Lonely Afternoon

Gramophone called me yesterday evening to inform that 120 copies have been sold so far!

According to JS and friends, it’s actually a good number for someone
doing indie in Singapore. Hmmm. I don’t know what to feel. Maybe cos
I’m comparing this number to the total of 1000 copies :p

I think radio shows did help me a lot to reach out to many people I
do not know. I certainly do not want to do an album to sell to only my
friends - I mean, I can always share my demos with them  right!? The
core reason doing up this album, is to share my songs with people from
different walks of life yet share the stories of these songs. So yeah,
radios rock!

But I did share my thoughts with a friend recently, after he
commented he hopes I’ll come up with ‘more albums of this sort’.
Honestly I would LOVE TO!!!

But. But. But. But it certainly depends on sales of this album,
because I’m already making a loss doing this project (there’s no way I
can ‘profit’ out of it unless I go for reprint), and if I cannot even
get back a substantial part of the cost, I really don’t think I can
cough out another sum of money on my own to do a 2nd ep or a
full-length. As much as I’d like to share more songs, common sense
tells me you can’t be bleeding money like this even record labels with more money will say no.

This past month has been great so far though, in terms of the
support I’m getting from Y.E.S 93.3fm, Love97.2fm, 1003fm, U mag, Life!
The Straits Times. I’m certainly not complaining…..I just hope sales
will continue to be just as good

Yeah! Another review!

Thanks to Tina! Again, U Mag can choose not to do a music review and publish it, but they chose to help. Really thankful! (,”)

I love them love them love them!

L-R: Jonathan Lim (Sax & Flute), Myself, Tien-yao (Guitar), Matthew (Piano)

We were at Esplande’s backstage doing last-min cam-whoring (23 Jan
08). This is the only normal one after mad-boy Tien-yao finally got his
new cam to take it with timed-mode.

Ken has invited me to come back again to sing song requests live on-air tomorrow (26 Feb, Tue) from 11pm to 12am! Wow. I’m roping in mad-boy Tien-yao and talented keyboardist Ein Ein (from Superband Amber) to make it a fun one. Do listen in if you’re free!

I have no choice but to upload shorter clips of the songs to MySpace Music.
Thanks to the people who have been clicking on the songs to listen to
them…but this is a step I need to take to protect my music, I suppose.
If you like what you hear, I hope that you will go and buy a copy to
support me for the hard work I’ve gone through to bring this music to
you.

Merci Beaucoup (”,)

I slept at 4am the night before, and at 7am++, Hsin Yeow phoned me
and yelled into my ear: “Samuel wrote your review! It’s on Life
today!!!!!”

He couldn’t help but read out the whole thing to me…and in my
half-asleep half-dreaming mode, I remember asking him “Oh…So is it good
or bad huh?”.

Bevlyn, you’re such an idiot. Of course it’s good it’s on the local newspapers!!!!!

WAH!!!

Fantastic birthday gift for me

Ok. The radio show was really a blast.

Of course I was sorely disappointed I couldn’t sound as good as I
want to be (I shall not write down all the reasons, lest they sound
like excuses). I’ll just accept as it was. But other than the singing
part, the rest was great beyond my imagination.

#1, I was strangely curious why Kangyang seemed to be so daring to talk to Ken like they are old donkey friends (refer #3).

#2, I didn’t imagine that Ken would actually arrange for a birthday cake to celebrate my birthday with me. WAAHHH!

#3, as if #2 wasn’t enough to make me fall off my chair, Ken had to
conspire with Kangyang to get contact numbers to 5 of my great friends
so he could record their birthday wishes for me and play on-air. Fwah!
*Apparently all 5 of my friends were traumatised by Ken lol*

If you’re wondering why I was wearing a coat fit for an Eskimo
(apparently it was Ken’s), it’s because the studio was COLD UNTIL~~~~~~.

 

 

I am mad.

I have put my music on MySpace Music for people who don’t know me to
hear the songs. My rational is: I am unknown, and for people to even
consider buying the album, they need to at least hear it first before
making a fair decision.

I was triggered because Lim Chun’s friend asked him why he needs to buy the cd when he can listen to the songs online?

It is indeed very discouraging. I have no big labels to throw money
on me, it’s just me and my kind friends who helped out to make the
music. If you do enjoy the songs, why make these kind of remarks?

I was lamenting to Kangyang, and his consolation put me right back
on track:”People who say this means they will not buy CDs no matter
what”.

I.e., they are just download pirates.

I’m not saying indie music is hence privileged and deserves special
attention. Local music or not, I think we usually buy CDs when it’s
music we like. At the very least, you buy because you want to support
the artiste, or because you know they need the money to go further with
the music you like.

I don’t know. I’ve been getting very ambivalent feelings about this
online-preview/cd thing. Maybe because it’s still a new concept to many
people, and both musicians and listeners are hence not mature enough to
know what to do with it.

Some people chided me for putting my music on MySpace for people to
listen for free. But again, I understand that people NEED to listen to
know what they are buying.

It’s ironic that while technology has helped musicians a whole lot
over recent years,  musicians are gradually slaughtered by technology
because there is still no way out of piracy.

I guess it’s really hard for non-musicians to imagine how there’s a
part of what you’re working for gets drained out so quickly, without
control, without stoppage.

So tell me, what will you do if it’s you?

Ok here’s the radio interview clip Lee Lian had kindly recorded for me. If you had missed it, here it is:

Click to listen

There were so many moments I had to laugh secretly (tou1 xiao4)
behind the mics cos of things only Lee Lian and I know hehehe . I think
I sounded a bit weird with the stuffed nose tsk tsk - i.e. i am not
really that wen1 rou2 lol.

Also, a big thank you to all those who have asked if I’m performing
anywhere right now. Unfortunately my contract with One Rochester has
expired (usually these places don’t extend more than 6 months), and I’m
sourcing for new venues right now. So for now, the only way is if
you’re getting married soon hohoho, or at corporate events. As for
performances of music from my ep, I’m trying to fix a couple, hope to
bring good news soon! (”,)

Yes I know it’s a bit late…but better late than never. Thanks to Wenyang for uploading it to Utube.
Short clip of ‘Anymore’

And a great photo Tze Ching has just sent me..