

King Aloe: We actually pieced the EP together song by song, there wasn’t necessarily an overarching vision – we were just focused on making the best song possible each time.

Bitch Echino: I always jokingly say these songs are the trials and tribulations of Isaac (King Aloe), but as he mentioned we were just in the mindset of making music we really like and there really wasn’t a vision to it. But weirdly enough when my dad asked me why the EP was called Shoutout Water and why the EP art has a plane in bits of water in the background, I made up this story about the EP is about how life sucks and that water is the only good thing we have going for us no matter what hence the EP title. Then listening to the songs again and knowing what they’re about and how each of 'em has their own sound thus making the EP sound a little bit disjointed I realised that it really does show how life can be chaotic, frustrating and confusing at times and they’re not entirely fun feelings to have but no matter what we will always have water. So without us actually realising it, in some sense, this EP is about how chaotic life can be and the songs not having a similar direction really worked together to showcase that! Also, don’t forget to drink at least 8 cups of water a day, kids!

The lead single for the EP, ‘Wake Work Sleep’, incorporates a choir layered over the song’s rock instrumentals. What was the intention behind the choir elements and why was the song chosen as the lead single?

King Aloe: The choir bit was actually an impromptu idea Emperor Saguaro came up with while we were doing our session at 4th Wall Studios for gang and backing vocals! We used Google translate to turn the words “Wake”, “Work”, and “Sleep” into a nonsense Latin chant – we were chanting “somno excitare opus” or something like that, it was a lot of fun!

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Walk us through the stories behind the other tracks ‘Thumbs Up Man’, ‘Smoke’, and ‘4 Years’.

King Aloe: ‘Thumbs Up Man’ was the first song we wrote before Saguaro joined, we had our former guitarist Vicki with us! I was listening to a lot of Black Sabbath and IDLES at the time so I think sonically the song lies somewhere in between the two, the outro is just us doing King Crimson’s ‘21st Century Schizoid Man’ though. 

Vicki was showing me a lot of Khruangbin and I was listening to this Hungarian band called The Qualitons that I found on KEXP when I came up with the riff for ‘Smoke’, which is where the Eastern-European vibe of the song came from. It was fun trying things and hearing the track come together with what everyone brought to the track but it Bitch Echino’s tight drum grooves or Duke Diso changing up the chords for the chorus. Lyrically the track was written to encourage a friend at one of the lowest points of his life, so I knew from the start I wanted to do an ‘808s & Heartbreak’ with the vocals and autotune to really capture the song’s hopeful melancholy. I don’t really speak with the guy I wrote this song for anymore but the song’s meaning has shifted to something empowering for me instead and I hold it pretty close to my heart.

‘4 Years’, I think, is just an indie rock banger at its core, all downstrokes on the guitar for the punk power behind it too. It’s about trusting in life’s perfect timing even when you feel stuck, I drew a lot from my experiences in high school and the army. We were really struggling to finish writing the song, especially with how to end the song – we even tried a strange, tacky reggae outro that just didn’t work. But when Saguaro joined the band the pieces seemed to just fall together – his songwriting sensibilities and melodic lead lines made the song make sense.

You recently performed at Play By Ear Studios and Timbre+ this month. Since the band was formed during the pandemic and you guys have mainly performed virtual shows or gigs with enforced restrictions, how was the experience like to finally perform shows with a more active audience?

King Aloe: Our first proper standing show at Play By Ear for Big Duck Music’s C U There was absolutely mad, felt like we shared such a visceral connection with the audience where it was all love. The moshpit was intense but it felt like everyone in the 200 plus strong crowd was looking out for each other and just connecting through the raw energy and music. For the Timbre show, it was a lot of fun – my first time playing in a food court and melting the faces of unsuspecting diners. Had a Tiger Crystal too many after too!

Bitch Echino: For me, I was really glad our music was a catalyst or a tool for people to just release any pent up emotions or forget their problems and have fun and go wild especially during our set at the Big Duck show, before that I sort of forgot what it was like to be in a proper live music setting pre-pandemic and to see that all happen in front of my eyes made me in some sense fall in love with performing again.

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The band was previously selected as Top 5 Singaporean Artists for Vans Musicians Wanted and performed at the 20th anniversary of Baybeats festival. What has been the most exciting moment of the band’s journey so far?

King Aloe: Honestly, just hearing new songs take shape in the studio when working on music with the guys is still the most exhilarating feeling ever.

Duke Diso: Getting back on live stages with our music has been rewarding and whole a lot of fun - pulling stage antics, whether premeditated like the wardrobe change during Baybeats, or just spur-of-the-moment stuff feeding off the energy at the moment, I can't get enough of that.

Emperor Saguaro: The friends we've made along the way.

Isaac, you’ve previously shared your interest in checking out the gig scenes in Malaysia, Taiwan, and Indonesia. Who are the regional bands in your playlists? What are your dream tour destinations for Cactus Cactus?

King Aloe: Right now I’m really digging No Good (my punk rock heroes), Sweetass, Zamaera (the recent ‘Heart Break to Heal’ album is amazing) and the latest Peachskins EP from Malaysia. In Indonesia, there’s this indie rock band called Heaven Affair who I feel are super underrated. Also love BAP., ‘Momo’s Mysterious Skin’ is a release that I think actually can go toe-to-toe with the hip-hop records internationally. I also recently discovered this crazy collab track ‘Throw It All’ between The Couch Club, White Chorus, and BLEU HOUSE that I think everyone should listen to. Back home here in Singapore, Chriskris has been dropping R&B and rap bangers nonstop and I adore our emo brothers CURB.

Honestly, a US tour like what Subsonic Eye are doing would be the dream – super proud of them. Still, I can’t wait to play alongside some of the bands I’ve talked to when we head up to Malaysia and Indonesia for shows! I also really wanna play the legendary punk venue The Wall in Saguaro’s hometown of Batu Pahat, heard so many stories of the fabled place.

What’s next in store for Cactus Cactus musically? Are there any plans for a full-length album or collaborations with local or regional acts?

King Aloe: Work on our second EP is well underway, it’s gonna be a banger – keep your ears peeled. For collaborations, nothing is locked in yet but there are some exciting discussions happening.

Emperor Saguaro: Mark Lee and Hui Ge reunite on EP2 because we Money No Enough for better talent.

Listen to Shoutout Water here.