December 17, 2024 • 13 mins
Join host Kahn Ellmers for an insightful interview with Thaddeus Tean, a talented musician from Penang, Malaysia, who discusses his musical journey, the influence of his family, and his acapella group's (Ambience) mission to glorify God through their music. Discover Thaddeus' experiences performing in the Philippines, the inspiration behind their arrangements, and practical ways to support musicians. Tune in to hear more about their upcoming tour and new releases.
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to Thaddeus Tien
00:40 Family Influence and Early Musical Journey
01:26 Discovering the Joy of Performing
02:11 University Life and Forming an Acapella Group
03:50 Creating and Arranging Music
05:18 The Message Behind the Music
07:02 Supporting Musicians and Personal Advice
08:50 Upcoming Events and Final Thoughts
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Adventist Wives.
(00:09):
This piece of music comes to mind that I arranged for our group.
The title is Fragile.
(00:33):
It's originally by a singer called Natalie Lane.
But it's one...
Welcome to Adventist Wives. I am your host, Khan Elmins.
On today's episode, I talk to Thaddeus Tien about his arrangement of Fragile.
On Adventist Wives, we look at the songs of Adventist musicians.
(00:57):
Song stories told one piece at a time.
Thank you for listening. Introducing Thaddeus Tien.
Hi, my name is Thaddeus Tien.
I am originally born and raised in Penang, Malaysia.
(01:21):
I realized that I had this talent.
God had given me this talent to not only sing but to write music as well.
By the grace of God, come from a family who is a bit more advantageous in the financial realm.
I can do music and not earn that much.
(01:44):
And still be supported by my parents.
How do you think your family encouraged you to become a musician?
I think a lot of the encouragement came from my mom.
My mom put us into music at a very young age.
(02:05):
Like the classic Asian family, you learn a string instrument, you learn how to play piano.
Obviously growing up in the SDA church, you learn how to sing.
Definitely my mom encouraged doing the whole music thing.
I feel like my dad encouraged using those gifts to glorify God's name.
(02:29):
So I feel like it was a combination of both of them working together.
What's your point in growing up?
In terms of growing up in teenage years, not really.
I only felt the joy of performing when I was maybe past 18 onwards.
(02:58):
Only past 18, I really felt the joy of praising God's name and performing spiritual music.
Was that in your church sitting?
In the SDA church, yes, not specifically my home church.
I felt it more when I came to the Philippines and was able to perform with my friends over here.
(03:19):
Tell us about that experience.
I studied in the Philippines.
I studied at the University in the Philippines.
While I was in uni, I started an acapella group.
By the grace of God, we've been able to perform different events, different churches.
(03:42):
It was in those moments that I found that I really liked performing and I really liked praising and spreading God's name through singing.
What type of group do you like to play?
We don't play anything because we are an acapella group.
In terms of genre, we do anything from hymns to slightly contemporary Christian music.
(04:11):
We're an acapella group, so it's mainly singing.
Seven. Wow, okay. If you were to describe your guys' group and your music in a way that somebody who has never heard of your music would understand, how would you explain it to them?
That's a good question. Let me look at our Instagram description.
(04:33):
One way to describe us, it would be seven different young people who like acapella and love praising God's name through that medium.
That's what I would use to describe our group.
You guys have been together for a while now.
(04:54):
You started your group when you went to the Philippines and you were studying there.
Would you like to share a piece of music that maybe your group composed together or is it something that you composed as an individual?
You may be arranged as an individual. What direction do you want to take?
There's this piece of music that comes to mind that I arranged for our group.
(05:19):
The title is Fragile.
It's originally by a singer called Natalie Lane, but it's one of my most recent and one of my most favorite pieces that I've arranged for the group.
(05:49):
So, originally, I can't take credit for the attention to this song because it was my younger brother who's in the group as well, Theodore, who listened to Natalie Lane.
One day he brought the song to me and said, hey, this would sound really nice with us. That's how it started.
(06:24):
So you took that from your brother and then you introduced it to your team as well?
I mean, your group as well. What was their response?
So, yeah, I usually arranged stuff first, then give it to them, which is probably not the most ideal way to do it.
They really liked it because the way that I was inspired to arrange it really resonated with the group and especially the message of the song as well.
(06:52):
So I think because of the message and the way that it was arranged, they really loved it.
(07:22):
DION
(07:46):
tell us what that message is and what you would like the listeners to take away from it.
Okay so the title it says fragile right and I guess the main part of the song comes from
the chorus where it goes you know you being god you know how to hold something fragile
(08:08):
you won't let me go when I unravel. The message of the song talks about how we as humans are
really fragile beings but despite our fragileness despite our weaknesses despite our shortcomings
god is there to help us through it all and he knows how to handle us and he knows how to help
(08:36):
us through life we just have to allow him to handle us and to help us yeah yeah
What would you like people to take away from your guy's music?
