The Music that Shaped Me, Pt. 1
Some of my colleagues will know that I make electronic music outside of work and school. A stark contrast from the impression I give off (several people throughout my teenage years told me I seemed more like a classical guy).
Truth be told, I wasn’t always into music. Growing up in an average Singaporean Chinese household, my main sources were either the sporadic exposure to radio stations, or more frequently the theme songs of whatever was playing on KidsCentral/Okto (RIP free-to-air kids channels). I still remember and occasionally listen to songs from that period, but for some reason none really compelled me to listen to music more back then.
Perhaps it was the fact that I only got to access the Internet at home around 2009, when I was in Primary 4, so I never thought I could try looking those songs up. In addition, my brother and I apparently refused our mum’s offer to take piano lessons as kids, so there was no interest built up to begin with.
THEN IN 2010, MY LIFE CHANGED.
I vaguely remember heading to the school hall with my class for some PE lesson - only this time instead of playing sports, we were doing some kind of dance routine. I don’t quite remember now. But what I do remember is that as my class was forming up in two rows to head back to class, a music video came up on the projector screen.
The girls squealed, the boys groaned. I couldn’t look away even as we walked out of the hall, my mind enchanted by the chorus going: “Baby, baby, baby, oh”.
Some older folks might already have traumatic memories returning.
A major discovery as I was researching - this was composed in E flat Major, a key signature that I've made some of my favourite compositions in recent years in.
Yes, absurd as it sounds, Justin Bieber changed my life. Literally.
For the rest of my primary school life, I got so obsessed that not only did I get CDs of both his debut album (which includes Baby) and his Christmas album, my maternal aunts even got me his biography (which, like most of my books, now collects dust amidst my bookshelves).
Thou shall bow before my credentials!
As I started getting access to the Internet during this period, I was exposed to a whole new world that was music. In addition, two events would mark my ventures into genres outside of pop.
- In 2006, hip-hop producer Dr. Dre and record label executive Jimmy Iovine founded the audio company Beats Electronics (Beats by Dre in common parlance). I came to know of the brand as it started seeing use in devices like HTC smartphones, and of course seeing ads for the audio gear. Upon hearing that the company was founded by a hip-hop musician, I went to satisfy my curiosity on YouTube, and I left as a fan.
- During the late 2000’s and early 2010’s, electronic dance music was rising in popularity, to the point that it was dominating the radio waves. If you weren’t hearing songs from the likes of Avicii and Swedish House Mafia, you heard pop songs with electronic influences, occasionally provided by producers like David Guetta and Zedd. I stumbled upon this wave and have kept my finger on its pulse since.
By this point in 2013, I had discovered GarageBand on my school-mandated MacBook, and had been messing around for a while. All it took was one song on Hot FM 91.3 (now One FM 91.3) to get me taking music production seriously.
Part of my (delusional) long-term goals as a 15-year-old was to move to the Netherlands so that I could work with Dutch DJ/producers like Hardwell given the prevalence of electronic dance music.
I’m not sure why this was the song that did the trick, but by early 2014 I had put in enough work to decide that I wanted to make music for a living. This would be far from the end of my musical journey, of course.
TIME SKIP - IT IS 2016.
Entering a new phase of schooling is anything but boring - meeting new people, getting used to the whims of different lecturers, and for many students, choosing a CCA.
I already knew that I wanted to join my polytechnic’s Song Composing Club. Some people asked, and I had to explain, that while there was a DJing club that was pretty established, I felt that learning composition would be more beneficial if I was to stay on the path to making music for a living, especially if I could also try my hand at other genres.
I wasn’t ready for what came though.
With any first sessions in a school setting, there are ice breaking activities. But in the case of this club at the time, it ended off with members grouping up to cover a song of their choice. I happened to be in a group with members who were in bands.
Naturally, we covered Metallica’s For Whom the Bell Tolls. Not having any experience playing instruments, I was relegated to sharing the mic with two other members. That could have made me go over to the DJ club, but I guess young, obstinate me was so hung up on wanting to get better at music composition that I stayed.
As part of Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s Arts Fiesta, the club holds annual shows featuring performers from the club. This was from NP Amplify Showcase 2017, where I took photos of the bands playing for a news writing assignment. The lineup that year was made up mostly of existing bands with followings, like Fader and Hollow Threat (pictured here).
With performances being a core part of the club (and composition lessons ironically not as much), I got exposed to a lot more rock and metal than I’d ever heard before (though pop performances were equally abundant), and while they’re still not my absolute favourite genres today, I now listen to and draw inspiration from bands as diverse as Starset, No Party For Cao Dong and Unlucky Morpheus.
At this juncture, I should also bring up the fact that the media plays a big role in how we listen to music, and in a sense I was no different.
THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT IN ACTION
The life-size RX-78-2 statue outside DiverCity in Odaiba, Tokyo during my last visit to Japan. It has since been taken down and replaced with the Unicorn Gundam.
A 2016 trip to Japan resurrected my interest in Japanese media (I finished the 50 episodes and 1 movie that make up Mobile Suit Gundam 00 during the 13-day trip). Coupled with getting into video games like the Final Fantasy and Persona franchises, by Q1 2018, I had gone full weeb.
Just like the anime and tokusatsu series from my childhood, the music from these media was at the very least memorable, if not magical. With every series cleared from my ever-expanding backlog, new songs were added to my music library.
Naturally, I started spending less time listening to the artists of my early teenage years. But as with many things in life, I eventually found myself diving into more rabbit holes.
~ Wei Feng
Images: Myself
0 Comments
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now