DEEP CUTS

The first female-owned, Singapore-based lathe-cut record studio honours not only the country's forgotten past as a record-making hub in the 60s, but personal memories of guests.

- TEXT LU YAWEN

In the devastating wildfires in Southern California in January this year, more than 400 people were killed in the month-long fire, and 18,000 homes were destroyed. The home of Charlyn Yap's friend, Todd, was one of them.

“He couldn’t even remember what his house looked like. All he has been seeing for months was just black, nothing,” she says.

Only a week ago, on New Year's Eve, she had gone over to their place to do a special recording — the couple's wedding vows before they decided to announce their marriage to everyone else. They had planned to use the record to surprise their family and friends. The artwork on the cover was a hand-painted scene of their home in Los Angeles by Lee Sin Yee, Yap’s business partner.

“We did a copy of it just so that we could keep it because it was actually the first real record that we made together, with Sin Yee painting at the back, and then me cutting this. When my friend saw this, he basically just cried.”

His reaction struck a chord for both Yap and Lee, who had left their day jobs to start ART/ST Records in August 2024. The former ex-colleagues at Oatside brought their artistic chemistry to their first independent venture — a lathe-cutting record studio. Yap, inspired by Singapore’s forgotten history in record-making, does the cutting, and Lee does the cover design.