Words by Jasmine Bourgeois
Banner Photo by Jensen Ching
Lennat Mak is someone who truly and fully commits her life to music. An engineer student turned musician, Mak got her start in the music industry as a journalist for MTV.
Even now, with more than a decade of playing under her belt, Mak remembers when she started drumming with the same fresh enthusiasm. “I first got into drumming when I heard the White Stripes’ ‘Fell in Love with a Girl.’” “How could a two-piece band sound so loud?” she wondered. “I went to see the band live five times across the world, and Jack gave me a really sound education in garage rock. Without the White Stripes, I probably wouldn’t be where I am today musically. I’m still very much in love with two-piece bands like Blood Red Shoes, Royal Blood, Japandroids, and the Black Keys.”
Over the course of the last 15 years, she has played in a handful of bands and has worked as a music journalist, band and label manager, entertainment consultant, music panelist, and guest lecturer. For the past six years, she has been playing with Obedient Wives Club, a dreamy indie pop band that writes songs about love, loss, and life. The band’s latest EP, Cinematica, was just released in July. It features an impressive cohort of brilliant minds in its production credits, including Brad Wood (Liz Phair, Smashing Pumpkins), Hans DeKline (Snoop Dogg, Pixies), Patrick Chng (Oddfellows, TypeWriter), and Keith Tan.
“Sometimes, I do feel that my life is packed with music 24/7, but in all honesty, I don’t know what else I would do. Knit a sweater? Singapore’s too hot and humid for that!” she jokes.
Looking toward the future, Mak plans on continuing with her music and is setting her sights on learning bass and piano to expand her musical vocabulary. Obedient Wives Club kicked off 2018 with the Singapore leg of St. Jerome’s Laneway Music Festival, and the band is going to dedicate the rest of the year to playing shows and working on their next release.
Psstttt, have you visited our web store? Check it out here for all your Tom Tom merch & print issue needs!