Latest / 987 The Shock Circuit / INTERVIEW: LIKKI

Transcript

INTERVIEW: LIKKI · 987 The Shock Circuit

0:03
Speaker 1: All right, we are live on TikTok, about to bring
0:05
Speaker 1: in Nicky in the studio very soon, but can this
0:07
Speaker 1: be your final call to go to 987's Instagram page
0:11
Speaker 1: and leave your comments to win for yourself NDP actual
0:14
Speaker 1: day tickets. We close it at 2359, close to almost
0:19
Speaker 1: 400 comments already, so.
0:20
Speaker 1: Hopefully we pick 2 lucky winners to walk away with
0:23
Speaker 1: 4 tickets each. And please make sure you're free or
0:26
Speaker 1: make yourself free. Come early, don't leave early. Stay for
0:30
Speaker 1: the entire thing, please. Yeah, just, just soak in and
0:33
Speaker 1: enjoy the environment at the moment, right? OK, well, coming
0:36
Speaker 1: up in less than 10 minutes, we do have this
0:39
Speaker 1: girl that has made history over at Tomorrowland for us Singaporeans.
0:43
Speaker 1: I think.
0:44
Speaker 1: It's, it's the kind of thing where when you travel overseas,
0:47
Speaker 1: you always see other people like having their country's flags up, right?
0:51
Speaker 1: So it's nice to see some Singaporeans, they actually brought
0:53
Speaker 1: the Singapore flag to Tomorrowland. I'm sure it wasn't just
0:56
Speaker 1: for this particular set, but it was just to show like, hey,
0:59
Speaker 1: you know, we traveled 13 or 15 hours to get
1:03
Speaker 1: here because of the love for music that unites everyone.
1:06
Speaker 1: Just make sure you treat the flag with care and respect.
1:09
Speaker 1: They did, they did it.
1:11
Speaker 1: But she's, um, she's such a phenomenon, and I think
1:15
Speaker 1: we can't wait to chat with her. We managed to
1:17
Speaker 1: have a short chat after meeting Martin Garrix right outside
1:20
Speaker 1: the meeting area, but I want to know more about Licky.
1:23
Speaker 1: And over the past few days, we've been teasing you
1:25
Speaker 1: with this. Have you ever caught a Singaporean DJ at
1:29
Speaker 1: Tomorrowland before, seeing how it was Joakim wants to go
1:33
Speaker 1: to Tomorrowland very soon? I would love to. I'm still
1:35
Speaker 1: very jealous of you, I know, I know it was.
1:37
Speaker 1: It was life altering, I will say again, I'm chronically online.
1:41
Speaker 1: So when I was taking the train here in Singapore
1:43
Speaker 1: sometime last week, I was just scrolling through TikTok, and
1:46
Speaker 1: then on my FYP I saw this video of this
1:48
Speaker 1: girl just screaming on the microphone at Tomorrowland itself. I'm
1:52
Speaker 1: from Singapore and I'm very excited and people are vibing
1:54
Speaker 1: to her music. Yeah, and she's popped off in more
1:57
Speaker 1: ways than one like for her other mixes as well
2:00
Speaker 1: on socials that she's posted constantly. Please say hi to.
2:06
Speaker 1: And we also want to give a big shout out
2:07
Speaker 1: to JBL Singapore for flying you up there, performing at
2:10
Speaker 1: the JBL stage. Can you please tell us and describe
2:13
Speaker 1: to us the moment where you actually received like the information, yeah,
2:17
Speaker 1: from JBL saying like, hey girl, we want you at
2:20
Speaker 1: Tomorrowland Belgium. Describe
2:22
Speaker 2: that to us. It was like.
2:24
Speaker 2: The email was the email title was very um no
2:30
Speaker 2: it was not. It was like your fortune awaits and
2:33
Speaker 1: I'm like could have been a scam
2:35
Speaker 1: scam email or this one
2:39
Speaker 2: but the thing is 16 hours.
