SINGAPORE, July 4 — It is 2016 and chances are if you want to make an impression as an artiste in the local music scene, you ought to play (1) urban jazz-soul-funk, (2) hipster indie-folk, or (3) Laneway-centric indie pop.

Instead, Doves & Ravens decides to play 1980s/1990s pop-rock music.

Incongruous? Definitely.

However, once you get to know the two close friends behind the band (Kenneth Qua and Edwin Wong, the singers/guitarists/songwriters who drive the musical direction behind Doves & Ravens), you begin to understand such off-beatness is part of Doves & Ravens’ appeal.

And it all began with their first meeting in church, bonding over Black Sabbath.

“It was in the era of MSN Messenger, and I saw that Edwin’s profile picture was Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath’s guitarist) and we’ve been making music together ever since,” Qua recalled.

Although Qua confessed to making his appearance as a singer in an all-too-typical manner — “YouTube was where I first put myself out there as a singer” — the music on the band’s nine-track album bears little resemblance to what is often heard in local indie gigs nowadays.

And according to its third member Moses Wong, there is no deeper agenda behind this marked distinction.

“We want to create music that we like, whether it goes against the grain in Singapore didn’t matter,” Moses explained.

There might also be the fact that the band’s desire to be more distinct was partly influenced by its Noise Mentor indie-rock veteran Daniel Sassoon (In Each Hand A Cutlass).

“Daniel really helped us to think more about what kind of sound we wanted as a band,” Edwin admitted.

“We were privileged to learn from someone who has written so much great music of diverse genres.”

Qua agreed: “I think although we resisted change in the beginning, it was really beneficial towards our process when we start pushing those boundaries.”

This attitude towards the band’s musical process resulted in hard decisions that needed to be made for the recording of Wonder.

“Recording a significant portion of the album ourselves was a pretty monumental task,” Qua said.

“Our vision for the album really got clearer once we jumped in and started working through and recording the songs. Some songs got cut, some never got completed and some got a completely new arrangement. Re-working the songs was tough, but I think the entire process of writing, producing and recording the album together as a band was a really rewarding experience.”

The band launched the album successfully at Aliwal Arts Centre last month.

As self-reliant as the band is, Qua acknowledged that the kind assistance from the music community was a tremendous boon.

“We had tons of advice along the way on how previous bands had been releasing stuff in Singapore. Producer Kevin Foo, the folks from Noise and The Animal Kollective, and the bands Take Two and StopGap gave us a ton of information that helped iron out the finer details, from getting a T-shirt printer to getting our music distributed online.”

It sounds like another happy ending for an aspiring Singapore band, but as much as Doves & Ravens is appreciative of the greater opportunities, it is not the time to rest on its laurels.

Moses summed it up: “I feel there’s more opportunities than in the past, but there is still quite a stigma towards local music. Many a times people tend to have pre-conceived notions on the quality of Singaporean music and that it cannot compete on a global stage. To break this mindset we need to focus more on the music than anything else.” — TODAY

* Doves & Ravens’ Wonder is available now on all digital music platforms.