In September, the UK celebrates East and South East Asian heritage, a special time to pay homage and acknowledge the history and culture of the region, as well as the England-based community. In commemoration of such, the non-profit community group ESEA Music, established in 2021 by and for UK-based East & Southeast Asian music industry professionals and artists, launched their biggest project of the year — an exciting series of writing camps, bringing together both established and fledgling talents.

The whole project was organised by artist-producer and music industry professional kityiu grace alongside British Burmese artist Lucy Tun. “Our goal is to organise writing camps encompassing diverse music professions and genres”, says grace. “The experience of having musicians from different genres collaborate on songs has been immensely fulfilling creatively. These collaborative sessions have fostered a stronger sense of unity within the ESEA Music community, as our shared creative interests bring us closer together”. Today, they release the first collaborative track of the project, “I LUV MY LIFE,” produced by Congee alongside six other artists including iamkyami, Jason Kwan, Josie Man, Lucy Tun, Tascha Jerawan and Vishal Chopra.

The experience was proven to be an incubator of good matches. “Since moving to the UK, I’ve worked with artists across many different genres and capabilities but the ESEA Music pop songwriting camp was definitely one of the best sessions I’ve been involved in”, shares iamkyami. “I was pretty nervous coming into the writing camp. I had only joined a few months ago and I was surprised to be selected for the writing camps especially since I didn’t know anyone. I’m glad I was given the opportunity to get to know everyone involved in our Pop group, everyone was so lovely and the vibes were actually immaculate”.

Anglo-Thai singer and songwriter Tascha Jerawan agrees, “The ESEA Music camp brought me out of my comfort zone and now it feels like home. Combining all of our inspirations to create something beautiful: now that’s something special.” It was during a concert that she met someone who told her all about ESEA Music. “The idea of being in a room with a group of ESEA creatives was a huge thing for me, seeing as it was something I had never had the pleasure of being a part of”.

Listen to the single and check BTS shots…