2:41
Speaker 2: Just before I received the email, I had a call. No, no, yeah,
2:45
Speaker 2: I had a call from JBL Harmon, so it's not Singapore,
2:48
Speaker 2: it's like Amsterdam, yeah. Then this girl, this person who
2:53
Speaker 2: called me, she was with us last year at the
2:56
Speaker 2: Martin Garrix Academy, so I knew her lah.
2:59
Speaker 2: And then I was like, hey, what's up? Like I
3:01
Speaker 2: thought it was just catch up or something. And then
3:04
Speaker 2: she's like, OK, you're going to receive an email tomorrow
3:07
Speaker 2: at 10:00 a.m. And then there was our 4 p.m.
3:11
Speaker 2: and then she, she called me at like 12 a.m.
3:13
Speaker 2: the night before. Yeah, just make sure you, you film
3:15
Speaker 2: your reaction. Then I had to wait 16 hours for
3:18
Speaker 2: the email. So at 3:58, I was like on my
3:23
Speaker 2: Gmail and I'm like, What is going on? Like am
3:25
Speaker 2: I in trouble or
3:27
Speaker 2: Did I do something wrong, like copyright infringement? Yeah,
3:30
Speaker 1: but
3:30
Speaker 1: why would they make you wait 16 hours for that? Oh,
3:33
Speaker 1: that must have been, that must have been painful, man.
3:35
Speaker 2: It was very painful. Then you can ask him. I
3:37
Speaker 2: was very like, I was like shaking the whole day.
3:39
Speaker 2: I cannot sleep. And then your fortune await. So I'm like,
3:43
Speaker 2: OK lah, then maybe this is, this is it, because
3:45
Speaker 2: I remember the name,
3:47
Speaker 1: the tagline.
3:48
Speaker 2: So I clicked in and then.
3:49
Speaker 2: I was like, oh my God, I'm going to Tomorrowland
3:52
Speaker 2: and
3:52
Speaker 1: not not
3:52
Speaker 1: as a, not as a partygoer, as a performer.
3:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then it is my first time going to
4:01
Speaker 2: Tomorrowland and then it was also very
4:04
Speaker 2: Surreal almost in a way surreal because you know when
4:08
Speaker 2: I started uh like making EDM when I was 16 maybe,
4:13
Speaker 2: and then I remember like 17, I'm always, I'm always
4:16
Speaker 2: like watching Tomorrowland,
4:18
Speaker 1: it's an aspiration and
4:19
Speaker 2: I'm always like rehearsing my WhatsApp
4:22
Speaker 1: Tomorrowland
4:24
Speaker 1: bedroom.
4:26
Speaker 1: Your neighbors must have heard that a few times. They're like, Oh,
4:29
Speaker 1: she really manifested it. So, OK, before we get to
4:33
Speaker 1: your Tomorrowland journey, tell us more about your journey here
4:35
Speaker 1: in Singapore. Where do you spin? How did you get
4:37
Speaker 1: started in all these EDM? And also one thing that's
4:40
Speaker 1: very unique to you is you combine your erhu, incorporating
4:43
Speaker 1: your Chinese music. Can I propose a collab between the.
4:46
Speaker 1: OK, so I used to be from Chinese orchestra. Yeah, exactly.
4:52
Speaker 1: Liu Qingy featuring Sonia Chew. Honestly, I struggled through, never mind,
4:57
Speaker 1: it's not about me. It's not about me. Thank you.
5:00
Speaker 1: Thank you for your confidence. Yeah, tell us about your
5:04
Speaker 1: style of music.
5:04
Speaker 2: Um, I was, I, I played my whole life. So
5:08
Speaker 2: since like 9 years old, I started, I went to
5:11
Speaker 2: Chinese orchestra.
