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🎧 LISTEN TO "DIARY OF A YOUNGER GIRL" HERE

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🎧 LISTEN TO "DIARY OF A YOUNGER GIRL" HERE

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Track list:

1. Same Page

2. How to Fall

3. Past Conversations

4. Empty Promises

5. Homesick (Rachel's Version)

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For this EP, I stuck to an all-string instrumentation, with my voice accompanied only by violin and viola parts. It was a good exercise for me in arranging strings but also a way for me to capture the intimacy of these songs as the violin is the first musical instrument I picked up and I wanted to play all the instruments on this first EP myself. I could have used some MIDI instruments, but ultimately decided against it because that would just open up even more decision paralysis.

The title "diary of a younger girl" came to me while I was in the shower trying to think about a concept to tie all these songs together. A lot of the words that end up in my lyrics tend to be bits of sentences that I write in my most emotionally charged diary entries. A lot of the feelings captured in these songs have faded in their potency in the years since I first wrote them, but have not lost their significance to the younger version of me who felt it all so deeply.

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Inspired by: “Deeper Conversation” by Yuna, irresponsible intoxication, basic ukulele strumming patterns, the tiny V/O studio downstairs at Song Zu, the playing styles of Andrew Bird, David Wong and Casey Driessen, “Pumped Up Kicks” covered by Miracles of Modern Science, Joby Talbot’s string arrangements

This song was written on ukulele and it shows. It is also the first ever song I wrote that I don’t feel embarassed about, partly because it was the first song I wrote out of secondary school, and mostly because I really love this bass line, which I improvised on an electric bass belonging to a composer from the post-production studio I was interning at.

Arrangement-wise, I’m most proud of this one, and there’s probably more going on here because it was the first song I started to arrange for this EP.

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Thank you for listening to my music!

I created this space as a way to not just share more about the songs, but also as a way to interact and hear your thoughts on the project. So please feel free to leave comments on any of the blocks!

This site has been organised into 2 sections.

(1) Welcome Desk

Links to listen to the EP

Playlist of inspirations

Alternate versions of songs

Sneak peek at my next project

(2) Tracklist

Lyrics

Stories behind the songs

Last update: 2 June 2025 - expanded on "#4 Empty Promises"

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Spotify

Apple Music

YouTube

Other

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Full YouTube playlist

Apple Music link

Spotify link

More info in the track breakdowns below.

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-- STREAMING LINKS --

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This song is the first song I wrote since moving to Singapore, and is part of a “trilogy” about the same friendship I wrote about in “How to Fall” and “Past Conversations”. It has gone through many reincarnations, including the original ukulele-led pop arrangement, the string quartet version on the EP, and this looped version that I hope to perform live in the near future.

Here's another acoustic version: https://soundcloud.com/yenoceane/same-page

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This performance was for my 2nd-year college recital. The reason why I suddenly switched to Mandarin at the beginning was because the people this was about were all there and I started to chicken out. Half of my mind started frantically translating the whole monologue to Mandarin before the other half of my mind took over, told me to breathe, and be brave.

This performance marked a turning point for me as an artist and a person. It was the first time I was able to let myself and all the emotion I had hoarded within me go. The first time I finally found the courage to share my true feelings with the world. The first time I performed something that was honest, that was true, that was real, that was me.

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Electronic version of "Past Conversations"

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Electronic version of "Past Conversations"

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This version was remixed by Dru while I was interning at a post-production studio in 2016.

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RWYEN - Past Conversations by Rachel W.yen

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Stream RWYEN - Past Conversations by Rachel W.yen on desktop and mobile. Play over 320 million tracks for free on SoundCloud.

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Inspired by: “Someday We’ll Linger In The Sun” by Gaelynn Lea, main study with Kailin, open violin strings, diary entries, Cloud Atlas, this specific chord progression, melodies composed on piano, “Matisse: La Danse” by Tracy Silverman

This piece was put together for my 2nd-year college recital. It details a friendship that I had hoped could become something more, but ultimately disappointed and hurt me.

