Ugly In The Morning Music

Ugly In The Morning is arguably Singapore’s naughtiest badass alternative funk rock band. Merging wordplay innuendos with tight rhythm jabs backed by searing guitars, Ugly In The Morning are veterans at making geeks feel sexy. The band's sound can best be described as an eclectic mix of Funk, Blues and Rock with liberal doses of R&B/Soul with emphasis on vocal harmonies.

Formed in 1999 from the ashes of an earlier incarnation also called Ugly In The Morning, then a 3-piece acoustic guitars / vocal harmony group formed by Eric Lee, Noel Ong, and David Baptista, that played covers at pubs before deciding to recruit a bassist and a drummer to write original music in a full band format. The band went through several line-up changes before finally settling on Clement Yang, a mad professor of music, on bass; and Goh Ling Pin, who has since added a much heavier element to their sound, replacing original drummer, Tan Boon Gee, on drums. The band released their debut self-titled album in 2004 (drums played by Boon Gee). Amazingly, the extremely disparate musical influences of each of the members resulted in a strange yet pleasing musical brew that (hopefully) the band could call their own; cramming funk rhythms together with layers of blues, jazz, R&B, rock, punk, folk and even country into a bubbling cauldron of boiling rock catalysts, resulting in a aphrodisiacal brew called Ugly In The Morning.

In January 2008, the band began recording their second album, “For, Nikette Frehley” and released the music video for the first single, “Me, Not Humphrey at 23” in December. The music video directed by Kenny Png of the Enigmatic Army, garnered airplay on MTV Asia and has been well received by fans and supporters of the band. The band officially launched their second album on the 4th of April 2009 at the Singapore Art Museum to a room packed with fans and friends.

Their sophomore effort sees the band’s sound becoming more defined and focused. It is definitely heavier and not as light or tongue in cheek as the first album, and reflects a conscious shift in attitude towards ‘song’, rather than ‘jam’. It should also display a move away from being clever to being meaningful. It deals with matters of the heart (again), and hopefully speaks to you, the listener (in a mildly boozy, slurred but intimate whisper in your ear), about hope, loss, direction and drift, love, redemption, cigarettes and alcohol.

For now, Ugly in the Morning is enjoying the firmest line-up they’ve ever had, and are dedicated to coming up with the most badass, most kicking original music that they possibly can. As always, their sights are set firmly, but barely, above the gutter. Stay tuned.