By Sinead O’Connor and Jocelle Koh In 2022 across 14 festivals and showcases held in Malaysia’s thriving live scene, only 16% of onstage performers were women, reflecting the clear presence of entry barriers for local women in music. It was this statistic that fuelled the establishment of Queendom Fest – the nation’s very first all-female music festival held in December 2023.  Founded by local artist Zamaera, the rapper who has long been an advocate for women’s rights felt a need to take a stronger, community-based stance on the issue after 12 years as an artist in the male-dominated spa ..read more

Pictured: local rock band Taledrops SOURCE: Photo by Shu Ching By Jocelle Koh, assisted by Sinead O’Connor In a 2020 article published on Esplanade Offstage titled ‘Women in Singapore Music’, an exploration of the intersections between the topic of sexism, gender equality and female representation in Singapore was introduced, with conclusions reading generally positive.  Local female acts such as Annette Lee, Joie Tan and RRILEY were interviewed, and mentioned they had not personally experienced direct sexism or gender imbalances within the scene.  Local acclaimed indie pop singer-so ..read more

Photo provided by Diana Wang Interview by Jocelle Koh with Diana Wang Transcript by Grant Zeng We’re floored to invite one of our favourite singer songwriters Diana Wang 王詩安 to chat with us on Everywhere and Nowhere and herald in the new lunar year together! Born in the Netherlands but having set her sights on the Greater China scene since her debut, the singer-songwriter and all-round creative who’s known for chart-topping hits such as ‘HOME’ and ‘愛存在’ as well as groundbreaking alternative R&B works such as ‘Poem 一步成詩’ spoke with us about how she usually celebrates lunar new year, how the ..read more

Interview by Jocelle Koh with Krysta Joy Transcript by Grant Zeng Armed with warm, velvety tones, singer-songwriter Krysta Joy gives us all the warm and fuzzies. Collaborating on the March episode of our Everywhere and Nowhere show titled ‘Can you be gentle with me?’, we spoke at length about the importance of being gentle with ourselves, and -in line with the name of Joy’s last album- ’embracing the progress’. Digging deep into her personal experiences and her most sacred anxieties, Joy is well on her way to becoming one of the most genuine Soul artists the Singaporean mu ..read more

Interview by Jocelle Koh with Andy Yeo Transcript by Grant Zeng Inspired by the aged Singaporean theme park, we picked Singaporean-Swedish singer-songwriter Andy Yeo’s brain about how he’s so deftly incorporated his culture and heritage into his latest album Haw Par Villa, where this motivation comes from, and went on some interesting tangents about our shared Hokkien heritage and what it feels like to be between cultures and identities. -start of transcript- Jocelle: Hi, Andy, great to have you on the show.  Could you kind of introduce yourself a little bit to our audiences? Andy: Yes ..read more

In an unexpected crossover collaboration that will leave indie fans wanting more, Taiwan’s Shallow Levee and Australia-via-Taiwan’s Jaguar Jonze have announced an intimate collaborative showcase titled 《Soup & Ocean Presents 001: NO DRAMA》which will be held at the iconic MOONROMANTIC 青山月見ル君想フ Taipei venue on the 1st November 2023. Prefacing Jaguar Jonze’s upcoming showcase at Tainan’s LUCfest festival and Shallow Levee’s second Japan tour in November, the collaborative showcase represents both acts’ shared creative spontaneity despite their differing yet complementary musical sensibiliti ..read more

By Jocelle Koh & Sinead Currently on her very first tour across the US and UK, Chinese-American singer-songwriter Emily Li, otherwise known as Emei sings to screaming sold-out crowds of Gen-zers about everything from best friends trying to steal her man (on her song ‘Better People To Leave On Read”) to her ADHD diagnosis (on “Scatterbrained”), aptly capturing the zeitgeist of this younger generation. Incorporating a unique mix of angst, apathy and vulnerable cynicism into her alt-rock/pop sound, she first saw success on Tiktok and Instagram where she’s now amassed over 500,000 followers f ..read more

By: Teddy Tsai Melody: 陶山 Skot Suyama Lyrics: 瞿友寧 Qu YouNing、陶山 Skot Suyama 如果我們再碰到一次 If we meet again 我覺得你會記得過去的日子  I feel you will remember the days gone by 每日的思念我已經看破 I’m already past the daily thoughts 誒記得你對我Say Goodbye I remember your telling me Say Goodbye. 所以我追著你 So I’m back chasing you 希望你能回來 Hoping you’ll be coming back 因為我有話想要對你供 Because I still have things I want to say 想你。感到。孤單 Miss you, feel you, lonely 母湯。叫我。要看破 Don’t, tell me, to get past 你是我心內永遠的痛跟孤單 You are forever a ache and loneliness in my heart 咱兩人的愛情 那誒親像拼命 Our love, why is it so desperate 你咁? 有想? 起我? Do you, think ..read more

By Jocelle Koh If you’ve gone deep enough down the internet rabbit hole like I have, you may have come across a viral clip of an artist called Hrishi putting a ‘carnatic’ spin on Dua Lipa’s disco banger ‘Levitating’. Simply titled ‘if dua lipa sang carnatic music’, the 22-second long clip starts with the Indian-American artist singing over Levitating’s now-iconic Roland VP-330 synthesizer hook, before launching unexpectedly into the high-energy chorus with a lush, rapid-fire sequence of words and sounds borrowed from an Indian classical genre called Carnatic music. Despite having zero underst ..read more

By Jocelle Koh Legendary Hong Kong international music and arts festival Clockenflap has announced the next edition of their festival coming on the 1st to 3rd December, featuring a slew of Asia and the world’s most promising and unique indie acts such as Joji, No Party For Cao Dong, Leah Dou, Wang Wen, 9m88, Otoboke Beaver, Science Noodles on the lineup. The festival will be held at the Central Harbourfront from Friday 1st December to Sunday 3rd December 2023, once again featuring their eclectic and diverse array of artists. This December’s festival includes headliners PULP (UK), Joji (JP), Y ..read more