From ChildAid to a solo career, Corey Koh charts his own path
The former child artist strikes out on his own with a new multilingual ballad
A CAREER in music might be an unorthodox path to take, particularly in Singapore, but Corey Koh, 20, has always been confidently prepared for the road less travelled. Having been trained as a classical singer since he was six years old, Koh is committed to continuing his journey in music professionally, and is now expanding his repertoire with pop.
Koh launched his debut single, Only Love, on Monday (Mar 27) – a pop ballad he says is dedicated to people in our lives that we have loved and lost.
“I grew up listening to a lot of sentimental and emotional love songs, like I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing by Aerosmith, and I thought it’ll be nice to bring songs like those back into a more modern context,” says Koh.
Only Love was produced by award-winning Singaporean music producer George Leong, who has worked with leading Mandopop figures such as Jolin Tsai, A-Mei, Show Luo and Sandy Lam.
The lyrics in English to Koh’s latest single were co-written by Koh and Singaporean singer-songwriter Lewis Loh, and the Chinese lyrics to the song will be written by Malaysian lyricist Xu Yuanting and songwriter Keon Chia.
His debut Chinese single, 对的时候 (The Right Moment), is slated for release on May 9. The music video for the song will premiere around May 20.
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Koh sings fluently in not one, but six languages: Latin, Italian, German, French and Chinese, in addition to English.
In Only Love, Koh also plays the electric guitar. He dabbles in other musical instruments such as the oboe and saxophone as well, and owns a sizeable collection of 34 electric guitars, with two signed by Slash, guitarist of world-renowned American hard-rock band Guns N Roses.
“While my roots are in classical singing, I believe that the beauty of music transcends genres and barriers,” says Koh. “I wouldn’t say this is a (strict) transition to pop music; rather, it was more of an exploration with what I could do with my voice, as I feel that the classical training I’ve received lends itself to the pop genre quite well.”
From a young age, Koh has performed at several charity concerts and galas such as ChildAid Singapore in 2013 and 2014, and ChildAid Tokyo in 2014. In this vein, Koh hopes to stage his first solo charity concert later this year to benefit The Business Times Budding Artists Fund and The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund – both charities that support children from low-income families in Singapore.
Koh has set his sights on releasing more music and an EP in the next few months. He is also enrolling at an American university to pursue classical voice and history later in the year, having recently finished his national service.
“When deciding what route to take for university and in terms of deciding my career path ahead, naturally there were more traditional possibilities of a law degree or something that would lead to a conventional 9-to-5 job that arose, alongside music,” says Koh. “However, it soon became clear that choosing the former would mean that singing might have to end for me (professionally), and I couldn’t see myself doing that.”
“Now, I really want to spend my time exploring this more contemporary side (to my sound), in addition to many other genres of music. I want to continue to build my unique sound to share with my audience.”
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