'Saints' sing songs to help Typhoon Haiyan victims

STRUCK by the plight of Filipino families affected by Typhoon Haiyan, a group of junior college students has cut a homemade Christmas album to spread cheer and raise funds for survivors.

Their humble attempts at putting together a CD involve placing microphones in their wardrobes at home to cut out background noise during recordings.

"It was awkward at first, to sing facing the clothes in the cupboard but the clothes helped to absorb some noise," said St Andrew's Junior College student Soh Wei Xin, 17.

Having an improvised studio also helped keep costs down as the group of six had used their own pocket money to buy blank CDs. "We were on our own from the singing to producing to marketing the CDs and it was challenging but we turned to Mr Google whenever we didn't know how to proceed," said guitarist Nicole Ang, 17.

"But we wanted to do this as we were moved by the stories of the survivors and knew they needed a lot of help going forward," she added. Another friend, Jonathan Fung, played piano while the others sang.

Most the group are from the college's community service club Saints Advocate. The group managed to rush out the album two weeks ago after a month's labour. Each album also comes with a handmade Christmas card.

Initially, the group produced 200 CDs as it was unsure of sales. But the CDs, which are selling at $10 each, have been popular and the group has made another 150.

The six have raised some $2,300 which will go to Mercy Relief to provide supplies to the victims. "This may be something small but we wanted to use the gifts we have to help our neighbours," said Nicole.

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