Singapore band Stopgap shows how gaming can be good for you

If you’re Asian and a gamer, you’ll definitely have heard of how bad gaming is for you. It ruins your eyesight, murders your studies, sentences you to social failure, and so on and so forth. So it’s about time that we actually looked at a living, breathing, successful example of how gaming can be a good thing in Asia!

Singaporean band Stopgap takes the adage “a family that plays together, stays together” a step further by incorporating regular gaming sessions as a part of their bonding time.

Bassist Grayson Seah, vocalist Adin Kindermann, guitarists Calvin Phua and Lee Yew Jin, and drummer Eldad Leong started Stopgap in June 2011. They list bands like The Strokes, Arctic Monkeys, Interpol, Foals, and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers as influences, and identify as an indie rock band. They were also one of the headlining acts for the recent Razer Adaro launch gig in Singapore.

(See: This is how Razer celebrated the launch of its Adaro line in Singapore (PICS))

All of Stopgap grew up playing games, and gaming is very intrinsic in their musical culture, 23-year-old Grayson Seah said. It’s more than just in their writing of music. It’s also apparent in the way they communicate. The band has used gaming experiences and references to get messages across, and they also reference game music when trying to come up with their original tunes.

[fve]http://youtu.be/1mPhWt-bMKU[/fve]

Seah said the band started to play LAN games together as a way to bond, and that they had been playing together almost since the day they formed. They used to play in the Cybernet Alliance shop over in Park Lane Mall, later moving over to Khakabo in Bugis. That was where we met them.

“One problem with fresh bands is that they lose interest and stop playing,” Seah said to us, sitting on a staircase just outside Khakabo, where they were waiting for their computer booking. Knowing this hazard, the Stopgap boys all tried to meet up once a week to keep the bond up when they were first starting out.

But it wasn’t a mandatory weekly meetup; and it never had to be. Gaming is something that came naturally to all members of the band, and they found themselves gravitating towards playing LAN games. “You can’t eat the whole day,” Seah said matter-of-factly, citing another Singaporean pasttime and bonding method. “So you play LAN.”

Seah, Kindermann, Phua, and Lee all began as Counterstrike players, and still tend towards the “bro” side of gaming. The four of them enjoy shooters in general, while Leong prefers the NBA 2k series and other Xbox offerings.

They find gaming together a good way to “revitalize” themselves. “You can have a bad jam session but a good gaming session and it saves the day,” Seah said. “If you go home [immediately after] then the day is spoiled.” LAN gaming is also a good way to overcome a music block, he added. In short, it’s a good “reset button” that helps the band wind down.

It also encourages competition between the boys, and lets them express themselves and diffuse any tension in a healthy way. Seah is the best overall player when it comes to shooters, though Lee is their Dota pro.

[fve]http://youtu.be/xjeZCFrb4gc[/fve]