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[News Release] 2 Oct 12 – Loud Cover Contest : Rock School (The New Paper)

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From The New Paper:

LAST month’s LOUD Cover Contest saw readers attempting to walk in the footsteps of fun rockers like Maroon 5 and Pink.

The rock edition also saw contestants displaying a wide range of skills — from fancy guitar techniques to playing the erhu.

Our judges, a spokesman for Gibson Guitar Singapore, renowned local producer Leonard Soosay and concert promoter LAM C’s promotions manager, Andre Alabons, choose their favourites.

This second-year Nanyang Technological University student made our judges sit up with his nine-piece instrumental cover of the Maroon 5 hit single, Payphone.

“I always thought that Maroon 5 songs were very catchy and Payphone was no different I thought it’d be interesting to do a nine-piece instrumental cover of the song,” said Mr Tan, 22.

He plays various instruments, including the harmonica, ukelele, melodica, drums, keyboard, violin, transverse flute dizi and the two-stringed spike fiddle erhu. Buying only the cheapest instruments to learn by ear, the frugal Mr Tan was excited when LOUD contacted him to tell him he had won this month’s cover contest.

Although he received positive feedback from the judges, Mr Tan said he may not take his talents further than YouTube. “I’d prefer to produce albums for other people than come up with my own, but I’m definitely grateful to the viewers who were intrigued by my video.”

Mr Soosay commented: “Really talented individual and multi-instrumentalist who has interpreted the song beautifully. His use of string instruments like the violin and the erhu add to the track.

“He has also re-arranged the song to suit what he was trying to achieve. There is a fine balance between the instruments and it’s no surprise that he has the most hits on YouTube among all the other finalists.”

Added Mr Alabons: “This one-man band is awesome! He sounds amazing.”