Ep 05: Weish

In this episode of Good Morning with Daphne Khoo, I sit down with Singaporean musician Weish for a heartfelt and inspiring conversation about her journey from the classroom to the stage.

Weish shares her experiences as a secondary school teacher, and how those years shaped the emotional core of Secondary: The Musical, now returning for its second run from April 9. We dive into the creative process behind bringing the musical to life - from songwriting to storytelling, and building a world that feels both deeply personal and locally relatable.

We also talk about what it means to evolve as an artist, the courage it takes to pivot paths, and what’s next for her beyond this exciting new chapter.

This episode is for anyone navigating change, honouring where they’ve been, and stepping into what they’re becoming.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:07

Hello and welcome to another episode of Good Morning with Daphne Coop. And it's a very special episode because I have the amazing wait here.

SPEAKER_00 0:17

My very first interview. And it's you. Oh my gosh. I'm the first. Yeah. I'm very honored.

SPEAKER_02 0:23

I'm honored, and we had a nice two-hour long chat. We've just been hanging out. I love it, but I'm so excited for your musical that is making a resurgence that's only starting on the 9th of April. Yeah. How are you feeling about it in general, just as a human being?

SPEAKER_00 0:41

Oh, oh, as a human being is a huge question that I will take three hours to answer. But the condensed version is that I am, as usual, very overwhelmed and very excited. And to be restaging it so soon feels surreal because it's kind of still fresh. Um and the benefit now is that with the show set in stone, the music is already written, unlike the last time where we were kind of still rearranging the songs to the last minute. Now we have the benefit of all the cast has come in having done their homework and listened to the songs. Yeah, we have a full cast of understudies. So we have a huge room of really talented people, and it's just it's just really surreal. Um even to have someone else sing a song that you've wrote feels this strange displacement that is simultaneously strange, but like such an honor. Like, what did I do to deserve these words and melodies coming out of your mouth? You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, I I get you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:48

But I mean, okay, there's a lot of people that don't know what a a rich history you have as an artist. I mean, you were you were making art even when you were a secondary school teacher. Yeah. Which was many moons ago. I was doing their like 2016 recap, but that's when you know the the lore of this musical came about.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Yeah. I was quite a late bloomer to writing my own music or trying that out. So I it was only in maybe university that I met like-minded people and started a band and like um started doing little open mics and stuff. Is it dot gif or dot jif? It's gif, but it's anything you want it to be, I guess. Please go prescriptive.

SPEAKER_02 2:34

Yeah, go and check out dot jiff.gif.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

No, I just learned that Daphne was listening to .gif in Boston on her commute, and I'm just like so mind-blown.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

No, so I mean, this is the first time that we've sat down and had a proper conversation, but you've really inspired me a lot, and I'm sure so many others out there, and going into this musical space, which is something that I've wanted to do for a long time, but just haven't dared to, and you know, going into the rehearsal and and watching you guys, it's what a crazy thing to not only just have people like sing something you wrote, but have a full little universe that you've created. You know, how okay, how did you come up with Huxley Secondary School?

SPEAKER_00 3:18

It's a not so subtle reference to Eldus Huxley's Brave New World. Oh, okay. I mean, when you watch the show, you'll understand it's really very on the nose, the reference. But I guess it's um for those unfamiliar, the premise of the book Brave New World, I think released in 1930s or something, um, was this futuristic dystopian society where people are sort of genetically engineered and psychologically conditioned into five classes or castes, um, so that the greater good of stability and structure will ensure peace.

