Charlie Lim On Doing What You Love
Last December, during a trip back home to Singapore to visit my family, I decided to take a stroll through Ann Siang Hill – an unassuming, picturesque neighborhood comfortably nestled within the towering commercial district of the city. I stumbled upon White Label Records – a small store that housed a crowd that was spilling through the front door. I squeezed my way in to the dimly lit space to find a silhouette of a musician at the front of the room. He played a beautiful set with buttery vocals accompanied by intricate melodic guitar riffs. The audience was enamored.
When I was listening to Charlie Lim, all I wanted was for the beauty of that moment to carry beyond the walls of that record store room. Recently, I sat down with Charlie to chat with him about his journey as a musician in Asia.
When did you decide you wanted to pursue music professionally?
I guess I’ve always been performing as a kid. I’ve always enjoyed being on stage for some reason – and always had opportunities to perform. I suppose I wasn’t sure if music was going to be my thing… music is such a wide domain so I wanted to find something that would be my niche, and something that I could call my own.
That only developed when I moved to Melbourne. That’s when I first started falling in love with contemporary singer songwriters such as Jeff Buckley, Damien Rice, Fiona Apple, and John Mayer. So a lot of Western artists essentially. Even growing up, I listened to a lot of pop / rock bands from the US, and the UK. Western media had definitely influenced how I grew up, even before I left for Australia.
When I was in Melbourne I got to study music performance as a proper subject. I got into this program where all the top music students from Victoria got to perform at Hamer Hall, which is kind of the Esplanade of Melbourne. That was a really good confidence booster, especially coming from Singapore, that people appreciated my voice and musicality. That was a good sign that I could do music professionally.
Obviously, I had a lot of delusions of grandeur, and had no idea how tough doing music for a living would be at that point. But I suppose it takes a bit of naivety, ignorance, and overconfidence to do something like that.
I think the whole “doing what you love” for a living is romanticized all the time, and nobody realizes how much sacrifice you need to put in. It’s not always necessarily a good thing, for your well-being – “doing what you love” and trying to make it sustainable.
Do you think being in Melbourne during these formative years impacted this decision?
It’s an interesting hypothetical… I often ask myself that. Would I still be doing music if I didn’t move to Australia? There were definitely fewer opportunities in Singapore back then than there are now. There wasn’t a School of the Arts, and there weren’t a lot of arts and music programs. There are lots of avenues to explore the arts as a career in Singapore nowadays, compared to when I was in high school.
I like to believe that because it’s a calling I’d still be doing something in the arts, whether it was music, or writing. But in terms of the culture, I think Melbourne had a huge impact on the way I perform, from having opportunities to perform my original songs at bars, pubs, clubs.
How did you keep up with music during National Service?
I was very fortunate to get to play music while I was in the army. I joined the music and drama company, which was the army band faction of National Service. I basically led the band and we played for different occasions: everything from fancy hotel dinners, to playing Elvis Presley at old folk’s homes, to playing U2, Radiohead, and Muse covers – almost like a rock gig – at different army camps. They had Recruits Nights, where the soldiers were just unwinding – so we’d get to be part of night’s entertainment.
That gave me a lot of “on the road” experience. I mean, there’s no real place to tour in Singapore, but joining a company like that for a year and a half was quite eye opening. You weren’t just the musician, you had to be the roadie – you had to set up your own equipment and figure out how to do sound and everything as well.
Since I got to be so involved in music and performing, sometime during National Service I started writing some songs as well. One thing led to another, and I moved back to Australia to study music and release my first EP in 2011, and I’ve been doing it full time ever since.
Many times I’ve wanted to quit – be it during the army, or during internships I did with music directors. I would question if I had what it takes to be at the same level as other professional musicians. I had my confidence shattered many times and had to build it back up again. But I think overall the calling, to keep doing this, prevailed.
Even when I thought it was time to find a “backup plan,” whatever that means, music always reminded me it was my first love and I made it work somehow.
Were your parents always supportive of you following your dreams?
Well my dad’s a doctor, and my mom’s a teacher. There weren’t any explicit instructions that I was given to follow, in fact there was probably more pressure from people outside my family. People wondering, why are you doing music? Are you sure you know what you’re doing? Why aren’t you following in your dad’s footsteps? There was no explicit pressure from my parents to do a particular thing, as long as I did it well, I guess.
That being said, they were concerned at times, and I wouldn’t blame them because I myself really had no idea what I was getting into. What does being a musician, being an artist, being a singer songwriter, even mean? There’s no model for it, and the music industry is ever changing. It’s getting harder and harder. So to the best extent they could be, they were very supportive.
