By CHRISTINE CHEAH
alltherage@thestar.com.my

For the love of music. That was the melody sung in harmony by three Asian-looking musicians that brought their passion to the fore. Chester See, 29, is a television host, composer and singer who started songwriting at the age of 10. David Choi, 26, comes from a musical family and has released three albums. Jason Chen, 24, learned to play violin by ear and is now working on a Chinese mixtape. Right before these American guys belted out their own compositions at the 1Malaysia For Youth (iM4U) Reach Out Volunteer Celebration held last Saturday, R.AGE caught them for a short interview.

What made you broadcast your talents on YouTube?
Chester See: David actually got me into it. The reason being, we were songwriters and we wanted to put our music out there to get some feedback.
David Choi: Boredom! It was something different than what I was doing which was writing songs. So I thought that making a video and putting what I was doing up there would be interesting.
Jason Chen: My roommates heard me sing and they kept bugging me saying, ‘Jason you’ve got to put that on YouTube!’ So I did it to shut them up.

How do you choose the songs that you do covers on?
CS: I choose songs that I enjoy and I feel that I wanna do my own take on.
DC: It depends on what your goal is. Sometimes you really like a Top 10 song or it could be a song when you were growing up.

What inspires you to write your own compositions?
All: GIRLS!
CS: I wrote an album for one girl.
DC: You can write a lot of songs on one girl.
Which artiste would you want to collaborate with next?
CS: I would choose to work with more YouTube celebrities first before moving to mainstream artistes.
DC: I would love to collaborate with Abraham Lincoln (laughs).
JC: Bruno Mars and Ryan Tedder. They are brilliant songwriters and they are my kind of style.

Why would you (Chester) want to work with the other YouTube celebrities first?
CS: It is more interesting to me. There is plenty of talent online. I live in the world of Internet and naturally I’m more attracted to people doing things online. Regardless what a ‘mainstream celebrity’ means, it doesn’t mean that people online are less talented.

Would you encourage other young musicians to channel their talents via YouTube as well?
All: Yes (nodding their heads).
CS: It’s the most accessible, so why not? And as long as you are creating something that can be seen or heard, it doesn’t matter if it is through radio, television or any social media. Have the idea that ‘I just want to get out there and I don’t care how.’
DC: Hopefully, still doing music. I don’t have goals. If five years ago, someone were to tell me where I would be today; I would never have guessed this moment right now. I’ll kind of take it one day at a time.
JC: Yeah, still doing music. I want to explore Asia. If there is any opportunity, I will definitely not turn it down. But as of right now, it doesn’t look like there is going to be one.
CS: Married with a kid and retired. I could go back to school to get another degree, but not in music. I just want to learn more things.