Photo from Ling’s Official Website

One video uploaded on Youtube was all it took. More than a million people viewed the clip, showing Ling Kai strumming her guitar and singing her original “Larkin Step”, after it was featured by a guest editor on Youtube.

In the wake of her online success and discovery, this budding Singaporean singer-songwriter has been signed on by an Australian record label, released her own EP Honestly and performed at the Esplanade, all before she turned 23.

Today, there’re almost 4,000 subscribers on her Youtube channel of 20 videos including her originals and covers. And not because of a slick manufactured image or shocking persona either. In fact, she always appears in her videos dressed in an understated fashion, leaving her professionally recorded guitar and voice to take centerstage. This is not to say that Ling is someone who blends anonymously into the background. She catches your eye on the street, not only because of her runway model height of 1.75m. She also radiates the kind of intelligence and elegance that is so attractive. But at the same time, this talented young lady reminds you more of the girl-next-door rather than an aloof superstar.

UrbanWire met with Ling for an interview in her living room in her Sengkang HDB flat, where she told us more about her music, her life and her hobbies.

UrbanWire: You started off writing songs and posting videos on Youtube to share with your friends, and now you have fans around the world and a promising music career. How has that changed your life?

Ling: “I feel more pressure to perform well now because there are more people watching me, and I feel that they expect a certain type of output or performance quality and I have to deliver it. Maybe they are expecting to see more videos on the new songs I write to be on Youtube, and more frequently than I’m currently updating. The frequency depends on how much time I have. Sometimes I feel that my new songs are not good enough, then I don’t feel like [uploading them].”

UW: You’ve written quite a number of originals, 6 of which are in your EP Honestly, released last December. Which of these is your favourite and why?

Ling: “My favourite song is “Midas Matches”. I like the way I wrote it and the story behind it. I also like the arrangement we put on the EP. The story takes the myth of Midas, the man who can touch anything and turn it into gold. He then fell in love with this woman but he can’t touch her or else she’ll turn into gold and die. [The song] is an extension of that myth, kinda like storytelling.”

UW: Where do you draw inspiration from when you write your songs? Who are your influences?

Ling: “I have a number of influences, mostly singer-songwriters like Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann… Aimee Mann is actually my all-time favourite musician. I think she writes really good songs. Those are my influences, my inspirations sometimes. But what would inspire me to write a song would be things that I observe, that happen to my friends, people around me or things that happen to me, or when I feel strongly about something. And that kinda translates into a song.”

UW: How would you describe your music style?

Ling: “I hope that eventually I will get to the point where I straddle in between commercial music and really quirky independent music. I want to be somewhere in the middle, not too far out.”

UW: Which musician/artiste would you want to work with most?

Ling: “I would definitely kill to work with Aimee Mann! If I can write a song with her, like I have an idea I give it to her, and she works on it and passes it back to me and back and forth, it’ll be really, really interesting. But she’s such a great songwriter I think I might actually spoil the song for her!” (laughs)

UW: You’re an undergraduate with a heavy workload. How do you juggle your studies and songwriting?

Ling: (laughs) “I don’t juggle, I just struggle! To me, being a student is a job, but music is my interest and passion. So I go to ‘work’ and then I go and play.”

UW: There must have been lots of sleep sacrifices!

Ling: “Oh yes! You can see it here (points to lower eyelids). I usually write at night, so that kind of affects my morning lessons.”

UW: What were your career aspirations initially when you took up Communication Studies in Nanyang Technological University?

Ling: “I was hoping I would end up in either publicity or marketing. Studying and practicing are really different. Hopefully when I start practicing, it gets more exciting rather than just reading about it from textbooks.”

UW: Now you’ve embarked on a different journey pursuing a music career.

Ling: “I think there’s still a very, very long way to go. I don’t really feel like it’s a career yet because I may have a number of fans in Singapore, but there’s still a pretty long way to go before I can say I’m a full-time musician. Because that means that you are living, eating and sleeping music all day long. I’m going to try music for a while, maybe for a year or two and then see where it takes me. If it doesn’t take off or I lose interest in it eventually, then I might just go and find a day job. Singing covers is good fun, it helps with the income and paying the bills, but I don’t see myself doing it like, forever.”

UW: How did your family feel about you pursuing a career in music?

Ling: “My parents are quite proud of me, I guess, because to them it’s quite exciting to be signed to an Australian label and flying off to Australia to record for an EP. They’re quite like your traditional Singaporean parents, but they have been supportive so far and quite encouraging. My younger sister sometimes gives me feedback when I write songs at home, she’ll tell me, ‘That’s quite nice’ or ‘That’s a catchy tune!’”

UW: Among the many ‘live’ music performances that you’ve done, which is the most memorable for you?

Ling: “I think the most memorable would be the few gigs I did in Australia, because playing in a new country in front of new audiences is always more exciting. It was an experience because nobody has ever heard of me there. And obviously I looked different, I’m not Australian and I don’t speak with an Australian accent.
I performed at Queen Street Mall in Brisbane, which is like their Orchard Road. Basically what I did was I performed on the street, and people passing by would stop and listen. It was quite encouraging, quite a good experience. A few actually came to ask if I was playing anywhere else in Australia that time, but I was only there for a short period to do some recording. I think we spent about two weeks there. We had to rush and every day was recording. I’ll go back to the hotel and wake up and then I’ll go to the studio, then the musicians will come in and say ‘Ok that’s a good take!’ or ‘That’s a bad take, let’s do it again’. A lot of times it would just be ‘What’s the time now?’ and ‘Hurry up, hurry up!’

UW: It sounds like you didn’t have time to even go sightseeing.

Ling: “No, it was such a pity! It was really nice when we went there, nice weather and everything. We wanted to go to the Gold Coast because Brisbane is quite near Gold Coast, but we didn’t have time. Suddenly, 2 weeks were over and we just came back home, it’s quite terrible. Hopefully I’ll get to go back there again.”

UW: If you have any free time left, what do you do besides music?

Ling: “I like to play Rock Band on PlayStation Portable (PSP). Actually it’s my younger brother’s but it’s so fun and addictive so I just take it and play. I’m actually planning to get the console version with the guitar one day, to save up enough money to buy Rock Band (laughs). That’s my geeky side!”

UW: What are your upcoming plans? Maybe a full album, or a concert?

Ling: “Yeah, maybe when the time is ripe, I guess, when the time comes there will be a full album. At the moment we just wrapped up the online concert [hosted by Ustream] so we’ll probably plan the next one in a couple of months, maybe next month. We’ll try to do something else, maybe I’ll go down to Australia and do a small mini-tour. Maybe.”