Sojourns In Song: Introducing 10vacations And Her Drifty Retro-Pop World
Slip into the imaginative domain of 10vacations (Credit: Afiq Ruzaini)
The door leading into the realm of bedroom pop has been left ajar for years now, yet it’s a genre that hasn't overstayed its welcome. Aside from providing pockets of solitude and solace, bedrooms are territories where one’s imagination can truly run wild; safe spaces for songwriting and hotbeds of creative expression for musicians in particular. With a skeletal setup and profound approach, 10vacations is an emerging singer-songwriter who thrives in this element, inviting listeners into a haven that’s hard to get out of.
The world that she has crafted is curiously dreamy, with mesmerising fogginess and padded textures on all sides. Reverb is a dear friend of hers, accentuating the captivating nature of her vocals that find themselves drawn to nostalgia and fantasy. Holding hands with the centrality of her voice is a guitar she uses to whip up subdued hooks and placid progressions, a songwriter’s tool that she utilises eloquently without being cliché. The allure of her sound is thick like a filtered haze that obscures its entirety, and you simply want to cut through the beautiful muck to uncover more.
10vacations has already made her presence felt despite having just a couple of releases to her name. Her debut EP is still in the making, but her stream of Soundcloud demos and official singles – including the breakthrough summer jam, “Capitol Theatre”, that’s racked up over 80k listens on Spotify – has made this Noise Music Mentorship graduate one to keep tabs on. In this interview, we slip our shoes off and step into the psyche of one of the scene’s most promising discoveries, as she shares the origination of her journey and how she manoeuvres through it with charm.
Like a pleasant dream, her tunes stick in the mind long after they’re over (Credit: @randomguysid)
For starters, what led to the birth of 10vacations? Had you been dabbling in music for a while before this project saw the light of day?
Before 10vacations was realised, I always had a keen interest in coming up with rough guitar demos, drawing on melodies that I would come up with (in the shower specifically). I think I treated these demos as creative thought experiments and I would just send the end-products to close friends who I thought might enjoy them. It was an intimate way of connecting with my closer circle while I guess, simultaneously, it served as an outlet to test how my music would be generally perceived, although I genuinely never had the prior intention of publicly releasing music at the time these demos were being created.
I was truly quite self-conscious of participating in social media at the time and so music never seemed to be something that I could be comfortable doing. It felt like I wasn’t ready to experience the potential of being absolutely rejected and ridiculed if people ended up not liking my stuff. It was only through a series of intense emotional turning points that I felt like I no longer had anything to lose and that putting my music out seemed like something I owed myself to try, even if it went nowhere and nobody ended up listening. I started releasing demos in 2018 under the moniker, 10vacations, and I’m really glad I did. The local music scene has been so entirely supportive and I’ve met incredible music-lovers and creatives as a result of the project which I truly am so grateful for. I’m learning every day!
“I try to focus more on being sincere in what I’m making as opposed to how it might be received because I think I’ve made peace with the fact that music was never meant to appease everyone.” (Credit: 10vacations)
How do juggle between your songwriting pursuits and personal commitments?
I’m currently a full-time undergraduate student and, quite often, I’m a full-time procrastinator as well. It’s definitely a challenge to manage academic rigour with songwriting and music production, particularly because coming up with new material doesn’t come easy to me under stressful conditions; it’s not really a switch I can flip whenever. Usually, I have the best experiences with making songs when I’ve got sufficient mental capacity to reflect on life and my environment before discerning a specific subject and feeling I intend to channel in a song. I’m on a constant journey towards working out time schedules and stuff, but I can’t say I take my position for granted at all!
Did you grow up following the buzz of the local music scene?
For sure! I think the first time I heard The Neptune Waves (now defunct!), I lost it for a bit. The vocal melodies were exactly to my liking and it just felt like this band knew to play precisely what I wanted to hear. Bands like Subsonic Eye and Sobs as well have changed the game for the indie scene; you see them garnering real traction regionally and internationally and it’s just cool to watch their well-deserved growth and success. They’re so popular, they’ve become meme-worthy within the scene where online references to ‘Subsonic Eye and Sobs starter packs’ parody the template way fans of the bands would dress and stuff. It’s pretty funny. The perils of clout! Stepping out of the underground indie side of things though, I’m a big fan of Linying’s artistry. She gives off moody genius energy.
Your original release, “Capitol Theatre”, widened your exposure within the scene. How did you react to the immense reception you got from it?
I’m really humbled by the fact that it resonated well with a diverse group of people and that the connection people share with it falls on a deeper, more meaningful level from what I’ve gathered. I’ve heard friends tell me that it was their summer break-up song and while that’s tragic news, it’s also bizarrely reassuring that I could be present with them in tough times vicariously through the song. As with all the music I write, I try to focus more on being sincere in what I’m making as opposed to how it might be received because I think I’ve made peace with the fact that music was never meant to appease everyone. Tastes are subjective and that in itself is pretty magical.
On to more recent singles, “Landmind” sees you snug and comfy in this direction you’ve carved for yourself; a treacly, bop-worthy tune indeed. What does the track mean for you personally?
