Song: Good-night Not Good-bye II (2009)

Another collaborative effort made possible with Creative Commons and Public Domain materials. And most of all, some very talented and generous people.

I’m dedicating this song to a perfect stranger, who’s a close kin of this friend.

It’s also a dedication to all those who’ve experienced the very human feeling of loss and grief. And of closure and remembrance.

It’s never Goodbye.

GOOD-NIGHT NOT GOOD-BYE v2.1

Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Singapore. Download at ARCHIVE.ORG. As long as you link back to this post, feel free to copy/ file-share/ distribute/ remix this track. Please credit to “Ivan Chew – MyRightBrain.wordpress.com” and the following authors:

• Dan O-Connor’s instrumental track, “Love Letters” (by Dan O’Connor – Free Music By DanoSongs.com – licensed under a Creative Commons ATTRIBUTION 3.0 US license).
• Words from two poems: “CAELl” by F. W. Bourdillon & “GOOD-NIGHT” by C. C. Fraser Tytler. See: http://www.archive.org/details/lovesoldsweetso00unkngoog – Public Domain; Not In Copyright.
• Vocals by MyVanillaWorld – myvanillaworld.wordpress.com

Peace. Originally posted by .m for matthijs under a CC-BY-NC-ND license.

Huge thanks to MyVanillaWorld for providing her excellent vocals to this earlier track. Details, here.

~ Ivan

Our album will be featured at Epicentre@Orchard, Wheelock Place

Just received confirmation today that "Starfish Stories :: The Band" will have our 2nd album featured at Epicentre@Orchard, Apple store! WOOT!

Thanks to Kestrel and Lisa for helping make this happen!

It’s part of this.

I’ll be doing a 30min demo/ sharing session, on how we use GarageBand (exclusively) to record, mix, and sound-engineer our songs. If you can make it for 8pm, do drop by. Better yet, come by at 6.30pm, ‘cos the real pros will be sharing their stuff.

~ Ivan

Discussing music via video chat

Ivan and I were discussing on gmail video chat and then on skype (which had better connectivity) about the 2nd album which is to be called One World, One Moment”. The third album is tentatively called “The Mangrove Tree” although this might change.

Ivan’s been pretty productive so its gonna be tricky compiling this one cos only half will be collaborative. But still the music and mash-ups are a step up from seastars the album.

We are still thinking of a distinctive sound for the music and Ivan hit the nail on the head by mentioning the word mindfulness. Its the general philosophy that the music is built upon

Ivan’s notes of discussion:

1) Themes/ issues.
e.g. “SeaStars”, “The Mangrove Tree”, “One World, One Moment” (moods)
Issues – e.g Human Rights, Violence, “how screwed up this world is”

2) Musical Philosophy – Mindfulness. period

3) Musical Style – (still exploring)
To me, this is best understood by others through the vocals and instrument sounds they hear. What is this, I’m not sure what. Currently I feel there’s a possible blend of “read aloud poetry” and Asian instruments.

~ Adrian Loo

A Singapore Starfish Story: Su The Bandit

There’s many things I can write about “Su The Bandit” aka Carrie.

First, I’ll let her music speak for herself – please listen to her songs here.

One thing I’m careful is not to give too much away about Carrie. I’m only mentioning things which she has (gradually) made public.

Carrie’s starfish story
I’m not sure how she discovered my other blog. But she did, back in Aug 07, and left me a comment for this song.

Naturally I introduced her to Songcraft. Over a few emails, I learned about why she wrote and composed her songs. Turns out she’s a working mum. I can say this now because she’s blogged about why she recorded her songs and why she continues to make music.

To be honest, her comment first appeared like spam! I mean, the comment simply said “Holy potato. Could I link up with you?” lol

But I clicked through the URL she left in the comment, which led me to her music.

I’m not ashamed to say that I fell in love with her music the first time I heard it.

Like how one could fall in love with life; when one looks at a flower. Or clouds in the sky on a quiet afternoon.

Carrie’s music is nothing like what Adrian and I compose. Her work has a more jazzy feel. But at some level, I think it’s the same.

Contemplative. Personal.

Most of all, I find myself connecting with her music because it seemed to me like her Starfish Stories, through music.

At her Myspace page, she says:

Hi. I have never played in a band but I like writing songs. Between jobs, I had a midlife crisis of sorts contemplating things I did, things I never did. Lost loves. Yoof. First love. Time. How quickly it passes. I came up with a list of things that I wanted to do before I conk off and decided that I would just do them without thinking of the consequences or feeling malu about it.

Thanks, Carrie.

For throwing your starfish into the sea.

~ Ivan

Airani digs our Starfish Stories songs

Recent email from a mutual friend:

Hey Adrian, Ivan,

I put on my speakers and turned on my iTunes to cancel the background noise in the office. The starfish stories tracks came up and I realise that some of them are pretty soothing as background music!

I hadn’t paid attention to which ones are specifically soothing. I’ll try to take note next time.

Cheers,
Airani

Thanks, Airani!

Heh, some musicians might take offense at their music being classified as “background”.

That’s not the point, I feel.

Our friend found the music soothing.

That’s all that matters.

