Debut album how to#

When it was time for him to go home he was struck by how sad that made him and he spent the next six months in Singapore wishing he was in Cambodia. The second time he visited Cambodia in late 2012, he stayed for two months while doing freelance work remotely to support himself. I did my album launch show at Cloud on April 22,” Chiang says.Ĭhiang says that although he appreciates the positive feedback he gets from friends, in his experience it’s always the responses from strangers that measure the true quality of the work – or at the very least, the musician’s marketing skills, he jokes.Ĭhiang says he left Singapore for Phnom Penh because although Singapore may be a good place to live for many reasons he somehow never felt happy there. “I only recently began doing regular live performances again after a two-year break due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The 46-year-old Singaporean singer/songwriter relocated to Cambodia in 2013 and has called the Kingdom home ever since. So I approached the making of the album as if it were my only and final statement to the world,” says Chiang.Įverything Under The Sun was recorded by Chiang in his home studio and he plays most of the instruments on the album himself. “I began writing songs again during my second year in Phnom Penh, but the idea for an album only came about in 2016 right after my then-girlfriend and now-wife and I had a life-changing experience that made us realise – just as I was also reaching my forties – that we needed to start working towards completing our bucket lists because of how unpredictable life can be. It is the culmination of many years of songwriting, which began when Chiang was in his late-twenties and documents his transition from young adulthood to middle-aged.

The album has a mix of genre influences – indie pop, pop rock and even soul are all featured elements of Chiang’s songs – along with his knack for crafting catchy melodies and memorable hooks. The 12-track album – mixed and mastered by Singapore indie-rock veteran Patrick Chng – is a collection of original songs that walk a narrow line between rock and pop and showcase Chiang’s musicianship and versatility – the former honed, the latter acquired – through nearly a decade of live performances with multitudes of musicians at a variety of venues in the capital. I don’t know how it got in there,” Chiang tells The Post.

Debut album how to#

Also, there’s a song about how to survive nuclear holocausts, zombie apocalypses and robot uprisings. But I still haven’t figured out most of the world yet, so I write about those thoughts. I may have learned how to better cope with the reality of impermanence. I think I figured out a few things about how to love. It is about getting older, but not necessarily wiser. “The album is all about me, myself and the voices I can’t turn off. The mostly biographical lyrics to his songs trace his journey from Singapore to Cambodia and the album is infused with different episodes from the story of his life. His debut solo album Everything Under The Sun was recently released on Apon Cerealbox Records. After spending time going back and forth between the Lion City and Phnom Penh a decade ago, the Singaporean singer and songwriter Joshua Chiang decided to call Cambodia home in 2013 due to his emotional attachment to the Kingdom of Wonder.Ĭhiang has been a steady presence in the Phnom Penh music scene since then – whether playing solo, with bands or at one of the city’s many open mic nights – and he has earned the respect of local musicians on the strength of his voice, his songwriting ability and his friendly demeanour.