Far from Faded: EDM star Alan Walker aims to release new song every month to stay relevant
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English-Norwegian electronic dance music star Alan Walker is holding a concert at Singapore Expo on June 14.
PHOTO: H.I.T TEAM
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SINGAPORE – Alan Walker is already a household name in the electronic dance music (EDM) scene. Yet, the hustle does not stop for the English-Norwegian DJ.
The 26-year-old tells The Straits Times in a Zoom interview ahead of his June 14 concert at Singapore Expo that he has to release music often to retain favour among listeners. And in 2024, he has challenged himself to deliver a new song every month.
So far, Walker has dropped four tracks this year – Who I Am in January, Team Side in March, and Unsure and Hide Away (Alan Walker Remix) in May.
He says: “Music consumption nowadays is so rapid, and there is always so much new music coming into the market that you almost have to randomly feed your own catalogue to stay relevant.”
The EDM sensation and producer shot to fame overnight with his biggest hit, Faded, in 2015. It topped the Shazam Worldwide Top 100 Popular Songs in February 2016 and, a month later, became the world’s most Shazamed song. It is also currently the 28th most-viewed video on YouTube with more than 3.6 billion views.
Since then, he has churned out four studio albums and 55 singles. His latest album, Walkerworld, was released in November 2023.
Besides constantly updating his discography, Walker has found other ways to connect with his fans.
In mid-May, he set up WhatsApp phone numbers for fans in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia to message him. Besides Singapore, his ongoing Walkerworld Asia Tour Pt.1 will make stops in Jakarta, Macau, Kuala Lumpur and 10 cities in India.
To date, he has received more than 20,000 messages from those in Singapore, and has responded to more than 500 of them. “I think it’s really cool, and South-east Asia is an important market with important fan bases,” he says.
Although he has used other platforms to interact with listeners, such as creating a server on gaming-focused communications app Discord, they have not been specific to a particular region.
Walker recently took fan engagement to the next level. In a May 29 Instagram post, he described how he flew from New York to Medan, Indonesia, to meet a school teacher and his class of students whose covers of his songs went viral on Instagram a few months ago.
During the visit, Walker not only gifted the group with tickets to his Jakarta show on June 8, but also invited some of them to perform with him onstage.
Walker has often kept fans on their toes by springing surprises at his concerts. During his show in Chengdu in China in November 2023, he brought Chinese suona player Chuanzi onstage for a special performance of Walker’s song The Spectre (2017).
Similarly, Hong Kong boy band Mirror performed with Walker at his 2023 gig in Hong Kong, as part of his Walkerverse world tour.
To him, teaming up with local talents in the cities he plays at “adds deeper value for the people who come to the shows”.
Walker previously worked with Indonesian singer Putri Ariani on his single, Who I Am (2024), as well as Lay from K-pop boy band Exo on a remix of Lay’s song Sheep (2018). Walker adds that his “arms are wide open” to potential collaborations with Singaporean artistes.
After all, Singapore is also one of his “go-to places in the world”, he declares. He was last in town to perform at Marquee at Marina Bay Sands in September 2023.
“I love the architecture,” says Walker. “The vibe in Singapore is really cool. It’s very different for me, coming from Norway.”
Alan Walker last performed in Singapore at Marquee in Marina Bay Sands in September 2023.
PHOTO: ALANWALKERMUSIC/INSTAGRAM
His Singapore concert will mostly feature songs from his latest album Walkerworld (2023). However, the set list will also include tracks from older albums such as Walkerverse Pt. I & II (2022) and World Of Walker (2021).
According to Walker, the Walkerworld Asia Tour Pt.1 tour is the biggest he has embarked on to date, capacity-wise. The Singapore Expo venue he will play at can accommodate up to 5,000 concertgoers.
“I think it’s really cool that I even have the opportunity to assemble so many people in one place and share the one thing we all love, which is music.”
Book it/Alan Walker – Walkerworld Asia Tour Pt.1
Where: Singapore Expo Halls 3 & 4A, 1 Expo Drive sistic.com.sg/events/walker0624
When: June 14, 8pm
Admission: $178 from Sistic (
