I have been playing in F.B.I. for almost 5 years now. God time flies!
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I have always loved singing! Actually, I think the main reason I got into singing is because, Bazza, my best friend while growing up, was/and is a really talented guitarist. He has two older brothers and they are also talented musicians who play bass and drums. They always had friends over and be jamming when I was there. I couldn't exactly join in because my parents wouldn't let me learn a cool instrument.
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I wanted to learn how to play guitar, but I was forced to play the violin from age 12. And I couldn't exactly bring the violin to have a jam and I only knew how to play classical music on the violin, not rock. Anyway, they often found themselves with no one on vocals and I had nothing to do. So, instead of being a side-liner I began to join in the jams by singing random shit on the mic. It was heaps of fun!
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Bazza and I built up a repertoire of cover songs over the years that he could play on guitar and that I would know the lyrics to. This came in handy during school leavers vacation. The girls loved it! I remember it now, Dunsborough in Western Australia '98 :)
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Of course, there was always plenty of opportunities to practice my singing at family gatherings because my Uncle Daryl would always bring his karaoke machine. I learnt to sing lots of songs before my time, even abit of Elvis. He loved Elvis!
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And then there was my Uncle Paul who inspired all of the family. He had been in bands when he was younger, he was even able to tour Australia and earn a decent living doing it. He even visited my family when we were living in the remote country town of Derby when I was just a whippersnapper. I have only found out recently that while he was there on tour with his band that he got to bang my pre-school teacher who was such a nice young lady. Can't believe it. Anyway, we would always sing Christmas carols at Christmas time and my family started the tradition of singing John Lennon's song 'Happy Xmas (War is Over) when I was very young.
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Music is in our blood. There is a bust of my Great Grandfather in a museum in Malta because we was some famous composer or something. The bust spent some time in another museum in Milan for awhile because of our Italian heritage. My parents and I intended to see the statue in person while in Milan on holiday in around '93/94 only to find out that it had already been sent back to Malta. This is not something that I have made up, but I also want to confirm credibility of this claim and so therefore I need to visit Malta sometime in the future to find out.
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I guess he is the reason why learning how to play the violin was pushed on me.
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When I started singing with FBI I never said at the start that I was the greatest singer in the world, and looking back on the old vids I cringe alot. Its true that 'practice makes perfect'. But what do you expect when we had been together for less than a month. Or in the case of our first show, I only just met Nice and Archvictor that day and had half an hour's practice with them when they decided to invite me to perform with them. I was reluctant cos of the limited practice and the fact that I wasn't sure if I could remember all the lyrics. It turned out by be pretty good and lots of fun. Next thing you know the organiser is talking to me and asking us how long we have been together and if we have a cd. I don't think he got it when I told him that I just met these guys today.
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Yes, I dance weirdly and jumped around alot in the past. And I still do. Though I got to make sure that I can do it and still be able to breath and sing the right note. That's the hard part. And if I don't jump around on the stage than the crowd is less likely to do the same, so I feel like I have to be active to entertain the audience. And whenever you put a cover on youtube you are setting yourself up to be bitched at by the fans of the band because the reality is that a cover is never going to be as good as the original to the fans.
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That's why I love playing original music because people can't compare it and say we don't sound like ''them''. We have found our own sound that varies greatly and is constantly changing and evolving. Though the shit thing is that there are always less views and comments for our original music posted on youtube, and the crappy covers we did years ago have now had 20,000 hits and is more likely to give us more haters than anyone interested in what we can do now.
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We still try and do at least one cover at a show, sometimes I have even sung Cantonese songs. I can speak a little Cantonese. But, I have no idea what I am saying. And it was from our first actual show as a band I did a cover of Soler's 'Hoi Sil'. Later on the Macau brothers ended up seeing it on youtube and they would later invite us to perform at their Christmas special on I-cable (Hong Kong cable tv company) in Dec 2007.
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That was cool! We would continue our friendship and record our EP at their studio in 2008 which was fully financed by yours truly. We got lots of great reviews for our CD which I even circulated it into Australia through family and friends.
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Our performances have helped to trademark us the fun and energetic group which always delivers and always puts on a show! We have been less active in the past year due to complications and surgery with my knee. Other band members having to get real jobs that have made it almost impossible to have practice. Yet, we came back from the dead at Underground 100 and we proved that we are still a hit in town. Now, we just got to keep up the momentum (which is hard while I type this with my knee in a brace recovering from a second operation in two years.... last one i promise!) and get some new songs out there and get seen and internationally recognised before the dream becomes just a dream...
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Hope you have enjoyed the story...
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It doesn't have an ending yet...
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"I hope its a good one!"

I believe it was a Pearl Jam concert that my older sister won free tickets and she took me with her. It was at the Perth Entertainment centre.

I use my voice. I can play the violin, or I used to play for six years when I was younger. I have tried to pick up the guitar to learn, but I always get sidetracked. Anyway, my type of singing means that I don't have time to fiddle with a guitar.

Two singers- James Hetfield from Metallica and Chris Cornell from Soundgarden/Audioslave. My cousins were all heavily into heavy metal music so they gave me my first cassette of one of Metallica's albums. I listen to it religiously. As for Chris Cornell, as soon as I heard Black Hole Sun I was hooked on his voice and would from that moment on forever treat him as my vocal idol!

I am the vocalist for a local indie band called F.B.I. aka Fire Bird International. We formed in 2007 when I met the bass player, Jerald, in the New Territories and became friends. I visited him a few weeks later and jammed with his mates. That same day they asked me to perform for a small concert in a community centre. We had only half an hour practice, but they assured me that it wasn't going to be a big deal. Little did I know that it would be recorded, and before FBI was even a band we had covers on youtube. One of those songs was First Date by Blink 182. The other two songs got shit reviews, but hey, the recording equipment wasn't the best and we had 30mins practice ffs.

We have been told that our listening to our music is like listening to a mix tape because we don't conform to one type of music and we are still trying new stuff as you can hear with Sinorita. We have played many shows in the past five years. After being together for less than 3 months we joined the I-cable band competition which we won with the first song I had written for the band, 'The Masquerade'. We have come second in the Hong Kong Final of the Global Battle of the Bands in 2009 AND 2010!!! We have joined other competitions and have always been included in the finals. But, the main problem is that I am singing in English and therefore the bands who sing in Cantonese have a clear advantage. I will attempt to sing a Cantonese song for a local show every now and again. Though my cantonese is not great.

I want to jam with Jack Black and sing 'Fuck her gently' and similar harmonious tunes

Well, the I-cable band competition was in a huge studio in Kowloon Bay's Hitec and I couldn't give you an exact number. When a gig has been packed out at a bar there could be anywhere from 100 to ??? The smallest performance was a quiet show at the Venetian's bar The Blue Frog. The only audience there was the crowd we had brought with us to Macau. Actually, some of the friends enjoyed the intimacy of just a few people. Also, there was Underground 57 which there was a No.8 Typhoon hoisted, which meant no one ventured out in fear of being blown away. I couldn't even believe they were still making us come to do the show when a no. 8 typhoon means to stay indoors. Before I got to the show I got soaked by the rain from knees down. Though without the added pressure of a huge crowd we still played as if the place was packed.

And Justice For All by Metallica

Because I grew up on it and it is the best CD to get me hyped