Charles Lim, better known as Charlie Lim, is a Singaporean singer-songwriter, musician, producer and artist.
Personal life
Lim was exposed to music since young, especially since his mother taught the piano. He started singing and playing the piano in church and in school bands, learning how to play by ear. He was educated at Tao Nan School and Victoria School where he was with the school choir which came in second at the Singapore Youth Festival. At 14, he moved to Melbourne, Australia and wanted to pursue medicine or journalism, but "music got the better of him". In 2005, he topped the state of Victoria for music performance and was selected by VCE's Season of Excellence to perform at Melbourne's Hamer Hall. He later returned to Singapore to serve National Service, during which he joined the Singapore Armed Forces Music & Drama Company as their frontman for the combo band, which involved performing for foreign dignitaries, army recruits, students, black tie events, as well as goodwill tours in Australia and Brunei. Lim continued his studies at Monash University in 2008 to complete his bachelor's degree in Music Performance, before returning to Singapore in 2012 where he is currently based.
Musical career
Charlie broke into the Southeast Asian music scene in 2011 with his self-titled debut EP. Signing with management label House of Riot! in 2012, he continued to tour the region, playing major festivals such as Mosaic Music Festival in Singapore, Jarasum International Jazz Festival in Korea, Urbanscapes in Kuala Lumpur, Clockenflap in Hong Kong, Java Jazz Festival in Indonesia and Brisbane Festival in Australia, supporting acts such as Kimbra, BADBADNOTGOOD, Émilie Simon, Hiatus Kaiyote, Lucy Rose, Sigur Ros, Lenka, Ta-Ku and Snarky Puppy. Lim released TIME/SPACE in 2015, an introspective and melancholic double EP that explores "different polarities" of his musical interests, with TIME reflecting his singer-songwriter sensibilities and SPACE a manifestation of his DIY approach to experimental pop/R&B production. The record took close to 3 and half years to write, produce and record. The initial concept of splitting the album into a double EP came about when Charlie was using Kimbra's home studio in Melbourne while she was away on tour. By the end of his stay, he had finished putting together the arrangements of several demos, including “Bitter” and “Conspiracy”, which went on to form the cornerstones of TIME/SPACE. The album went to #1 on Singapore's iTunes charts within an hour of its release. Singapore's leading newspaper The Straits Times gave it a glowing review of 4.5/5 stars, and was also awarded Best Pop Album of 2015. Popular media outlets such as , , , , , , , , and also considered the record as one of the best music releases of the year. Following two landmark, sold-out shows at the 10th edition of the Mosaic Music Festival – an achievement never claimed by a Singaporean artist – Charlie premiered TIME/SPACE to another sold-out crowd at Singapore's premier concert venue, the 1600-seater Esplanade Concert Hall, as part of a triple bill with Inch Chua and The Great Spy Experiment. In 2015, Lim was commissioned to write two theme songs for the 28th Southeast Asian Games and was asked to perform his song "Still" at the Singapore National Stadium for the Games' closing ceremony. In 2016, Lim signed his first major record deal with Universal Music Singapore, with a major studio release slated in 2017. For the 2018 Singapore National Day Parade, Lim updated the classic National Day Parade song, We Are Singapore, which it was performed during the parade.
