Joshua Chiang
Singaporean singer/songwriter based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Solo musician, also lead songwriter for
Almost done with song #2 'Turn Off That Light" for the new album!
I'm using an Epiphone Wildkat Bigsby as the main rhythmn guitar on all the songs in this album to make my uncle-in-law - whom I inherited the guitar from - proud. But I still can't ditch my Squire Strat so I've decided to pit them against one another in the guitar solo section...
Thanks to the magic of sound editing, I can at least manage to sound halfway decent doinig guitar solos, but I really do need to figure out how to play this part live as a guitar duel with the lead guitarist of a future band.
After all the songwriting's done, it's back to recording! Work on the second album is underway.
23/08/2023
Adding some acoustic versions of songs from my Psykic Elektric setlist, as well as a couple of cover songs I recently learnt! See you next Tuesday!
Live performance of new song 'Let Go Of Letting Go' at Cloud, Phnom Penh with Denver Danang (aka Zyctdan) on 4th August 2023. We'll be playing this song again at the Tin Hat this coming Friday. The gig starts at 7pm. Hope to see you there!
15/08/2023
As morbid as it might appear at first glance, this upcoming gig will not be performed by 2/3rds of me, 2/3rds of Denver, and 2/3rds of Pervez. Rather, it's Boxchords sans Pervez! In addition to a tasteful selection of my original materials, Denver will be performing songs from his upcoming 2nd EP! See you this coming Friday at the Tin Hat!
The last time Boxchords performed with Alli G on bass, it was in April last year. Catch our reunion with Alli this evening at Cloud's Pop/Rock Night event. Khmer rocker Mourin will be playing the first set, followed by Boxchords ft Alli G and Alli's own rock band Alli G And The Quilas will bring the night to a suitable close by rocking the house down.
12/08/2023
So it turns out that due to some last minute changes in my work schedule, I would be away in Siem Reap tomorrow, which means I wouldn't be able to attend the 10th Anniversary of the Sunday Sundowners after all.
But I did contribute - belatedly - to a tribute to the Sundowners, although I did go waaaaay over the 2-paragraph-limit.
So here's my contribution, bad grammar (because I turned off Grammarly) and all.
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There are some constants I notice in my ten years of living in Phnom Penh. The pervasive sound of construction, traffic jams, the traffic jam along Street 19 between 6 to 8pm on a Sunday evening, and people in a small Tex-Mex restaurant in a small street along Street 19 tooting ‘meep! meep!’ along to the chorus of a song about the Phnom Penh traffic jam written and performed by veteran expat Scott Bywater on a Sunday evening, usually between 6-8pm (but it could be later) in a weekly event which is now known as the Sunday Sundowners.
Most of the regulars at the Sundowners would balk at the idea of having a religion, but I would boldly argue that this doesn’t change the fact that they are there for a religious-like experience. Is it that hard to notice the similarities? You’ve got your regular host singing tunes that many regulars know by heart, and they would spontaneously join in with the more singalong songs, you’ve got Frisco Tony showing up dressed frequently like Lou Reed-meets-Johnny Cash, and Cash is often described to have the voice of an Old Testament prophet (despite audiorecording devices not having been invented until several thousand years after the last Old Testament prophet died) . And you’ve got your Church choir/band in the form of The Table Six Miniature Harmonica Orchestra (whose official logo was one of the many lousy design jobs I take on as a consequence of being rather bad at saying ‘no’); at least that’s the kind of church band that I imagine a poorly-attended Church in a small English town would be like. There’s currently an ongoing debate about whether a tortilla is a kind of bread, but to go along with my argument that Sundowners is a religious ritual, I’d say it is, and it gets served and consumed during this three-hour event.
Then you get a person who must have been tired of being compared to both a Mormon apostle and Jesus giving a speech in which it is rude if you interrupt (too frequently), but which often gets many laughs, and is almost always light on the moralizing part, kind of like one of those modern churches which want to appeal to a younger demographics by having sermons that dial up the funny bits and tone down the fire and brimstone bits. And to round it all up, performers get to down a shot of a type of spirit called tequila, and you don’t need me to spell it out for you what I’m comparing that to.