So one thing that I would like people to take away from our music is just how wonderful god is
(09:01):
the whole point of us doing christian music is not to show off ourselves but to show off how
amazing god is it is to show how he has worked in us so all our songs are basically testimonies of
us as individuals or us as a group and how wonderful god has been to us. I would like one
(09:26):
thing I would like people to take is yeah how amazing god is and how wonderful he is to us.
What is one practical way that our listeners could support evidence musicians like yourselves?
Well my credit card information is not to show you. One way would definitely be the most simple
way you can do it is just listen to our stuff that we put up online so like stuff on youtube stuff
(09:51):
on spotify because obviously we get residuals from that I'm not sure if that's the right word
but yeah we do get like royalties yeah yeah but it's it's very my it's very small of course but
you know every little bit helps and if you want to go an extra mile share it with as many people
(10:12):
as you can think of you know that's the easiest way to do it and that's something that everybody
can do it's just like three clicks or three taps of a button as much as possible support
musicians out there because that's something that we really need it will really help us to
continue what we're doing that's the practical one but for you guys personally at home you don't have
(10:39):
to be high caliber musicians to praise god you don't have to do it on a big scale to share his word
you don't have to know 20 different instruments or you don't have to know how you don't have to have
a recording studio in order to be able to do it you can praise god with your own musical talents
(11:00):
in your own churches you just have to be willing and open to god inspiring you and you have to
do it with or do your musical endeavors with a willing heart and a willing spirit
awesome and i understand that you guys have been doing touring as well right like
(11:24):
do you have anything coming up when is this released end of November okay so ambience will be in
kl on the 2021 and 22 near the saver of life restaurant so you can come and see us there
this is december yeah this december yeah oh wow this december hey i'll see you there yeah we'll be
(11:47):
there yeah and yeah we have we have stuff coming out um at random times because we're all busy but
we do have stuff coming out on Spotify on youtube so just keep just follow us on those and yeah we'll
keep yeah just keep posting on that awesome you guys well if you love listening to music please
make sure you check out that is music and that's a wrap for this podcast thanks for listening to
(12:12):
Adventist waves we'll see you on the next episode Adventist waves
thank you for tuning in to Adventist waves this podcast wouldn't be possible if it
weren't for the support of blue vineyard audio needs support with producing your podcasts
(12:35):
blue vineyard provides help from start to finish visit the website today at blue vineyard.com forward
slash audio if you enjoyed today's episode please rate and review us on your favorite podcast platform
your feedback helps us bring you more inspiring content this podcast was produced by karn elmonds
special thanks to our guests ana hayden and thaddeus for coming on to the show you have been
(13:00):
listening to Adventist waves
Welcome to Adventist Wives.
(00:09):
This piece of music comes to mind that I arranged for our group.
The title is Fragile.
(00:33):
It's originally by a singer called Natalie Lane.
But it's one...
Welcome to Adventist Wives. I am your host, Khan Elmins.
On today's episode, I talk to Thaddeus Tien about his arrangement of Fragile.
On Adventist Wives, we look at the songs of Adventist musicians.
(00:57):
Song stories told one piece at a time.
Thank you for listening. Introducing Thaddeus Tien.
Hi, my name is Thaddeus Tien.
I am originally born and raised in Penang, Malaysia.
(01:21):
I realized that I had this talent.
God had given me this talent to not only sing but to write music as well.
By the grace of God, come from a family who is a bit more advantageous in the financial realm.
I can do music and not earn that much.
(01:44):
And still be supported by my parents.
How do you think your family encouraged you to become a musician?
I think a lot of the encouragement came from my mom.
My mom put us into music at a very young age.
(02:05):
Like the classic Asian family, you learn a string instrument, you learn how to play piano.
Obviously growing up in the SDA church, you learn how to sing.
Definitely my mom encouraged doing the whole music thing.
I feel like my dad encouraged using those gifts to glorify God's name.
(02:29):
So I feel like it was a combination of both of them working together.
What's your point in growing up?
In terms of growing up in teenage years, not really.
I only felt the joy of performing when I was maybe past 18 onwards.
(02:58):
Only past 18, I really felt the joy of praising God's name and performing spiritual music.
Was that in your church sitting?
In the SDA church, yes, not specifically my home church.
I felt it more when I came to the Philippines and was able to perform with my friends over here.
(03:19):
Tell us about that experience.
I studied in the Philippines.
I studied at the University in the Philippines.
While I was in uni, I started an acapella group.
By the grace of God, we've been able to perform different events, different churches.
(03:42):
It was in those moments that I found that I really liked performing and I really liked praising and spreading God's name through singing.
What type of group do you like to play?
