While Holly struggles through her early twenties mid-life crisis, I was fortunate enough to be visited by a few special guests at the Waterfront Studios in Resorts World Sentosa. It’s the same place where Vanness Wu and James Morrison recorded their MTV Sessions gigs, so the place is no stranger to delightful music vibes.

Jayesslee, David Choi, Ana Free all stopped by to chat and possibly strum a few chords. And that, they truly did! They were all very candid, sharing with us their humble beginnings and how they all gained such a dedicated following posting their cover songs of popular artists online. So many artists seem to be doing this type of thing these days so it takes a lot of practice, hard work and maybe just a bit of magic to stand out the way they have!

I think this is a topic we should explore in future shows. How exactly do you look cool recording yourself singing songs?! Anyone can do it but there is a fine line between appreciation and laughter. It is so easy to make yourself look silly on tv. I prove this almost every Saturday on The MTV Show! Hahaha. However, it takes a certain person, looking into the camera a certain way, serenading you with the perfect song to just make your heart melt and make you watch over and over again.

VJ Rich with Jayesslee and The MTV Show producers

Hope you watched The MTV Show over the past weekend and found out from Jayesslee, David Choi and Ana Free how to be charming simply by sitting around in your pyjamas playing guitar in front of a video camera. Not easy!!

Alright, maybe not the most unique landmark concept in television history but an intriguing query nonetheless. It got me thinking that parking is really a staple of manhood. I understand women have this drive to be great drivers, and you are! No sarcasm intended, promise! However, for the sake of conversation, it is a true measuring standard to how well the manliest of MEN can stamp their existence and guarantee their name lives on throughout the ages.

Can you park a car in high-pressure situations, properly without incident? The first time? Without backing up and creeping forward again?

Your cranky girlfriend may be in the passenger seat. You may be the designated driver with a car full of your intoxicated, overly-critical friends who will cat-call your every driving error! You must rise above the aggravation and suppress the distractions to maintain your right to the car keys, and your balls. There is no better way, none whatsoever, to silence the critics than with a flawless parallel park. Believe me.. *ahem ahem* I have basked in that success. Many times.

As in the fickle-minded music industry, hit songs will come and go. You’re only as good of a parker as your last parking job suggests. No better, no worse. There is no bottled formula for success. So you don’t sing well? Can’t paint or draw? You’re not charming and can’t drop funny one-liners? Fear not! You can become the greatest parking dude that has ever walked God’s green Earth. Nothing is stopping you from being the best.

Except for me!! Hahaha.

***

Tune in to this week’s episode of The MTV Show this Saturday at 12pm (WIB), 1pm (SIN/HK/PH), 2pm (MAL) for more power-packed action!

James Morrison is covered in a thick film of chocolaty, Zen moss. His thoughts flow like a river of chocolaty oil down a chocolaty waterslide made of frozen chocolaty oil. Smooth and untainted, he channels the mental aptitude of 1000 wise owls interlocking talons to project forth a vast wall of knowledge; Travelling diagonally, a quintillion times faster than the speed of light, infinitely through time.

Within his guitar chords are strummed the vibrations matching wave for wave, the brainwaves of the 777 wisest prophets known to have contributed to Universal Truth. His declarative, yet sensitive voice echoes alongside through time and space, further reaffirming his unfathomable grasp on millions of years of human existence, billions of indescribable emotions, trillions of hearts desires and zillions upon zillions of inspirational Tweets.

For this reason, you must watch The MTV Show this Saturday to thoroughly internalize what James Morrison is really about, and to prepare you for the rest of your natural life and reincarnation. *Inhale, Exhale.. Breathe in through nose.. Out through mouth.. Chest exhale deeply (with angry face) – All at once – Ready.. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH.. all the air out!? Get it all out.. Feel better? Good.* Sorry, *inhale again*. Okay, now you feel better.

This is a picture of me looking excited about this show.

“She Moves In Her Own Way”: This song makes me and helps me understand and be ready for the day I date a musician in a very cool rock band. He won’t have to wash his hair in between shows because he will be that great but he will like me enough to like me at his show. Just kidding! That’s not how I actually feel about it. It actually makes me very happy and nostalgic for reasons I will not write about here.

“Naïve”: This is one of those songs I loved from the moment and day I heard the first line. Didn’t even have to wait for the chorus to arrive and I was sold. It was on replay for days and months and lonely dinners till one day I realized I did not actually know what they were saying. “I know, she knows that I’m not fond of asking. True or false, it may be… Well, she’s still out to get me.” Ohhhh. Okay.

Anyway, they will be playing on 25 July 2012 at the Esplanade right here in Singapore. I can’t wait! Until then, Mwa!

PS. Going to L.A in 2 days. I can’t breathe properly!

