Shye Embraces Authenticity In Today's Music Scene

It has been nearly five years since this magazine first discovered Trinity Shye‐Anne Brown and featured the home‐grown singer‐songwriter and producer in what was her debut fashion and beauty editorial. (We even created a little music video for her hazy bedroom pop ballad Momentary to go along with it.) The now 21‐year‐old, who performs under the mononym Shye, has crammed possibly several lifetimes’ worth of accolades into that half a decade.

Just last month, she performed alongside three older, more established names (Sezairi Sezali, Linying and Shabir Sulthan) at the Istana for the swearing‐in ceremony of the country’s fourth prime minister. In the year plus leading up to that, she had been racing around the globe on a creative musical streak. Her first stop was Austin, Texas, in March 2023 to perform at the prestigious South By Southwest Music Festival. She then rushed back to this side of the world for two reality TV competitions she had been invited to take part in: Youth π Plan in China, where she spent four months and finished in the finals, and the idol survival show Chuang Asia: Thailand, where she wrapped up as the sole Singapore contestant in the final round. Throughout that time, her dreamy alt‐pop tracks continued to rack up millions of plays on Spotify, while more and more invites to luxury fashion and beauty events here streamed in. It’s no doubt a lot to digest.

Meeting her on set again for this story, it’s evident she has gained a new‐found slickness and ease in posing for the camera. Being coached by the likes of Jackson Wang, who was the lead mentor on Chuang Asia, might have had something to do with it. (Of the superstar rapper, Shye says she has nothing but admiration for his humility, hard‐working ethos and no‐BS approach to life.)

For all her heightened fame though, Shye’s girl‐next‐door attitude and independent artistic process remain the same as when we first met in 2019. Her sound and appeal are intimately tied to who she is as a person, says Josh Wei, record producer, songwriter and co‐founder of Tumbleweed Studios, the recently opened jamming studio at the Esplanade where most of this shoot took place. (Shye has been a long‐time fan and patron of Snakeweed Studios, its sister space in the Kaki Bukit area that also offers recording facilities.) Some might even go so far as to say that Shye the human being is a goofy and grounded young woman – one who’s most happy to spend time at home with her family and three cats when she’s not on stage.

After all, she made her mark as a self‐taught talent and continues to write, produce, mix and master her own music in her bedroom, even though it might be easier to outsource the music production to others. “People tend to assume that I have producers working on my tracks and I can see why they’d think that, because that side of the industry is more male‐dominated ... Hopefully, in time to come, people will realise there’s not necessarily a guy behind every female artiste,” quips Shye, who admits to “really enjoying the technical side of music production”.

Ask about how she thinks her growing celebrity has impacted her work and she winces. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel about that ... I’m grateful that brands are willing to have me at their events, but I don’t really think of myself as a fashion or beauty influencer,” she says. “I think that ultimately, the heart of my artistry revolves around staying true to my element and being relatable. In my eyes, I feel like nothing much has changed since I began my music journey at 16, except for all the amazing opportunities and experiences that I’ve had since.”

If anything, she’s leveraging her clout to uplift others. Take her self‐funded Hear Me Up initiative, which she started in 2022 to help provide what she calls a “non‐judgemental avenue” through which budding musicians can get a chance at the spotlight: To kick it off, she did a call‐out for an opening act for her inaugural headline show that took place that October. She expected a handful of applications, but received 60. (In the end, the dream pop band Days of Television openedfor the sold‐out showcase.) A second Hear Me Up show was staged last November with six acts including herself, and she deliberately kept the set timings secret in the hopes that people would come – and stay – for all acts instead of turning up only for her.

“Being able to play live is a feeling that’s very special to a lot of artistes, especially after living through the Covid‐19 pandemic, when live music was at a standstill ... For some of these acts, Hear Me Up was their very first show,” she says. “I know that feeling of being a musician and not knowing what you’re doing and being intimidated by the scene, but still wanting a space to share your music. Hear Me Up is admittedly a small project, but it’s coming from a place where I genuinely want to pass it on, providing a platform for those who might not have one.”

Work is underway for a third edition of Hear Me Up as well as a yet‐to‐be‐named sophomore album set to drop later this year (Shye reveals that it’ll continue the alt‐rock sounds she explored in her last EP, 9LIVES). This month sees the launch of her new single, Wonderful Day, which Shye says is about encouraging people to remember “that there’s always a tomorrow, when you can try again”.

She also continues to handle most things herself (though her mum Alice helps out on press communications). Take how she had a hand in everything from Hear Me Up’s social media collaterals to the soundcheck. Having full autonomy over her artistry is something she enjoys greatly, she says, though she’s not ruling out signing with a major label should the right offer come her way. For the moment, however, she’s happy with how she has moulded her career and is keeping a level head about diving into trends such as, say, creating catchy music for the sake of going viral on TikTok. “Everybody’s looking for that big break, but even if you do go viral, what do you do after that? Are you able to sustain interest beyond that one hit?”

Her advice: Know yourself and stick to who you are. “Think about who you want to be as a musician before leaping. You need to know who you are and what you stand for because trends come and go. You don’t want to break the heart of your artistry by trying to keep up with everyone else ... I think who I am and how I’ve approached my creative process from start to finish is my highest form of self‐expression, and shares the truest form of my music and myself with the world.” Whether or not you’re a fan, there’s no denying the authenticity behind her projects and that, ladies and gentlemen, isn’t something that can be manufactured for any algorithm.

This article first appeared in the June 2024 TikTok Edition of FEMALE

PHOTOGRAPHY STEFAN KHOO STYLING DAMIAN HUANG VIDEOGRAPHY ATHIRAH ANNISSA VIDEO EDITING PHYLLICIA WANG PHOTOGRAPHY ASSISTANT ALIF STYLING ASSISTANTS DANESSA TONG & PAIGE BOON HAIR GREGO USING KEUNE MAKEUP CLARENCE LEE, USING CHANEL BEAUTY LOCATION SPECIAL THANKS TO TUMBLEWEED STUDIOS (#02‐19 ESPLANADE MALL) MUSIC (USED IN VIDEO) WONDERFUL DAY BY SHYE