5:12
Speaker 2: Actually, I started with Pipa. That's why, that's why I
5:15
Speaker 2: heard
5:15
Speaker 1: pipa in the, OK, I'm just gonna fire it off
5:17
Speaker 1: for now. This portion where I swear I heard the pipa.
5:25
Speaker 1: So I can hear it through my headphones right now.
5:26
Speaker 1: She doesn't have headphones on, but that was the portion
5:28
Speaker 1: where I was very sure it was the pipa. And
5:31
Speaker 1: by the way, Sonia would know because she was the
5:33
Speaker 1: vice president of Saint Anthony's Chinese Orchestra Group. I was
5:38
Speaker 1: the one VP that could not speak a drop of Mandarin. OK.
5:42
Speaker 1: My Mandarin
5:43
Speaker 2: is so bad. OK can you speak it now? No.
5:46
Speaker 1: Nothing has changed. Nothing has changed. And then what happened?
5:49
Speaker 2: And then, oh yeah, P, then the teacher was like,
5:52
Speaker 2: You dumb I cannot play. I couldn't play. Like I
5:56
Speaker 2: couldn't make any sound. Yeah, you know, like last time
5:59
Speaker 2: teachers are are quite yeah, yeah, yeah, but now, now
6:02
Speaker 2: it's not like that. And then my parents because they met.
6:07
Speaker 2: Chinese orchestra, they both played the, yeah, so I didn't
6:11
Speaker 2: want to play the er because I didn't want to like,
6:13
Speaker 2: you want to be different and then they were like,
6:16
Speaker 2: why don't you just play the erhu? Then I'm like, OK,
6:18
Speaker 2: I'm getting tortured by this PA teacher anyway. I was like, OK,
6:21
Speaker 2: never mind, change. So I changed and then I went
6:24
Speaker 2: to SOTA because I like couldn't stop practicing. I think
6:27
Speaker 2: like PSLE that time I was practicing for like 3
6:30
Speaker 2: hours a day. So basically I didn't study lah. I
6:33
Speaker 2: went to SOTA, um.
6:36
Speaker 2: Then they taught us composition around like sector 2 I
6:39
Speaker 2: think I learned how to use Logic Pro because they
6:41
Speaker 2: taught us so it's a digital audio workstation you use
6:44
Speaker 2: it to produce music, but at that time not EDM yet.
6:48
Speaker 2: Then around like 16 years old, my friend, my very
6:52
Speaker 2: close friend from SOTA discovered ED EDM, yes, no, it
6:57
Speaker 2: was OK. It was, I think a year or two
7:00
Speaker 2: after Martin Garrix's Animal.
7:02
Speaker 2: So I became a very big fan of Martin Garrix.
7:05
Speaker 1: 2012, 2013. That's the peak of EDM, but that was
7:11
Speaker 1: like Martin Garrix was
7:13
Speaker 1: like,
7:13
Speaker 2: I don't know how old, 15 years old Martin Garrix.
7:16
Speaker 1: Yeah,
7:17
Speaker 1: yeah. So, so it's so funny because it's a full
7:19
Speaker 1: circle moment. Like one of your first exposures to EDM
7:23
Speaker 1: was because of Martin Garrix in a way. And then
7:26
Speaker 1: now you actually got to meet him and interact with him. Like,
7:29
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure that you got to speak with
7:30
Speaker 1: him way more than the rest.
7:32
Speaker 1: How, how was that? How was the interaction with Martin
7:34
Speaker 1: Garrix?
7:35
Speaker 2: It was very like I was just, I was really
7:37
Speaker 2: tired because they remember they made us wait like I
7:39
Speaker 2: think quite a while. Then after that I was like,
7:42
Speaker 2: I don't mind. I don't want to meet him.
7:46
Speaker 1: I just want to go. I was, I was hanging
7:47
Speaker 1: in there. I was like, guys, we have to, we've
7:49
Speaker 1: already waited. We have to meet Martin Eric.
7:51
Speaker 2: I
7:51
Speaker 2: got I want to go and watch the other shows.