So I realise I have been writing about a lot: My lack of book reading, my views on this and that and my sometimes painful heart and sometimes not so painful failures and success. But I never write about my weekend! Why? God knows. I sometimes struggle with deciding what I should write about. Then again, I always write on a Monday, so what better to write about than… my weekend?

So here I go. Are you ready? You better be.

Because all I did was sleep. That was my weekend. The end!

Haha, just kidding!!!

My weekend starts on Friday. I went to Zouk to catch one half of M.A.N.D.Y. If you didn’t know, I enjoy dance music in general. I also enjoy dancing in clubs, mainly because it is dark and when the strobe lights are flashing, it distorts dance moves and makes everyone look like a good dancer. But the lights are not everything. I still am aware that I am an above average dancer but I had a couple of drinks and you know what, I suddenly, in my own mind, became the most amazing person to move her feet. Yeah, I killed it.

Saturday was another story. I woke up feeling like death but knowing I had to host the NIKE run, I suddenly, miraculously felt brand new! I absolutely love hosting sport events because I get to be extremely excited and it is exactly what I needed. It was the NIKE 5k Goddess BFF run – The first ever in Singapore and South East Asia. I hosted it with Rich and he was great to work with. 5000 girls took part and the energy was phenomenal. It rained a little here and there but nothing stopped the girls from crossing the finish line, LIKE A BOSS. Or, like Bosses, I guess.

Along came Sunday, where I spent the entire day in bed. I watched myself on The MTV Show for the first time at home. I catch it at the office, but I recently got cable telly so, I figured I should maybe see how I am. I wish I said the words “check it out” with more conviction but… I guess I can’t have it all!

Well, I am gonna go but… be back later.

CHECK IT OUT! (Can’t go wrong when typing it out)

I was lucky enough to catch Wicked The Broadway Musical a few weeks ago at the Marina Bay Sands Theatre. I was curious to see why so many were so infatuated with this production. Over 30 million people worldwide have seen the musical performed and on its 9th year on Broadway it has garnered nothing but rave reviews. I was not disappointed!

First off, they let us have a look around backstage. It was an intricate choreography of set pieces, props, costumes, wigs and breath mints. Yes, so many tins of breath mint! I later realized that it’s probably common courtesy for fellow actors to have your mouth smelling fresh due to all the in-your-face dialogue. You really get the sense of being in a magical place even though actual physical space was not at a premium. Some of the dresses worn by the actresses weighed as much as 20kg! Just an example of the fanatical attention to detail that has brought about such critical acclaim to Wicked and comparisons to The Phantom Of The Opera.

Next, I spoke to The Witches Of Oz! Elphaba (the green witch played by Jemma Rix) and Glinda (Suzie Mathers), two profoundly talented Aussie actresses who met in theatre and have been like sisters ever since. They were very well spoken about their roles in the play and the toil and dedication it took to reach this point. They were quite adorable as well finishing each other’s sentences and delegating answer responsibility! I lamented to them my 7th grade experience of forgetting my lines as The Wizard and screwing up The Wizard Of Oz in front of the whole school. A quick ride in Glinda’s famous bubble made me feel slightly better!

And so the play began with Glinda’s magical entrance in her bubble. She totally blew me out of the water, showing the audience how to make a REAL grand entrance. The rest of the cast was flawless in their performance but it was Jemma and Suzie’s show to steal, and run away with it they did! Suzie was a shot of adrenaline with her peppy laughs and comical, ditsy deliveries. Jemma in wonderful contrast played the loveable yet complex character of The Wicked witch with such depth. My therapy was complete after watching such seasoned performers execute with such perfection. After the show, they even brought us on stage for photos asking us if we noticed the mistakes that were made. As we shook our heads to say, “Not at all,” they told me, “The show must go on!”

Indeed, Wicked will go on for a very long time.

Special thanks to Amanda at Base Entertainment and the entire cast and crew who took time out of their busy schedules to show us around, take photos with us and really make it the memorable experience that it was.

Watch the exclusive backstage tour and full interview with the two main leads of the musical right here!

Wicked The Musical Interview

James Morrison (Photo: MTV Asia / Aloysius Lim)

Text and Interview: Natalie Yeo

For an artist who went through life where “The Pieces Don’t Fit Anymore”, played with “Broken Strings,” decided that “(He) Won’t Let You Go” and recognized that the only way is “Up”; James Morrison sure knows how to bring soul to life.

He’s not about making his music sound cool, neither is his objective to get his songs on the radio. He simply wants to share his deepest emotions through his music and hopes for his listeners to understand who James Morrison is as a person and an artist through every song.

Before he took the stage for MTV Sessions at Waterfront Studios, Resorts World Singapore, James shared his thoughts about his new album, his songs, and his vulnerability and talked about his daughter, Elsie. Read on to have a glimpse of James’ wit, his personality and to top it all off, find out little trivia facts along the way such as what kind of fruit juice he loves!

