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JJ Lin jams with Apple’s Tim Cook

SINGAPORE — Guess who Singapore singer JJ Lin's new “bandmate” is?

Singapore singer JJ Lin with Apple CEO Tim Cook. Photo: Warner Music

Singapore singer JJ Lin with Apple CEO Tim Cook. Photo: Warner Music

SINGAPORE — Guess who Singapore singer JJ Lin's new “bandmate” is?

The latest video on his Facebook page, which was posted Tuesday (May 17), showed the award-winning crooner jamming to an oriental tune with Apple chief executive Tim Cook on the GarageBand app, before breaking into guffaws at the end of the clip.

“Jamming my song The Key with a new friend Tim Cook on the new GarageBand!” said Lin on the Facebook post accompanying the video upload.

The clip, which has garnered more than 130,000 views and more than 950 shares since it was posted at 9am, coincided with a new update to Apple’s GarageBand. The update “celebrates the rich history of Chinese music with new instruments and extensive Chinese language localisation throughout the app,” said Apple, in a press release on Tuesday.

The update will add traditional Chinese instruments, such as the pipa, erhu and Chinese percussion, along with 300 Apple-created Chinese musical loops into the app, which will then allow users to create their own music. iOS users will also get new sharing options to popular Chinese social networks QQ and Youku.

Responding to TODAY's queries, Lin, 35, said he was invited by Apple to try out the new update. Even though he was "quite nervous" meeting Cook and would stutter while talking to him, Lin said he got over it quickly, and had fun teaching him how to play his new song.

"Through this collaboration, we realised that we have the same perspective as the (Apple) team," he said. "We hope to be able to reach out to more people and let them know the fun and convenience of music," he said, adding that both parties had challenged themselves in the past two years to add more enjoyable elements into their music. 

Lin also said in the press release that he is "always looking for ways to take my music in new directions".

"GarageBand has been such a great tool for me to experiment and add new elements to my songs on-the-go,” he added.

“I love how the latest update to GarageBand adds traditional Chinese instruments along with brand new loops so I can play around with mixing traditional and modern sounds to create completely new styles.”

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