Home-grown singer, songwriter, and producer Rangga Jones is the tenth guest in this music channel. Synopsis: Each month, The Straits Times invites music acts to its podcast studio. In the 10th episode of Music Lab, ST's music correspondent Eddino Abdul Hadi hosts home-grown singer, songwriter, and producer Rangga Jones. He might not be a household name in Singapore, but in recent years, the 27-year-old has been steadily building up a fanbase in the region with his R&B/pop songs. On streaming services, the Singapore-based singer has racked up millions of plays, mostly from fans in the Philippines and Indonesia, where he was born. Call Me, a song first released in 2022, has 23 million streams on just Spotify alone.  The song also caught the attention of Ruka, a member of South Korean girl group Babymonster, who added it to her public Apple Music playlist. Jones, who started releasing music in 2019, dropped his first full-length album, Emotions, in late 2023. He has already started on new projects, and recently released his latest single, Pushing Me Away. In this episode of Music Lab, he sang live renditions of Call Me as well as Not Good Enough, one of the songs off Emotions. Highlights (click/tap above): 0:45 - On having K-pop star Ruka from Babymonster as a fan 4:19 - Turning his self-consciousness into a song  7:41 - His transition from metalhead to pop singer 9:26 - Ed Sheeran inspired him to be a songwriter 13:01 - On becoming a full-time singer just before the pandemic hit 15:36 - He only learnt to speak English at eight years old 16:04 - On his international fanbase 18:51 - Fans recognise him at his part-time job at a cafe 19:43 - A recent break-up inspired his latest song Watch the special live performance and video podcast version of this episode on the new Straits Times’ Podcast YouTube channel: https://str.sg/KRFD Listen to Rangga's live performance of Call Me here: https://str.sg/GpM7 Listen to Rangga's live performance of not good enough here: https://str.sg/77tv Discover home-grown artiste Rangga Jones at: YouTube: https://str.sg/uqA8 Spotify: https://str.sg/LNPc Instagram: https://str.sg/koXE Produced by: Eddino Abdul Hadi ([email protected]), Ernest Luis, Eden Soh, Teo Tong Kai & Amirul Karim Recorded by: ST Podcast Team Edited by: Amirul Karim Follow Music Lab Podcast here every month: Channel: https://str.sg/w9TX Apple Podcasts: https://str.sg/w9TB Spotify: https://str.sg/w9T6 SPH Awedio app: https://www.awedio.sg/ Website: http://str.sg/stpodcasts Feedback to: [email protected] Read Eddino Hadi's articles: https://str.sg/wFVa --- Discover more ST podcast channels: The Usual Place: https://str.sg/wEr7u COE Watch: https://str.sg/iTtE In Your Opinion: https://str.sg/w7Qt Asian Insider: https://str.sg/JWa7 Health Check: https://str.sg/JWaN Green Pulse: https://str.sg/JWaf Your Money & Career: https://str.sg/wB2m ST Sports Talk: https://str.sg/JWRE #PopVultures: https://str.sg/JWad Music Lab: https://str.sg/w9TX Discover ST Podcasts: http://str.sg/stpodcasts --- Special edition series: True Crimes Of Asia (6 eps): https://str.sg/i44T The Unsolved Mysteries of South-east Asia (5 eps): https://str.sg/wuZ2 Invisible Asia (9 eps): https://str.sg/wuZn Stop Scams (10 eps): https://str.sg/wuZB Singapore's War On Covid (5 eps): https://str.sg/wuJa --- Follow our shows then, if you like short, practical podcasts! #musiclab See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.