Young and budding local artist Krysta Joy D’Souza released a 10-track album, “Embrace the Progress”. Her album, released in June, revolves around the idea of celebrating personal growth and small wins in life. Her album is a mix of catchy bops and raw feelings from her reflections as a 22-year-old singer, songwriter and musician in Singapore.
We spoke to Krysta Joy about the inspiration behind her album and the message that she hopes her music can bring to people.
Poly Parcel: When and how did you start out in music?
Krysta: Growing up there was always music around me especially in my church where I loved worship songs. I always liked to join my parents, bring a small tambourine and pretend that I was in the band. I loved to sing and actually, I loved rhythm a lot.
In Primary 2, I decided that I was bored of writing Mother's Day cards for my mom. Every year, it was the same thing. I would write ‘Happy Mother’s Day’ and draw some pictures. And I've always been super bad at drawing so it's always super ugly! I thought every time my mum receives it, she would have to pretend that she likes it.
So, I decided to do something different that year which was to try to write a song. I found a very old book with chord charts and wrote out the song on the paper and I just sang along. That was actually how my first song was written.
My mum was really touched by that so from there, she began encouraging me to write songs as initially, I wanted to be a musician only. I went for classes and I discovered that writing songs were a very effective way of sharing how I feel.
“I discovered that writing songs were a very effective way of sharing how I feel.”
After I graduated from Secondary School, I decided to enrol on a music school. When I first found out it was an actual thing, I started to think it was a High School Musical sort of vibe, you know? I was very excited! I was like, “Wow! Yeah man! I want to be like Troy and Gabriella. Shiok sia! I can go to some school where they sing in the canteen and synchronise their dances.”
Of course, I did more research and I discovered it’s not like that, I really had to study. Despite that, I knew in my heart that it was what I wanted to do and I wanted to be equipped to write songs. With that, I started my journey in Lasalle to study music.
Krysta performing at TEDx Lasalle in 2018.
Fast forward, I graduated from Lasalle and I applied for the NOISE music mentorship to put myself more in the music scene. I got rejected straightaway. I remember filling up the application and writing my amazing story, feeling like it was the best story in the world. My ego was bruised, like “Huh? Y’all don’t think I’m good enough?”
That made me feel very incompetent as a musician but I tried again in 2017 and I got in. Fast forward after that, somehow, I managed to win that award. I say ‘somehow’ not as a humble brag but because honestly, I went in without the intention to win; I just wanted guidance from mentors.
All the other mentees gave their 101% to win the award but I felt that I couldn’t fit in. It was not in my nature to compete with others and I felt that I did not belong to the competitive scene so I simply did what the bare minimum like appear and participate whenever I have to.
Winning the NOISE music mentorship was my first step into the music scene. From there I had a lot of opportunities to perform and was invited to play shows. With the monetary award that I won from NOISE, I managed to write, record and launch my first EP.
At the launch of Krysta’s first EP in 2019.
Poly Parcel: What inspired you to create your new album, “Embrace the Progress”?
Krysta: “Embrace the Progress” is basically a recount of recent years of my life and things that I've been through. My identity has always been something that I struggled with. I've always been one to be pretty hard on myself. So this whole idea of embracing progress is definitely a challenge for me and it was made even more evident to me last year.
During the circuit breaker last year, I did not cope well. A lot of my weaknesses were revealed and I even had an existential crisis that led me to think about what I am doing with my life, who I am as a person and who I want to be.
The album starts with a conversation about what's it like being a 22-year-old creating in Singapore? It was something I grappled with because I felt that I did not live up to firstly, anything I said I would and secondly, anything that I was supposed to be or what people expected of me.
People were doing live streams all the time, always having online gigs or who are working on their online presence by constantly churning out content after content. And then there was me, just laying around in bed and crying about how I am a failure. I put myself down a lot and struggled with my self-esteem.
However, over time as things started to recover, I had a wake-up call where I was like, “What am I doing?” I can’t just mope around and discount the fact that I am trying but at the same time, I can’t keep saying, “I’m already trying” and use that as an excuse to not try harder. I was grappling with that balance and I thought about the question, “What does it mean to embrace my progress?”
“I can’t just mope around and discount the fact that I am trying but at the same time, I can’t keep saying, “I’m already trying” and use that as an excuse to not try harder.”
From there, I decided to express that balance through music where it is about celebrating small wins but also not remaining satisfied with these small wins. I didn’t want to just make small steps when I could be going a lot further. So, this album is very honest and I think it makes me very naked.
I was very hesitant to put it out just like that because compared to my first album which was very showy, this was very different. My first album was my strength because I did all the arrangements myself and had great musicians play with me.
With all the layers to the music, it felt like the message was almost masked by the music and it made me feel comfortable to be hidden.
On the other hand, “Embrace the Progress” is just me and layers of me from voice to instruments. Frankly, the recording process was extremely uncomfortable but that was the whole part of the process to learn to embrace every part of me—my weaknesses and flaws.
Poly Parcel: Take us through each song of your album!
Krysta: After receiving that revelation about moving forward instead of putting myself down, I was able to write the more uplifting songs such as “Hold Me” and “Enough”. That’s the reason why I put them towards the end of the album. These are the 10 songs in my album:
Poly Parcel: What message do you hope your listeners will walk away with after listening to your album?
Krysta: Everybody is weak in some ways and there are only two ways you can go about looking at it. One, you can sit around and cry, another is to embrace it and learn how to move forward, instead of putting yourself down.
After I finished my album, I believe I’ve learnt to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. What that means is to put myself in situations where I’m stretched in hopes of inspiring others to do the same.
What’s ahead for me is to be the message that I sing about and to be someone that others can look at and think “If she can do that, I can do it too”
Listen to Krysta Joy’s latest EP, Embrace the Progress, on Spotify! To stay updated on her gigs and new music, follow her on Instagram or Facebook. For some good laughs, check out her videos on Tiktok.
