It all started in 2011, six years ago, when we were seventeen and still in high school. We joined a singing competition as a duo and competed against the entire school.
Here's us with our judges. Major throwback!
We came in as champion for the band category. I remembered so vividly what the judges said, they picked us because we were the only act who played our own instrument and sang without backing track. Won RM200 and if you're curious on what we spent it on, we spent it on groceries after. HAHA!
But yeah, that was it! Our humble beginning and we thought to ourselves we could probably do this and so we did.
Fast forward to when life actually started in 2012, we were in college and somehow landed our first interview with then still existing now extinct RED FM.
All about the #twinning back then.
We vlogged our journey to RED FM. Feel free to view below.
For about 2 years, we were constantly going out to perform and most of the gigs we did were free of charge, but we enjoyed it. Until it became disheartening. We thought to ourselves, "Why are we spending our time and effort on something that doesn't return in value?" We contemplated so hard on quitting this whole music thing. But we knew at our core this is something we were purposed to do. How did we know? When we stopped the performing and took a break from the open mic scene, gigs would still find its' way to us every time. So we knew this is our calling, and we thought to ourselves that we are what makes the Malaysian Music Scene. Our purpose were bigger than just our passion. It has become a community.
I'll be honest this 6 years hasn't been easy wanting/trying to do music. We are doing part time still. Gigs still don't come as often as we like, but keep the grind and opportunities will come.
We wouldn't have thought that uploading videos and doing free gigs would land us opportunities like being casted in a reality adventure show in Melaka, getting to know local celebrities, getting free massages from Healthland Malaysia after being signed as social influencers and most recently with Universal Music Malaysia as influencer. These opportunities are sure great but what we've learnt is to never burn bridges. Connection with people are key but GENUINE CONNECTION is the most important.
Looking back, I'm glad we started young, because when we were young, (breaks out into Adele) we're pretty oblivious to the noise of the world. In our journey, many people came our way showed great phenomenal support and some fake love.
People would tell you you're not good enough. You should start recording your own materials, You should do this song, you should do songs that people can relate. But we never liked singing songs that other people can relate and we as artists personally can't (be it melody/lyrics). People asked us to change and we eventually did. We started micro-analysing and planning our content and performances set list that drove away our love for content creation, music, performing. It also drove us apart and drove us crazy. Eventually, we learned to take in the good part of the hamburger. Take the meaty patty! Take in constructive criticism and don't dwell in negative criticism.
We're no experts. We still have plenty of room to grow. But our advice is,
The main takeaway for you reading, I hope you learnt that we all start somewhere. So just start even if you know you're crappy. Pursue what makes you happy.
Thanks for reading through, Steemians :)
Your support means so infinitely.
Love,
Joanne and Julia
