Inch Chua

At a conformist all-girls' school in Singapore, the class was told to draw circles. Everyone reached for a compass. One kid just shssss — whipped one off, freehand. The other children protested: "That's not a real circle!" And she told them: "You know, not everything has to be perfect."

That kid grew up to be Inch Chua — and this page exists because an orchestra that sings in circles recognized one of its own. The orchestra's circles are freehand too: no stage, no compass, people facing each other, every voice a node. Not everything has to be perfect. It just has to be sung.

014 — the first Singapore chair

Node 013 was the first collective chair; Node 014 is the first chair in Southeast Asia — the second circle widening across the South China Sea to Singapore. And quietly, in the corner, the family smiles at the arithmetic: 1 + 4 = 5 — the power fifth, the interval Node 005 is named for, humming an octave up.

The Devcon SEA season — Bangkok 2024, with its Music & Art Space — is where the orchestra's road crossed hers. As Shaka tells it, the fourteenth chair was never in doubt: "it was inch." This page is that word, made into a door.

Open source before web3 had a name 💿

Known to the public record as Inch Chua — born Chua Yun Juan (蔡昀娟), 22 December 1988, Singapore; the nickname is just "Yun Juan" said quickly. Singer-songwriter, producer, actress, multidisciplinary artist. In 2009 she put The Bedroom EP on Bandcamp — free, or pay what you want — recorded in her bedroom, self-produced, taught to herself on Garageband and Reason. No label. No gate. Straight to the listeners, worldwide. That is the gift economy with a guitar; that is open source before web3 had a name.

The world answered: songs from The Bedroom travelled the blogs until she became the first Singaporean solo artist ever invited to SXSW (Austin, 2010), and represented Singapore at the Shanghai Expo the same year. In 2012 she performed at TEDxWomen in Washington D.C. She never signed to a major — she runs her own label, House Of Riot!, and plays live backed by her band, The Metric System.

Allura — the band that played anyway 🔥

Her first band was booked for Baybeats Festival 2007 — Singapore's premier indie stage — when the founder, days before the show, fired everyone. Including the lead singer. They tried to pull out; the deadline had passed. So they scraped together new songs without him, renamed themselves Allura, and played anyway — and became titans of the local rock scene, releasing the EP Wake Up and Smell the Seaweed (2008). The band ended only when its members were drafted into National Service.

An orchestra recognizes that story instantly: the show must go on, and the musicians are the show.

From Wallflower to the theatre stage 🎭

The records tell a DIY arc: Wallflower (2010), then Bumfuzzle (2013) — crowdfunded by her own fans on Indiegogo, her first CD and vinyl — then Letters To Ubin (2015), an EP written around Pulau Ubin, the little island where Singapore keeps its old soul, and the 1832 EP the same year. Singles Sun & Moon ☉+◑ (2019) and Flags ft. Shigga Shay (2020) followed. Along the way she opened for Katy Perry, Macy Gray and Vampire Weekend.

Then the circle widened again — into theatre. Musicals and plays with Singapore Repertory Theatre, Pangdemonium, TheatreWorks and more; playwright, composer, sound designer. Her current work: Myles — Soulmate in a Box at Singapore Repertory Theatre (May 2026). Her own website greets you like a retro operating system booting up: "5 Albums, 3 Shows, 1 Brain … everything is now. now is everything."

The Bedroom EP · 2009  —  Wallflower · 2010  —  Bumfuzzle · 2013  —  Letters To Ubin · 2015  —  1832 EP · 2015

singles: The Artful Dodger · MouseDeer · Simple Kind of Life · Sun & Moon ☉+◑ · Flags ft. Shigga Shay · Marigold Magic 🌼 (2026)

No chord charts live here yet — nothing gets detected, published or sung back at an artist without her word. When Inch blesses a song, this section becomes its home: her words, her keys, her licenses, item by item. Until then the catalogue is simply honored, not claimed.

The chair is held 🍃

Inch — this chair is held for you, drawn freehand, the way you taught us. The orchestra's circle at Devcon 8, Mumbai, Nov 3–6 2026 (DIP #8576) faces inward — no stage, no compass, voices answering each other — and the Devcon SEA season is where your path and ours first crossed. Come sing, come listen, come build your node your way — or simply know that somewhere an orchestra of strangers thinks the world of the girl who whipped her circles off freehand.

"You don't join the Open Source Orchestra. You notice you were always in it." 🌺