I submitted my song “Walk out onto the Water” last year to the Fall 2019 Music City Songstar contest and was pleasantly surprised to receive an email that it was a semifinalist entry. They had some nice feedback, which I really appreciated: “I love the opening guitar and the way it builds with the vocalist and piano. The harmonies are absolutely beautiful too! I also love the verse 2 counter verse harmony. This song is very well done and the instruments really worked amazingly with the lyrics. This song is a beautiful journey.”

I really love this song in particular; it holds a lot of personal meaning and memories. I remember writing it for my band, C;Key, in college - arranging, recording, and performing it with my friends in Malaysia and other venues. The song itself has come a long way and has transformed since then, and so in the same way, the song has been a beautiful journey in its creation as well.

“Like a Wave” released January 1, 2020.

Happy 2020! To ring in the New Year, my new single “Like a Wave” is out now!

'Like a Wave' was written back in 2015 as a musical and lyrical expression of my own struggle with panic attacks during a certain period of my life. It is, in part, just that - a personal expression of experience and a song I thought would be shelved for a while. But when the opportunity arose to submit a song to independent film, 'The Extraordinary Ordinary' directed by Natalie Rodriguez, after reading the synopsis and watching the director's cut of that film, I knew that this song would be perfect. 'Like a Wave' will be featured 'The Extraordinary Ordinary', which releases May 1, 2020 and seeks to challenge the stigmas associated with mental health, trauma, and recovery. My hope is that 'Like a Wave' would also help bring greater understanding to and encourage those who struggle similarly.

The song is out now on Bandcamp, Spotify, or any of your other favorite listening platforms. Hope you like it!

Sincerely,

Coral

I received my first music review today from Divide and Conquer, an independent music blog that aims to provide honest and guided descriptions of releases in order to help readers find new music to listen to and also provide artists with meaningful critique to apply to their craft. You can read their review of ‘Dream’ here or by clicking the link below!

I’ve been humbled by the encouragement and support I’ve received in response to this EP release. Thank you so much!

Sincerely,
Coral

I finally released my debut EP today. After three years of “Coming Soon!”, it’s finally out and I don’t know exactly how to feel. I’m excited, relieved, proud, and extremely grateful; and at the same time, I’m also so so scared and not sure I’m ready. I had initially planned to do this release by myself (with Theo and maybe a few others), but this project kind of snowballed and became much bigger than I’d imagined, by God’s grace. It is the realization of a dream of mine, into which I put in an incredible amount of time and effort, but which would not have become what it is today without the help and generosity of so many others.

I’m so grateful that I’ve been able to work with a number of amazing musicians like Matt Bissonette, Jeff Campitelli, Peppino D’Agostino, and Stef Burns, share this experience with close friends like Theo and Tim, and learn so much from Masaki. I’ve also been blessed by my friends and family who have sacrificed their time and talents to help me with and support my music - Jonny, Daynan, Jenna, Eric, Eugene, Daniel, Trisha, my parents, Zane, Teal, and Jada. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I’m excited to finally share what I’ve been working on over the past few years. You can stream or download the EP on any of your favorite listening platforms. Here are some convenient links:

►Bandcamp: https://tinyurl.com/DreamEP-Bandcamp

►Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/DreamEP-Spotify

►Apple Music: https://tinyurl.com/DreamEP-Apple

►Youtube: https://tinyurl.com/DreamEP-Youtube

Hope you enjoy!

Sincerely,
Coral

‘Dream’ releases on September 20, 2019.

I’m excited to announce that the official release date for ‘Dream’ is September 20, 2019!

For those of you who have followed and supported me over the past few years, you’d know that this has been an incredibly long, but rewarding process of getting my music out there. It’s weird to think that 3 years of “coming soon” is finally coming to an end in 3 weeks, but I’m so so excited to share these songs with you all.

Sincerely,
Coral

I got to do an interview with Ice The Movie about the inspiration behind 'Reverie', the creative process, and more. You can find it on their Tumblr page here or by clicking the button below! 

Ice The Movie (2018) is an inspirational independent film written by, produced by and starring my friend, Maddison Bullock. We actually used to compete together back in the day as children, and then skated together as teammates on the UCLA Figure Skating Team. Being able to work with her on this project, watching her succeed in accomplishing her dreams, and through this, having an opportunity to work on my own has been truly an incredible and meaningful experience. If you haven't watched the film yet, I still recommend that you do! It's a film that uniquely captures the spirit of competitive figure skating, yet simultaneously addresses themes like friendship, family, perseverance, and loyalty relatable to us all. As a former skater, it was super cool to see the determination, commitment, and sacrifice of competitive figure skating portrayed and highlighted in a figure skating film. So if you want to know a little more about the "inside world" of competitive figure skating, definitely watch the film (links below)! :) 

Thank you as always for your support! 

