Home / Features / Columns / Women Who Inspire Women Series: Rina Abdul Aziz Vocalist of Obstacle Upsurge

Women Who Inspire Women Series: Rina Abdul Aziz Vocalist of Obstacle Upsurge

By on April 2, 2020

Women Who Inspire Women Series

Rina Abdul Aziz | Vocalist
Obstacle Upsurge (ex-My Precious) | Singapore
https://www.facebook.com/obstacleupsurgesg/
Photo Credit: Niko Cezar

The first time we met Rina was when she rolled through Hong Kong with her explosive Singapore screamo band My Precious in the early 2000’s. The dual vocal attack on a small legendary stage here in Hong Kong was INTENSE…she is a soft-spoken, incredibly kind human being, but when she takes the stage an overpowering eruption of emotions comes roaring out of her. We remember being blown away, and many of us talking about that specific performance for weeks after.

Fast forward to many MANY years later, our band Dagger rolled through HER hometown of Singapore and we invited her out to sing on a track called Step Back. We didn’t have time to practice nor do a run through during soundcheck, she just got on, grabbed the mic and took off. It. Was. Incredible.

Needless to say, we had to get Rina in this series!

Thank you, Rina, for taking the time out and continuing to kill it with long-running band Obstacle Upsurge.

Check out HER inspirations below!

My Mother

My mother taught me how to be strong. I fondly remember accompanying her selling her home-made local delicacies, as she progressed from a stall assistant to having her own stall. There was always a seemingly ceaseless queue at her stall from dawn till the ingredients ran out. Her strength and unflagging commitment to her family lead her to work tirelessly, and I am definitely inspired by her strength.

Doughnuts

Doughnuts was the first female hardcore band that I listened to and I was blown away. The intensity of their music spoke a thousand words. Back when hardcore was still pretty much a masculine culture, they were able to prove that women can take their place in it, and that was awesome.

Michelle “Todd” Gonzales
Spitboy

Spitboy was another band that I couldn’t get enough of back then. Todd, who is the drummer, was definitely pivotal in shaping my attitude and beliefs as a teenager. She was one of the first few scene figures that taught me what feminism means. And although they were not part of the Riot Grrrl movement, it was through them that I began to know the movement and fall in love with.

Slyvia Plath
American Poet

The reason why she inspires me so much is that while living in the age of patriarchy, she stood out. She created awareness on the weight of male-domination through her work and rebelled against the conventional female roles through her bold and painfully honest writings.

Rakta

I love everything about these ladies from São Paulo. Their music is just so refreshing, dynamic and mysterious and it’s amazing that they can collectively come together to send such a strong message through their music, even when I couldn’t understand their lyrics (in Portuguese).

Check out the previous articles on inspiring women in the series Women Who Inspire Women below (Click on the images to get to the articles):

Inspired by Revolver Mag’s own version, we wanted to showcase the amazing talent of female musicians involved in Asian hardcore, punk and metal scenes throughout this beautiful continent of ours. Get to know your scene, your community, the people that are making punk/hardcore/metal open to all people.  

UniteAsia.org is an underground Asian music news website created for the sole purpose of supporting our own world. We support all bands and genres HOWEVER we do not support nor have any sympathy for homophobic, racist, sexist rhetoric in lyrical content or band material. UNITE ASIA!
Related Items