At the grand old age of 25, local singer-songwriter Jaime Wong is a self-professed “typical emo singer-songwriter” – but is she, really? Her self-titled debut EP, which consisted of four self-penned tracks, centers on lost love and, in short, makes you want to indulge in a tub of ice cream after.
Far from taking it the wrong way, Jaime grinned, “It’s actually a compliment – you want people to feel things when they listen to your songs so I guess I’ve achieved that. In a very weird way, it makes me happy to hear that people feel depressed after listening to them.”
Her guitar is, understandably, her security blanket; Jaime confessed to pleading for it to be allowed into the recording studio with her when she was recording her vocal lines and feeling awkward without it. These days, however, she’s exploring different genres of music and even giving the electric guitar a go – something she hopes to incorporate into her upcoming tracks.
Perhaps we here at Toggle have been exposed to one too many mainstream gigs, as we immediately thought of one of the biggest female singer-songwriters in existence after speaking to Jaime – Taylor Swift.
Breaking out in a disbelieving smile after we mentioned the name, she was stunned into silence for a moment before letting out a, ”Wow. No, no one’s ever mentioned that”. While Jaime expressed her admiration for the superstar, she mused, “I don’t think I’ll ever be like that; especially because Taylor is so upfront about the people she writes about in her songs but I like to keep them guessing.”
While she remains open to writing more upbeat, radio-friendly tunes in the future, she maintains that she will not let her sources of inspiration know who truly inspired her tunes. “A lot of people will probably be guessing, ‘Maybe it’s me?’ but I’ll never tell them if they’re right or not,” she grinned.
While she is busy with her job in the IT industry by day, its flexibility has allowed her to work on her music – something she admitted is a pricey interest, both literally and figuratively. Her EP, which was delayed for months, almost didn’t make it to see the light of day after numerous setbacks. Thankfully, it made it through and the rest, as they say, is history.
What then, is success and popularity to Jaime? “I felt like my dreams came true at my EP launch – looking out into the crowd when I was singing and seeing them singing to to my songs with me; that’s something that words can’t describe,” she shared.
While she continues playing at smaller joints for now – places she feels comfortable in while being able to connect with her audiences, she does dream of playing at bigger venues one day. When she does, we’ll be sure to be there too.