When you hear “Singapore” and think “emo-punk,” especially the raw, atmospheric kind that wraps you up and tears you open all at once, it’s hard not to think of The Caulfield Cult. For me, that band never left my heart. Same with Seasight and others from that underappreciated wave—bands that understood how to turn personal grief into something abrasive and enveloping. SHLTR is cut from that same weathered cloth.
The project was formed by Niki Muliade, who you might remember from Safeguard. SHLTR began as a continuation of that now-defunct band, with Niki intentionally picking a name that echoed the original to signal emotional continuity. But there’s also a shift.
While Safeguard leaned into Touche Amore, Being As An Ocean, and More Than Life, SHLTR gives Niki full creative control, letting him pull from darker corners—Birds in Row, Title Fight, Defeater. “Most of my chord progressions are inspired by Touche,” he says. “I can’t really play the guitar that well, but well enough to write chords that I don’t know—two strings at a time—and sound musical to me.”
The debut full-length, Weathered Place, is a memory dump from Niki’s teenage years. “Experiencing my first love, going through a break up, the teenage angst, observations of life and friends, and learning more about myself eventually.”
The stories in Weathered Place are diaristic. Characters emerge, vanish, and reappear across songs: the girl he loved but couldn’t hold onto, the friend slipping in and out of the hospital, his late stepdad smoking in silence at the dining table.
“Some of the lines… can sound random or out of place because I didn’t know how to phrase properly. But those words came from my heart.”
A quiet devotion to his mother runs beneath the record’s emotional chaos. “If you’re listening to this record on Mother’s Day, please give your mothers a hug. My mom doesn’t know this but I love her more than anything. This whole LP is dedicated to her—trying to understand what is going on in that then 21-year-old head of mine. I’m sorry ma, for putting you through so much pain—only to raise a stubborn 30-year-old boy.”
Weathered Place wanders across years. Some tracks are lifted from old Safeguard demos; others came from failed takes, language slips, and half-formed memories. One was accidentally titled in Bahasa on a phone note and left that way. One was inspired by a movie quote. One was written by bassist Hyrul Khairudin, who’s also a poet. But all of them are unified by a theme of detachment—often self-imposed, sometimes circumstantial, always bruising.
There’s the moment of emotional implosion during military service in Singapore, the internal monologue of inadequacy and loneliness, the split-second realization of how love was missed only once it was gone. These are the textures that bind the record, more than a single genre tag. “This was a test of faith,” Niki says about one of his isolation periods. “I perceived myself as morally, intellectually and emotionally inferior to the world,” he admits in another.
The band functions in a fractured way—Niki and his bandmates are all full-time filmmakers, so SHLTR is often a long-distance relationship. “All of our schedules never usually meet. We had to write, record and practice individually most of the time. But of course, to keep the shows going, we’ll do what we have to.” Despite this, they’re planning to tour Malaysia and Indonesia, hoping to “live our younger days as much as possible” and connect with promoters who resonate with their sound.
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The visuals are more than aesthetic—they’re emotionally coded. The cover art is a photo taken by drummer Trisno Dimas during a burnout-induced escape to a farmhouse in Hokkaido, Japan. “That weathered room… taught me gratitude and reignited my passion and meaning to life in general. The photo which I took six years before the band was formed somehow aligned with the music, lyrics and emotions that Niki wanted to portray.” The SHLTR logo is struck through to symbolize emotional erasure—“the parts of ourselves we hide or erase.”
And the video for Decay Part II takes cues from The Batman, filtered through minimalist darkness: “We wanted to be mysterious and be silhouetted and dark as much as possible… I wanted the shadows to be dark since we’re playing in minor chords and to really portray the darkness in a person’s life.”
Though rooted in personal experiences, the album leaves room for others to fill in their own meaning. For example, the song dedicated to Niki’s stepdad featured guest vocals from Static Years, who didn’t know what the track was truly about. “They sent in their draft and their lyrics blew me away—it kinda coincidentally matches the separation between my mom and stepdad… I wanted multiple perspectives to the song.”
Niki has been part of the Singapore scene since 2010, first in a metalcore band called Took Her Final Breath, later navigating through hardcore, indie, and beyond.
“The local underground scene in Singapore has progressed together with social media. Back then it was all about flyers and word of mouth… It was worse back then because nobody knew about local bands, but our pioneers have made the effort to push beyond the borders and appear internationally which made my little Singaporean heart happy that local music is alive and striving.”
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He drops a long list of essential names: The Caulfield Cult, Bruised Willies, Isles, Virtues, Seasight, Kaji, Forgive, For Better Endings, Straight Forward, Ruins and Remains, Toten, Fuel, Spirits, and many more from the 2011–2017 era. From the current wave: Fuse, Mystique, Losing End, Wreckonize, Agni, Remnants, Fader, Fickle, Haru, ABSRD., Darah, Agenda, Faraday, Forest, Caracal, Wormrot, Tiny Hoarse (Niki’s other band), Naedr, Mordhau, Tariot, Tides, CURB, Subsonic Eye, Spider, FXTRT.
The scene now? “A nicer place… people say that it’s a fashion show these days—I agree, but eventually we are here to feel and connect with the music… A way to spend our weekend as the outcast people see us as compared to being a normie.”
