Girls Like Mystery is a continued effort of Mr. Kevin Whyte-Wright. Kevin started GLM in Shanghai, China with an ever-changing lineup of expats coming and going, aka getting kicked out of the country over randomly enforced Chinese laws. The Britrock songwriter has a love for all things British and rock. He set aside a few internet minutes to chat with us and give us the lowdown on his newest incarnation in Singapore!
Kevin, you’ve been traveling the world teaching at international schools and making music for what seems to be decades now. Why leave the motherland for Asia?
The bright lights and climate of Harbin were just too tempting and there are only so many years that you can work flipping burgers at McDonalds. I had planned to spend just one year in Harbin, but then after visiting Shanghai over CNY, I knew I wanted to live there. 10 years in Shanghai and now here I am in Singapore.
Give us some of your highlights of your time spent in Shanghai. Music and otherwise.
A real highlight for me was being part of the Shanghai music scene. Sharing the stage with bands such as Rainbow Danger Club, Moon Tyrant, Stegosaurus?, and Death to Giants was always an awesome night. “Spinning the decks” as DJ Boss and censoring requests was a great way to end a night.
There was such a buzz in Shanghai all of the time and every weekend was packed. If it wasn’t a social with friends at a margarita brunch or eating ribs at Di Shui Dong, it was cricket or football. Oh, I also met my wife there, so I suppose that should count as a highlight.
What other things do girls like?
Good question. I asked Siri and she said, “why don’t you ask them.”
Your newest rebranding of Girls Like Mystery is a bit of the old and new. The ol’ in-out. Give us the lowdown of why you resurrected the band after so long.
Well, we started here as a school teacher band, which was how GLM started back in Shanghai. The make-up and sound of the band is quite similar, I’m now working on getting Mike Corayer to move to Singapore so we can add trumpet. This time though, I feel the guitar is really the driving force behind the band, Blake really shreds the guitar on some of our tracks. It also helps that he is able to record and mix our tracks.
What do you foresee for the GLM brand? Unisex underwear? I hope it’s unisex underwear.
World domination!
We are in the process of recording a new album, so hoping to get that released later this year or early next year. Writing and recording the tracks during lockdown has been a new experience with all of us being in different places. Now that we’re able to jam together, I’m proud of the new tracks so looking forward to getting those out there and hopefully some live gigs here in Singapore.