Thanks for the kind words! I wrote this song back in 2018 during a period where I was feeling rather emotionally insecure. At the crux of it, “Landmind” is about that limbo space of unease you enter after having parted ways with a significant other and ultimately becoming comfortable with all that is uncomfortable. I was speaking to a friend about the song and I told her that personally, it invokes the imagery of me looking at myself through a doorway from a third-person perspective, dialling a call that’s never answered.
“If you’re ultra-powerful on a platform, why not wield it for good?” (Credit: 10vacations)
You admirably stated on your socials that you’ll donate revenue from the single to help migrant workers in Singapore. Do you think more musicians and artists should take a stance on social issues? Is it a matter close to your heart?
Donating my artiste share of the single’s revenues is a small gesture in terms of contribution but it’s just one avenue that I thought could be leveraged upon to further aid with the utterly unfair situation low-wage migrant workers have been and are still currently being subjected to. While I don’t think social media is the only way for artistes to express their views on social issues and while I don’t think it’s essential for one to publicly demonstrate one’s contributions, especially since this might progressively devolve into performative activism, I do think meaningful interactions with fans surrounding social discourse that is pertinent to our society’s collective advancement and welfare can be extremely fruitful and is definitely something I would like to see more of, especially amongst influencers with a consistent and vast following. If you’re ultra-powerful on a platform, why not wield it for good?
“I don’t think the lo-fi dreamy sound was something I set out to deliberately achieve, but rather, it was the sonic style that I gravitated towards most comfortably right from the start.” (Credit: Afiq Ruzaini)
“Landmind” is also a single taken your upcoming debut EP. What can you tell us about this anticipated release?
The upcoming EP consists of songs I wrote primarily in 2018 and they document the largely tumultuous journey of healing from the heartbreak of a first love, coping with anxiety and cheeky unexpected moments of attraction. As a whole, I’d sum up the main theme of the EP as dead disco. Something along the nihilistic sentiment of “everything is absolutely terrible but I’ll just vibe out anyway.” I’m excited to share more details sometime in October when the second single comes out!
What themes do you tend to explore when you get into your songwriting bubble? And what draws you to the lo-fi, dreamy aesthetic that’s effortlessly captured in your craft?
In terms of songwriting, I feel like I’m generally guided by the allure of nostalgia, best discerned through the vocal melodies and guitar lines that I write. I don’t think the lo-fi dreamy sound was something I set out to deliberately achieve, but rather, it was the sonic style that I gravitated towards most comfortably right from the start. I think my preoccupation with fantasising over the idyllic past can account for this. The end-result is often the soundscape my brain reimagines for a time that has already passed. 10vacations itself is something I see as a bedroom retro-pop project so I feel like no matter the subject I’m approaching, it’s going to come from this dreamed-up realm imbued with a sort of antiquated charm.
Is your instrument setup elaborate, or quite the opposite?
I try to keep my setup to essentials only to avoid over-complicating things, I’ve learned that if you can make something very cool with very little, it should be celebrated as a marker of your proficiency. Right now, I depend on my guitar interface, guitar, portable keyboard, USB microphone and Logic on my MacBook to produce everything.
“I love performing and I love looking at gig-goers in their element, fully immersing themselves in the set.” (Credit: @icekosongfilms)
Is performing live natural for you? Some musicians hit roadblocks of anxiety before taking the stage.
Performing live used to scare me so much, I had trouble making eye contact with the audience. I think it was really just me feeling entirely plagued by impostor syndrome and wondering what exactly I was doing on stage. I hadn’t figured out yet that performing wasn’t so much about people watching me but rather, it was the experience that they were after, something I realised when I began reflecting on what I looked out for from the gigs I attended. Listening to my friends play sometimes, I forget I know these people and I get entirely consumed by their songs and performances – it’s a transcendental experience and I think after channelling this mindset, everything changed. I love performing and I love looking at gig-goers in their element, fully immersing themselves in the set. It’s a special bond that’s realised in that 30 minutes or so and I don’t think there’s anything quite like it.
You took part in the Noise Music Mentorship in 2018. What lessons did you take away from that experience, and do you feel you’ve matured since then?
The Noise Music Mentorship got me started on everything. It introduced me to playing in a band setup as opposed to solo acoustic sets and it also pushed me in terms of interacting with musicians and mentors from the scene, all of whom are incredibly skilled and masterful in their respective crafts (special shoutout to Vanessa Fernandez & Sara Wee!). It was very interesting for the mentees to come together and put on a festival at the end of the mentorship, considering our distinctly diverse range of genres and nuanced styles. It was honestly so much fun and I’m grateful I was given the opportunity to have learned and played alongside some of the coolest people.
The craft of 10vacations is worth all the hype, and her success in the scene is just waking up (Credit: Afiq Ruzaini)
And lastly, how has pandemic life treated you? Has it been a productive phase or a debilitating one?
Well if we’re talking circuit-breaker pandemic life, I was very much sleeping away most of it so I feel like that falls under debilitating; I’m not proud of it. I was in a funk and it was a bit hard to find the motivation to write or get started on production but once Phase 1 kicked in, I was doing much better and things seemed hopeful again. If anything, I acknowledge my privileged position in having been able to just plug out from life and catch up on self-care while we were all under quarantine. Here’s to balance and productivity under the new normal, I guess!
Stay connected with 10vacations on her Facebook page and Instagram channel.