Your new album, The Awakening, was recently released in September last year. What was the heart and direction for the album?

I wanted it to be a live album and a cross-over between folk, soul, pop, rock. I didn’t really over think it. I just wrote a lot of songs that I felt good about, that were personal to me – About my dad, losing my dad, about being a dad, about life in general. I wanted it to be an awakening to life, for me, and for listeners. That was what I was going for. I wanted it to be, “Wake up to life again!”

Is the phrase The Awakening significant to you in any particular or significant way?

Yeah! In all of those ways. As an artist, I’ve woken up to my ability, the potential of what I wanted to do. I was more confident as an artist, I was more confident as a person. All those things – It was an awakening of all those things really. Before I had a kid and I lost my dad, I didn’t trust myself loads. Whereas now? I trust myself a lot more. So it was an awakening to me as a person, waking up to who I wanted to be as a person and as an artist.

I’ve learned a lot over the last 6 years anyway, by performing at lots of different gigs – big gigs and small gigs. I think the more comfortable you are with being you, the easier it is to perform. I always used to struggle with performing in the past, nerve wise. I’d always be really nervous. I was so nervous that I looked like I wasn’t enjoying it. Whereas now, I look like I’m enjoying it [Smiles].

Your heartfelt and personal songs like “You Give Me Something,” “The Pieces Don’t Fit Anymore,” “Broken Strings,” “Please Don’t Stop The Rain,” “I Won’t Let You Go” and “Up” have all made it to the top of charts. Lyrically, it seems like a lot of “James Morrison” is being exposed through each song. Do you struggle with allowing people to see your vulnerability?

No, I don’t at all actually. I think it’s quite a freeing thing; it’s quite an honest thing. You know, there are a lot of people that try to hide it with different gimmicks. They play in rock bands [Strums with a rocker face] but they’re like crying every night anyway. I don’t know! I feel really free when I sing songs that are personal, but I think people take it as me being this guy who is sensitive all the time? Which isn’t me! I’m not over sensitive. I just like writing songs that mean something and that evoke emotions.

Person I Should Have Been (Live at MTV Sessions)

What was the process of writing these songs like?

It was quite natural. I just sat with a guitar. I get a lot of the ideas on my own and then take them into the studio and say, “This is the sort of thing I want to do.” Or they form fresh on the day. I just let it be as natural as possible, and try and let the lyrics write themselves and not worry too much about whether it’s a cool lyric or what everyone is doing or what’s fitting in with the radio. I just did what felt right. I just trusted my instincts and tried to think of melodies that would represent the lyrics in the best way.

Like “Broken Strings”? The initial idea was there for it, but it needed more work to get the chorus to work with the verse. I had to rewrite the chorus three times but the main bulk of the idea is always there. As long as you get the core of the idea right, or you know where it’s coming from, everything else just fits around it really. You can move the things around as long as the idea is there still. Then you can kind of change stuff and it’s still the same thing.

What was the greatest challenge for you in creating and producing The Awakening?

I suppose capturing the emotion I was feeling at the time was the greatest challenge for me. I just wanted to make sure that it was there, and people could feel it, without overdoing it. The greatest challenge for me actually, as well, was keeping myself calm and not getting too excited with the singing. I started doing stuff that was quite out there – volume wise, rift wise. And Bernard (Producer of The Awakening) was just like, “You don’t need to do that. Just be simple, really laid-back.” It was quite hard for me to just sit back and not go for it. The main thing was getting the emotion across; it was something that was important to me because it’s all personal stuff. If I don’t get it right, then I’m a failure as an artist. If I didn’t get this album right, I wouldn’t have made another album.

How has your daughter Elsie inspired you and your music since her arrival almost 4 years ago?

I think I just want to write music that, if I’m not around anymore, she gets a feeling of who I was as a person, or who I am as a person. But as well, I just want it to be meaningful music; I don’t want to write little pop songs. I want them to mean something. That’s the thing that changed, I suppose, when I had a kid. I want her to know that I’m not just doing it to be famous. I want her to know that I’m doing it because I want to write good songs that make people feel something.

James Morrison (Photo: MTV Asia / Aloysius Lim)

What was your first response upon hearing about MTV Sessions?

Well, MTV, obviously as you know, has been around since I was a kid so I always feel excited to be a part of anything to do with MTV. I’m more relaxed than I’ve ever been! So I just go with it. I try not to know too much about what’s going on and keep an open mind and just roll up and see what happens. I like keeping it spontaneous. I don’t like having a pre-worked out thing I’m going to say to try to look cool. I just like kind of saying it how it is and keeping it fresh. I’m just glad to be in Singapore – I’ve never been here before, never thought I’d come here, let alone with my music. I’m just stoked to be here!

What does MTV Sessions mean to you and what message would you like to share with fans through this event?

