LomoAmigo Cashew Chemists Take the La Sardina DIY Black for a Spin!

Hailing from Sunny Singapore, Cashew Chemists are a rock band that is enchanting the musical world with their pop-rock infused jazzy beats, with a bit of bluesy-bass and surf guitar thrown in for that extra dreamy touch! And if you think that their talent only lies in the land of music, just take a peek at their DIY customization skills...Oh, and did we happen to mention that they take a pretty mean photo too?! These guys!

Name: Cashew Chemists
Location: Singapore
Occupation: Guitar wielding drumstick smashing rock'n'rollin' bunch of vintage enthusiasts
Facebook Page: Cashew Chemists

Hi Cashew Chemists! How's it going? Please introduce yourselves, we're all very curious to meet the artists behind this awesome-looking La Sardina DIY Black camera

Hi, we're the Cashew Chemists. There's 4 of us in the band - namely Brian the lead guitarist, Elliot the bassist, Zachary on drums, and Yuji on rhythm guitars & vocals. Also, not forgetting the man(ager) behind everything we've accomplished thus far - Xing Wei.

When you were first given the La Sardina DIY Black camera, what were your impressions? Did it take you long to decide how you wanted to customize it?

The DIY Black camera was really minimalist and "all black everythang" so we didn't really take long to decide on a design for it. About the time it took to finish a cup of coffee and a slice of cheesecake at a cafe at 2 AM.

With regards to your design, where did you source your inspiration from? Your customization is so classic-cool! Is there a particular message you're hoping to spread with your unique creation?

We're all big fans of the designs of old record players, especially the ones with wooden exteriors. I have an old 70's Onkyo player so that was pretty much where the inspiration came from. No particular message, just spreading our love for the whole vinyl and record player thing, yknow. We have dreams of cutting a proper record and watching it spin on an immaculately designed player.

If you could choose one musician (living or dead) to give your La Sardina DIY Black camera to, who would it be and why?

The Beatles, because they kickstarted our love for the oldies ever since the first time we really got into them. Well two of them are dead, and two are alive - does that count?

This project must have been quite different from what you usually get up to. Did you enjoy channelling your creativity into a bit of DIY? How was the creative process? Did you all work together as a band, or was it one of you who manned the project?

We did enjoy doing up the camera together, although it was just really minimal. It was kinda like writing a song together - the first spark of an idea, then really getting into the grind of it with lots of trial & error. We did work together as a band during the discussion process, then during the creation of the idea itself, I took it home to work out the parts. Then Elliot, me & a good friend of ours Juffrie rolled up our sleeves and started with the customization.

Tell us, were you listening to any particular song when you were customizing? What was it?

Norwegian Wood from the Beatles. It's pretty apt. I guess?

You guys seem like pros at this Lomography thing. Have you dabbled in analogue photography before? We love your photos!

Thanks alot! Yeah, we've all had experience with analogue photography - especially Xing Wei, that guy loves film. It was actually our first time with the La Sardina so we took pointers from XW, he gave us good tips on how to create double exposures and how to work the camera. The rest of the band has only been using old film cameras and has never dabbled in lomography before..

What was it like using the La Sardina? From the look of your photos, you had no problem capturing fun, cool images of your band, and we like that you experimented with multiple exposure shots. How did you find that? What was the inspiration behind your photos?

It was nice, and it also helped that the sun in Sydney was amazing for film photography. Xing Wei told us about the multiple exposure button and we kinda kept spamming it (as you can tell by the not-so-good-shots). There wasn't any particular inspiration behind the photos actually as we were just going around shooting everywhere. Maybe we were doing that "shoot first, think later" thing you hear so much in lomography.

Do you have any up-and-coming projects on the horizon? Any new song releases or how about a tour? We'd love to see you play live one day!

We're definitely planning a new release in the coming year. And then a tour for that, prolly with a couple friends of ours like Pleasantry and Pinholes going up SEA, and ending off with a nice holiday in Japan. Hopefully that turns out swell, so we can bring our La Sardina camera and take more great shots of us on tour. Stay updated on our Facebook page for news on our upcoming shows then!

Finally, can you share any words of wisdom or tips for all our DIY creatives out there? Perhaps recommend a song or two of yours to get their creative juices flowing :)

Listen to our songs Road Trip if you're feeling adventurous, or Over You if the camera you're customizing belongs to an ex. Just kidding. Or are we?

Thank you so much for participating in this Lomography Online Magazine interview Cashew Chemists. If you want to learn more about Cashew Chemists and hear some of their dreamy, jazzy music , head on over to their Facebook or their Website to give your ears a treat!

bq. Are you looking for a new analogue camera？Perhaps it's the La Sardina DIY that best fits the bill?! Graffiti it, dress it up, stick sparkles on- with the La Sardina DIY you can be as creative as your heart desires; it's your very own unique camera and all designs are welcome!

written by pippilongstockings on 2013-10-31 #people #band #music #diy #interview #singapore #analogue-photography #customization #lomoamigo #la-sardina-diy-black #cashew-chemists