This is Linying, the voice behind the NDP 2021 song

I’ve played the piano for as long as I can remember. As a kid, I always thought I’d grow up to be a pianist or a painter. I’d play my own made-up piano pieces when I was little, and write poems about my pets and friends, but I didn’t start singing until I was a teenager. It was only a few years later that I sort of put all these things together and fell into being a singer and songwriter, so no, it wasn’t something I’d always wanted to do. It just felt like the natural thing to do, maybe.

I studied history at university and really loved it. I’d record my own music and do radio shows here and there after school, but in my final year, the first song I released went viral on Spotify’s global charts. Then, I was asked to go on tour in Europe with Felix Jaehn, a producer I’d collaborated with online, and things just took off from there. I actually forgot to file for graduation and only got to do it a year later, ha!

I was very kindly asked to be on board to write the song by my friend and producer Evan Low (@itsevanturetime), who has done production work on the NDP for a few years now. It was pretty funny to think about, and it sounded like an interesting experience, so I was all for it.

An art historian. It’s what I would have continued doing in school if I didn’t have music. I just love looking at art, and I love how all art is a window into the time and place in which it was created.

I picked up tart-making over circuit breaker, but I also really like reading and painting. I’m intense about food, so a lot of my free time is also spent thinking about what I want to eat.

I just think writing and singing is an integral part of my existence (currently). So I live my life and do those things. That combination is very personally fulfilling.

I flit through genres often, but I guess my music is always really emotional. Maybe that’s my special sauce, I don’t know, constantly being in the feels?

Some of my biggest musical inspirations are Bon Iver, Kenny Rogers, The Carpenters, Lorde, and Simon and Garfunkel.

I’d love to make an album with Dolly Parton, Joni Mitchell and Jack Antonoff. That would be wild.

All music people have a thing for either coffee, whiskey or cats. I don’t make the rules.

It’s not the most inspiring environment to be in because music isn’t a big part of our culture. That’s what I find most difficult about working here.

Most people are entertained, more than anything… I have never been outrightly criticised for pursuing music, but I do think it amuses people sometimes. I don’t think the norm is confined to Stem (short for science, technology, engineering and mathematics) either.

I suppose any career that’s lucrative is perceived as desirable here, and understandably so. We’re among a generation of people who lived under thatched roofs not too long ago, and that kind of survival-driven mindset was what it took to attain such drastic economic growth.

Norms take time to change. To be given the opportunity to pursue fulfilment instead of simply survival is such a privilege, and I’d be silly not to take it, you know?

Writing Daylight Blows Into One Door with a musical hero of mine, Chris Walla from Death Cab For Cutie, and having Sticky Leaves play on Terrace House, a trashy Japanese Netflix reality show that I love. My two worlds really collided there.

The regret you’ll feel for never having given it a try is going to supersede whatever disappointment that may come from doing it, so you might as well just go for it. Life is brief. Be reasonable, take well-considered risks that you’re comfortable with, and don’t sweat the small stuff.

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