"We all come from different places but we're working towards the same goal": mrbrown, Mr Miyagi, and Marc Nair on performing mrbrown's debut album at SIFA v2.020

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"We all come from different places but we're working towards the same goal": mrbrown, Mr Miyagi, and Marc Nair on performing mrbrown's debut album at SIFA v2.020

Popularly known for his comedy sketches, social commentary, and satirical content, mrbrown has been sharing his hilarious comments and observations on Singapore life since 1997. Now, in his latest gift to the world, he's sharing his very own debut album, right on the SIFA v2.020 stage!

A project that's been 3 to 5 years in the making, this is the blogger's first deep plunge into music, and along with him are his longtime collaborators Mr Miyagi and Marc Nair, who are familiar faces in the mrbrown show

"We've been doing music for a long time. I mean, it's very strange, right? mrbrown and the mrbrown show are not usually associated with music, per se, but in reality, in the last 20 years, Marc, I and Mr Miyagi have been working on songs and parody songs all this while. So, our music has always been part of the show," mrbrown tells Bandwagon.

 
 
 
 
 
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In the last 20 years of the mrbrown show, mrbrown has collected quite the arsenal of tracks. From parodies of popular pop bops to National Day songs, the team has enough records to make an album - and that's exactly what they did.

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"We collected quite a large library of music and it was only a matter of time before we decided to put everything together. [James Lye, our director,] said, ‘let's put all the songs together, let's choose a couple of songs and put out an EP' and [that’s how] we started working on it. It started out as a three-song thing but then it grew into this monster that I think is just one song shy of an album," said mrbrown.

Wanting to surprise their followers, the team remained tightlipped about what's to come from the album but they did let know that some of mrbrown's beloved characters, including Kim Huat, and Johnny from Zhng My Car, make an appearance in the record. 

"Kim Huat’s song is pretty special here because you know, he’s been on screen for like, seven years or so and has always had his iconic one liner intro. He's not really known to rap and things like that, maybe Incidentally, but not in a full blown way. So, to bring in a rap that contains some of his observations, delivered as Kim Huat is something quite special," Marc tells Bandwagon. 

The team also shared that fans would be able to expect a mix of old and new tracks, and some familiar favourites from the album.

"To hear the stuff that you’ve done in the past but with a higher production value is exciting, and we’re excited to share it with everyone,” says mrbrown. 

Tapping into their "lowkey" musical background - mrbrown and Mr Miyagi used to be part of the choir, while Marc is a long-running band and is a multi-disciplinary poet, the three were guided by James Lye, their band director Eugene, and the rest of their team throughout the whole process of creating the album, a process that was fairly seamless and easy.

"The process [of creating the album and the live show] was seamless because everybody's on the same page. We all come from slightly different places so sometimes expectations have been different but we are working towards the same goal," said Marc. 

Having put a strenuous amount of hard work and effort into this project over the course of the last few years, mrbrown just hopes that his fans enjoy the album, both sonically and lyrically.

"We’ve done so much stuff over so many years and it’s exciting for us to be able to share all of that [in this EP]. It's something we want to give back to our fans who have supported us all these years, you know, and to assemble everything into one musical gift, so to speak, we hope they enjoy it, we hope they have a good laugh," says mrbrown. 

The debut album will be fully launched early next year.

Although, as exciting as the album is, it's just a tiny fraction of what mrbrown and the team has in store. Taking the mrbrown show live at SIFA v2.020, audiences can expect a never-before-seen concert full of skits, live performances, and so much more, accompanying the record. 

"The album is the album, but what was exciting for us is the live show. It's not just a bunch of songs stuck together, you know, like a commemorative album, or 10 years, 20 years of work, it’s just one ingredient of a larger project, which is why we were so keen to do the live show. At first, we were doing the album from the perspective of ‘let's collect everything together’ but the live show makes it complete. That is the reason for [the album’s] existence," says mrbrown.

Calling all fans of mrbrown! After twenty years of coming to you via the Internet, catch comedian mrbrown in a...

Posted by Singapore International Festival of Arts on Wednesday, 4 November 2020

Serving as a year-end treat, the mrbrown show LIVE! will show at SIFA v2.020. The in-person live show will take place at KC Arts Centre on 25 - 27 December, while the livestream is slated for 27 December at 3 PM (SG Standard Time). Tickets for both the in-person live show and the livestream are available for purchase via  SISTIC