i miss ishi

Post-Impresario interview,
I mentioned again that competitions were indeed fertile ground for meeting friends passionate about music.

In fact,
Hong Junyang & Sherlyn Chia, (we were in the same batch in Ocean Butterflies)
Ishi and I -
we were all at that same Impresario Backstage in 2004


i delved into my hard disk folder of My Pictures 2003-2005


This was the only pic I found of the 4 of us :)

And 5 years later,
here we are back again at Impresario
Junyang and Sherlyn as judges,
myself as Publicity Ambassador,
and Ishi in my song :)



I sang my Ishi song live for the very first time
at the same stage we shared 5 years back,
and I found it hard to breathe at these lines...

I wish I knew what you were thinking then
Oh I wish you knew what you were thinking then
I still imagine I can tell you how ridiculous you are
You should call me up and never do such silly things again

But now you're gone
I can't pretend
You wanted out on the bitter end
You slipped away, so quiet so far away~

There were friends in the audience who were from Soul (Ishi's band),
and I sang,
I sang to them,
the only people I knew who would understand.
They shared my connection, and my memories to Ishi.




And here's to him :)


vampire theme for his Superband days,
performance for Ocean Butterflies roadshow,
at our Ocean Butterflies Extraordinary Singers Course Graduation Showcase 2003
supper after Project Superstar days


Ishi was the choreographer for Project Superstar performances,
so we hung out alot during rehearsals
and we sang for an MCYS production - a jingle promoting Marriage!


At the launch of "We Are Married" campaign haha :D

The acapella jingle - arranged by Peter Huang,
available exclusively HERE!

also a ridiculously old and cheesy TV commercial we were both in -

LOL.


i look forward to singing my ishi song many many more times. :)
it hurts to remember, but the least i can do is to remember.

i miss school productions

I caught the 1st half of Impresario,
and spent the 2nd half backstage hanging out with RazzlePlay and Yet Ye Dunhong :)


they are great fun!

I would next be performing with them at the Singapore Entertainment Awards
this coming Saturday, at the Preshow! :p

We would be singing a medley of old-school stuff everyone is familiar with - that would be interesting :)




NTU Auditorium backstage was exactly the same as it was 5 years ago
when I joined Impresario 2004,
brimming with laughter, excitement, stress, packed food, makeup artists and hairstylists,
dancers, singers, musicians,
taking photos,
warming up,
playing stupid group games.


i miss school productions.


The next day I was the guest performer for NTU Hall 6's Cultural Night at the Esplanade Recital Studio,
together with Ein Ein on keyboard (my music buddy since NTU days!!!)
and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

As with Impresario,
the production committee, the audience, the contestants,
everyone is here for a good time,
everyone puts in their best for the show,
many times the sincerity and effort is even more than a commercial production.

welcome to the real world! ARGH!


Shoutout to Steven, Peiwen, Yuan Rong, Samantha, Yu Ting and many others who have been kind to me at Impresario :)
Also Jingjing and Jimmy for taking care of me at the NTU Hall 6 production! :)


Thank you to Steven Da Dai Lou of Impresario 2009,
and for this gift! :D


I sang a song that meant the world to me at Impresario -
more on that in a bit :)

on 1003fm tonight :)

Tune in to 1003fm tonight
from 10pm-12am
as we talk about Impresario :)

Semi-finals happening this Sunday from 130pm,
at Junction 8.

I talk about my experiences as a contestant in Impresario years back,
about Ishi,
and the song I wrote for him.

I even played and sang my Ishi song live -
I wasn't prepared so it didn't turn out very well though...


Life goes on...
Onwards!


thanks to DJ Ken!
and the Committee of Impresario 2009

NTU Impresario :)

many of you who visit my blog love music, wish to sing,
and need that little push to go up on stage to perform.

as i always say, go forth and sing!

join as many competitions as you can,
know as many like-minded people as you can,
watch and learn from others,
and knock people off their feet with your own style!

NTU Cultural Activities Club (CAC) is holding its annual talent competition auditions NOW NOW NOW!

Join Impresario in these categories -
Vocal Solo, Vocal Group, Dance or Original Composition

Prizes include cash, and lots of enrichment classes to bring you closer to living your dream :)


Kewei, a NTU Alumni, was once Impresario Finalist back in the year 2004!
She was also the composer of the first Impresario Theme Song, in its 12th nationwide talent search competition.





I took part as a vocal group with Ishi Lau in '04,
and sang a medley of oldies!


It was ridiculously fun, we even dressed retro for the show!
And won 1st runner-up! hehe :D


Ishi also took part in the Dance category later,
in a flashy white suit :)

What can I say?
Ishi is no longer in this world now, but we once fought hard for our dreams together.

I'm still fighting now...




I must say... there was a time when I was disillusioned about writing my own music,
cutting my own album independently.

It takes more than just wanting to be famous, wanting to perform.
Being a singer-songwriter is much more than that.

I never considered myself much of a songwriter, I simply loved to perform.


But when Ishi left so abruptly, I was very shaken -
and for a long time I didn't believe that he had gone.

I would think about him alot, from time to time.

And the first song I wrote, in a long long time,
I surprised myself - I wrote the words and melody together.

I always told myself and others, I'm not much of a songwriter, I can't write lyrics blahblahblah
But since then I knew that if there was a story to tell,
if there was a strong conviction to tell,
you could.


It was a song for Ishi,
and because of this song I found a reason to share with the world, what I had to say.

What I wanted to say through my song,
I wanted as many people to hear it as possible.

Maybe it's a way to remember him always.

And this project has only just begun...










Join Impresario!
They'll make such great memories in time to come ... :)

PS. Deadline for registration is 30 Nov :)

愛在亞德里亞海

i wrote the following entry on 6 Oct, but never published it.


--------------------------------------------

it's been months,
but there's a place in my heart where time has come to a standstill.
in this place, there is no tomorrow, only memories, and dreams.

this place, this very soft spot in my heart, belongs to ishi.
and whenever i come back to this place i get the same feeling i had months ago.
where time stops, and nothing ever moves on.

i forgot this song, until today.
stumbled upon it while surfing for lyrics.

i even forgot how to sing it,
i even forgot that i sang it before as a duet with ishi.

we took part in NTU's Impresario in our 2nd year in uni together
and auditioned with this song :)

i remember how silly the experience was
since we forgot half the lyrics... it's such a wordy song!

but we had fun :)
we even won 2nd prize at the finals
singing a medley of oldies.


but i cried today, listening to this song on repeat.
and i am crying, my eyes and my heart both.

for a long time i had wanted to blog about ishi,
i wanted to share with the world what i remember about him.
and i wanted everyone to know and remember him.
because unlike us, nothing is ever going to happen to ishi anymore.
except our dreams of him, and our memories.


when ishi left this world,
i sat at my desktop and wrote down everything i remembered about him,
and i let myself cry and cry and cry.

but it wasn't enough, there are more tears than i can imagine.

i don't think i'm ready to blog about him, just yet.


----------------------------------------------









a cold night at seletar reservoir.


i bought some tau-hway to sit by the water.

tau-hway place,
slippered feet,
hanging out with friends,
late night supper.

and i thought of the 5 young men who had left their family and friends,
they could have been next to me.
they could have supper, hang out with friends,
just like all of us.

but they will no longer.




i always tear when i read their news,
i think, what fine men they would become.

but they will no longer.