~ Ivan

One World (Paralympic Games edit)

Received an email from Firdaus about an effort to compile a Singapore Paralympic Team CD Album.

Here’s my contribution:
ONE WORLD (Paralympic Games edit)

Listen/ download at ARCHIVE.ORG

The organisers of this initiative, Desmond and Jackie of Musical Theatre Limited, were asking songwriters to submit songs, including instrumentals.

There was an attachment in the email, which eventually led me to this YouTube video.

I watched the video and wondered which song would be appropriate for our Paralympic team. I didn’t have to think too long. This song was the obvious choice.

For the Paralympics version, I decided to add in a vocal part at the start. I recorded myself saying “One World” and then tweaked the equalizer settings to make it sound deeper.

Then I shifted all the tracks back (which took the most time, since I had to shift all the sound level settings too). I also lowered the lead guitar volume and raised the bass. Finally I removed the fade out and let the song end with piano notes.

I emailed Desmond and Jackie the MP3 file. The submission deadlines’s today, at 11:59pm. Not sure if they would want my contribution. But I enjoyed making the edits nonetheless.

To all Paralympians: Best wishes to your individual starfish stories.

Song dedication: Adrian & his baby girl

My band buddy, Adrian.

New addition to his family, safely delivered this morning.

2.96kg.

Which partly explained his absence from this blog.

He’s gonna be even busier now.

Yo, Adrian.

I dedicate this song to you, your new baby girl Leea, and your wife.

Congratulations.

And also to all new fathers over the world today.

May your newborns have Sweet Dreams.

HAVE I TOLD YOU LATELY – II

Lyrics: Firdaus
Music/ Instruments/ Vocals: Ivan Chew
Listen/ download at ARCHIVE.ORG

Enjoy.

And congrats again, bud.

~ Ivan

Mash-up: One World (2008) – Firdaus on vocals

Woah.

Firdaus blew me away with his version (with vocals) of One World, posted just a few days ago.

Listen!
ONE WORLD (Firdaus on Vocals)

Listen/ download at ARCHIVE.ORG

I say!

He’s done a very nice job doing a this remix. He’s edited the start slight. I know, ‘cos I played the song but you probably wouldn’t have detected it.

Firdaus was worried that I might be unhappy or something; that he might have messed up my song. Dude, why would I be? It’s all in the spirit of collaboration.

Besides, the song is released under the attribute-SHARE-ALIKE-noncommercial creative commons license.

Good or bad mash-up, I wouldn’t have minded.

BUT IT IS GOOD, and I. Am. Simply. LOVING IT.

I’m bobbing my head as I listen to his version. It’s like, he GETS what I was trying to convey through the song and the choice of title.

One World.
One Family.
One Life.

His vocal melody aptly expressed what I had in mind but wasn’t able to sing. AND THEN SOME.

Man, I’m having the goosebumpy feeling.

Mash-ups like this is precisely what I (and I’m sure Adrian as well) had hoped to achieve, when we decided to release music online.

Thanks, Firdaus (and also to those who bothered to listen and leave comments to the song).

One World.

~Ivan

Linda (of Lunarin) reviews the song “Here And Now”

I don’t know many Singaporean rock musicians personally. But I happen to know Linda, Lunarin’s singer/ bassist (we got acquainted from a library-related event).

So anyway, I emailed Linda about the song, “Here And Now“, since it wasn’t that bad.

She obligingly listened to it and emailed me her comments. So nice of her to do so! Here’s what she thought about the song (posted with permission):

Ok, I took a listen to this last night and have listened to it again this morning.

Overall the sound quality is great! Will certainly ask you for tips next time when I set up my home studio.

In terms of arrangement I really dig the mid section part onwards. In terms of the intro, I thought perhaps the two guitar parts could balance out a bit – I thought the background rhythm guitar could be a little jarring at times. But once the song moves on to the next movement – now that I really dig! And I am beginning to realize the mid section is quite “your sound” and is what I like about your compositions so far.

Thanks so much, Linda.

Encouragements like this one… priceless.

~ Ivan

Quote from Mark Twain

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

[Tranquility in the harbour of Skarø / Beschaulichkeit im Hafen von Skarø. Originally uploaded by Markus Merz]

I learned of the quote via Shel’s post, about a blogger from Guam, Leo Babauta, who quit his job to become a pro-blogger“.

Mark Twain’s quote was another reminder for me why it’s necessary to try and live our dream, rather than lament that it didn’t happen.

But living one’s dream doesn’t mean going off the extreme. Like quitting our jobs to make music full-time.

Adrian and I have no plans to make music full-time band. Maybe we’d be able to do that when we retire but that’ll mean another 30 years at least.

Meantime, we’re not going to wait 30 years to make music.

In fact, if you read Leo’s post, you’ll know he didn’t take the plunge blindly. He planned ahead (fascinating read on how he made sure he cleared his debts) before making a decision to go pro.

So who knows? Perhaps in 20 to 30 years time, Adrian and I might be making music full-time. Financially profitable even.

Of course that’s just a wish.

But you know the saying… starting something doesn’t guarantee success but you definitely won’t have any chance for success if you don’t even start.

~ Ivan