Laneway Festival 2018: Indonesian Shoegaze Band “Heals” Takes Digital Popularity Lead

As one of the focal points in Southeast Asia for the best global indie acts, the annual St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival Singapore continues to impress with an epic lineup which includes a better blend of performers.

Since its inauguration in 2011, Laneway has continued to increase the number of local and regional performances in their lineup.

On the subject of regional acts, Popspoken’s guest writer Atiqah Khamurudin decided to conduct a study to find out where do our regional music talents stand in terms of popularity when pitted against other international acts in this lineup.

Believe it or not, our regional acts fared impressively in this digital battle – especially Bandung-based shoegaze band, Heals.

Just like a song, Cuponation split the battle in halves – but instead of verses and chorus, we compared Laneway’s anticipated lineup from a couple of digital perspectives.

Heals leads the popularity game

If you were pleasantly surprised to see more regional bands this year (to be exact, 8 out of 23 acts will include homegrown Singapore talents and neighbouring countries like Indonesia, Philippines and Malaysia), then be prepared to be surprised even more.

Our study shows that Indonesian band, Heals, trumps over international indie musicians by securing the the lead in the top 5 most searched Laneway 2018 acts.

Heals was followed closely by bands like Bonobo, Billie Eilish, Mac Demarco and The War on Drugs.

The Indonesian based alternative rock band didn’t concur their popularity win just yet as they continued to emerge victorious once again in a feat of most related social media conversations.

Heals leads by far the most Tweets and Facebook mentions ahead of international bigwigs like Billie Eilish, Mac Demarco, The War on Drugs and Bonobo.

Digital Popularity = Regional Band Support

With all fun and games in mind, what if a band’s popularity online reflected the support of music lovers in general?

If such was the case, Singaporeans are very supportive of our regional talents compared to international acts for this upcoming Laneway, as seen by the impressive amount of online searches and social media buzz generated around Heals alone.

Theoretically speaking, most of these online queries indicate a genuine interest in a regional band compared to an international one – even if not entirely to indicate local support.

If you’re curious to know more about the hype surrounding Heals, make sure to start planning your Laneway schedule to catch them and more regional acts by the likes of Alextbh, Amateur Takes Control, MAS1A, Obedient Wives Club, Thelioncityboy, The Ransom Collective and Tim De Cotta this January 27th at Meadows, Gardens by the Bay.

For more information on the Laneway Festival 2018 lineup and how to get tickets, read Popspoken’s announcement article here.