I’ve taken a few days to rest and condense my thoughts before I blog this entry.
First of all, I just want to say ‘Thank you’ for coming to the concert. I never take any support for granted (even from close friends), your presence really meant a lot to me. I feel ‘touched’, but the feelings of ‘touched’ differ slightly for different groups of people. For those I’ve known for a long time (friends), thank you for being my first support whenever I need any. For people I came to know because of my music, I like how I get to remember your names (and slowly your faces) through Facebook interaction, and saying hi at performances. It’s interesting because someone messaged me via Facebook after the concert and said, “I don’t know if it means anything to You, but i want to say it’s a great album, You sing well, keep it up. i’ll be getting Your next cd as well.” I was amused, because why would it not mean anything to me? When a songwriter puts something out to the Universe, it is almost life-sustaining to receive feedback. So, don’t ever doubt me!
First and foremost, what I truly relished about the concert, was the chance to share. I love to write songs, but I don’t write in huge volumes, because my songs are more often than not my personal stories, or inspirations from close friends. Sharing the songs, and sharing the thoughts behind them is enjoyable and most satisfactory for me (relative to the other plus like getting my posters at Esplanade, or dolling up etc). Even if it means doing stupid things like tripping or falling on stage (ha!), I’ll be glad to do it all over again. All I can say about that is, accidents are accidents, and I’m not going to go the ‘what if I had xxx’ way because my logical mind tells me there is no ‘what if’ in reality. My personal belief is that things happen for a reason, and if I ever get close enough to understand and connect the dots backward, I’ll be happy to share with you why it had happened. Maybe the simple answer is, the Universe (also) wants me to share with the audience that I’m really quite an accident-prone person in real life. I wouldn’t be too surprised, really. Now you know the real me 🙂
So we were there from 2pm that day, and I wore my thickest possible clothes for the setup and soundcheck/tech run to stop me from shivering too much by the end of the day :/ (I hate cold, and I rarely sleep with air-conditioning on, yay –> save electricity.) The Esplanade team was so professional and patient with the band (we had too many things to hook up to the system!). I have to give kudos to my superb band members: James (piano), Fatt (guitar), Melvin (bass), Shawn (percussion/drum), Brandon (cello), Yili (violin). Without them, the music couldn’t have been as goodie good! I just wished we had time to take more photos backstage! More here.
And for those of you who commented that I didn’t speak as much Mandarin during the concert, my decision hinged on the fact that there were quite many non-Chinese among the audience (Koreans, Filipinos, Malays, French, German, etc), and that cemented my decision to not speak too much Mandarin because I recall how it feels like when I go to a concert and the singer starts speaking in…. Cantonese :p
I also enjoyed meeting up with some of you at the ‘Meet & Greet’ session. I’m never NOT curious about how you got to know about my music, cos it matters!
This, is my favourite:
I’m hoping to have more performances in the next 2-3 months. Will post more information here when I get them!
Special thanks to:
Shunji Matsuo (Kenji, for my lovely hairdo)
Caramel (for the lovely turquoise dress)
The Makeup Room (Jyue Huey for the wonderful makeup)
S2S Team: Malou, Matt, Dean, Fabian, Kristen, Adriana, Lilin i.e. my village for moving mountains and seas! Would also like to thank Ken Suzuki: even though you’re not with us, you continue to live in me 🙂
Esplanade’s team and professionals: Clarence, Winnie, Dino, Dalton (and all others who helped us during sound and lights setup, sorry I can’t remember all your names, but I remember your faces!)
Chester Tan (for the wonderful piano accompaniment for ‘A Love Song’)
Adriana for her lovely photos (for the slides)
Wei Long (Official photographer)
YOU – I hope you enjoyed! 🙂
