KAT TALKS WINNER

Interviewed by Culture Coast Talks editor Daniel John. Interview transcripts might have been edited for length and clarity.

This song about winning actually rose from tough times?

'Winner' is pretty much about what the title suggests, being victorious and overcoming adversity, being resilient and positive and striving to do your best in order to be victorious. Like many people around the world, the pandemic years were a particular challenge with many setbacks. I was based in Malaysia at the time and had just qualified in athletics to represent the state of California in long jump. This is something I had trained for my entire life and then suddenly it was all cancelled, I never did get to compete again. I was supposed to go to an arts boarding school in California for two years but that first year was spent on online lessons in the early hours of the morning and most of my second year in California was spent in virtual lockdown in the school to avoid bring Covid into the isolated school. I tried to be as positive as possible during this time and threw myself into my main passion, writing music. My first music video, ‘Rasa’, was actually filmed one week before the first lockdowns as the pandemic was starting in Malaysia.

This one was produced by none other than Richard Harris, who have had quite a few Billboard-songs. How did the two of you get to collaborate?

I was introduced to Richard Harris by my vocal coach in Idyllwild Arts Academy. Richard is based in Los Angeles where he has been for twenty odd years. He is a fantastic producer and very easy to work with. He’s also from London which was an added bonus as he also produced my last song ‘London’ that was released yesterday on December 8th.

He is not the first acclaimed producer you've worked with, already one of your first songs was with esteemed Indonesian producer Chossy Pratama?

Chossy was the first producer I ever worked with. It all came about by accident when my father bumped into a former colleague and friend in a shopping centre, he's good friends with Chossy and I was only fifteen at the time. He suggested that I perform his song ‘Rasa’ in the Bahasa language, we then filmed the music video in Bali and at the same time recorded it in English as well for my first release in English called 'You'.

Are you good at really noting your success, or your winning if you will?

Being so young and in full time education still, I find that the weeks and months are flying by. I am constantly busy either writing music, travelling and studying. I find that as soon as one project is completed I am already focusing on the next.

How did you celebrate the release of this new song?

I had no time to celebrate the release of ‘Winner’, I was too busy in the middle of writing coursework and preparing for examinations. I think I went to a Japanese restaurant in London and tuned in to hear 'Winner' on HitzFM Malaysia.

How early on were you already sitting by the piano?

I was playing piano pretty much from the moment I able to sit at one. My mother’s friend, also a piano teacher, taught me from about four years old. We’ve always had a keyboard and piano in my house. It was her that discovered that I had perfect pitch which was tested live on air in an interview on HitzFM. I also play the violin which I had formal lessons and gradings on since about six years old and I also picked up the acoustic guitar from my maths teacher at school at eleven years old. I have been writing songs for as long as I can remember! It was something that just came naturally to me and my first formal experience of songwriting were my two years at the Idyllwild Arts Academy which I graduated from in July this year.

You’re moving toward your upcoming album 'Attachments'. Where are you on that right now?

‘Attachments’ is now fully recored except one last song called ‘8 months’ which I am actually performing live today for the very first time. This will be finished in mid January when I return to the UK. The theme of the album is the relationships and attachments that I have had both with people and places across these past very difficult two years. The people I have met and the experiences that I have personally across these years. ‘Bittersweet’ is the exception to that, there was no alcohol or domestic abuse personally but the song was part of a school songwriting project that I like so much I recorded it, also with Richard.

So if it's fully recorded do you know when it will be released?

‘Attachments’ will be released around early April time. We haven’t decided a formal date yet. The album comprises of twelve or so songs. I just released the final song on the album called ‘London’ yesterday. No more singles from that album will be released before the launch now.

Do you have any standalone projects apart from your album?

I was in Seoul recording two new tracks with a renowned producer called Jeongwook Park recently. One is a piano ballad called ‘One Day From Today’ that is my English version of the Korean one he wrote and the other is funk-rap bilingual song called ‘Going Crazy Wild’ with Korean rapper Su Jin. I am flying back to Malaysia to film the music video for the ballad next week and will doing the music video for 'Going Crazy Wild' early next year. These are standalone projects that will be released before the album launch.