Here are some of the colourful people we’ve gotten to know over the 4 Songcraft sessions thus far. It’s really great to meet such wonderful music-loving people here in Singapore who also share the passion for making music.
It’s also very interesting to note how we all have our own different qualities, strengths, and influences.
Here they are in no particular order: (this list is by no means comprehensive)
Ivan
- Also known as the “instant guitar-solo machine”. Play him a song – any song, for the first time and he’ll come up with the accompanying guitar riffs & solos on-the-spot. (How he does it is simply beyond me.)
- Plays a mean electric guitar and reminds one of Joe Satriani.
- Is a whiz at audio recording & sound engineering, and loves creating music tracks on his GarageBand.
- Tends to create “ambient” tracks that predominantly feature excellent Satriani-ish guitar licks, layered with interesting soundscaping effects.
- Favourite line: “Can I do a cover of your song?”
Kah Loong (Jerron)
- Known for writing “painfully sincere” love songs, which are extremely touching & heartfelt.
- Writes tuneful, sentimental pop-oriented songs, most of which are romantic in nature.
- Is pretty adept at home recording using GarageBand as well.
- Has the ability to produce songs of varying genres, e.g. Pet Shop Boys style, disco style.
- Tends to apologize profusely (like, a thousand times) before presenting every song. In other words, he’s extremely modest.
- Famous song: She’s Too Young (partly because of the very interesting title)
Betty
- The resident “expert harmoniser” of the group. She is able to suss out and sing the accompanying harmonies to our songs most adeptly. (If ever you need someone to sing harmonies to your song, she is the person to look for.)
- Adept at writing lyrics to an existing tune. Her lyrics usually deal with elements like “stars”, “moon”, “sea”, and “time”.
- Loves collaborations, especially being the lyricist.
- Loves associating a new song she hears to something else she’s heard before, e.g. a Barney sing-along.
- Possesses a musical style which is uniquely her own, both pertaining to the lyrics and the melodies.
- Famous song: It Don’t Matter When You’re Here (the Rodgers & Hammerstein-sounding “bloated fish, frazzled cat” song)
Firdaus
- The guy with the trusty old guitar who never ceases to amaze with his refreshing brand of music.
- Comes up with fantastic melodies and very real lyrics. He’s a natural when it comes to songwriting.
- Has the ability to write fun, chirpy, breezy, sing-along songs, and yet is also able to write poignant, touching, makes-you-wanna-cry sentimental songs.
- Great at lyric-writing, and doesn’t simply write run-of-the-mill stuff. It is always very interesting to listen out for his lyrics.
- Famous quote: “It’s my song so I can do whatever I want.”
Chris
- Grunge rocker to the core. Writes songs which remind me of Stone Temple Pilots.
- Great singer with great voice.
- Has the ability to write high-quality, polished rock songs.
- Always creating songs on the move, and uses his phone to record flashes of inspiration wherever he goes. (A true songwriter!)
- Famous song: Ashes (It’s as good as any grunge-rock song on radio)
Chin Hon
- Writes songs predominantly for girls.
- Tends to write chirpy, sing-along guitar-based songs.
- His songs are usually based on real-life experiences (which make them much more real).
- Famous song: Carmen (memorable because it also shares the same name as the famous Bizet opera)
Marcel
- Great voice. (But of course! He’s the lead singer of my band.)
- Writes songs which are basically rock in nature, but likes to add a tinge of blues flavour to them.
- Has the ability to write catchy, memorable rock tunes.
- Famous song: 27 and Nothing (a song with great lyrics which talks about the well-known “27 club” which includes Hendrix, Joplin and Cobain)
Jeremy
- Always writing music that sounds 60’s-ish. (Probably listened to way too much Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel in his lifetime.)
- High on passion, low on talent.
- Known for meticulously building his songs line by line, from the very first line to the last.
- Tends to write seemingly-profound lyrics in order to pass himself off as a (fake) serious lyricist.
- Loves the piano but tends to write songs on the guitar.
- Famous song: But Nobody Stops To Hear (the Irish folk sing-along pub anthem, a.k.a. “the beer song” as nicknamed by Ivan)
[...] Songcraft Blog: Meet The Songcrafters! [...]
HAHAHAHAHA, I like this blog entry LOTssss! ;)
[...] treated us to 3 of his songs. As described here, Chris to me is a grunge-rocker at [...]
Hey, you forgot to describe yourself! Excellent round-up… for the rest. I think you “oversold” me lah. I listened to my so-called solos from last session. Not that great. Heh. Oh, you should put this post as a regular page in this blog. Great idea to feature the people. That’s what Songcraft is about in my opinion — matching people with music.
Oops, my mistake. You did include yourself already!