Top Ten Songcraft Memories

Here are my top ten memories of the past one year of Songcraft (in chronological order):

1 – In The Beginning: Arriving at the Substation on the 27th of April ‘07 (the very first Songcraft session) with a mixture of apprehension, anxiety and excitement all rolled into one. I remember that the first people I met at the Substation were Betty and Sanny. I had absolutely NO idea what to expect that night. No idea as to what was going to happen. No idea who was going to come. No idea if the circle would last more than one or two gatherings after that. I had even prepared a short presentation on “tips and techniques in songwriting” which I was ready to lecture on in case we ran out of songs to share and nobody wanted to go up to share.

(the good ol’ Substation days)

2 – “Joyful Song”: Hearing HL’s “Praise Him” tune for the first time, at the very first session. At that time, it was given the working title “Joyful Song”, and there were no lyrics written to it. (It was only a few months later that Betty wrote the lyrics to the tune.) I absolutely loved the tune! It haunted me for the many weeks leading up to the second session. I still remember being awed by the chords and arrangements which HL used. And I also remember she wrote them all out on an A5 exercise book. Impressive!

3 – Firdaus: Firdaus, on his first time at Songcraft, saying “it’s my song, so I can do whatever I want”. Also, I’ll always remember how Firdaus totally wowed everyone present that night with his song “I Do, I Do”. It was probably the most moving performance we’d ever heard up till that point.

4 – Low Point: The session on 27th July ‘07, our lowest turnout ever. There were only 7 people including myself that night. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit discouraged after that night. I wondered if that was as far as the Songcraft Songwriting Circle would go. I thought “could this be the beginning of the end?” But thankfully, my fears were unfounded.

(sigh…so many empty chairs)

5 – What A Riot!: All the guys singing along to Betty’s “It Don’t Matter (When You’re Here)” when she presented it for the first time. You had to be there. It was a riot! Definitely one of the funniest song-sharing moments we ever had!

(beautiful montage done by Betty)

6 – A New Chapter: Our first session at Studio One of the YMS Arts Centre on the 26th of Oct ‘07. New home, new beginning. It also marked a turning point for me, cos I started to write many more piano songs from then onwards!

(my best Dick Lee impression)

7 – Losing One’s Self In The Song: Kah Loong suddenly remembering that he was playing without his music scores at the year-end concert in Dec ‘07, after playing through his entire intro to “Thank You” (with his head down). Must have been the nerves, haha!

(concert signage)

8 – Year-End Concert: Of course, the entire year-end concert experience was highly unforgettable. From the frantic preparations to the roller-coaster of emotions on the actual concert day to the viewing of the recording afterwards…everything was just incredible. One particular memorable moment was when I held the freshly-printed concert programme booklet in my hands. The feeling of flipping through the pages was just indescribable!

(concert programme booklet cover)

9 – Open Mic: Our very successful outing at the Arts Cafe’s open mic session on the 28th of Dec ‘07. (Amazing, considering the venue was changed at the very very last minute!) A number of us even went up to perform our originals, which definitely made an impact on the largely cover-version crowd that night. I think we managed to convince some people that originals aren’t always lousier than covers.

(gathering at Arts Cafe Open Mic)

10 – The Songs: It’s always about the songs, baby! Songcraft wouldn’t be Songcraft if not for all the wonderful original songs.

What are your best memories of Songcraft?