And what shaped Weathered Place, beyond the stories and the scars? Four key records: Parting the Sea Between Brightness and Me (Touche Amore), Empty Days & Sleepless Nights (Defeater), Floral Green (Title Fight), and Personal War (Birds in Row). Films like Manchester By the Sea, Stronger, and Interstellar also left a mark.
Check out the full track by track rundown below.
01 Rope
Rope is an old song, a section taken from Safeguard’s unreleased mix which is also called “Rope”. The lyrics are quite self-explanatory. I was in love with a girl back then who I felt had invested in me so much but she had let me go because she needed to move on from me. I was a mess back then – I didn’t know how to be a man. I didn’t know what love was, and I only realised what’s gone when it’s really gone.
02 Weathered
Weathered is about the time when I Isolated myself in a room for days – away from my friends, away from my family.I keep thinking that nobody wants to be around me because maybe my problems annoy them – or maybe they didn’t know how to be part of the situation. I know that going through this phase was something I needed to do alone. It may sound very petty but at that point of time it was a big thing for me. I felt like this was a test of faith.
03 Heights
One of my biggest practical fears in life is Heights. But in introspect – the song is about how I view myself as a lesser man. I perceived myself as morally, intellectually and emotionally inferior to the world.
04 Eleventh July
11th July 2017 is the time when I had to serve National Service for two years. It’s a compulsory obligation for 18 year old able-bodied male citizens in Singapore. Coming to my enlistment date I knew I was feeling politically emotional. Eleventh July is actually about another girl who was super close to me all these years, who saw through me for who I am – who I’ll know that we would not see each other again due to the detachment.
05 Pemisi
Featuring Rial of Static Years
The actual spelling is “Permisi” in Bahasa Indonesia, which means “excuse me” or “with your permission”. It can also be said with a polite request for an individual’s attention. But I accidentally left the name of the track as “Pemisi” in my phone when I was doing a raw recording – which google translates as “filler” – like someone who fills. Eg, he/she fills in a spot in the gap. Originally I wanted to write this song in Bahasa Melayu / Indonesia which is my mother tongue only as a joke to prove to my friends that I can sing in Bahasa. Fun fact, I can’t fluently speak Bahasa Melayu because my mother tongue is super bad – as a kid I neglected learning Bahasa Melayu – I failed the national exams, plus, I can’t really sing.
Pemisi is about my late step dad who was deemed a lesser man. As much as people say who he is – I saw it differently. Have you ever seen someone who has so much warmth to give but disregard? Someone trying his best but no one appreciates it? That was my late step dad to me – I can’t stand that pain in his eyes. He was always there for us (his step kids) but none of us knew how to reciprocate back that same amount of love. Sometimes I could still picture him in my head sitting by the dining room table, smoking that stick with his coffee – and not saying a word. He was always so kind to me and the rest of my siblings but I didn’t show enough love to him. When my mom and step-dad separated, and when I heard the news that he passed away, I sat in my room alone crying – to what I could have done.
When I messaged the boys of Static Years if they wanted to guest vocals – I told them that it’s about love and abandonment – they did not know that it’s for my step-dad. They sent in their draft and their lyrics blew me away – I thought it kinda coincidentally matches the separation between my mom and step-dad. It may not directly interprete how I see it but then again it’s how the listeners feel – I wanted multiple perspectives to the song.
06 Decay Part II
featuring Ahmad Zakir of Seasight
The first Decay is a song from Seasight’s Hard To Please EP which Ahmad Zakir (the Bassist of Seasight) had lines in it. I thought the lyrics to Decay were deep to me and I wanted to continue the legacy of it. Ahmad Zakir is a close friend of mine in the film industry and we grew up with the same friends. I wanted Ahmad to be part of the track because he has a golden deep voice.
07 Stronger
Stronger is a film based on a true story – about the Boston Marathon bombing with Jake Gyllenhaal and Tatiana Maslany who played as main cast. I love the film and there was a scene in the hospital where Jake’s character said “You don’t owe me anything” which resonated a lot about giving in. I felt like that was the story of my whole life and
the line hit me very hard – Kinda reminds me of the kindest people in my life, one who can take so much pain but still remain calm about it. Stronger is an interlude to the next song which is called Shelter.
08 Shelter
This song would probably be the hardest hitting song I wrote for the full length. Same – the riffs were taken from Safeguard’s stash of unused materials which I wrote and I made this song very personal to me. It’s basically my thoughts battling the cloud of negativity. This was the only song that probably had multiple re-works and re-phrases because I wanted to convey the emotions right. It’s my favourite track at the moment and I foresee playing this as the last song of every show.
09 Hospital Bed
Hospital Bed may be out of context to the Weathered Place’s theme because it’s inspired about recent times when a friend of mine who is casually in and out of the Hospital to fix his special case of kidney failure. I wrote Hospital Bed trying to be in his perspective.
10 Season X
This song is written and performed by our Bassist – Hyrul Khairudin. He’s a poet and if I could recall the conversation – this was about the very uncertain times he had encountered in his relationships – I might be wrong. The track is really off-beat from all the screaming and shouting and I kinda like that, it feels like an easter egg. The lyrics kinda summarize the whole full length in short – it’s like an advice to my younger self.
