Quite Quiet

Introduce yourself!
I’m Ranii, a freelance editorial and podcast content creator and audio engineer. I also own a renovation company with my friends, and I’ve just recently graduated from the audio production course at LASALLE.

Wow, that’s a lot of roles you’re juggling!
Yeah, it’s quite random ah (laughs). But I feel like to be a freelancer in Singapore, if you’re just starting out and are not yet super duper good at what you do, you have to have at least one source of income that gives you a bit of stability lah.

And wah, I must say, sometimes I really can’t cope with all of this very well because I get super tired. For the most part, I’m chasing comfort and convenience. I don’t have to be rich, but money brings a lot of comfort and convenience, so this is where I’m at right now.

Yeah, we can relate. So tell us more about why you chose to dabble in renovation. Did you have a background in interior design?
It happened because I was talking to a property agent that I was working with to create content. I briefly mentioned that I had an interest in interior design because I feel like it’s one way to express myself creatively besides shooting videos and making music, and she happened to mention that to a mutual friend that we have. This mutual friend was already working in the interior design and renovation industry and was starting up his own business, so he decided to include me in it. From there, the company has kind of evolved to become more of a creative space than a purely renovation company where we just hack down walls and make cupboards and stuff.

Seems like it was just meant to be! You mentioned you shoot videos and make music too. Why then did you decide to pursue audio production at LASALLE?
Growing up, I really liked music. I’ve always wanted to dive deeper into it, but I didn’t get the chance to learn any instruments when I was younger—all I did was listen to the radio 24/7. Because of that, I realised that another way I could get involved in the music-making process is by writing, producing, recording, or mastering music, which is why I decided to do audio production.

All roads lead to Rome, right? What’s your favourite part about this field?
I really like recording singers because there are two clear spectrums—very bad singers and very good singers. Very bad ones are lowkey entertaining, while the very good ones are mesmerising. So I like to meet new people in this aspect because then I get to discover wow, their voices are actually damn nice, or damn rabak (laughs).

But in all seriousness, I chose audio engineering because I wanted to make music for myself. I accidentally learned it on my own when I was trying to make my own tracks sound like those you hear on Spotify, and I didn’t do very well for my O Levels, so LASALLE was the only place that I could look to for further education. Everything just lined up because I’m better off here anyway!

Once again, fate! Finally, what’s your favourite sound in the world?
“Kaching!” (laughs). Or maybe the sound of 3AM. Like when you go to the gym and there are no more buses so you have to walk back and there’s literally nothing around but cars far away or someone fighting in the distance. Like white noise that’s very blurry and quite quiet.