What brought you back to Singapore?
I moved back to Singapore because there were more opportunities to play my original music here. I was offered a chance to play a couple of festivals. I wasn’t looking around for a deal at the time, but a management team called the House of Riot reached out to me. They were a husband and wife team who had day jobs but had a lot of passion for the local music scene, and they were managing the Great Spy Experiment, a big indie band back then. Everyone was very excited for this new wave of indie artists. I rode that wave as well, and got signed to that management team. And this is what I’ve been doing ever since.
I’ve come to realize over the years that if I can do what I do and survive and work with people I respect, and keep growing as a musician, I can be happy. I don’t have to be rich or famous. I still go back to Melbourne to work on new music from time to time – I have a lot of friends back there I’ve worked with – producers, engineers. But I have my band here… so in a way I often feel that I’m split between two homes.
You mentioned the Great Spy Experiment – are there other Singaporean artists you’ve looked up to or grown to love?
I guess all these artists just give you hope as you’re starting out. Corrine May, the singer songwriter, she had a few albums out and I remember thinking oh wow, she’s writing English music… maybe I can give this a shot too.
The Observatory is another band that made quite a huge impact on me growing up. Then there were B-Quartet. These bands were kind of our Radiohead. They were very “cool” – not just because of their music or the way they performed, but also in the way they presented themselves. They had their own aesthetic and they had something to say. I guess their music was also quite introspective and drew from many styles and genres that I gravitated to as well, so I was very inspired by them and admired their artistry.
Since then there have been a few bands who have followed in their footsteps. I really like .GIF; they’re a great electronic duo and they just released a fantastic record this year.
Another artist to check out would be Linying. She’s broken into different pockets of streaming charts, and she’s made a few headlines in the U.S. – especially in the Asian American community. She’s under Nettwerk, a U.S. based label, and she’s about to release a new album too, so I’m very excited for her.
You did a song with Linying recently, what was that experience like?
I think we’ve always enjoyed each other’s company, but we’ve never done a co-write. I think we did try once and it just gave us a headache, trying to write from scratch, because we are both chronic over-thinkers. But I had a sketch lying around and I couldn’t finish it, so I threw it over to her and she filled in the blanks and it ended up coming together quite effortlessly and we’re both very happy with the tune.
How do Charlie Lim songs come together? Does it start with a lyric, an emotion, or melodic inspiration?
It’s all of the above. Everything is at least semi-autobiographical. It’s never really about a single instance, and sometimes the narrative revolves around an observation. Process wise, a lot of it is trial and error, I put a bunch of stuff together and see what sticks. The editing is the real work… ideas can come easily, but stringing them together and making them make sense is the hard part. I do spend a lot of time trying to refine it all, whether it’s a lyric, a melody, or the arrangement and production. Everything has to have a purpose, and you have to tell a good story through music.
You explored a new sound in your latest album, can we expect more of that in the future?
The name of the album itself, CHECK-HOOK, is a boxing move in which the point is to pivot against a charging opponent – so for me that was my take on trying something new. I was going through an existential crisis both personally and musically – I didn’t want to be stuck in the same style too much. So I experimented with electronic music, UK garage, more “modern-sounding” R&B…just messing around with dance music tropes, pretty much…it was fun! I’m not sure what the third album holds – hopefully it can have some sort of continuity from my first two.
Did you collaborate with your Melbourne music friends on that?
I worked with Yeo on the first 3, and Simon Lam on the last 4. They probably have been the biggest influences on my music in the last 2 years. I think there’s mutual respect between what we all do, which is really important in any collaborative setting. After a while you just stop referencing other artists and we just follow our nose and do our own thing. It’s a great space to be in.
Earlier this year you moved to London as well, was that for inspiration?
It was basically an excuse to learn something, go meet new people, and get inspired. So I signed up for an audio engineering course out there. Then of course this whole pandemic happened…
So what’s next?
I think everything is a big question mark right now. I’ve been releasing a bunch of collaborations, with the Linying single, and another with Gentle Bones which came out recently. That’s been fun – because I’ve been able to get out of my own head and have someone else to work with.
Having a body of work is a big milestone and important to me as a singer-songwriter. But I’m still musing over how to approach it.
I’m always writing — I think it’s a matter of stumbling across some happy accidents and seeing if there’s a common thread among some of those ideas to meld into something more coherent.
And finally, what’s the best chicken rice spot in Singapore?
Chicken rice, wow. Basement of Katong Shopping center has got to be the best value for money because they give you a really nice soup and achar on the side. I grew up around that area so I’m always very biased towards the east coast though.
July 2020