ReVel Fest - Busk Till Dawn
ReVel Fest has always been an event that many RVians look forward to. This year, ReVel Fest 2018 definitely did not disappoint us with many exciting breakthroughs.
True to the spirit of the theme “Busk Till Dawn”, not only did we have the One Minute of Fame (a regular feature every Friday) for students to busk during TGIF to showcase their talents, we also had the ReVel Fest 2017 winners perform for us on the actual day of the finals before the contest officially started. It was definitely something new because never before did we have such special segments in the past. The audience was definitely all hyped and ready for the finals after watching the splendid performances of the buskers.
First up for the competition was the Chinese Soloists Category, where Amalyn Leong came in first. She chose the song 输了你赢了世界又如何. Many were surprised at how well she managed to belt out her high notes, and it was evident that she must have practised the song many times to handle the song so well. Amalyn was a natural on stage. Prior to her performance, she mentioned that she was going to show us another side of her this time round and indeed, her performance left the audience with a deep impression.
Lee Si Min emerged as Champion for the English Soloists Category and she gushed that it was already a blessing that she could even get into the finals, let alone be the champion for the category. She brought to us the song “Too Good At Goodbyes” by Sam Smith and many were mesmerised by her voice. She handled the emotions of the song well and the song was really suitable for her voice. Certainly, she deserved the title.
Illicit, a group of Y5s, came in first for the Dance Category. Their dance performance was a memorable one because they included different elements in the dance, such as a duet which wowed the audience. The performance had many climaxes and Illicit surprised the audience many times with the good teamwork the group has. To succeed in the Dance Category, it is never a one-man show, it requires good teamwork and high level of cooperation among the group members. And Illicit definitely showed such qualities.
For the Wow Category, Tan Jing Yang, the masked pianist who wanted to unravel the revel ultimately emerged as Champion. Jing Yang started learning the piano at a very young age and he brought us a very impressive piano performance that many did not expect. His act revolved around Tokyo Ghoul, which was evident from the song he chose to the mask he wore; he brought the famous manga and anime character to life.
YC came in first for the Vocal Group Category after performing something that had never been done before in ReVel Fest. YC pulled off a rap and Cantonese track really well, which was something that no one had ever once attempted. The pair really did have great chemistry which was probably the reason why they were able to combine rap and a Cantonese song perfectly.
This year, a brand new category — the songwriter category - was also introduced. Surely the collaboration between the previous Revel Fest Solo Category Singer Fion and this year’s one and only songwriter Chee Wen grabbed the attention of many. For this year’s finals, Chee Wen composed a Chinese love song, “一只手肘的距离”. In our interview with him, he talked about how the song came about and discussed his experience as a songwriter.
"The idea of the song actually came from my senior Min, who is also a songwriter. He said since Mrs Look always stressed on 'one elbow distance', I could do a song about that." As Chee Wen had already decided to do a Chinese song, he chose to translate it into "一只手肘的距离". "I feel 情歌 (love songs) is more impactful in Chinese." The song was completed in only two days, but it was definitely not easy to arrange the song as well as remove the piano part from the back track for the actual performance.
"The first song that I ever wrote was in Year 2, during Mr Hung's music lesson. I wrote a song for my group mates as an assignment." That started Chee Wen on a journey to writing songs. Last year, he began writing more songs and his most memorable song was composed for his Year 4 class.
His taste in songs has changed over time compared to when he first started. "When I first started writing songs, which was around last year, I was really into EDM (Electronic Dance Music). After that it changed to Chinese 抒情歌曲 (ballad). Recently when I composed 立化鞋子 for the audition, I was really into jazz. Now I'm switching back to Chinese 抒情歌曲 and EDM again." He added, "Having a change in taste is not a bad thing because you get to listen to many types of different songs." Also as a leader for the percussion ensemble, Chee Wen mentioned that there will be exciting performances next year and maybe he would consider composing classical songs for them as well.
Many wonder how Chee Wen is able to balance his creation of songs and the hectic life as a student. "Well, sometimes I find it difficult as well." He said, "Every time when I have a project coming along, I would spend plenty of time on that. Sometimes I will forget about studies. But after that work is done, I would spend more time catching up on my studies. I focus on one thing at one time."
Chee Wen's songs are always shaped by his experiences and memories in life - things that are close to his heart. However as a commercial songwriter, he also receives requests from very different people. "Sometimes they want 中国风的歌曲 (the Chinese style of music), but I have no experience in composing that type of genre and have no clue about ancient China. So I just try to find inspiration by watching movies about ancient China. Sometimes you have to force your inspiration out when it comes to composing songs for work." He has created a variety of songs including theme songs for TV series, songs for advertisements as well as title songs for albums.
For those who are keen on becoming a songwriter one day, Chee Wen also provided some advice. "Just do it. Writing music is a form of expressing yourself. If you don't give it a try, you will never improve. So just sit down and write something."