It is also my first ever vocal album, having done only instrumental music in the past. Consisting of 8 songs, I touch on various topics and things that I have been meaning to get off my chest.
As before, the entire album was done on the iPad and the GarageBand app, and the vocals were recorded at home using only the iPhone 5's earphones.
I was quite amazed how well the results came out, considering the gear that I had, and it also shows that with the advent of technology, you can still achieve quite a lot with a little.
I must admit though, that I am not a professionally trained vocalist, so do not expect anything spectacular in that department. What I am hoping to achieve though, it that the songs themselves shine through and will appeal to a number of people.
In that regard, the album has influences of pop, rock, R&B, funk and even a touch of Asian pop thrown in. And i narrowed to 8 songs as I do not want to have fillers just to make up a longer running time.
Most of the songs were written within a 3 week period, with the exception of "Sweeter One", which was in fact, written way back in 1992 for Pauline! It is only now that I have finally nailed an arrangement for it and serves as a fitting finale to the album.
There are also some social and political undercurrents in some of the songs, though I have tried to be subtle about it. "Children of Men" was actually inspired by the movie and book of the same name, and describes a world where the human population has ceased to give birth and talks of how bleak that can be.
"White Lies" and "Truth of Blue" are companion pieces that I have wanted say for sometime now, and the colors are really symbolic of the current state of affairs here. The title track, and the album title itself is really my riff on what I feel is wrong with the world now, and things need to be fixed.
"Hokkien" is probably my favorite track on Broken Earth, and it talks of my own roots and briefly touches on my dearest departed dad. I think it is Ken's favorite too, as he cannot stop singing it in the car! "Disbeliever" arose out of the nature of belief and how I view different people having different faiths and how ultimately, we should be responsibly for our own fate.
Most of all, this album came about mostly from the inspiration from working with children, and how much they can inspire one. Their energy, their curiosity, their shyness, their laughter, their outbursts, their hunger and their youthful innocence have simply propelled me to do this work.
I hope you will enjoy this as much as I have making it.
You can preview the songs on the right of this page via the widget and download the album from the following:
iTunes : https://itunes.apple.com/sg/album/broken-earth/id619502623
CD Baby : http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/ianlow6
Amazon : http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BTLV05I/ref=dm_sp_alb?ie=UTF8&qid=1363250156&sr=8-7
Here is a soundcloud audio stream of Sweeter One : http://soundcloud.com/ianlow32/sweeter-one
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