Inch Chua

Inch Chua (born Chua Yun Juan; 22 December 1988), stylized as iNCH, is a Singaporean singer-songwriter, musician, producer, actress and artist previously based in Los Angeles and New York. After rising to fame in Singapore's nascent indie scene as lead singer of the rock band Allura, Chua began to record on her own, blending acoustic folk with alternative rock, electronic music, jazz and pop influence. Inch Chua is backed live by her band, The Metric System.

Personal life During her childhood, Chua got the nickname "Inch", as this is how her given name Yun Juan may sound if spoken quickly. At 10 years old, Chua had been bitten on her face by a dog, necessitating 135 stitches and leaving some permanent scarring, which increased her sense of social isolation at the conformist all-girls' school she attended. As Chua described later, "I was the one digging for worms in the mud, and having the teachers shout at me for getting dirty. And when they had us drawing circles in class, everyone else would be using a compass, and I'd just shssss, whip one off. The other kids would say, 'That's not a real circle!' and I'd tell them 'You know, not everything has to be perfect.'" Chua was later invited to represent Singapore at the Shanghai Expo in China the same year.

Wallflower In 2010, after returning from these international gigs, Chua released her first full length album, Wallflower. Her work was described as "a schizophrenic potpourri of introspective acoustic tunes, chirpy electronica and introspective lyrics." The title song, as Chua noted in a TEDxSingapore talk, was inspired by her sense of loneliness as a child, a time when she pursued her art privately before opening up to others. The single released from the album, "Hurt," was described by Chua as her eulogy for a lost friend.

After releasing Wallflower to international attention, Chua collaborated with several local pop and hip hop artists, such as singer Nathan Hartono and rapper Shigga Shay, as well as Los Angeles-based YouTube sensation David Choi. Despite her fanbase in Asia (Chua was even asked to perform an original song to feature in a Malaysian mobile phone service TV advert) Chua did not seek to sign to a traditional large label, and she continued to speak directly to her fans via social media, and to focus on concerts, rather than selling recorded albums in stores.

MasterChef Singapore In 2021, Chua participated on the second season of the Singaporean cooking reality show MasterChef Singapore, and was eliminated on the second week of the competition.

Move to Los Angeles Late in 2011, Chua decided to move to US temporarily. She sought to challenge herself with a new environment beyond Singapore's cozy indie music scene, where touring was more of a challenge. In December 2012, she was invited to perform at global TEDxWomen Conference in Washington D.C. Chua had also recently gone through a romantic break-up, and she began writing rawer songs, with a harsher rock sound than the softer style that marked her solo debut.

Chua wrote many of the songs for her second studio album, Bumfuzzle, during her time away from home, living in Los Angeles and playing small gigs throughout North America. Another DIY project, her second album was professionally recorded in Singapore and mixed and mastered in the US, but it was initially crowd-funded through the Indiegogo service by her fans. This allowed Chua, who had embraced digital distribution from the start, to also release CD and vinyl copies of her work for the first time and to also feature her visual artwork in the physical copies. The album was released on 26 August 2013. It was preceded by a single, "The Artful Dodger," on 5 March.

Discography

With Allura Wake Up and Smell the Seaweed EP (2008) 1832 EP (2015)

Solo Albums The Bedroom EP (2009) Peace, Love & Mistletoe EP (2009) Wallflower (2010) Bumfuzzle (2013) Letters To Ubin EP (2015)

Singles "Aqueous Oblivion" (2009) "Rule The World" (2010) "The More We Get Together" (2011) "The Artful Dodger" (2013) "MouseDeer" (2015) "Dust That Moves" (2016) "Sun & Moon" (2019) "Flags" Ft. Shigga Shay (2020)

Music videos

Covers

Inch Chua, both as a solo artist and in collaboration with others, has recorded cover versions of work by artists including Shiina Ringo, Britney Spears, Radiohead, Bruno Mars, David Bowie, Nat King Cole, Ming Bridges, Death Cab for Cutie, Foo Fighters, Alicia Keys, Paul McCartney, Air, Beck, David Choi, Bright Eyes and Leonard Cohen. She also covered the song Rubber Duckie, from Sesame Street.