I was struggling to pick a 3rd song to perform and I was scouring YouTube for violin-centred performances for inspiration and came across Gaelynn Lea’s NPR Tiny Desk Concert. I found the combination of her voice with simple but emotive violin loops compelling. I came up with the pizzicato and melody loops but again, couldn’t figure out a way to make a passable performance from it.

It was during a class with Kailin where I was practicing looping the parts that he said I could make a performance art piece out of it (in lieu of a traditional song with lyrics). He knew that I was always writing and suggested the concept of looping a part, talking over it, looping another part, and so on.

The singing is a recent addition. I came up with the tune but couldn’t find a way to extend it into a full-length song so I decided to include it here. This is the only track on the EP that I didn’t write a new arrangement for.

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Inspired by: To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, WhatsApp conversations, late-night doom scrolling, “A bouche que veux-tu (Version orchestrale)" by Brigitte, “Someone New” by Hozier, “Habits” covered by Haley Reinhart, “Odyssée (Version acoustique)” by L’Impératrice

After I watched To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before on Netflix, I proceeded to stalk a boy I loved before on Instagram and then scroll through an entire text thread on WhatsApp trying to figure out what went wrong with said boy I loved before . Finally, I decided to do something productive and put all those feelings into a song.

In English, the first verse is very cringey which is why I translated it into French so it doesn’t sound as cringey (to me, at least). That aside, this might be the most vulnerable song I’ve written so far. Credit to Jude Benz for the French translation!!

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Inspired by: COVID-19, texts and emails, the rat race, “We Didn’t Start The Fire” by Billy Joel, “You Belong With Me” by Taylor Swift, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Vitamin String Quartet, “Kids Return” by Joe Hisaishi, “Not Goodbye Yet” by Felix Cheong

These lyrics took nearly a year to finish because the first verse was originally about the same group of people I was writing about on tracks 1-3 and it was only when I finally let that idea go and wrote it about someone else that it started to come together. I guess at this point my subsconcious was already done spewing sentimental shite about unrequited loves and now, as a whole, the themes are definitely more in line with the kind of themes I write and feel more strongly about now.

The repetitive staccato arrangement is influenced by my future intention for this song to have a rock band instrumentation.

The first part is directed to a friend who texted me that they missed me only to ignore my existence the following day.

The second part is directed to someone who took forever to send me the paperwork to confirm me for a contract job.

The third and final part is directed to a younger version of me, pre-COVID, who had all these dreams of what she was going to do after graduating from college.

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Inspired by: growing up in Ipoh, Mahmah, the homesick project, “Jesus, Etc.” by Wilco, “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)” by The Lumineers, “Before My Time (feat. Scarlett Johansson & Joshua Bell)” by J. Ralph, “Time in a Tree” by Raleigh Ritchie, “Englishman in New York” by Sting, all the people who made me feel less alone

I wrote this song in 2019 to be the theme song for a podcast (the homesick project) and lyrically, it was largely inspired by the conversations Nuria had on it with her guests, as well as my own experiences living away from the town I grew up in. The line “I miss the trees that helped me breathe” is a reference to my childhood struggles with asthma.

Nuria was instrumental in the creation of this song, she gave me a playlist that included “Jesus, Etc.” by Wilco which gave me a great reference for the string parts on the original version of this song which debut on the last episode of the homesick project and featured Nuria’s friend, Marta Álvarez, on lead vocals.

I released this song on streaming platforms in October 2020 because it captured everything I was feeling in that moment - my longing for home and for my family, my insecurities about how adult life was going, the occasional sad pessimistic thoughts, but most importantly, the love and gratitude I have for the people I'm blessed to have in my life, as well as my hope for the future.

The instrumentation for this version of Homesick is stripped back because at this point in the arranging process I was getting pretty burnt out so I decided to just have a simple pizzicato part on viola and improvise some lines on violin to go with the vocals.

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A full-length album by a jaded young woman.

Tentative Track List / Songs I'm working on:

1. Red Glass

2. All I Can Do Is... Listen

3. the right person

4. (there I go again)

5. Glitch // an ode to my MacBook

6. dear me from the last 10 years

7. Blue Ridge

8. St. Chris

9. meet-pukes

10. old telegram pole

11. not all, but always