taykexin: December 2012

Friday, December 28, 2012

Lookback on the Year 2012...

YEAR 2012 has been a year of surprises,

of dreams fulfilled

and of hopes refueled.

I'm so grateful just being able to do what i love everyday of my life,

and what i achieved this year went above and beyond this expectation.

It was a year of many memorable first-s,

i worked hard; did about 200 shows, ran Sparkle Live Music from scratch since Mar,

but i played as well; i travelled 7 times, all with different loved ones in my life (:

Some picks from Performances of 2012

Travelogue 2012

A Year Of Many First-s

Started Sparkle Live Music,

a company that provides live bands with 2 of my dearest musician friends Kewei & Ein ein,

www.sparkle-music.com

Some picks among the hundreds of shows i did with Sparkle..

Had a biography feature for the first time,

thanks to Toshiba :)

Took the role of programme host for first time -

Interviewed the Wanted

and even went on to travel host in Bangkok with resident host Joanne,

thanks to SingTel, especially Leonard, Pris & Leya!!

Hosted my first very own ticketed showcase at Crazyworld Cafe,

thanks to 2 very passionate cafe bosses who believe and fight for music to be appreciated (:

It was my first heart-to-heart showcase with the audience,

many of whom had followed me since my beginning as a singer.

Thank you all who came and supported,

i will never forget singing to a full house of appreciative audience that afternoon (:

My trusty musicians - Matt on keys, melvin on bass, daniel on percussions
Watch the full concert video here

Had my first album photoshoot with a fab stylist - Chin.

Here's us on the bed while shooting for my album cover (:

More on the behind-the-scenes shoot in my blog entry.. next year!

On top of Pearl centre carpark..

if you flip open my album you'll see a very sullen-face me,

and this was where it was taken!

Launched my first album/EP, "Get Set 就走",

the place where i grew as a singer over the past year,

on 20.12.2012. (:

I took a year to write songs, work with producers like Tat Tong, Jim Lim & James

who made my songs sound better than i've ever imagined them to be.

There i stood, one year later, with songs to call my own (:

More grabs from the kind friends/fans/supporters who came,

i'm truly sorry if i didn't have a chance to thank you in person,

but really a huge shoutout to all who showered me with your presence and love <3

Will consolidate and upload the launch pics... next year (:

Tat tong, my producer came to the launch :)

He produced both my mandarin songs,

and he was the one that helped kick-start my writing process..

Thank you Tat.

So grateful that many important people in my life came to support (:

Love you all from the bottom of my heart!

Fatt my musician/friend/busking partner/mentor, My papa mama,

my sister, my dearie friends since JC - Kong Chew & Gigi

Spotted my cd on the shelves for the first time,

it's now out on all CD Rama stores (:

Went on Radio YES 933 for the first time

and really enjoyed myself chatting with Ivy (:

It wasn't as scary as i thought!

Auditioned for busking license, got through,

then busked on the streets for the first time, and felt a kind of joy i've never experienced before

when i saw people stop to listen and groove to the tunes (:

Check out my video here on XINMSN - Tay Kexin 'Prove Myself' MV 郑可欣《勇敢证明》MV

WORK HARD, PLAY HARD

My first Java Jazz experience was with fellow musicians,

we flew to Jakarta for a 3 days filled with nothing but great music :D

In all-singaporean/kiasu-fashion, we queued 2 hours earlier for the legend Stevie Wonder's show,

and stood first row right in the middle!!!

I took up diving in the far-flung beaches of Perhentian..

What a great year (:

2013, i'm going to WORK HARDER and PLAY HARDER!!

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Yes, it's official,
i'm hitting the streets with Fatt to busk!

I've done so many different kinds of gigs; weddings, corporate Dnds, car/watch/fashion launches,
but i've never sung on the streets before!
So fatt and I decided to reach out to a wider audience this Christmas,
and what better way than busking???

Of course, we had to apply for the busking license, mind you we are the "fine" city,
so several months back, we auditioned with the National Arts Council at the National Library...

Back then we bought a Roland BA-330 portable speakers from Swee Lee

but we later realized some problems with it.

The folks at Swee Lee were so kind to refund us even after we used it for the audition!!

A month later, we were notified of our successful application!!

Thanks to the panel of judges who put us through!

A little teaser video during Christmas to kick-start our busking!

Day 1 - Busking in the rain?

It was not a good start for Operation Busking.

Hours before, the skies were grey,

parking was torturously hard to find at Wheelock place,

and we had to park nearby because there were so much barang we had to bring for busking!!!

Thankfully, we had the help of so many kind souls,

who braved through the rain for me just to kick start the operation *touched

Here's peipei my holding the brollie for everyone else lugging the

1) portable speakers

2) fatt's footdrums + high stool

and other barangs out of my small car.

It was a struggle handling all the stuff in the rain,

little and daphne in the picture below... struggling on the right!

and Sam on the left hand arm holding the portable speakers, another the brolly...

poor guys..

The rain was so bad we had to evacuate to the underpass connecting Ion to wheelock!

The traffic was great and there was natural acoustics in the tunnel hehe

We only managed to sing 3 songs before the security came to chase us away..

we were so loud Breadtalk could hear us oops lol..

Here are my helpers!

And Justin on the left who came to film us!!

Day 1 concluded rather abruptly and we were unfortunately unable to do further busking :(

Day 2 - Sunshine after the rain!
We almost thought we couldn't make it
but heaven didn't let us down and showered us with weather-goodness!!!

It was, in my opinion, an awesomee weather!
The cool breeze after the rain made our busking experience a real "breeze" hehe (pardon the pun),
and the response was overwhelmingly great!

After scribbling some words on a cardboard,

we are ready to hit it!!