INCH CHUA
If you recall, Inch Chua was featured last year when she released her solo EP – a marked difference from her time withlovethe band Allura.
love
Anyway, the 21-year-old singer-songwriter has been invited to perform at South By Southwest (SXSW), seen as one of the key music market festivals on the music calendar. But this year is beginning to look bright for her. Apart from SXSW, she’s got an album in the works and she may be spreading her wings around the region. She held a fund-raising gig last Friday to allay travel costs for SXSW, and here’s what she had to say about heading over to Texas.
********love
love
So how and why did you apply for SXSW? How? It’s like the rest of the other bands, you just need to apply. But the thing is, the selection process is really tedious so when the called me and said “we’d like you to come”, I was like, “cool”! Why? Well, three bands have already gone to SXSW and I kind of thought it would be cool to try and see if I get it or not. It wasn’t really my intention that I HAD to be at SXSW. My main focus is really my album release this year, but I thought, “okay lah, hantam bola, see whether I get it”. So I was so surprised in December when they said I was selected.
love
Your show on Friday was meant to raise funds for your SXSW trip. But what exactly did the people pay for? It’s going to cover travel costs, airfare, we need to rent a van to get around Austin. We’re trying to get sponsorship – er, so far none have replied! But apparently, it’s the same case every year we realised. Like sponsors don’t come in so early – only after the media has covered something then they will approach. But we’ve also applied for a couple of grants with the NAC and the SIF.
love
What’s you’re set like for SXSW? Tentatively it’s on the first day of the event and we’re going to do a breakdown electronica set with Mark John.
love
Other than your gig, have you planned to do anything else? There are so many bands I want to watch! Cheap Trick is playing, a Japanese band Chatmonchy and the Magic Numbers are also playing. And I’m hopeing that someone is there to watch and hopefully we can strike something. Its kind of pointless to organise gigs there, because nobody knows you, so we’re trying to arrange for appearances on college radio there.
love
But seriously, how do you feel about it? I’m looking forward to it. This is the first time I’m going out of the region to do the show. And because I’m an artiste, they’ve given me a full pass for the conference, which I’m also excited about. There’ll be really big speakers who are going to talk about band management and music management, which I feel is really important. There are not many people in Singapore who have that kind of knowledge. There’s a conference on everyday so I’m looking forward to that!
It’s a good thing we’re going to SXSW because of the exposure, but the bad thing is that my entire schedule for the album has to be cramped back. Plus there’s a lot going on in school right now. And I’m planning a festival in March.
love
What’s the album going to be like? Have you started recording?We’re recording the demo, so that we can have a smooth recording session in the studio, the release is coming out in July with a gig at the Esplanade. I guess The Bedroom was an intro to what my music is about, and to put me away from the Allura music. And I kind of want to do something more, more electronic folk stuff. Very basic, very organic. Everything is written by me, but I’ll probably get Mark John to play guitar and Adam Shah to drum for me and a couple of people to help out on instruments that I can’t play myself!
love
So there’s SXSW, the album, then what? I’m graduating in Maylove and I’ve already spoken to my family members and they’ve all agreed I’m allowed to go full time for a year. So I’m going to do my best. I’m so glad that I have family that’s so supportive because I really want to do this. I might be touring China. Willy’s still working on that. So hopefully that works. But for now, we’ll see what happens and how the album turns out.
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If you recall, Inch Chua was featured last year when she released her solo EP – a marked difference from her time withlovethe band Allura.
love
Anyway, the 21-year-old singer-songwriter has been invited to perform at South By Southwest (SXSW), seen as one of the key music market festivals on the music calendar. But this year is beginning to look bright for her. Apart from SXSW, she’s got an album in the works and she may be spreading her wings around the region. She held a fund-raising gig last Friday to allay travel costs for SXSW, and here’s what she had to say about heading over to Texas.
********love
So how and why did you apply for SXSW? How? It’s like the rest of the other bands, you just need to apply. But the thing is, the selection process is really tedious so when the called me and said “we’d like you to come”, I was like, “cool”! Why? Well, three bands have already gone to SXSW and I kind of thought it would be cool to try and see if I get it or not. It wasn’t really my intention that I HAD to be at SXSW. My main focus is really my album release this year, but I thought, “okay lah, hantam bola, see whether I get it”. So I was so surprised in December when they said I was selected.
love
Your show on Friday was meant to raise funds for your SXSW trip. But what exactly did the people pay for? It’s going to cover travel costs, airfare, we need to rent a van to get around Austin. We’re trying to get sponsorship – er, so far none have replied! But apparently, it’s the same case every year we realised. Like sponsors don’t come in so early – only after the media has covered something then they will approach. But we’ve also applied for a couple of grants with the NAC and the SIF.
love
What’s you’re set like for SXSW? Tentatively it’s on the first day of the event and we’re going to do a breakdown electronica set with Mark John.
love
Other than your gig, have you planned to do anything else? There are so many bands I want to watch! Cheap Trick is playing, a Japanese band Chatmonchy and the Magic Numbers are also playing. And I’m hopeing that someone is there to watch and hopefully we can strike something. Its kind of pointless to organise gigs there, because nobody knows you, so we’re trying to arrange for appearances on college radio there.
love
But seriously, how do you feel about it? I’m looking forward to it. This is the first time I’m going out of the region to do the show. And because I’m an artiste, they’ve given me a full pass for the conference, which I’m also excited about. There’ll be really big speakers who are going to talk about band management and music management, which I feel is really important. There are not many people in Singapore who have that kind of knowledge. There’s a conference on everyday so I’m looking forward to that!
It’s a good thing we’re going to SXSW because of the exposure, but the bad thing is that my entire schedule for the album has to be cramped back. Plus there’s a lot going on in school right now. And I’m planning a festival in March.
love
What’s the album going to be like? Have you started recording?We’re recording the demo, so that we can have a smooth recording session in the studio, the release is coming out in July with a gig at the Esplanade. I guess The Bedroom was an intro to what my music is about, and to put me away from the Allura music. And I kind of want to do something more, more electronic folk stuff. Very basic, very organic. Everything is written by me, but I’ll probably get Mark John to play guitar and Adam Shah to drum for me and a couple of people to help out on instruments that I can’t play myself!
love
So there’s SXSW, the album, then what? I’m graduating in Maylove and I’ve already spoken to my family members and they’ve all agreed I’m allowed to go full time for a year. So I’m going to do my best. I’m so glad that I have family that’s so supportive because I really want to do this. I might be touring China. Willy’s still working on that. So hopefully that works. But for now, we’ll see what happens and how the album turns out.
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