7:53
Speaker 2: I get it. Yeah, but it's OK. In the end,
7:55
Speaker 2: we decided to wait. So we were just waiting in
7:57
Speaker 2: the artist village, and then they were like, Oh, he's
7:59
Speaker 2: ready for you. OK.
8:01
Speaker 2: Then I was really tired so I sit down and
8:03
Speaker 2: I was like using my phone and then I, I
8:05
Speaker 2: wasn't looking and then suddenly they're like, uh, leaky, come here,
8:09
Speaker 2: come here. I look up and Martin Garrix was like
8:11
Speaker 2: standing right there.
8:13
Speaker 1: I mean, did you learn anything, but did you manage
8:17
Speaker 1: to pick up anything from him, like any tips that
8:19
Speaker 1: you shared with the
8:20
Speaker 1: artist?
8:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, we had, we had a session,
8:23
Speaker 1: right?
8:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, we had a session. Uh, yeah, I, I just
8:27
Speaker 2: asked him like, because at that point I was like
8:29
Speaker 2: struggling to sell tickets. I was, I hold a lot
8:33
Speaker 2: of my concerts, so a bit more on my journey
8:35
Speaker 2: is that after learning EDM and stuff I went to
8:41
Speaker 2: Yongyo Conservatory of Music to do composition, yeah, and then
8:45
Speaker 2: after that, I
8:48
Speaker 2: Didn't, I couldn't like do Western composition because I really
8:51
Speaker 2: wanted to do EDM. I was just like trying to get, yeah,
8:56
Speaker 2: and then I, I switched my major to music, this
9:00
Speaker 2: course called music collaboration and production that they would teach
9:02
Speaker 2: us like how to make our own concerts, make our
9:05
Speaker 2: own events, do our own research and stuff. So that's
9:08
Speaker 2: where I started to incorporate like I started to
9:15
Speaker 1: or incorporate both genres of music together. Yeah,
9:18
Speaker 2: so I started by actually DJing and then I got
9:21
Speaker 2: my friends from the conservatory, uh, violins, brasses, and myself
9:28
Speaker 2: as a DJ and a player, yeah, so that's how
9:31
Speaker 2: I got started and then like Esplanade.
9:33
Speaker 2: One of the lecturers came to give us a lecture,
9:36
Speaker 2: and then she was like, do you want to try
9:37
Speaker 2: out our small stage, and I'm like, OK, so then
9:40
Speaker 2: after I graduated, I kept doing it with NAC, yeah,
9:45
Speaker 2: so actually my first
9:47
Speaker 2: Thing at Esplanade was uh with the help of the
9:53
Speaker 2: The SAF music director Ignatius, yeah, he actually helped me
9:57
Speaker 2: a lot. I think you all know him.
9:59
Speaker 1: We
9:59
Speaker 2: know
9:59
Speaker 1: him. We know him, we know him. Yeah, yeah, he's
10:02
Speaker 1: very sweet. Yeah,
10:03
Speaker 2: so he, he helped me a lot and like.
10:06
Speaker 2: Just as a friend, it's not like he asked for
10:08
Speaker 2: anything else. He's just
10:09
Speaker 1: passionate about
10:10
Speaker 2: music
10:10
Speaker 1: so yeah.
10:12
Speaker 1: And you know, on that note, I just want to
10:14
Speaker 1: fire off a quick one before we go for a
10:17
Speaker 1: short break and we continue our BTS on TikTok Live.
10:21
Speaker 1: I would say. Yeah, so, so this was actually part
10:24
Speaker 1: of your Erhu piece. I don't know if you want
10:26
Speaker 1: to plug it. It's OK. It's OK. You already know
10:27
Speaker 1: how it sounds like. It's fine. Joakim hasn't heard it
10:30
Speaker 1: just yet, so here it is.
