It is no secret that Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong enjoys music and is passionate about playing the guitar.
At the pre-launch interview of season two of "making .wavs", DPM Wong chatted with three emerging Singaporean musicians, Sherman Zhuo, Shazza, and Josh Makazo, about their love for music.
"making .wavs" is Mothership's music programme that features young, up-and-coming local musicians in Singapore through a series of short performance videos and interviews on social media. Its first season featured 8 musicians and concluded with a grand finale hosted by radio DJ Joakim Gomez in Nov. 2023.
A beginning
DPM Wong's journey in music began at a very young age.
It started when his late father gave him a guitar, which he did not ask for, but he supposes his father thought it would be a good birthday present.
His late father also had a friend who came by the house to teach him how to play and strum some notes, giving him a good foundation.
He taught himself the chords and notes to songs by listening to old cassette tapes and records from the 1950s his parents had lying around.
"I would open up the album, and then look at the lyrics and listen along the song with the lyrics... I started trying to figure out the notes and trying to figure out the chords and play along with it," said DPM Wong.
"That was interesting. That was something I felt [was] very meaningful and I enjoyed myself doing it."
He would save his pocket money to purchase a cassette tape and learn it himself.
He learned to play partly by ear, as no one taught him to transcribe songs. He had to try to transcribe the notes and slowly get better at it.
Although it was a "painful process", DPM Wong shared that it felt like a satisfying achievement once he got the right chords and correct notes.
He also admitted that the journey was not smooth as he struggled, even till today.
"When you don't play often... after a while you get rusty... [and] you can't quite tell what the notes are."
Music as a common culture
When DPM Wong travelled to the U.S. for his undergraduate studies, he shared that it was "very serendipitous" that he brought his guitar to college.
His roommate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison turned out to be an American guy who was a guitarist.
"He came in the first day, big, tall, lanky guy, cowboy hat, cowboy boots. And I'm thinking to myself, I'm not sure how we're gonna relate in cultures.
But he brought the guitar with him, and immediately, the first night, we could jam together."
The pair went on to busk together and played at open mic bars together.
Changing music landscape in Singapore
Commenting on the changing landscape of music, DPM Wong said it was fascinating and "astounding" to realise the range of gadgets available:
"The fact that the whole music landscape has changed and transformed so dramatically. So, it's exciting to hear from you all your stories and to see new, younger musicians coming up. And really pursuing your aspirations and making a mark for yourselves, and also for the music scene in Singapore.
Hopefully, we will be able to inspire and get many more Singaporeans to listen to your music, [and] get many more young people to pursue their aspirations too."
In response, Shazza, a participant of "making .wavs" season 2, added that the stigma against local music is a main struggle that local musicians face.
People are still living with the mentality that Singaporean music is "not as good as international music," she added.
"I do suspect that it's because we've had to develop very fast in such a short amount of time as a young nation, which has developed this tendency in us to look outside of Singapore for the standard because that's what we've had to do in order to other countries and stuff."
DPM Wong noted that it is a struggle and "it's not easy, typically given [Singapore's] small market."
He stated that while there are more avenues to push out music, it becomes harder to break through.
He also added that Singapore's market is not only smaller but also " fragmented," with people listening to different songs in different languages.
"[An] already small market, sliced up into vernacular languages, even smaller... it is challenging, it makes it challenging."
Conclusion with original songs
All three artists showcased snippets of their original songs for DPM Wong, who bopped his head and tapped his foot along to the beat.
When asked about the creative process behind their songs, Makazo shared that he wrote his song during his National Service (NS) days, thinking about first love... in the middle of the jungle.
He went on to say that "the existence of a song creation is just the motion," like finding one's first love.
"First love, finding for romance during NS," DPM Wong observed about Makazo's song, noting "that came through very strongly", before laughing heartily.
Top photo via Mothership and Lawrence Wong/Facebook