On the 7th of October, Taiwan-born, Singaporean singer-songwriter Teresa Tseng released her brand new English single titled 'Nightingale'. The track was inspired by the strength and resilience of our frontline workers amidst the pandemic, with mental health and personal difficulty a theme throughout.
“This song is inspired by all the frontliners and those who fought hard for our safety during this COVID-19 pandemic. Looking at the level of stress that they faced, there was no time to take a breather to replenish themselves or even talk about it. The whole situation feels like a bird trapped in a cage but no one was there to help, and the only way to ease off their pain is to sing."
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"This release means a lot for me because I get to encourage people through my song. Many of us probably didn’t realise the importance of mental health, and this song talks about it. Even if no one’s lending a shoulder to lean on, I’ll still be here to sing your worries away, and that’s mental support that everyone needs.”
Speaking on the importance of addressing the themes that center around mental health struggles, Tseng goes on to say: “As society progresses every day, I feel that most of us, at least some of my friends feel that the expectations for one another in the society are getting higher and higher subconsciously."
"In my opinion, I think it doesn’t hurt to speak up and share because we are human, we learn through sharing our life experiences with our friends, peers, family, to become a better self every day.”
The NFT (Non-Fungible Tokens) market venture has taken the world by storm. And while some of us are still wrapping our heads around it, the ‘Campus Superstar’ alumni embarked on it.
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The track is divided into three chapters, namely “Loss of Balance”, “Rejuvenation” and “Triumph”, are individually visualised through animations by Taiwanese studio Yaga Animation. They were then made available for auction as NFTs on Rarible.
When asked about the decision-making process behind minting them as digital tokens, and how it supplements the track release, she responded: “Earning from the auction is not our priority as my producer and I wanted to put out something that adds more value to music. Ideally, we would like to have something that listeners or fans can take away with because releasing an NFT artwork is impossible to replicate, but it means even more for us when listeners understand the background story of our work, and we are truly happy to convey it through digital art this time.”
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Being one of the first Singaporean artists to venture into the music meets NFT space, with others like Hanjin Tan and Antishift also doing so, Tseng expresses an attitude of curiosity: “I think that music is a part of our lives, therefore it is fascinating to see any collaboration involving music in any kind of industry. I do hope and encourage [others] to explore more possibilities in terms of any music creative related work.”
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In closing, Tseng shared with us how her auction went and spoke on the possibilities of continuing NFT releases in the future, saying: “We did not have many expectations when we put our work for auction as this is still a new field for many of us, but we are glad to share that our artwork was sold and it showed us that people do recognise and appreciate the new wave of art collection and protecting the rights of intellectual property.
"In a way, it gives me confidence that it is possible to release more work in this space and also a good example for many artists to join the community, without risking any loss of value for their work in the future.”
Listen to 'Nightingale' below, and check out the accompanying NFTs listed on Rarible 'Loss Of Balance #1', 'Rejuvenation #1', and 'Triumph #1'.
