GRAPHIC designer Foo Say Keong owns more than 50 albums by local bands in his collection.
Add to that posters, T-shirts and cassette tapes bought over the last two decades, and you can call the 33-year-old a groupie. He says: 'I am so into local bands that I will go to their gigs alone if I can't find anyone to go with me.'
Foo is just one of a growing number of supporters of home-grown music.
And he has been a devotee since he was 15. As a schoolboy, he says with a laugh, he even worked part-time as a waiter to earn money to buy local band merchandise. His favourite home-grown acts are The Observatory, Force Vomit, Plainsunset and The Oddfellows.
He recently paid $70 online for Teenage Head by The Oddfellows, an album that is no longer in production. For him, local music is a fresh alternative to the commercial pop often heard on radio.
He says: 'I can relate to Singapore bands because they have a unique local flavour. For example, Plainsunset write about the beauty of Singapore River in their songs, and that is something I won't be able to find in foreign acts.'
Interest in local music acts is growing, if sales figures are anything to go by.
Straits Records, a shop in Bali Lane which specialises in indie labels and local music, has seen a rise in interest compared to four years ago.
Read the full story in Friday's edition of The Straits Times' Life!
