THE ‘ABANG’ OF LOCAL MUSIC
With so many aspiring local musicians looking up to him, musician TIM DE COTTA reminds all creators to keep their damn art pure.
In his song Art Pure (hands-down, best percussion-and-bass opening to any locally produced song) from his first solo album, The Warrior, Tim De Cotta lays out one of his core philosophies as a musician.
He sings in Art Pure:
Can somebody tell me what went wrong
Did society glorify the wrong damn song
And leave us with the mess we have? I think it’s time to stand up and face the music
Cos this is how we should do it
I don’t care what you say cos
I’m gonna keep this art (pure)
The former bassist of local supergroup Sixx (which was fronted by Kevin Lester, best known today as LIONCITYBOY) writes some of the most meaningful lyrics in the local music scene.
He explains: “The Warrior was more socio-political, talking about the world around me and what I saw needed to change for us to remember our connections to life and each other, because we always get so caught up in the rat race that we forget how life isn’t about the material things! It was mostly about my angst associated with wanting a more loving and graceful society around me, where less people cared just about themselves and more of us started to care about each other. I talked about the world at large and at home too, about dirty politics, greed, war and senseless killing, to the disconnect that society has with art and the beauty in life, and even about my own demons that plague my sleep.”
He continues: “But in my second album, Heart Matter, as I mellowed out in life I simply wrote about love and the love of my life, trying to create a contrast of the work I made in The Warrior. I think they are two parts of the whole that is me. Then I splash in soul, hip-hop, funk and rock to package them my way.”
He isn’t just a musician these days. He’s also a musical entrepreneur through his company Warrior Productions, which does musicrelated events and campaigns (both online and physical ones) that promote local original music content in Singapore both. He also supports other local artists in his role as a producer.
Through Warrior Productions,
Tim has worked with brands such as Vogue, Garena, Mercedes-Benz and Discovery Channel, as well as national agencies like the National Arts Council, National Heritage Board and Singapore Tourism Board to programme and create content and events around local music.
The local music scene is also indebted to Tim for The Great Singapore Replay, a sprawling, local-music-first online and physical campaign done with Temasek Holdings from 2017 to 2019. “I was the main consultant for the two seasons that we ran,” he recalls,
“and also the main researcher for an interim smaller digital campaign called Replay Stories, which annalled the progression and evolution of Singapore original music from the 1960s to the 2000s.”
“Our main aim was the get Singaporeans to look inward to our rich heritage of music and talent within the island. We wanted to showcase the world-class talent and variety of music and personalities that we have in our little island. There’s still a long way to go because of the nature of our society to look outside for validation, but I think the scene has changed since I started pushing this paradigm since 2015.”
Even after doing so much for the music scene, Tim has no intention of stopping. He says: “I think, for me, the near future is all about getting back on my feet after some heavy life issues that hit me hard in 2023.
But I think the fact that I still feel a great warmth and hope for the future, I’m looking forward to seeing what it brings. I’m just flowing and trying to get back to why I love to do what I do.