By CHRISTINE CHEAH
alltherage@thestar.com.my

HE’S cute, she’s sweet and they both make the girls go gaga – but that’s not the main point. The fact that they produce good music is what’s important.

Jason Chen, 24, and Clara Chung (better known as Clara C), 25, are YouTube stars who regularly get over 100,000 views on their videos within the week they’re uploaded. And when they performed at the Bentley Auditorium last week in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, they proved they are more than your average YouTube singers.

Chen and Chung, who both hail from Los Angeles, the United States, belted out their signature covers and some original songs to a sold-out crowd.

They had pretty much everyone smiling from ear-to-ear, including the guys, throughout the whole show.

But there were also some tears, as Chung choked up while singing Fish, which she wrote for her fiance Dan Fisher. The song describes the journey she went through to find “the one”.

Despite technical difficulties messing with her performance, which at one point saw her singing without a microphone, Chung stayed super sweet as ever.

“Malaysia’s my favourite crowd,” said Chung during the press conference after the concert. Chen remained neutral, saying he loves both Singapore and Malaysia equally.

Minus the concert with the adoring fans, Chen and Chung are pretty much regular young people.
Chen graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a degree in economics while Chung used to work with autistic children after obtaining her degree in psychology from the University of California, Irvine.

Jason Chen calls himself “jie sheng qian” (save money in Mandarin) because it rhymes well with his name.

Both of them started putting up covers on YouTube after some encouragement from their friends.

Though they have been compared to other mainstream artistes, these two seem to have found their own sound in the music industry.

“I think a YouTube artist bridges the gap between a mainstream artiste and the audience,” said Chen. “YouTube is a cheap and instant way to reach out to a lot of people and is a hybrid between an independent and mainstream artist.”

Chung added: “If you are working towards that direction, then you have to make sure you are packaged for it because every label has seen every artist on YouTube.”

While Chung said she hasn’t got her any negative remarks, it’s been quite different for Chen.

“I’m the opposite of Clara. I get a lot of haters and I respond to them which is really funny. I’m grateful to them because they actually watch my videos, but I rarely get offended,” said Chen, who also does Chinese covers.

As he was an accountant, Chen said he used to think that how much you invest should equal the amount you receive, but he soon realised you have to sacrifice quite a bit to build a career in music.

“When you are starting out, you need to invest more to get yourself out there,” said Chen to the aspiring YouTube singers in the crowd, while Chung added: “You just need to find your sound.”