Wendy Phua

Wendy Phua(surname pronunciation: /poo.ah/) (born January 25, 1980) is a bass player and songwriter from Singapore. She generally performs solo and is known for using mainly bass tapping and live looping techniques.

Early years

Wendy has been performing and recording in various bands since the mid-90s. She was also the founder and bassist in progressive rock band ZHEN that was featured in various high profile events like the ESPN Starsports Asian X Games in 2004 and 2005 and Baybeats in 2005
for which ZHEN was hailed as the "Best Breakthrough Performance". The band was also first runner-up in a nation-wide music competition Power Jam 2004 held by Power98FM radio station of SAFRA Radio in Singapore and garnered a “Most Rocking Band Award” presented by European brewery Baron.

In 2005 Wendy took over the bass role in a psychedelic rock band The Embryo, formed by guitarist and singer Randolf Arriola since the early 1990s. Inspired by Arriola's craft of live looping on the guitar, which led him to perform at notable events like the [http://www.y2kloopfest.com/ Y2K7 International Live Looping Festival (6th Annual)], Wendy thus began to incorporate live looping on bass in her performances.

Going solo
By 2006, Wendy started exploring in earnest the bass as a solo instrument. She became one of the very few bassists in Singapore to use primarily tapping and live looping techniques in her solo performances.

Her early childhood musical education was founded on 7 years of classical piano training. This influenced Wendy greatly in her approach on playing the bass like a piano where she would tap conventional bass lines with her left hand and simultaneously tap melodic lines with her right hand. Wendy also sets her bass to various tunings i.e. E B D G instead of E A D G in order to still gain access to the wide harmonic possibilities offered on the piano but limited through conventional bass tuning and playing.

To function effectively as a solo musician during live shows, Wendy's rig is set up in a way that allows her to perform sounds beyond the bass instrument and create layers of music on top of each other. Her gear includes the multi effects pedal Boss GT6B and looper Line 6 DL4, Ableton Live and Behringer FCB1010. She also uses a violin half-bow on the electric bass to create string sounds in live looping scenarios.

Wendy is currently using Tobias Classic bass and is supported by (Singapore).

Bass Workshops

* Tonequest
* The LoDown in Music

Discography
*' Indie release February 2, 2008

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See Also

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