Band bio for the “2010 Sound Out Singapore” album

The nice folks at SoundOut.sg asked for our band bio (we produced this album in support of their campaign) and posted it here.

Starfish Stories: The Band comprise of two Singaporeans, Adrian Loo (lekowala.wordpress.com) and Ivan Chew (ramblinglibrarian.blogspot.com).

They attended the same Secondary school more than 20 years ago. But didn’t keep in touch after that. In 2007, one of them recognised a familiar name in an email that he was about to discard unread. After reconnecting, they discovered a shared interest in music and mucking around on their Macs (GarageBand, to be specific). Four months later, they released their first Creative Commons licensed online album.

No rehearsals or jam practices. Nor studio time (unless you consider a home computer as a studio). Thanks to email and the Internet, they didn’t have to quit their day-jobs in order to work on their music (their wives would be very, very upset if they did). Then they figured they might as well give themselves a band name: “Starfish Stories :: The Band” (cos all other cool names were taken).

For the SoundOutSG music project, they are grateful to have I-Ling (myvanillaworld.wordpress.com) on vocals. I-Ling considers herself a regular office worker, resuscitating her college dream of writing and singing original songs. She says she does not play any musical instrument (though Adrian and Ivan think her voice beats their guitar work any time). I-Ling talks a lot. It’s to do with her work; not because she’s female. She reckons she has found another purpose for her vocal chords — in music.

Adrian is a teacher with a PhD. Ivan is a librarian with an MSc.

They have no formal training in music.

That has never stopped them from making noise.

Adrian and Ivan would be extremely pleased if you use or share their music. All their works are released under a Creative Commons ATTRIBUTION license (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/sg).

They believe in changing the world, one Tune at a Time.

Sex trafficking is a worldwide problem. The three of us — I-Ling, Adrian and Ivan — know that merely contributing songs to a cause won’t make the problem go away. Coming from middle-class backgrounds, we are also pretty much insulated from the issue. We may have read about it but we (thankfully) don’t have first-hand knowledge of it. That said, I think we’re doing what we can do for now. And that’s why we’re taking part.