They say it’s not animal science, but after years of experimenting, Hamster finally release an EP on the fragility and complications of human relationships.
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Assume that the name of the musical threesome comes from a love for the little furry creature, and you would be wrong. It has more to do with the animal’s destiny. “Fai and I studied biology in university, and hamsters are often used for experimentation. So we use the name Hamster as a metaphor for our music, because we experiment a lot,” bass player Kinglok explains. “And at the same time we are being experimented on as we are in the music ourselves.”
Formed in 1998, Hamster was active in the U-sound movement. They won the award for Best Vocals in Yamaha Asian Beat Hong Kong 2001 and were finalists in the U-sound ’02 Festival. They even set up their own production house in October last year, but it wasn’t until last month their debut EP, so far | so close, finally hit the market.
Their music may easily remind people of dream-pop, but that is what Hamster are looking for. To the band, melody is the priority. They believe listeners must first feel comfortable with the tunes before they will dig into the music and the meaning behind it all. Fai uses the Beatles’ In My Life – recorded more than 40 years ago – as an example. “It’s a simple, catchy song people can sing along to even if it’s the first time they hear it, but when you listen more carefully, you will find a lot of effort has gone into the arrangement.”
The trio’s long-awaited release is an attempt to capture the elusiveness of human relationships. The inside cover art is of megaphones made from paper cups – devices we left behind in our childhood – from various angles to illustrate how distances between people can be far or close, depending from where you are looking.
And outside, the sleeve’s unadorned white is a demand by the band not to judge the record by the cover, even before playing the music itself. The EP includes three full-length songs, each accompanied by a 30-second prelude. Rope of Love, with striking chords and a heart-rending cello, is a cry against a mother’s excessive love that has become a constraint on her child. On the Way Home, a more personal song from Fai, was inspired by the passing away of a relative. It focuses on the hope and faith one may still hold approaching the end of the road.
“Surely I will tell my friends and family about our music, but we don’t have much expectation of sales,” Fai, by day a social worker, remarks. “But if our music can reach people who don’t know us at all and they appreciate it, then it will be truly amazing.” |