Sincerely,
Coral

Ice The Movie (2018) is available now on Amazon and Vimeo.

“‘Reverie’ is a beautiful, original masterpiece that captures the skater’s heart, the hope, the hurt, and the dream that lives on long after they leave the skates behind.”

— Ice The Movie

We shot this video in December, not really realizing how much of a challenge it'd be to actually put the whole thing together. As amateur filmmakers, truthfully, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. We planned a 24-hour trip up to Tahoe with the hope of shooting a cool-looking video capturing this beautiful imagery of a single skater on an expansive frozen lake. But of course when we got there, the lake we were looking at was melting and making all sorts of scary sounds, there was a snowstorm that night, which covered the ice with a layer of snow, and the weather was about 11 degrees with a 40-mph windchill when we actually were able to film. I honestly wanted to give up and go home, but my team - who literally swept and scrubbed the ice with brooms, a plastic box, and a wooden stick to create an ice rink for me to skate on - insisted that we push through and at least try to get some shots. So after losing feeling in our fingers and toes for hours, incurring mild frostbite, and scrapping many ideas of the original plan due to unforeseen circumstances, we left Tahoe with shots we hoped would piece together somehow and the best memories of 2017. 

In many ways, this project is the product of the invaluable generosity and support of others. My home ice rink loaned rental skates for our camera guys, a friend provided lodging and food for my team up in Tahoe, another friend built homemade stabilizer rigs for us, yet another friend allowed us to borrow other equipment for our shoot, and of course, my team poured in hours of muscle work, preparation, and editing. So if there is one word to describe how I feel about this project, it would definitely be "GRATEFUL".

I also walked away having accomplished two of my long-time dreams: 1) to skate on a frozen lake and 2) to skate to one of my own songs. So was it worth it? Yes. But would I do it again? Definitely not under those conditions. Haha. 

Having much of our original plan derailed, it has taken us about 6 months to put this all together. It's not perfect, but we learned and we grew, and that is what the song, "Reverie," is all about. 

Please enjoy!

Sincerely,
Coral

You can view the Behind The Scenes video here. 

FZIsland in Tahoe on December 20, 2018.

As my solo EP project is nearing completion, I realize that I haven't really written anything new in a long time. So I came up with this Writing Challenge in order to help me prepare for my next project and get those creative juices flowing. The rules are pretty simple: 

Write something new each week. It doesn't matter how simple or complex, long or short, amazing or terrible it is. Just keep creating. 

Follow this Writing Challenge Series on Facebook or Instagram. I'd love to hear your thoughts on some of the pieces, and I'd love for more people to join me in this challenge - creative writers, poets, artists, and the like. It'll be really interesting to see which pieces make it to a final product someday and which pieces become grounded forever. Here's my most recent piece ~ I've actually been loving writing all of this piano / instrumental stuff.  

"Reverie" is Coral's debut single, released April 6, 2018.

I've officially debuted! "Reverie" is an inspirational song about the nostalgic return to childhood freedom. Based on my own experience growing up as a competitive figure skater, this song touches on the themes of perseverance and rediscovery. Special thanks to Theo, who provided the soaring string work, and Masaki, who recorded, mixed, and produced this thing. 

You can find it on here on Bandcamp or any of your other favorite listening platforms. 

I truly hope you enjoy this one. 

Sincerely,
Coral

I attended the Hollywood Premiere of Ice The Movie on February 20, 2018, and it really was a great celebration of many things. I had a really special opportunity to write a song for this independent feature film, written and produced by my friend, Maddison Bullock. For me, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to express this particular part of my story - my history as a competitive figure skater - in a context where it could be understood. But I was also so blessed to work with a friend who - over the course of this project - ended up truly inspiring me because of her hard work, passion, and commitment to her vision and convictions to inspire authenticity and compassion in others. I had a great time celebrating the results of a lot of hard work with her and our UCLA Figure Skating teammates, my family, and Theo. 

If you haven't checked out the film yet, it's available now on Vimeo and Amazon! It's a beautiful work that uniquely captures the inner world of figure skating, yet simultaneously addresses themes relatable to all. 

As always, thank you so much for your support!

Sincerely,
Coral

Coral attends the Hollywood Premiere of Ice The Movie on February 20, 2018.