10:39
Speaker 1: You can hear, you can hear the EDM starting to
10:41
Speaker 1: come in, right? This can be the ad for Chang Jia,
10:45
Speaker 1: and this is how it sounds like.
10:53
Speaker 1: You would have, you would have definitely loved it, I'm sure.
10:56
Speaker 1: Can I, can I ask, has any of your audio
10:58
Speaker 1: popped off on like Douin or Xiaohongshu? No, no, I
11:01
Speaker 1: mean your, your, your blog ABC popped off.
11:05
Speaker 1: Still having a side chat on TikTok Live with Licky who, uh,
11:10
Speaker 1: together with JBL Singapore just performed at the JBL stage
11:13
Speaker 1: at Tomorrowland, Belgium. Congratulations again, girl. I think that video
11:17
Speaker 1: and that memory of you doing your stuff is gonna
11:19
Speaker 1: live on forever.
11:22
Speaker 1: So what was it like? Tell us. You got the call.
11:24
Speaker 1: You're in Belgium. You're in Tomorrowland. Were you nervous setting
11:28
Speaker 1: up your stuff and all that? Like, were you able
11:29
Speaker 1: to party before your set, even like the days leading
11:32
Speaker 1: up to it? Tell us
11:33
Speaker 2: more. Honestly, thank God I was the first one like.
11:37
Speaker 2: Right after the the opener, then it was me because
11:41
Speaker 1: you
11:41
Speaker 2: want to
11:41
Speaker 1: get
11:41
Speaker 1: it out of the way they,
11:43
Speaker 1: they placed me first. So what time did you start?
11:45
Speaker 2: It was 2
11:46
Speaker 1: p.m., so
11:48
Speaker 1: yeah, no, but I mean Tomorrowland is a day festival.
11:51
Speaker 1: It's a whole day. It's a whole day that ends
11:53
Speaker 1: at midnight.
11:54
Speaker 1: So actually it's quite normal. midnight and then the second
11:57
Speaker 1: night it ended at like 1 or something. I'm not wrong.
12:00
Speaker 1: That was the, but they're quite strict about it. They
12:02
Speaker 1: end time.
12:04
Speaker 2: Yeah,
12:04
Speaker 1: they will just pull off the the sound. But so yeah,
12:07
Speaker 1: tell us, you, were you nervous at all the previous
12:09
Speaker 1: night like how?
12:11
Speaker 2: The month leading to it, I was really like quite
12:15
Speaker 2: nervous because at first they they told me in March
12:18
Speaker 2: and then it was radio silence for two months. I'm like,
12:23
Speaker 2: is this even happening? Am I being tricked because it's
12:25
Speaker 2: like
12:25
Speaker 1: your fortune.
12:27
Speaker 1: Was it a scam?
12:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, was
12:29
Speaker 2: it a scam? No, no, no, it's not because I
12:32
Speaker 2: know JBL they are legit. So then they finally
12:37
Speaker 2: Texted us in May saying that they booked our flight
12:41
Speaker 2: tickets and OK, OK, this is happening it's happening. I
12:44
Speaker 2: better start preparing my set. So
12:46
Speaker 1: did you create a brand new set from scratch or you, uh,
12:50
Speaker 1: drew inspiration from like your previous work as well
12:52
Speaker 2: and brand new because I was like, if this is,
12:56
Speaker 2: if this is it, like this is the stage and
12:59
Speaker 2: it's Tomorrowland, I have to show people exactly what I am,
13:02
Speaker 2: so I wrote a lot of music throughout March and yeah.
