Calvin recalls, “He was this loony talking to himself but was making more sense than the others chatting in that channel”.
It began in 2000 when Donald Pan (vocals, guitars) and Calvin Chian (drums) became friends in an Internet chat room with a shared admiration for artistes like Radiohead, Sigur Ros and Elliot Smith. It wasn’t a wonder that the then army medic forged a friendship with the psychology major. A year later the idea of forming a band took shape. Calvin roped his pals, Xu Yong Hui (guitar) and Kevin Loh (
bass) into the outfit. A bemused Kevin back then thought why not, “Don looked like a metal punk and I thought we were starting a metal band.” Getting together is easy, but keeping it going isn’t, as Donald juggles his studies in Melbourne and the band in Singapore. In 2004, Nuance issued a self-released bedroom demo that cost them S$26 to produce. By mid 2006, Hui had left and Alexius Cai (guitars) joined the band. “I am a big advocate of simplicity, sincerity and melodies. That’s what I like about Nuance, even before I came in”, says Alexius on why he joined them in a heartbeat. At the tail end of 2007, Nuance started work on their self-titled EP, produced by Evan Tan (The Observatory) and Eugene Wong (Morphy).