We don't play anything because we are an acapella group.
In terms of genre, we do anything from hymns to slightly contemporary Christian music.
(04:11):
We're an acapella group, so it's mainly singing.
Seven. Wow, okay. If you were to describe your guys' group and your music in a way that somebody who has never heard of your music would understand, how would you explain it to them?
That's a good question. Let me look at our Instagram description.
(04:33):
One way to describe us, it would be seven different young people who like acapella and love praising God's name through that medium.
That's what I would use to describe our group.
You guys have been together for a while now.
(04:54):
You started your group when you went to the Philippines and you were studying there.
Would you like to share a piece of music that maybe your group composed together or is it something that you composed as an individual?
You may be arranged as an individual. What direction do you want to take?
There's this piece of music that comes to mind that I arranged for our group.
(05:19):
The title is Fragile.
It's originally by a singer called Natalie Lane, but it's one of my most recent and one of my most favorite pieces that I've arranged for the group.
(05:49):
So, originally, I can't take credit for the attention to this song because it was my younger brother who's in the group as well, Theodore, who listened to Natalie Lane.
One day he brought the song to me and said, hey, this would sound really nice with us. That's how it started.
(06:24):
So you took that from your brother and then you introduced it to your team as well?
I mean, your group as well. What was their response?
So, yeah, I usually arranged stuff first, then give it to them, which is probably not the most ideal way to do it.
They really liked it because the way that I was inspired to arrange it really resonated with the group and especially the message of the song as well.
(06:52):
So I think because of the message and the way that it was arranged, they really loved it.
(07:22):
DION
(07:46):
tell us what that message is and what you would like the listeners to take away from it.
Okay so the title it says fragile right and I guess the main part of the song comes from
the chorus where it goes you know you being god you know how to hold something fragile
(08:08):
you won't let me go when I unravel. The message of the song talks about how we as humans are
really fragile beings but despite our fragileness despite our weaknesses despite our shortcomings
god is there to help us through it all and he knows how to handle us and he knows how to help
(08:36):
us through life we just have to allow him to handle us and to help us yeah yeah
What would you like people to take away from your guy's music?
So one thing that I would like people to take away from our music is just how wonderful god is
(09:01):
the whole point of us doing christian music is not to show off ourselves but to show off how
amazing god is it is to show how he has worked in us so all our songs are basically testimonies of
us as individuals or us as a group and how wonderful god has been to us. I would like one
(09:26):
thing I would like people to take is yeah how amazing god is and how wonderful he is to us.
What is one practical way that our listeners could support evidence musicians like yourselves?
Well my credit card information is not to show you. One way would definitely be the most simple
way you can do it is just listen to our stuff that we put up online so like stuff on youtube stuff
(09:51):
on spotify because obviously we get residuals from that I'm not sure if that's the right word
but yeah we do get like royalties yeah yeah but it's it's very my it's very small of course but
you know every little bit helps and if you want to go an extra mile share it with as many people
(10:12):
as you can think of you know that's the easiest way to do it and that's something that everybody
can do it's just like three clicks or three taps of a button as much as possible support
musicians out there because that's something that we really need it will really help us to
continue what we're doing that's the practical one but for you guys personally at home you don't have
(10:39):
to be high caliber musicians to praise god you don't have to do it on a big scale to share his word
you don't have to know 20 different instruments or you don't have to know how you don't have to have
a recording studio in order to be able to do it you can praise god with your own musical talents
(11:00):
in your own churches you just have to be willing and open to god inspiring you and you have to
do it with or do your musical endeavors with a willing heart and a willing spirit
awesome and i understand that you guys have been doing touring as well right like
(11:24):
do you have anything coming up when is this released end of November okay so ambience will be in
kl on the 2021 and 22 near the saver of life restaurant so you can come and see us there
this is december yeah this december yeah oh wow this december hey i'll see you there yeah we'll be
(11:47):
there yeah and yeah we have we have stuff coming out um at random times because we're all busy but
we do have stuff coming out on Spotify on youtube so just keep just follow us on those and yeah we'll
keep yeah just keep posting on that awesome you guys well if you love listening to music please
make sure you check out that is music and that's a wrap for this podcast thanks for listening to
(12:12):
Adventist waves we'll see you on the next episode Adventist waves
thank you for tuning in to Adventist waves this podcast wouldn't be possible if it
weren't for the support of blue vineyard audio needs support with producing your podcasts
(12:35):
blue vineyard provides help from start to finish visit the website today at blue vineyard.com forward
slash audio if you enjoyed today's episode please rate and review us on your favorite podcast platform
your feedback helps us bring you more inspiring content this podcast was produced by karn elmonds
special thanks to our guests ana hayden and thaddeus for coming on to the show you have been
(13:00):
listening to Adventist waves
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