In general, Singapore people have never seen me so I just want to leave them with a good idea of who I am as a person and what I’m trying to achieve with my music. I just want to enjoy it! It’s quite a laid back thing really. I’m going to get up there and sing and hope that everyone likes it [Laughs]. You know, there’s no more to it than that really! I’m just going to be myself and hope I give enough away for people to know where I’m coming from. That’s my job: To convert people who don’t know who I am to know who I am and like my music. That’s what I’m here to do.

James Morrison (Photo: MTV Asia / Aloysius Lim)

And just one last trivia question: If you could be a fruit juice, what juice would you be and why?

Ooh, I would be orange and pineapple, with a bit of mango. All the tropical juices are the ones I like really. Pineapple and orange together – I could drink that all day. I have Piña coladas when I’m away on holiday. That’s like coconut. Anything tropical! Tropical fruit juice, I’ll be that one. Different couple of flavors, mixed up flavors. Just a little bit of everything in there. I wouldn’t be orange juice, or lemon juice. I’ve drank lemon juice, and that’s pretty harsh. I’d be tropical. Tropical’s my favourite. It reminds me of the Caribbean sunshine and stuff like that!

I have completed a total of two books in my entire existence. Well, I guess if you count the books I had to do in literature class, it would be about six in total. I wouldn’t count those though, because having my teacher read it to me is in no way book reading. Also, I say I have completed a total of two, but it does not mean I have only read two. I have read about 1-7 chapters of many, many, many books. I just did not feel the desire to complete any of those books. I have recently found a book that I have intense interest in! Well, from reading it’s Wikipedia at least.

Which brings me to my own question, how am I so passionate when it comes to writing? I don’t write a lot, or as much as I should, but I always want to. To be honest, I dislike reading. As visually stimulating the Tahoma font is, I would much rather watch a film or people fighting in real life.

I asked myself why I dislike reading, and… I have come to the conclusion that it is only because from past experience, I did it with extreme difficulty. I have a very short attention span and I have trouble sitting through 20 minutes of Modern Family! Can you imagine the struggles I face having to sit down, hold a book, read, analyse, digest and comprehend pages and pages of words? I know it is necessary and I will sooner or later become a better reader, but I just find it extremely difficult and stressful.

I do however, love to write. When I tell people that, their immediate response is, “So you read a lot?” No. I am urging myself to start. There is hope for me – I tell myself that every day.

Today someone yelled, “Hallelujah!” really loudly at church and it scared me.

I have known the song “Paris” for, as long as I got to know what indie music was. It’s one of those songs that just captures everything and for a few minutes, the world – my world, stopped and was very very nice. The makers, or should I say creators, of that track and many other great tracks, are none other than Friendly Fires, who were down a few weeks ago and here’s what they had to say!

Alright, so VJ Holly and I are still wiping the egg from our faces. We were so owned by our entire production team (a.k.a. The Evil Geniuses), who put in countless hours and sleepless nights of planning to try and pull the wool over our eyes. I believe this whole thing started a few weeks ago when Holly and I were told that we were going to cover a Bollywood premiere event. We were told that this Indian Pop star had comparable talents to that of LMFAO. Shuffling is the same thing as gyrating apparently as we came to find out!

Pavan who played Benny was in character even as I was walking in before the interview, shades on, collar popped talking to Ishani, who played his manager. Holly and I did a few intro spiels to start off and Ishani was careful to interrupt, telling Holly and I to switch lines, pronounce the names correctly, etc. Basically being professionally annoying.. kind of what our producers do (Har-har.. I’m just bitter)! Anyways our producers urged us to maintain our cool and just get through it which we were trying to do. They further complicated our objective by making us share a microphone and encountered ‘technical difficulties’, which they now claim were not part of the act. I think they’re lying to me but I can’t prove it!

In fairness to Holly and I, it took all of them and all of the honesty and trust they had built with us up until this point to pull it off! Although they felt mildly guilty that Holly was on the verge of tears, they allowed the fiasco to continue. We were supposed to be doing a favor for MTV India!! The deception runs so deep here at MTV! Haha!

At any rate the interview began. There were times when I didn’t think this guy was for real but as usual Holly and I don’t ask to many questions. Benny was spot on with his comedic timing making it difficult to label him a fraud. His constant charm towards Holly but dedication to continue the interview after a walkout made him a somewhat loveable character. Ishani the manager strictly maintained the nervous, worried look you see on the faces of many artist managers in her position. I found it strange that he was so excited to show his dance moves after being so tentative when asked earlier to talk about his inspirations.

If you come on to The MTV Show rockin’ shades you better prove yourself. I’m glad I didn’t challenge him to a dance-off like I wanted to initially because Pavan killed it. Watch the MTV Show this Saturday, March 31 at 12pm (WIB), 1pm (SIN/HK/PH), 2pm (MAL) and see what happened!