He was standing on the corner of Broadway and 10th Street, ukulele in hand, when the man approached him. Ian Teoh had no idea who the man was or what he wanted.
Earlier in the day, Teoh and his friend were at his house, recording a cover video for YouTube. His friend brought up the idea of going downtown to busk, or street perform. With no songs prepared, they headed to downtown Columbia and ended up with a street performing gig for one of the town’s most famous events.
“The True/False office is right around the corner of where I was performing,” Teoh said. “The director of the festival, Paul Sturtz, heard us sing, so he came down and asked us to play for them.”
Teoh has been playing the ukulele for seven years. His parents signed him up for piano lessons as a 4-year-old, but he didn’t grow to love music until he was 12, which is when he decided to learn the ukulele.
Determined to pick something up, Teoh ordered a ukulele off the internet and spent three hours a day for two months teaching himself how to play it.
“You can’t really carry the piano around, so ukulele was a good start,” Teoh said. “It’s a very happy instrument.”
For most of his life, Teoh has lived in Singapore. He moved to the U.S. in August 2016 to attend the Missouri School of Journalism.
“Singapore is an English-speaking country, so that smoothed over a lot of the transitions,” Teoh said. “Small talk was a huge change because people don’t talk to each other. If someone came up to you in the street and started talking to you, you’d think they’re crazy or they’re trying to sell you something.”
In Singapore, Teoh was a contestant on the reality show “The Final 1.” The show was a singing competition similar to “American Idol.” Teoh submitted an audition tape online and was one of the 60 chosen out of 3,000 to be on the show. He was eliminated after the first round, but he didn’t let it discourage him.
Now, Teoh mainly focuses on performing at private events, busking and writing original songs. He released an EP, _Happy_, on his Bandcamp page last year.
“I wrote the best song on the EP, ‘All On My Own,’ while I was living in Mark Twain [Residence Hall],” Teoh said. “I was sitting in The Mark and something just came over me. I went upstairs and knocked it out in 20 minutes.”
In regards to his future in music, Teoh doesn’t have anything specific planned. He is constantly working on new music while keeping up with his schoolwork.
“I’d really like to be able to pursue music, but it’s just very hard nowadays,” Teoh said. “I really don’t want to be 40 and washed up at a bar at 4 a.m., singing “Piano Man.” I love music, and I have a passion for it, but we’ll see where the wind takes me.”
Teoh will be taking to the streets this weekend to busk for True/False, performing a mix of his original songs and covers.
“I’ll try and play as much as I can if the weather permits,” Teoh said. “The nice thing about busking is that there’s no one telling you when to go or when to stop. You can do it spontaneously.”
_Edited by Brooke Collier | bcollier@themaneater.com_
