Singing of better days

SINGAPORE — It was an attack that had stunned the world over. In July, a cargo truck was deliberately driven into crowds celebrating Bastille Day in Nice, France, killing 86 people and injuring more than 400.

The incident had so affected Singapore pop duo Scarlet Avenue’s manager Eric Wong, that he, together with the band, decided to respond in the best way they knew how — with a song.

Wong, who is also the founder of Scarlet Avenue’s label, United Records, told TODAY that he was in the south of France in mid-July, attending the Mix With The Masters course conducted by American mix engineer Chris Lord-Alge when he heard the news of the attack.

“I still remember my course mates and I were watching the Bastille Day fireworks when news broke out on the TV screen about a truck that drove into the crowds in the street of Nice where people were celebrating,” Wong recalled. “Only the next day would we discover that 84 people were killed and many of them were children and teenagers.”

Now, the band and Wong, hope the new single Better Days can uplift people living in places that have been affected by such attacks.

“We wanted to tell Nice and other areas affected by terrorism that we need to stand together and reach out to one another in hopes of a better day and that we are gonna be alright,” Wong explained. “So based on the French national motto of Equality, Freedom and Brotherhood, we started on the project.”

Scarlet Avenue, which comprises siblings Adam and Amos Ang, released its first full-length album 2024 back in March, which hit number one on the iTunes Album Charts on the day of its release.

The track Better Days was produced by Wong and written by Scarlet Avenue as well as Will Lamb, a Nashville songwriter who used to write for Big Machine — American songbird Taylor Swift’s record label.

Music tracks were contributed from all over the world by the producers who had attended the Mix With The Masters course with Wong. “When all of us felt moved to do the song, we had to allocate different course mates to record and produce different aspects of the song,” Wong said, “so drums were recorded by one of the participants Marco Marin in the UK, bass by HB Abels in the USA and so on”.

Vocals were recorded in Singapore while mixing was done in the famous SilverHill Studios in Hungary.

The song will have an English as well as a French version that will be released on Sept 11, and Scarlet Avenue is singing both versions.

Wong hopes to raise funds through the song for a beneficiary in Nice.

“We believe that we can do good and share the message of reaching out to one another despite how terrorism has changed our modern world,” he said. “We also hope that we can work with a French company to share the song in Europe and share the purpose behind this international project.”

Scarlet Avenue’s Better Days will be available on all digital platforms on Sept 11.