Get ready: next year, NME Radar Sessions touches down in Singapore with four exciting and poignant chapters focusing on local artists and how the country has informed their music and lives. Get a taste of what’s to come in the trailer above.
Art isn’t made in a vacuum. In this edition of NME Radar Sessions, which rolls out January 2022, four artists from the Southeast Asian city-state of Singapore will share how their surroundings and places close to their heart have helped shape them into the artists they are today. They’ll also deliver unique live performances from said locations that will help you see their music in a different light.
On January 3 and 5, we’ll hear from indie rockers Subsonic Eye, whose latest album ‘Nature Of Things’ was inspired by lead songwriters Nur Wahidah and Daniel Borces’ embrace of nature and the environment in Singapore. The band will also perform lovely acoustic versions of two album cuts, ‘Fruitcake’ and ‘Animinimism’, from the great outdoors.
Rapper Kevin Lester, better known as THELIONCITYBOY, has long worn his Singaporean identity on his sleeve. In his chapter of NME Radar Sessions, which begins January 10, he shares more about his upbringing in the country’s heartlands and how it’s influenced his artistic journey – which has lately even expanded to include football. He’ll perform ‘2 THE MAX’ and ‘YAYA’, two tracks that make clear how THELIONCITYBOY writes Singapore into his songs.
On January 17 and 19, get to know Khally, an up-and-coming singer and the girl next door. In NME Radar Sessions, she takes us around Pasir Ris, the chilled-out area in the eastern part of Singapore, that has witnessed her emergence in the country’s music scene as an earnest, reflective voice. Join her as she performs ‘Sunflower’ and ‘Wildest Blows’, both songs from her debut EP ‘Let’s Talk About Love’.
And last but not least on January 24 and 26, we have Fariz Jabba, who welcomes NME Radar Sessions into his beloved Geylang Serai. Joined by his close friend and collaborator Akid Amir, Fariz will share more about his affection for the neighbourhood he came of age in, and how the community he’s found there has changed the way he approaches his artistry. His electrifying performance of the tracks ‘Masa’ and ‘Kalah’ is a must-watch.
So stay tuned to NME as we roll out this special Singapore edition of NME Radar Sessions in weekly chapters over the course of January 2022. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to catch all the chapters as they drop!
This instalment of NME Radar Sessions was produced with the support of the Singapore Tourism Board’s SG Stories Content Fund Season 2