On September 16th, Thursday evening, when I arrived home from teaching piano, I grabbed my mail from the mailbox like I have routinely done many times before heading inside. Except this time, there was a thick envelope with a return address that read: Global Music Awards. It didn’t occur to me why they would send me something until I opened the package and read the first paragraph.
I jumped up and down in joy upon seeing that my song “Six Feet Apart” won a bronze medal in both the “lyrics/songwriting” and “female vocalist” categories! I couldn’t contain my excitement. It felt amazing to be included on the list of fellow talented songwriters and artists.
Friends, family and colleagues inundated me with messages of praise and congratulations. I am so grateful for their tremendous love and support! This is, after all, my first ever award for writing lyrics (being a songwriter) as well as singing vocals -- two categories for which I’ve never before received professional accolades. Previously, I had only won for composing for visual media.
My First songwriting journey
I wrote my first song when I was 12 years old. My teacher, who's also my evangelist at my former Christian school, asked me to write some songs for a middle and high school student retreat. One of those songs turned into an album. It truly feels amazing to have students at my former school still sing the song that I wrote.
"Six Feet Apart" is a catchy love song I wrote in 2020 in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic that has affected all of us around the Globe. I kept wondering and thinking about the logistics of what socializing would look like during, and even after the pandemic - what it would be like, and feel like, when we finally met up with the ones we loved.
The Making of the Song
It was April 20, 2020 Monday night at 7 pm when a tsunami of inspiration and creative energy hit me, and I started writing out the lyrics of the song word by word. As I was jamming and doodling away on my Alesis 88-key midi controller on my workstation, I had this concept of a Lo-Fi catchy beat with a piano solo here and there. I even envisioned the dance for the chorus section "six feet apart, six feet apart." The song came to me effortlessly like a gust of wind. I called my good friend Julian Chan, who is an amazing music engineer and musician, and asked him if he was available to help with the mixing. He gave me a resounding yes, for which I am eternally grateful, and I stayed up until 1 am sequencing on my LogicPro X, and then bounced my files over to him when I was done.
Next day, on April 21st, while Julian was working his magic after I passed him the baton (aka, my audio files), I began brainstorming on what the music video might look like, and how I might be able to shoot it in my home. I had already visualized some of it the night before. Finally, I had it all planned out section by section. At 3:30 pm, I began to execute the plan all in my own living room! I just started having fun with the whole process and went with my instincts. I ended up using outdated technology - 1st generation iPad and an iPhone 7. I amazed myself with how much I could accomplish with non-professional-grade equipment just by being super creative. I simply had no choice but to make it work. The whole process of putting together the video was done by 6:30 pm. Afterwards, I imported all the footage, and honestly, the editing took the longest - It was midnight when everything was finally finished.
I created an animated character named "Mr. Sunshine" specifically for this song, but when Julian sent me the mix, he surprised me with his rapping/singing! I was like, OMG, this is on a whole other level! You guys have to watch the original music video of "Six Feet Apart." I am so proud of the end results. I think it's super cute, and much of that is due to Julian having brought his magical powers to the table - mixing, mastering, background vocals, singing a la Mr. Sunshine, and vocal production.
Aside from the hard times we've all had to endure, and the heartbreaking stories of Covid deaths around the world, I decided to spread some joy and humor to the world with my song in order to at least temporarily ease the misery of being stuck at home in quarantines. The message of the song is one of fun, hope, and I think it succeeds in entertaining my audience. If you haven't seen the video, you definitely should! Please "like," comment and subscribe for new music updates. I would love to hear what you think about my video.
My music is also available to purchase and stream in all music platforms of your liking. By the way, there are many musicians/artists who wrote a song titled "Six Feet Apart," such as Luke Combs, Alex Benjamin, and myself - Jesica Yap. But we all have our own unique flavor and thoughts and messages about what six feet apart and the pandemic means to us, and how we want the world to interpret our song.
Here is my reaction (and vlog) of the day when I received the email from Global Music Awards.
Thank you again for believing in me, and for supporting me along my musical journey. Here is to more songs being written, and musical ideas being brought to life.
What story in a song would you like to hear next?
Yours musically,
xoxo
