By Gan Ling Kai

NINE years after entering showbiz, local singer Joi Chua wants to remind herself of her first love - music.

Which is why the 31-year-old's latest album is titled Back To Basics.

It was released earlier this month.

Joi told The New Paper: "I hope to relive the motivation that I had right at the beginning.

"After working for a few years, you may achieve your career targets, and start to earn money, but you may not be as happy as before. Sometimes, we get lost in life and wonder what we are doing now."

Joi said her career has had its ups and downs.

After graduating from Singapore Polytechnic's optometry course in 1998, she worked as an optician for about a year, before releasing her self-titled debut album in 2000, which sold more than 50,000 copies in Taiwan alone.

But her singing career took a dip after that.

Long break

She had a four-year hiatus and went back to being an optician for three of those years.

It was only in 2004 that she made a comeback with her second album, Sunrise, under Play Music.

The following year, her third album I Will, One Day moved 25,000 copies, according to Play Music.

Last year, she was nominated for the first time as Best Mandarin Female Singer at Taiwan's Golden Melody Awards.

She also performed the National Day song Shine For Singapore with Singapore Idol Season 2 champ Hady Mirza.

Yet she said she has been taking life easy for two years. "To be honest, I haven't been doing much."

She spent most of her days resting, cooking, taking photographs and writing songs, of which five are used in her latest album.

She said she didn't want to get so busy till her passion in singing, which started in school, becomes just a job. She also hopes to have a say in how her new album is promoted.

For example, she rejects the typical route of appearing on variety shows normally taken by local artistes who try to break into Taiwan.

Such appearances have their pitfalls. Local singer Kelly Poon was slammed for not being able to come up with a Chinese idiom to describe a performance on TV show Variety Big Brother.

Joi made guest appearances on the show in 2007 and on Jacky Wu's Guess, Guess, Guess last year.

She didn't have any unpleasant experiences, but felt such appearances don't enrich her.

"There are others who can really cast off restraints and not be worried about their image, but that's tough for me. I'm not a comedienne, so I find it hard to be wild and play with them. What's the point of going on air if the effect isn't great?"

But she's quick to add that it's a case of different strokes for different folks.

"Different types of artistes are suited for different kinds of shows.

"If you are more cutesy and can dance, or you have an idol image, appearing on these variety programmes may actually work for you."

As for her love life, she remained coy about the man she has dated for 10 years.

When asked if they had plans to tie the knot soon, she said no.

She also said that although he's not in showbiz, he is very understanding about her erratic schedule as an artiste.

"If he can't be, we would have broken up long ago," she said.

This article was first published in The New Paper.