13:06
Speaker 2: And it's all in another style because before March I
13:10
Speaker 2: was dabbling in some other like future-based kind of style, yeah,
13:15
Speaker 2: but that's not really what I wanted to do. I
13:17
Speaker 2: was just trying to learn. Yeah, so I always change
13:19
Speaker 2: my style to learn, but anyway, before Tomorrowland, I really
13:23
Speaker 2: locked in and I started like writing a lot of
13:25
Speaker 2: music and preparing my set. Once my set was done, uh,
13:29
Speaker 2: that's where the anxiety set in even more because it's like, OK,
13:32
Speaker 2: now I have to perfect it and then
13:35
Speaker 2: The day of flying, actually, I was, I, my nervous
13:39
Speaker 2: system was very anxious, yeah, it was very anxious like
13:43
Speaker 2: the whole month until the week leading up. I was like, OK,
13:46
Speaker 2: I'm just really nothing but excited, yeah, so after that
13:49
Speaker 2: we got there, I met um
13:52
Speaker 2: Mess and Mecca, they are from Vietnam and Korea. the
13:55
Speaker 2: other artists in Istanbul. Then we took the same flight
13:59
Speaker 2: to Belgium. So once we, I, I don't know if
14:02
Speaker 2: you remember, but once you arrived in Belgium, it was
14:04
Speaker 2: already a party.
14:06
Speaker 1: They were already in the airport, by the way. They're
14:08
Speaker 1: already blasting music on JBL speakers and then there were
14:10
Speaker 2: dancers and like the Tomorrowland flags.
14:14
Speaker 2: No luggage
14:15
Speaker 1: belt spoiled. No, that one was me coming back. Yeah,
14:19
Speaker 1: it's OK, long story for another day. But what does
14:21
Speaker 1: this mean for you now moving forward? Like after this
14:24
Speaker 1: big gig, you know, you posted about it. I think
14:26
Speaker 1: a lot of Singaporeans have showed you love as well.
14:28
Speaker 1: What does it mean for you after? Like, are you
14:29
Speaker 1: going to be creating your own series here, your own
14:32
Speaker 1: show here, any places that you can perform at, or,
14:36
Speaker 2: I've already started my own. I've been doing it for
14:41
Speaker 2: a while.
14:43
Speaker 2: And I'm actually doing like a Singapore Night Festival rave
14:47
Speaker 2: 22nd of August. Yeah, so where's the stage for you?
14:54
Speaker 2: Oh my God, I don't know.
14:54
Speaker 1: Singapore Night Festival should be like right outside the museum, maybe,
14:59
Speaker 1: maybe they have a rave outside the museum. That could
15:01
Speaker 1: be really cool. If you want more updates on Instagram. Yeah,
15:07
Speaker 1: please share with our listeners who may not have followed you.
15:10
Speaker 1: Just share with them, yeah, how they can look for
15:12
Speaker 1: you maybe
15:13
Speaker 2: on all
15:13
Speaker 2: platforms. They call me Licky on all platforms. So L
15:17
Speaker 2: I K K I. They call me Licky. Yes,
15:19
Speaker 1: got it. OK. Thank you so much for joining us.
15:22
Speaker 1: Is there anything else you want to say to your friends, family,
15:24
Speaker 1: supporters who have shown you love throughout this journey?
15:28
Speaker 2: Do you want to say a big thank you to
15:29
Speaker 2: everyone that has helped on the way of getting this
15:34
Speaker 2: thing and I
15:36
Speaker 2: I don't know, I, I cannot find the words, but
15:38
Speaker 2: my gratitude is really real and also to all the
15:42
Speaker 2: Singaporeans that were and also everyone that was so supportive
15:47
Speaker 2: online and also before, because before I had like a
15:50
Speaker 2: breakdown and then I like posted a video of myself
15:53
Speaker 2: crying because I'm like I cannot believe that I'm finally
15:56
Speaker 2: going on Tomorrowland.
15:57
Speaker 2: Uh, that was kind of nice because everyone just kind
16:00
Speaker 2: of poured in support, which I didn't expect. So really
16:03
Speaker 2: thank you everyone.
16:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, right.
16:15
Speaker 1: And then surprise I'm there with the kucheng next to
16:18
Speaker 1: yeah yeah no no no no no no no no
16:21
Speaker 1: no no no no I forgot how to play it.