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, 

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

thanks to Toshiba :)


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 (: 




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!!!



What a great year (:
2013, i'm going to WORK HARDER and PLAY HARDER!!

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Street-Busking "Get Set 就走!"

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!! 

My trusty busking partner.. Mr FATT KEW!!! (and i'm not swearing)
Legendary footdrummer/guitarist, inventor of "Fingerstyle guitar" iphone app.. that's him! 
Visit www.lickbyneck.com or download "fingerstyle guitar" if you want to learn guitar now!


The crowd started to gather after a few songs...
Confidence boost indeed!

I don't know if it's the spirit of christmas that got everyone into the mood of giving, 
but i was really touched by people when they started to make "donations" to us!! 

That's me soliciting money from the minor.. 
no seriously the baby is sucha a cutie!! 
i was trying to hold his hands hahah





 Surprised by everyone's generosity by the end of our 45mins set! 
Thank you all for your kind donation!! 

Even had really sweet people coming up to take photos with me (: 

This little girl is simply adorable!!


 Thank you CHA BAN SHENG for the sound system!!
I had such a difficult time looking for a good one..
and diya/carrie agreed to lend it to us without any hesitation..
Truly touched by your kindness!!!! T_T

We will be back for more!!
Like me on my facebook to stay updated on our appearances!! :D
Check out this video for some shots of our busking - Tay Kexin 'Prove Myself' MV 郑可欣《勇敢证明》MV