Catching up with Joie Tan

A lot has happened since the last time we spoke to local musician Joie Tan.

We caught up with the bubbly 21-year-old singer-songwriter in between her lessons at LASALLE College of the Arts for a quick catch up.

Together with five other local musicians, Joie will be taking the stage at Youth.SG‘s 10th anniversary event, The Black Market, at Somerset Skatepark this weekend.

“When I was younger, I used to go to the Skatepark to watch boys skate. I’m very excited to go back and actually have a reason this time,” said Joie, with a hearty laugh.

Over the past couple of months, Joie has been involved in a slew of musical projects. Her most memorable one to date? Performing with alternative soul and funk band, The Good Life Project at Five Square in early August this year.

“It’s fun playing with a big band with such a big sound. [While] it’s very challenging to live up to the energy they put on stage, it turned out to be a really great show. That’s one of the most memorable moments for me as a vocalist,” she shared.

Joie also contributed her vocals for the songs used at this year’s National Day Parade.

The 21-year-old singer said: “It was really exciting for me. [Since I was] a kid, I watched the parade every year. When Don Richmond (the music director of NDP 2016) wanted to get vocals on a track, my friend Sara Wee from 53A, whose band did this year’s theme song, very kindly recommended me.

“I did vocals for one long medley, and they used ‘Count On Me, Singapore’ for the signing video.”

The affable artist has also filled her schedule with collaborations with other local musicians. Just last weekend, she did back-up vocals for indie-acoustic singer LEW, also known as Lewis Loh, at Mosaic Music Weekend.

Joie excitedly shared about her involvement in LEW’s performance: “It was awesome! He’s one of my best friends, and it’s such a blessing to be able to share a relationship with him both on and off stage. He’s such a phenomenal artist!”

Joie may be in her final year in LASALLE, but she has managed to balance her studies with her performing commitments. In fact, she tries to seize every opportunity she gets to fine-tune her craft.

“It helps that I get to improve because of school. I have a vocal teacher, so that really helps me. And the thing about LASALLE is, we have to come up with an original song every week and perform it. Usually, I can’t even finish a song in a month, so school has given me that discipline to meet my deadlines,” said Joie, who is pursuing a degree in music.

So, what’s next for the bright eyed talent?

“I’m working on my next single now with Bani Hidir from 53A. It’s called ‘Can’t You See’. Hopefully, we can release it by the end of this year,” said the articulate musician.

Before we ended our 20-minute interview, we asked the easy-going artist what she thought about youth-centric events like, ahem, The Black Market.

The friendly musician said: “I think anything for youths is great, because this is a very important part of our lives when we are figuring out what we want to do. It’s good that we have events like these to help us get our mind off of things.”

Joie Tan will be performing at The Black Market this weekend at 7.30PM. Be sure to come down with all your friends to catch her electrifying set!