Starting from a home studio in Singapore, brb. finally landed in Los Angeles on September 26th for the second to last stop of their first North American tour. The trio, dripped out in Doc Martens and acid wash jeans, were set to perform at 1720 Warehouse that evening following a meet & greet event with their fans.
brb., composed of Auzaie Zie (Zie), Clarence Liew (CLO), and Marc Lian (Marc), is a trio from Singapore with a discography that combines R&B, funk, hip hop and soul.
“You know us. Our sound is so diverse, we like all kinds of genres,” Marc said during the 1:1 Meet & Greet session in conversation with Annenberg Media.
Zie is a keyboardist, vocalist, and a producer and is not only involved in brb. but also a member of Disco Hue, a Singaporean synth-pop quartet founded in 2012. He is also known as “Thievves” and directed music videos under Thievves Production.
Meanwhile CLO, has been active on YouTube since 2010 posting covers from artists such as Drake and Sam Smith and even performed for “The Youtube Stars Concert” in 2012. He is a singer-songwriter and does much of the vocals in brb. songs.
Finally, Marc, a singer, songwriter, and producer, is known for being part of the Singaporean hip hop duo Trick debuting on YouTube in 2012 with original songs,remixes and covers such as English versions of songs by G-Dragon. He was also one of the co-writers and producers of “Stylish” by LOONA.
Their diverse backgrounds and the up-and-coming music scene in Singapore have added to their tracks and their love for performing. Despite their groovy tunes, the concert was high in energy and hype as the members played off the excitement of the crowd with call-and-responses and interaction with fans.
“We all have different ones,” Marc said when asked what is their favorite song to perform. Zie explained that for him, “If it’s a more intimate crowd, I prefer the slower ones like ‘talking to myself’... If it’s like a solid crowd I love doing like ‘move’ and ‘on & on.’”
CLO chimed in saying, “Mine is ‘whoops’ and it’s like, you know, a chill crowd and you just want to cry. And ‘my type.’” As for Marc, when “Wild Child” was brought up, he responded, “it is one of my favorite songs.”
The group’s 90s and 80s inspired beats have been constantly evolving since their first single “cool with it” dropped on August 24th, 2018. One of their more relaxed songs, “cool with it” features a bubbly instrumental line throughout the whole song. The music video also goes with the nostalgic vibe of the song with a 1:1 aspect ratio, film-like grain and muted yellow color grading
Did brb. have plans to go international since that first drop five years ago? According to CLO, “That was the idea from the start,” much to the surprise of Zie that exclaimed “Really? Not really.”
Marc responded, “I didn’t have that idea from the start. We just want to have fun making music and see where it goes. We never expected this at all.” In return, Zie jokingly asks CLO “So you saying the first day you met Marc it was like ‘Yeah I wanna sell these songs overseas?’”
“So here’s my explanation right: So we wrote songs for a couple of months and we got brb. and then that’s when we were like “oh this is just a hobby” and we don’t wanna to take it too far - just like okay cool- and then we formed the band and were like let’s get Zie in and lets name ourselves brb.,” CLO said.
Even though CLO did not reveal his big dreams to Zie and Marc until five years later, brb. certainly grew as CLO expected. With over 1.6 million monthly listeners on Spotify, brb. has also collaborated with numerous artists such as SIRUP and Jimmy Brown since their debut.
Recently, brb. released “trippin” on September 1st – right before the North American tour began on September 16th. With falsettos, multilayered percussion lines, and a groovy base, this song highlights brb.’s signature funky style with an upbeat melodic line.
Throughout the concert, the members of the group were all dancing, jumping, and having fun on stage, and their energy was definitely reflected in the crowd. With everyone cheering and singing, brb. took audience phones, took their own videos, sang into cameras, and even held hands with fans at the barricade.
So what’s next? Any new songs? “Oh we have tons [of songs]. There’s tons,” the trio began chatting over each other. “We have some exciting songs coming up… Something new?... It will slowly [evolve]. We don’t want to shock everyone you know?” Zie then teased, “There are actually like bossa nova-ish things.”
Since the end of the tour, the group hosted a YouTube live stream on October 12th as a teaser to their upcoming performance at the 2023 ROUND Festival hosted in Indonesia on the 21st and 22nd of October. With exciting upcoming performances and new music set to come out, brb. fans around the world definitely have a lot to look forward to from this trio.