Singapore’s Noise-making alumni will be part of a concert this weekend

SINGAPORE – Question: What do rapper ShiGGa Shay, singer-songwriters iNCH and Jaime Wong, and rock band wyd:syd have in common? Answer: They are all former participants of Noise Singapore’s The Music Mentorship programme (TMM), and they will be performing today and tomorrow at the Noise Alumni Concerts. This year’s do also marks the 10th anniversary of the initiative that was kickstarted by the National Arts Council (NAC).

Kenneth Kwok, director of Arts & Youth at the NAC, said the “alumni show”, which also features acts such as JAWN, Take Two, Enec.e (pronounced “anecdote”), Sa and The Summer State, is a way to mark Noise Singapore’s “10 years of supporting the interest and aspirations of young people in the arts in Singapore”.

“Many of our young musicians have gone on to become successful names in the industry, such as ShiGGa Shay and iNCH. (Noise) is definitely an important stepping stone for emerging musicians, but still just one of many factors that has contributed to the rising interest in the Singapore music scene in recent years,” said Kwok.

Here several of the previous Noise mentees – iNCH, ShiGGa Shay, Enec.e, Jaime Wong, wyd:syd and Tim De Cotta – talk about their past experiences

Q: How did Noise/TMM directly affect your career?

INCH CHUA: The Music Mentorship programme holds a dear place in my heart, and It has benefited me in many ways. I had my first press article at the age of 16, and that was big deal for me. It gave me exposure on a national level for the very first time, and provided the platform for me to play live, all this whilst I was a very young artiste.

SHIGGA SHAY: TMM has definitely impacted my career, because it’s brought my relationship with (producer) Don Richmond to another level, provided an intimate producer-artist relationship that I couldn’t have afforded five years ago. Like, to have that kind of a relationship, you’d usually have to pay a lot of money. The TMM programme has helped me create a bond with Don, a mentor-mentee bond, and he looked out for me like a mentor guiding a young kid on the block trying to learn as much as he can. That really created a huge platform for my career to start with, and that was a big push for me and today I’m still working with Don. My most recent album was mixed and mastered by him.

EUGENE HUANG FROM WYD:SYD: TMM was first programme that really helped us elevate our skills as musicians and people who could contribute to the local music scene. We learnt a lot from the mentors who exposed us to sides of the industry we had no previous experience with and frankly did not know existed. It helped raise our bar a few notches with their guidance.

TIM DE COTTA: I was part of Noise when I was supporting neoDominatrix on bass. I was also playing for iNCH not knowing that she came out of the first batch of Noise mentees. I was developing my art along the way, independently and with my many other projects. Soon, I started to see more and more great artistes come from the programme too. I support a lot of them in my curation around the island with The Getai Group, my arts curation label. I also got to know a lot of people behind the Noise programme. In the agencies and government bodies that support the arts, people were noticing and appreciating what I was doing too, in my music with TAJ and my solo project Tim De Cotta x The Warriors.

I think knowing that Noise is around adds confidence that there are programmes in arts and music on the island that bother about grooming talent and progressing our culture and identity. I have also been able to work with the Hubbabubbas, Lewis Loh, Zeeaura and JAWN, all of whom I curate regularly in any shows that pop up to promote or gimbal content. Even more so with JAWN these days as I also session on bass for him!

LISA HARYONO FROM ENEC.E: As a band and personally, Noise definitely provided a breakthrough for us, granting us both insight and experience in the local music industry. We have received several opportunities through Noise, which in turn has allowed us to gain exposure and better ourselves musically, as well as performing live.

JAIME WONG; Noise gave me many opportunities I feel that were hard to come by for a newcomer like me at that time. We got to go on radio, television programs, magazines and gain exposure through those opportunities. I probably did a bad job during those interviews but I’d like to think I am better at it now because of those experiences. Sara Wee, my mentor, also taught me a lot about stage etiquette and performance techniques that we cannot learn from the internet. I still employ what I learnt from her in my performances today. Not to mention, the grant I got from Noise kickstarted my debut EP. It’d probably be hard for me to do so if not for the financial support I got from Noise and the National Arts Council. Noise also allowed me entry to a very supportive community. I am friends with many Noise participants and the Noise staff, past and present and it has been an important support system for me.

Q: What was the most important thing you learnt from Noise/TMM?

