Week 8 - Interview with Young Yee: That guitarist at Tampines

Have you seen him passionately strumming those strings, working magic tunes with his awesome fingerstyle guitar skills? That’s right! He’s Young Yee, the NTU scholar and part-time busker/guitarist.

Young Yee is in his fourth year of pursuing a double degree in Business and Computer Science. In the day, he’s a student, but on his free days, he goes busking with his partner, Cheng Wei, at various locations - the most common being Tampines and Pasir Ris White Sands. “Part of the draw to busking is that we can say, eh you’re free ah? Ok let’s go!” Adding on to that, he is also an active member of his NTU Hall Band, 15 Harmony. Recently, he stepped up as a leader to mentor the upcoming batch of freshies.

Young yee’s passion for music started way back then - he was a bass singer in the school choir. That was when he met many like-minded souls who are just as passionate about music as he is. Eventually, he picked up the guitar on his own, and has never put it down since. After graduating from Junior College, he formed a team with his longtime jamming buddy, Cheng Wei, and applied for a license to busk. His main role was an instrumentalist and many a times, he came in as a steady backup vocal. “Our initial aim was just to get lunch money, we didn’t even expect it to be good for money compared to a part-time job,” he laughs. When asked about their earnings from busking, Young yee was not shy to divulge the underground information.

“It really depends on the location. In town, we hardly earn any money, because people’s expectations are higher. They expect to be entertained. The previous time we busked at Cathay (Dhoby Ghaut), we earned about $70 for one and a half hours. In the heartlands (Pasir Ris/Tampines), we can earn up to $80-100/hr each”.

“The aunties along the heartlands are very encouraging, not just in terms of money, but also smiles, and thumbs ups. They come and talk to us. It’s warmer, partly 'cause it’s more chill.”

Busk on-the-go

Young Yee and his partner were one of the first few buskers selected by NAC to busk on-the-go in MRT stations, a busking initiative started by the Land Transport Authority (LTA). Starting October 2015, buskers have 10 more MRT stations, both in the city centre and heartlands, as performance venues to showcase their talents. However, we have come to learn that it is not as glamorous as it seems.

How was performing at the MRT station like for the first time?

“It is a lot worse (than busking on the streets) because of the regulations. We weren’t allowed to use mics and speakers. My friend was shouting for 45 mins, I got injuries trying to play audibly.”

Check out their performance at Bugis MRT below:

What was your most memorable busking experience?

“There was once when we were busking in Simei and some kopitiam girl came up and requested us to join her in her love confession,” Young yee chuckles as he recalls the funny encounter. The lady came up to show her appreciation for the duo, and asked them to shift their set to the coffee shop she was working at. They obliged, set up the amplifier softly, and prepared to invite the subject of confession, as they have done in several occasions in hall. “When we started playing, she took the mic, and shouted for some other lady in the Tze Char store, telling her she loved her!” At this point, we couldn’t help but burst out laughing with him. Who says busking can’t be interesting?

However, similar to the other buskers we have interviewed, Young yee reflected that he would not pursue busking as a full-time job in the future due to pragmatic concerns. Despite having already been bonded to Singtel, he wishes that busking will remain a big part of his life in the next 10 years to come, amidst piling responsibilities. Another similar viewpoint was that Singaporeans hold highly the quality of the music when it comes to their judgement of a busker. “Even if the music is good, some will assume we’re bumming around, and being a musician is not a proper profession.” This points back to the recurring notion of Singaporeans having negative perceptions of buskers, and even musicians, in general. Their distrust towards the arts industry can perhaps be traced back to the efforts by the state to promote the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) sectors in the name of pragmatism. This starts from a very young age, through giving priority to related academic subjects in the education system.

To sum up, here are 5 lessons Young yee has learned from busking:

(aspiring buskers, prepare your notepad!)

1. Go with the flow

“In a performance, there’re so many factors that come together to make a performance that way. Some of these factors are really out of your control. It can be as simple as time of the day, the weather, the general crowd, the age range of the crowd. All these can make or break a song. The same song played in this particular context will be totally out of place in another context. So, we have learned to make our busking gig a lot more free flow in that sense. We try our best to make our music fit the atmosphere.”

2. Audience engagement

Young yee and his partner pride themselves on their ability to engage the crowd. Through years of busking, they have learned to make use of not just their musical capabilities, but also what’s around them, to create the proper “feel”.

3. You can’t please everybody

“In order to be comfortable with busking, you have to be comfortable knowing that not everybody will like your music. Even so, do aim to serve the community and be a positive presence.”

4. Take a leap of faith

“We started out at a time when it wasn’t very hip for young people to busk. So it was really just stepping out and saying, 'for now we’re just going to try this, it doesn’t really matter what’s going to happen'. I mean, there’s not that much to lose by just trying. I think I can really apply this to a lot of other things in my life that I’m unsure of.”

5. Teamwork is key

Through working with many different singers, Young yee has learned the importance of being like a chameleon - to adapt to whatever environment he finds himself in. “In a team, there has to be a leader. But at the same time, you cannot have two leaders.” When faced with lost sheeps in the group, Young yee steps up and becomes more assertive, but when he sees that his group members are comfortable leading the way, he will take a back seat. This wisdom has helped him not only in working with other musicians, but also in other professional settings as well.

All in all, a different outlook of the world

“I met a lot more people when I busk. When you’re standing at a spot for 3 hours, people really come and go. There are so many more types of people you don’t really get exposed to if you’re frequently in a school environment. But when you just stop and at one place and just observe, there are really so many types of people around...”

Young yee has dreams to pursue more genres of music, maybe becoming a vocalist himself, and hopes to have more avenues for collaborations with other buskers. (we definitely look forward to it!)

Thank you Young yee, for your heartfelt sharing. We hope you never give up on your passion for busking as you go on to the next phase of life!