On October 27, 2023, Singaporean singer-songwriter Gareth Fernandez returned from a 2 year hiatus to release his single “break”. During Gareth’s hiatus, he was really figuring out his next chapter and also discovering his new sound. “break” is also a pre-release single for his new EP shades.

When asked about the meaning of “break”, Gareth says, “Lyrically, it’s about burnout and exhaustion and the Millennial/Gen Z experience. And it’s also from my own perspective/life experience. I wear 2 hats. I wish that I could be a full time artist, but financially it’s tough. So I’m in tech sales as well. I love my job, but music has always been the dream. On the macro side, Millennials and Gen Z have been through A LOT. We’re in late capitalism, the economy is in shambles, inflation is skyrocketing, there are 2 ongoing wars, we just made it out of a world-stopping killer pandemic, and everyone is calling us soft. So this song is a recognition of that jadedness and burnout.”

With the release of “break”, Gareth hopes that this song will be a relatable anthem for anybody else feeling that way. When we first discovered this song, we were really drawn to the cover art which is a Kit-Kat. The Kit-Kat advertisements are “have a break, have a Kit-Kat” which Gareth uses to further promote the meaning of this song – which is so clever.

On the production side of this song, Gareth says, “I got Marc Lian (a close friend) who’s also a member of brb. to produce it. He’s incredible.”

As mentioned earlier, this song is the start of Gareth’s new EP shades. He says, “each song [on the EP] will have its own colour, mood and story. Sonically it’s a return to my soul/R&B routes. I’m most inspired by Stevie wonder, Bruno mars and Childish Gambino, and I want to just be fun, goofy and groovy🤍.”