INCH: The mentorship programme was the best thing about The Music Mentorship. I learnt a lot from my mentor, Desmond Goh from Electrico, who inspired me greatly. Also, if it weren’t for Desmond, I would not have met Leonard Soosay who continues to be one of my biggest mentors and closest friends. Together, they brought me and the band down to watch Electrico jam and just to see how another band functions. That, for me, was the most inspiring takeaway. The fact that Noise Singapore, after all these years, remain committed to mentoring aspiring talents, it proves to be a programme that’s tried, tested and works.

SHIGGA: The importance of always staying humble, always being open to learning new things and expanding your creativity in all ways, that’s what the whole mentorship programme taught me the most. Don was teaching me things that I wasn’t learning as a rapper. He taught me how to make a hit record, making records that were more relatable, that people could connect with. He showed me how to step out of my box and to open myself up to different ideas.

EUGENE: We now have a stronger appreciation for the people around us; it is through the support of each other and with fellow musicians that makes have a career in the music industry worthwhile. A strong support network could make your journey as a musician much easier especially when you’re able to trade tips and tap on the collective industry know-how. It helps to widen our horizons and lets us see things in a different perspective. A lack of support could be detrimental to a musician’s journey towards achieving his ambitions.

TIM: That people will always have differing viewpoints and preferences but that doesn’t make you any less of an artist with a message. It should only leave you stronger and more adamant about that. I learnt how the mentors saw the scene and what I liked and disliked about that and also got to develop a camaraderie with the other artists that came out of the programme too, a lot of whose music I still excitedly anticipate today.

LISA: The most important thing we learnt was to stay true to who we were musically. As a three-year-old band, we have understood the importance of being confident in the music we create, as well as developing ourselves and allowing for progress.

JAIME: To be generous and giving of the help you can offer to others in the community. While competition is healthy, and there will always be the pressure to outperform others, our local music scene is still growing and blind competition will hinder its development. I truly feel that it is to everyone’s advantage to help each other out, be it between veterans and newcomers, among newcomers or between stakeholders and the musicians, to build a healthy “ecosystem” for the local music industry. Noise/TMM is an excellent model of that kind of environment.

Q: If you could mentor the next batch of Noise/TMM mentees what key advice would you give them?

INCH: Know what you want and learn how to ask for it, these are the two fundamental things that every artist should learn.

SHIGGA: Always believe in yourself no matter what people tell you. You need to have a really strong vision of what you want to do and who you want to be. Believe in yourself 100 per cent and do what it takes to achieve your dreams.

EUGENE: Even though the pace of life in Singapore is very fast, you should not let your hunger to succeed die. It can be quite easy to lose sight of what you want to achieve when you first start out, so I think it is key that you pace yourself and just keep going.

TIM: I think generally as younger Singaporeans we are showing symptoms of higher degrees of entitlement. I think we still need to see that no matter who we are or what we do we still need to work to make things happen. Don’t do something because you want to be noticed or sponsored or paid well. Do it because you cannot do without it. If you’re looking for fame or recognition there are many ways. If you are looking to find deeper meaning in your art and your life, then put in the hours and never stop being a student. Once you think you have made it, that’s when you’re probably starting your decline. Get back to the drawing board and always remember what you are doing it for.

LISA: Be true and original to who you are and what you produce, there is no satisfaction in conforming or being over confident. Music is extremely personal. Take time to understand your uniqueness.

JAIME: One thing I’ve learnt from first putting my music out there through Noise to the present, five months after the release of my debut EP, is to remember that it should always be about the music. It sounds really cheesy but it is so easy to forget about that and be caught up with social media numbers, and the aesthetics and how much “hype” or “buzz” there is around you. I find that those concerns breed bitterness and negativity which undermines the purpose of art, which is to tell stories or your versions of “truths” that could resonate with complete strangers. Factors like popularity and image are important, but they are not and should not be the drivers behind your music. To me, putting out music that you have created with integrity and sincerity should be what “this” is all about. Having this sort of mentality I believe, will go a long way and probably make you a happier and better person in the long run too.

The Noise Alumni Concerts & Arts Market is on Oct 30 and 31, 5pm to 11pm at the Lawn @ The Foothills at Fort Canning Park (opposite Liang Court). For the concert schedule, visit https://www.noisesingapore.com/Happenings/2015/9/16/Noise-Singapore-2015-Festival.