But change does happen. People come, people go. Often the same people that went came back. I would show up every week for months, and then disappear for just as many months, usually because I threw myself into yet another crazy artistic/musical endeavour that demanded too much of my time. And for those of us who were there since Day One ten years ago, we all got older. Some whom we would never imagine to become parents, had kids. My reasons for showing up have changed. It used to be that I showed up because I’ve got something to prove. I would get a bit stressed out over which songs I wanted to perform because you’ve got only a very limited time – around four to five songs – with which to win the crowd over. That’s the trait we Singaporeans like to call kiasu. And when I resumed writing my own songs, Sundowners became the place for me to get used to NOT getting any audience response, to grow a thicker skin. Now? I don’t know. Most times I show up completely unprepared to perform anything and just play whatever that comes to mind. As I said, it’s a ritual. A ritual for the self-professed unreligious.
One of drawbacks about living in a different country from the rest of my family for the last ten years is that I miss many gatherings on important dates. Ironically, I’ll be missing the tenth anniversary celebration of Sundowners this Sunday because I had to go on a last-minute business trip to Siem Reap. Hold on a minute. Why did I mention my family in the same paragraph as the Sundowners? Let’s just pretend that it never happened. Happy 10th, Sundowners.
Sunday best: Ten years of the Sunday Sundowner Sessions at TacoKat - Leng Pleng There is little so transitory as the Phnom Penh musical landscape. Venues rise and fall, […]
08/08/2023
It's a 3-in-one combo Pop/rock night at Cloud this coming Saturday! My acoustic band Boxchords, joined by guest bassist Alli G is one out of three acts that will be performing at this event. Boxchords will be performing songs from my solo album and new upcoming EP! See you there!
27/07/2023
It was supposed to be a solo gig tomorrow, but then my fellow Boxchordist aka Denver insists on accompanying me on lead guitars and the occasional vocal harmonies. On top of the songs from my first album, I'll be playing some newer materials I've written for the second album(?)/EP(?) as well as acoustic renditions from songs I wrote for Psykic Elektric.
See you at Cloud!
18/07/2023
Three upcoming gigs in the next 30 days! The first - back at CRAFT this coming Friday with Boxchords bringing you originals and our take on some popular cover songs! Oh, and I've been songwriting, so there's a chance we may be playing one or two of these new songs the first time as Boxchords!
Performing Jack Johnson's 'Sitting, Waiting, Wishing' at Craft with Boxchords earlier this month. We'll be back again July 21st, starting 7pm, so save the date!
19/06/2023
The 3rd of June was the second, and likely final time I publicly performed 'Beyond The Games' the official song for the 12th ASEAN Para Games, for the opening of the Games at Morodok Teco National Stadium in Phnom Penh. It was good to catch up once again with the rest of the singers who each hailed from one ASEAN country, although I think Alli G (from Malaysia) and I probably had the most fun because we simply refused to act our age during the rehearsal ( Alli brought his guitar, I brought my cajon, and we held an impromptu jam session in the waiting room) and the hours-long wait for our turn to step back into the limelight.
14/06/2023
Second time I performed my new original song 'Rome' with the boys from Boxchords, and the first time it's recorded on video!
Looking forward to finally recording it later this year as part of my upcoming EP.
Joshua Chiang - Rome (with Boxchords live at Craft 'Beer and Friends 9th June 2023) Live performance of new song 'Rome' with acoustic band Boxchords. 'Rome' will be featured in Joshua's upcoming EP. Listen to Joshua's solo debut album here -...
06/06/2023
Boxchords is back at Craft! We're gonna be playing mine and Denver's originals from our debut and upcoming solo albums/EPs plus some covers in the raucous upbeat style that we're known for. See you at Craft this Friday!
