ART/ST Records wants to help preserve your memories in an audio Polaroid

In the devastating wildfires in Southern California in January this year, more than 400 people were killed in the month-long fire, and 18,000 homes were destroyed. The home of Charlyn Yap’s friend, Todd, was one of them.

“He couldn’t even remember what his house looked like. All he has been seeing for months was just black, nothing,” she says. 

Only a week ago, on New Year’s Eve, she had gone over to their place to do a special recording — the couple’s wedding vows before they decided to announce their marriage to everyone else.

They had planned to use the record to surprise their family and friends. The artwork on the cover was a hand-painted scene of their home in Los Angeles by Lee Sin Yee, Yap’s business partner. 

“We did a copy of it just so that we could keep it because it was actually the first real record that we made together, with Sin Yee painting at the back, and then me cutting this. When my friend saw this, he basically just cried.”

His reaction struck a chord for both Yap and Lee, who had left their day jobs to start ART/ST Records in August 2024. The former ex-colleagues at Oatside brought their artistic chemistry to their first independent venture — a lathe-cutting record studio. Yap, inspired by Singapore’s forgotten history in record-making, does the cutting, and Lee does the cover design. 

Still struggling with the creative direction for the studio, the incident gave them the clarity they needed. ART/ST (pronounced “artist”) Records had finally found its purpose: to honour and preserve memories by analogue means. They call their standard 8-inch square records an “audio Polaroid”. 

Community effort

The birth of ART/ST Records is a story about community, something that they both repeatedly emphasise when we speak. What started as a lofty ambition to learn the art of lathe-cutting, a laborious and dying trade where audio is etched onto a surface in real-time, turned into a collaboration of like-minded creatives from the music industry and beyond. 

Yap recalls the eventful process of shipping back the record-cutting lathe from the USA. She had to fly to Arizona to learn how to use the machine from Reddit-stranger-turned-mentor Mike Dixon of PIAPTK Record Label (now her mentor), then struggled to put pieces of the 90kg machine back together when it arrived in Singapore with parts missing. 

Then she needed to find someone who knew how to solder wires. Cue Timothy Chua from The DIY Audio Collective, who builds his own speakers and responded to her Instagram callout. Now good friends, he’s not only helped piece together the record-cutting lathe but custom-built them a set of speakers made from wood sourced in Singapore. 

Along the way, local companies such as PPP Coffee, The Gentlemen’s Press (their official printing partner), and RJ Paper (their paper supplier) have stepped up to offer their products, services and spaces. 

“We bootstrapped and reached out to the community; people offered me a discount… we also have people loaning us equipment. And a lot of the experiments we do involve friends (e.g., local musicians and photographers) chipping in their efforts and time… I don’t think we can actually do what we do in such a quick time,” Yap explains. 

Record-making with heart

Now running private workshops out of a home studio, the pair are currently busy with bookings and record listening pop-ups, but the possibilities are endless. And from October onwards, ART/ST Records will begin offering more mobile activations such as demo pop-ups at events.

As they host a wide range of guests for up to three hours at a time, four times a week, they’ve witnessed first-hand how music brings people together as workshops turn into heartfelt sharing sessions. 

“It kind of bridges the gap between the older and younger generation,” Lee says. She’s only just started collecting records, beginning with one from The Carpenters, which were the first English songs she heard her parents sing when she was younger.

“It reminded me of how they used to be young, and they were also having fun… I’m able to empathise with them a bit more,” she adds. 

They also aim to continue pushing the artistic boundaries of lathe-cut records, encompassing the type and shape of material and the records’ cover designs. Yap quips, “We’re really here to do art that gets people talking”, before animatedly sharing about liquid or ash-filled records and zoetrope vinyls. 

In addition to test-cutting on various shapes, they’ll receive a second record-cutting lathe with a diamond needle in November, enabling them to cut materials (other than the anti-static polycarbonate and PETG plastic used now), such as mirrored surfaces. 

But past the excitement and novelty of custom-making a record from scratch (pun intended), it’ll be the duo’s empathy that will keep guests coming back for more. Likening workshops to a therapy session, Yap shares, “Sin Yee and I always try to figure out what we have in common with them (the guests) because I think we truly believe that everyone’s connected in some way or form.”