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SINGAPORE: “I was dog-sitting last night and there was a thunderstorm,” said a visibly tired Charlie Lim before settling down for the interview with CNA Lifestyle. “I couldn’t get much sleep,” he said.
The soft-spoken 29-year-old singer-songwriter didn’t let on much but from his Instagram Stories, the cause of his sleep deprivation was an adorable but thunder-spooked Jack Russell that kept him up with his barking till past 4am.
Dog-sitting duty beckons. (Photo: Instagram/wherewascharlie)
Lim looked like he could do with a caffeine fix – maybe one from Chin Mee Chin Confectionery in Katong, which this eastside boy grew up with. “The old aunties have been working there for a really long time, and everyone is very cute,” he said. “There is a nice vibe to it. My usual order would be a kaya toast and teh siew dai,” he said.
Growing up in the east meant that Lim’s childhood haunts centred around Marine Parade, Parkway Parade, Katong and Joo Chiat. “I was a nerd growing up, so on a typical weekend, I would be playing LAN games at Roxy Square. There were heaps of cyber cafes there then. I would play Counter Strike after school and after church. I used to play lots of games, I remember!” he chuckled.
SINGAPOREANS BEHIND THE SONG
In the unlikely event that you haven’t already heard, Lim has updated the 1987 classic We Are Singapore to create this year’s National Day Parade (NDP) theme song.
Produced by Lim, Evan Low (Evanturetime) and NDP music director Dr Sydney Tan – whom Lim credits as his mentor – the song kicks off with two new verses before segueing into the familiar tune that was originally written by Hugh Harrison.
Lending vocals to the song are Lim, along with Joanna Dong, Shak’thiya (Shak), Aisyah Aziz, Vanessa Fernandez (Vandetta) and Kevin Lester (The Lion City Boy).
“I gave it a shot when Dr Tan sent out an open call to songwriters to come up with an introduction to We Are Singapore,” recalled Lim. “I recorded a demo in my bedroom studio, and sent it over.”
“I didn’t feel pressured,” he added. “I was just going to write it and if the NDP committee liked it, great. If not, I’m not gonna compromise anything because this is how I feel. I’m proud of it and if it suits the purpose of what they were trying to do, great. If not, no worries. But, yay, it got picked.”
The pressure set in after his prelude was picked. “I had to finish the tune now. Joining my preface with the rest of We Are Singapore, producing it, arranging it, and making it all sound coherent – that was tricky. It took about three months,” he said.
Incidentally, the song featured his vocals from his home-recorded demo. “It sounded more honest, I guess, than the recording in the studio,” he said.
Streaming audiences are already familiar with the multi-instrumentalist’s music, which ranges from folk rock to experimental pop. In 2015, his album Time/Space – his proudest achievement, to date – shot to the top of the iTunes Singapore chart within an hour, and his songs have received over 2.5 million plays on Spotify.
Success also followed outside the Internet. Lim performed to a sold-out crowd in June 2015 at the Esplanade Concert Hall as part of a triple bill with Inch Chua and The Great Spy Experiment. He was also the first Singaporean to sell-out two shows at the Mosaic Music Festival. That same year, Lim wrote two theme songs for the 28th Southeast Asian Games and performed his song Still for the games’ closing ceremony.
A MUSIC JOURNEY FROM TAO NAN TO MELBOURNE
Lim’s considerable musical talents almost didn’t get heard. “As a kid, I did classical piano lessons, which I hated. But I learned to play by ear a lot and improvise. Then, I did two years at Victoria School, where I was with the school choir,” said Lim, who finished his primary school education at Tao Nan School.
“It was so uncool to be in the choir. I dreaded going for practice. But halfway through, I realised it was pretty amazing to sing four-part harmony. I sang alto before my voice broke, then I sang tenor. And we did really well. We were at the Singapore Youth Festival and we came in second.”
If he felt sheepish telling friends that he sang in the choir, playing in a band had the opposite effect on Lim – even if it was a nameless band in church. “It’s like the cool thing to do,” he said. “I probably felt the most alive and most switched on as a kid when I was learning how to lead the band and work with the dynamics of the band.”
Although Lim is based in Singapore (and flying his eastsider flag high), the musician occasionally travels to Melbourne where his parents live. Lim himself is no stranger to the city, having spent three years in Melbourne after Secondary 2 “for my A levels equivalent” and another four years at Monash University, where he obtained his degree in Music Performance.
In between, he returned to Singapore to serve National Service with the Singapore Armed Forces Music and Drama Company. “I loved my experience there. You’re not just the performer – you have to do everything: Check the sound, be the roadie, and set up everything. You have to be self-sufficient,” he recalled.
Like every Singaporean, Lim missed his favourite local food while away in Australia, like chicken rice, prawn mee soup and nasi lemak. So much that he did what many Singaporeans do: Pack Prima paste in his suitcase.
Never mind that he’s “terrible at cooking”. “I tried,” he said, smiling. “But whether I was successful, that’s another question.”
