Music goes on for Gravity Band at Brix nightclub

It is 9pm on a Wednesday night, the calm before the storm.

- ST PHOTOS: BRIAN TEO

Later, this cavernous basement will be transformed into a glorious, heady throb of drink and dance, with a strong dose of music swirled into the mix.

But for now, the bar is empty, save for a few staff. In a warmly lit back room, a woman puts the finishing touches on her makeup.

This is Julianne Costa-Sha, or Julz as she is better known, and she has been performing at Brix - a bar at Grand Hyatt Singapore - for more than 13 years.

As newer musicians attempt to find their footing in unlikely performance venues like hawker centres, traditional live music bars offer more established acts like her a degree of stability.

The 42-year-old American arrived here in 2011, bright-eyed and brimming with ambition.

After working in film, television and music in her native Los Angeles, and touring the United States, Asia and the Middle East with various bands, she started looking for a new adventure.

An entertainment agency brought her to Singapore, where she fell in love with the food, country and one DJ, in particular.

Sha Hussain, a native son of Singapore, was two years her senior and had been spinning at Brix since 2007.

They bonded over prata - the staff meals they were served did not quite cut it, so he offered to show her the real deal - as well as his party trick: being able to recount the exact beats per minute of any song.

"Back then, I was performing with another band at Brix. They would go out to Clarke Quay, but I was a homebody, so I would hang back. He wasn't a partier either. Our after-party was here at Brix," says the mother of three.

Still, it took a friend to push them together. "My best friend, DJ Gravity, was the one who told me, 'I think there's some chemistry there', and urged me to make a move," says Sha, who is now 44.