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If you weren't musicians,
what do you think you'd be?
Julio: (Laughs) Trying to be
a musician.
How would you describe
your album in one sentence?
 Dino: Um, only one sentence?
Well, the album <X2> is about everyone's (life) story
- is that okay? (He pauses and then goes on to explain in greater
detail) It's quite simple actually, we've always been writing songs
in English, and even our fans have said that they do like our songs
better in English.
It's time-consuming to produce an
album like <X2> because we have to produce the songs in
two languages, but in some ways the album is like the both of us (gestures
at Julio), in that we both can speak English and Chinese.
So, is your creative
process usually more English or Chinese?
 Dino:
Both actually! We want to experience the location's culture, for example
in Mainland China or in Taiwan. Our new songs happen to be more
"Chinese" due to our stay in Chinese places.
Of course, our main
objective is to be able to "communicate" with people. If we have
only English compositions, we're restricted to "communicating"
with half an audience. We want everyone to listen to Soler's songs.
What do you want your listeners to feel after they've
listened to <X2>?
Julio:
We're hoping that they'll want to watch us perform live - we've
made the album with the idea that listeners would want to see the songs
performed live.
And also, we hope that after listening
to the songs, they'll start to "communicate" with their friends,
or family more. Working on this album, both of us discovered a good
way to convey our ideas to each other, observing together, listening
to opinions together - so in a way, you could say that our album really
deals with the idea of "communication" and "communicating" quite
a bit.
For example, we have a few family oriented songs - the song we
wrote for our mother ("Hey Ma"); a song Dino wrote for me ("Walking On Ice"); and a song
dedicated to our father about father-son relationships ("Saving Grace").
So it's really good,
because everyone usually listens to love songs nowadays, and don't
have much opportunities listening to songs about family. We feel that
it's important that there should be more songs about family.
What kind of music do you guys listen to?
Dino:
We listen to all sorts of music. Usually on radio stations. Personally,
I listen to re-mixes of different artists, like The Beatles...George
Harrison...
Julio: Lenny Kravitz, Damien
Rice, Italy's Andrea Boccelli...
Dino: Jazz, bossa nova...
Since you enjoy so many different genres of music, would you like
to try different styles of music - for example jazz or bossa nova
- for your future albums?
 Dino:
As long as it communicates directly with the audience. Well, first of all, jazz, for
many, is "the only way" because I think a lot of jazz musicians see it as
a way to express themselves. Many see it as a language.
We -
I - have dabbled in jazz before. But it's something that I feel is quite mysterious, and
I'd like to leave it that way, so I don't know how much of jazz we'll be doing, (but) it's more intellectual I'd say. Usually we tend to go for more, almost "naïve" kind of music - it's quite direct. We actually want to keep it (our music style) like that. We like the naivety in our songs, the simple melodies, and (it's) closer to folk songs than anything else.
[Watch them answer in flesh here!]
What's your inspiration
for your songs?
Dino: Hmm, things that happen
to us, really. For example, "Walking On Ice" was written for my
brother. But we're hoping that our song-writing style will be more
universal.
Who do you wish to collaborate with in the future?[See who they have in mind here!]
Have you had any conflicts between music and family?
Julio: It's very possible,
but at the moment, everything's okay. (The brothers then go on to illustrate how different celebrities can balance their family life and
career, e.g. Ryan Hoi, Aerosmith and Chris Martin.)
Dino: All in all, it's love
that will help smoothen any problems.
So, tell us. How did the deal between you and Funkie Monkies come about?
 Dino: It's a collaboration here in Singapore. It came about because one of their colleagues happened to be a person we had collaborated with in the past...
Julio: ...used to work for another company.
Dino: Yeah, we always kept this friendship or relationship going. We didn't know that one day, it'd
come back to this, where we'd actually be working with him again, and in this new company.
And we heard many nice things about the company, about the way they work - it's very similar to us - a very small company,
and very singer-songwriter based company, and we are, singer-songwriters.
We hope to
collaborate with our partners...we always hope (for) them to be companies that understand the mindset of what it is, and what it means
to be a musician today, especially a singer-songwriter.
I think they completely get it, and I think - we (look at Julio) think only good things can come out of this (collaboration).
Julio: (Assuringly) Only good things.
[Hear them speak for themselves over here.]
Will we be seeing more of you in Singapore then? [Find out what the brothers think
of Singapore here. PS: They love it!]
And what about Singaporean fans?
[They can't wait to tease their Singaporean fans! More here.]
That being said, what is the most outrageous thing a fan has ever done for you guys?[Gasp! These suave boys have never received a love letter from their fans! Find out how that's possible here!]
The underground music scene in Singapore is thriving, do you have
anything to say to encourage your fellow musicians?[First, lose the term 'underground'. Soler thinks they are more "on the beach". Watch their cheeky response here!]
There you have it, the always pleasant
and radiant Soler. With the music scene taking a rather frivolous
front lately, it's relieving to see a band like Soler come out with
sincerity expressed not only in their lyrics, but also through their candid personalities. HOOKED
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