Link to event - https://www.facebook.com/groups/332025028627960/posts/774650737698718/?notif_id=1686002975572329¬if_t=group_post_mention&ref=notif
This is one of those videos that proves that Mom was right all along. I should have kicked that habit of shaking one leg while seated a long time ago, but I didn't, and it's super distracting to the viewer or audience I'm sure!
Anyway, this video is taken from my gig at Craft last Tuesday, and i was performing a cover of 'Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses' from my favorite U2 album, the phenomenal Achtung Baby. (Also, yay! the stage at Craft would finally have spotlights so performers' faces would be illuminated)
09/05/2023
Here we go again! Another Tuesday another gig.
08/05/2023
Back at Craft tomorrow evening! See you there!
That time when my pal Robin Narciso (Sangvar Day, We Are Ewe) gate crashed my performance of Maroon 5's Sugar with a snare drum and proved that he should stick to his role as band vocalist.
Live solo acoustic performance of 'Might As Well' a song that would be included in my next EP that I plan to record at the end of this year. It is one of the four original songs I performed last Saturdayat Cloud's All-acoustic Night, which also featured five other musicians including Denver Danang from my acoustic band Boxchords.
01/05/2023
Gigs for the month of May!
2nd May - Golden Bar
5th May - Tacos Kokopelli
9th May - Craft'Beer-Friends-BBQ
23rd May - Golden Bar
30th May - Golden Bar
29/04/2023
More pictures from rehearsal day and the event day itself.
Hand-stamped orchid batik shirt from Little Nyonya Batik.
So here's the performance of the song One ASEAN One Heart written specifically for the Beyond The Games event to herald in the SEA Games which Cambodia is hosting for the first time.
As a Singaporean who has lived in Cambodia for more than nine years, I am doubly happy to be not only representing my country to perform this song, but also for Cambodia to have a chance to showcase to the rest of Southeast Asia, and possibly the world how far it has come from it's turbulent past just a few decades ago.
Oh. And we weren't told about the fireworks throughout our rehearsals, so when the first ones started going off behind us with a loud pop, and the crowd started cheering, that made me very confused for at least ten seconds before realizing what was going on.
Also, if you wanna know where I bought the hand-stamped orchid batik shirt from, it's sold at Little Nyonya Batik (they have an online store too!)
28/04/2023
Happening tonight! Proud (and frankly terrified) to be the singer representing Singapore to perform a song together with other singers from South East Asia - some of whom are well-known regionally - tonight at the Beyond The Games event at the Win-win memorial, starting 6pm. (Our performance is in the middle timeslot).
Also happy to be performing it - and hamming it up for the camera - with familiar faces like Intan and Alli G.
See you there!
26/04/2023
Am stoked to be part of the lineup of this All-Acoustic Night at Cloud ( #32 Ke Nou street, Phnom Penh), including my friends and fellow musicians, Robin Narciso, Scott Bywater, and fellow-Boxchorder Denver Danang among others.
Each one of us gets to do solo performances of 4 songs and I would be playing some of my favorite songs from my debut solo album as well a one (or two!) new songs that will be featured in my next EP.
Looking forward to seeing you there!
03/04/2023
So it looks like I'll be playing at Golden Bar on a semi-regular basis on Tuesdays, taking turns with the eternal rocker Alli G. If you want to celebrate making it 1/3 of the way through the week in a nice cozy setting with live acoustic original + some covers music, do swing by every Tuesday!
21/03/2023
This just came up!
If you're still feeling the Monday's blues on a Tuesday evening, do swing by Golden Bar along Bassac Lane tonight!
Golden Tuesdays , "Live" music at Golden Bar, Bassac lane, welcomes the super talented, "Joshua Liang 🎸🎶🔥"
7.30 to 8pm start, great cocktails 🍸, great drinks selection, great food, ground floor bar, middle floor fully air conditioned, top floor open area, with amazing views of bassac lane.
Tuesdays "live" at Golden Bar, hope to see you guys 😁🙏👍
15/03/2023
Upcoming shows!
17th March Friday @ Cloud, 8:30pm
28th March Tuesday 'Beer- Friends-BBQ, 6:30pm
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