Posts

Just a Show – inspiration

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The lyrics for “Just a Show” are here.

I love being a performer; I love playing music for a living. I love that every day my job is different to the day before: no two gigs are ever the same. The venue will be different, the audience will be different, the weather and mood will be different. I love being able to share a bit of my soul with everyone through the medium of music. I love the kick that I get when I see people smiling, singing along, tapping a toe, nodding to the beat, dancing, or even tearing up. I love being able to touch and reach people in that magical way that only music can. I love performing with amazing musicians, and I love it when we push each other onstage to create never-again-to-be-experienced moments that are unique to the art of live music. I love, love, love my job.

But MAN, there are parts of my job that stink. Read more

Pass It On – inspiration

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The lyrics for “Pass It On” are here.

My uncle King Toh was the initial catalyst behind this song. He very generously donated to a crowdfunding campaign for my last album, and his reward was for me to write a song on his topic of choice. Several other people were also recipients of this same reward; most of them got me to write a love song for their partner/ spouse, or a jingle for their business. But Uncle Toh asked me to write a song about the concept of “pay it forward”: doing something good without any thought of reward. This really sparked my imagination, as service to the community is a big part of my life, and I’m a firm believer in the concept that you can only become a better and nicer person if you reach out and give of yourself generously to others. I’m also a firm believer that the world is not too far gone: the smallest actions that we make do make a difference, and the betterment of the world can be achieved through the sincere and good deeds of everyday people. What’s more, I believe that it doesn’t matter how talented (or not talented), how smart (or not smart), how strong (or weak) or rich (or poor) you are: everybody on this earth has something that they can offer that will be of benefit to someone else. The most important thing I think is the motivation for our actions, which is what “pay it forward” is all about: we don’t do a good thing because it will in any way come back and benefit us. We just do it because it’s a good thing to do.

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Moderation – inspiration

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The lyrics for “Moderation” are here.

We live in a world of extremes. There is no shortage of groups of people in the world who oppose each other. Everyone has an opinion, which they’re entitled to, but so many people are holding onto their opinion so tightly that this clouds their vision and prevents them from considering objectively another point of view, and being willing to revise their opinion in light of new information obtained. What’s more, because this is the case, increasingly people pre-judge and box others who may be inclined to a different ideology or occupation or even fashion sense to themselves, and assume that others are “against” them. You’re either “for us” or “against us”. You have to be either anti- something or pro- the same thing. And if you are pro the thing that I am anti, then we can’t get along, and vice versa.

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I Love You, But – inspiration

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The lyrics for “I Love You, But” are here.

This song is the latest in a string of songs that I wrote about one life experience – from “Disappointed” to “Impostor” to “Give Me a Reason“. I guess there are good things that come out of every hardship that you go through: you become stronger as a person, and you become very prolific at writing tragic songs. So basically there was a person in my life who I was super close to and really looked up to, and they did something that was really out of character and that really hurt and shocked me and many other people. I almost feel like these songs represent different stages of grief that I went through, because that’s what it was: I lost the person. They are still here, and they are still in my life, but something was broken and I’m not sure if it can ever go back to being the way it was before. In “Give Me a Reason” and this song, you might pick up that I’m at a stage where in my heart, I’ve forgiven this person, but I’m not convinced that I can ever trust them again. I think it’s possible to love someone with all your heart, but to really dislike a lot of things about their behaviour at the same time. In fact, part of my ongoing spiritual journey is learning how to love people who might do terrible things, because we are all human beings and have the potential for good within us, even if we our actions say otherwise. It’s something I’m still working on, and I think I’ll be working on it for the rest of my life.