SPEAKER_02 4:01

That's such a a concise way of putting that book. I would not have known how to summarize it.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

Nola, but it's it's so much more, but that's I guess the core the core of that type of dystopia that resonated a lot with me eerily while being a teacher. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:20

I can see how it can reflect a lot of the the pillars of society we have here in Singapore and even throughout the world, but all the more here, I I would say like growing up here, I can I can totally see the parallels.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:34

But I haven't seen the musical. I could not get tickets. Your first one. Everyone wanted it to go longer, so I'm really glad that it's come back. And don't miss out, okay? If you are living in Singapore, and if you're not living in Singapore, you can still listen to the entire soundtrack. It's on DS, all the DSPs. So you can go check it out. Whatever platform you listen to your music on, you can go and find it. Uh secondary, the musical. You know, so if you're not in Singapore and you miss out on this beautiful musical, or you're not in Singapore and you want the musical to come to you, go and DM Wait. If there is anything I can do about that. Maybe they make a London version, maybe they make a Broadway version that you mean. Yeah, I mean sky's the limit, sky's the limit. And how has so initially this was something that you were asked to do. Yes. And we were just talking about how you didn't you didn't really see how your life would uh or that your music could be presented in a musical.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:32

And I guess because we're not so exposed to musicals in Singapore, we don't realize that there are many ways to do it.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:38

And I think your signature in your music really comes out in in this musical. But I think that's like you being unapologetically yourself, you know, although I'm sure that you probably apologize when you didn't need to at times.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

Oh no, constantly. But it's I guess through the courage and enabling in the best way of people who believed in me when they had no evidence to, you know, they they That's crazy. There's so much evidence to support you. Thank you. But like no evidence that I would be able to write a full-length musical, I suppose, which was so unlike anything I had ever done at that point. And it was Jusier, um, who's directing the show, and who um, along with his wife Claire, founded and runs Checkpoint Theatre. Um, I had just become an associate artist at Checkpoint because I'd just begun to explore like a little bit of hybrid theatre music shows. I'd done like a couple of smaller shows that melded the two forms in like a strange new way, at least new to me. Um and yeah, I think he went out on a limb and because I had I had a relationship with Trek Point Theatre since I was 19. I was a wee a wee uni student, like You're not 19 still. No, you're too kind. I wish. No, we're just gonna stay young forever. No, you you look the same as you were on Idol.

SPEAKER_02 7:09

No, I really don't. It's how I remember you.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

Oh, I love that the energy is still there, but yeah, that's crazy. So So I've been with sort of with Checkpoint on and off, working on stuff with them um in different capacities through like a 10 or 12 year sort of relationship. Um, and they'd obviously always been big supporters of my music, and I'd always been a fan of Checkpoint productions, and so maybe after seeing my new explorations, they approached me to be associate artists and the first thing Jusier asked for was like, you know, all this time when we're together, or you've come to rehearsals for other shows, just talking about school life, and he proceeded to recount with alarming clarity like so many of the stories I had told him and the team over the years, like some really funny stories, some really heartbreaking stories, and he was like, Why have you turn all of that into a musical? And I was like, I don't know that I can write a musical, I don't know that I like that many musicals, and can I just try and write a play? And he was like, just try la, just give me two scenes, two songs, uh, for fun, for fun, no pressure. Just just give me two scenes. I just want to see. Oh, thank you for making her do that.

SPEAKER_02 8:36

Thank you for making this musical real. You know, I think it just takes one person to believe in you and and you believing in yourself too, or or just going blindly and like, okay, I try, I try.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

Thank you for being brave. Oh, thank you. I think it was it was a lot of coaxing on on his part, and a lot of like initial drafts of the songs were me trying very hard to write in what I thought was a musical theater style. And he was like, wait, wish, can you just write weishy songs? Like the washiest wishy songs.

SPEAKER_02 9:09

Yeah, but I think that's what people love about it, you know, because I mean when it comes to musicals and like music or like plays, I think people have this idea that it has to be a certain form, but uh what makes you an artist is your art, you know, like you show up in the way that you can and that is authentically you and I truly feel like that is the magic behind secondary. Thank you, you know, and I've only heard like I mean, I've only heard such amazing things about it, and then like I couldn't get tickets. So it's like you're coming now. Yes, so please don't miss out. Okay, get your tickets. I guess there are so many things that you probably love about it, but what is what is one thing that challenged you the most besides making the thing?

SPEAKER_00 9:52

Oof. I think the biggest hurdle or anxiety was the question of whether I was fairly representing stories that were not my own. So pretty much all of the characters and their stories in the musical were mirrors or directly inspired by real people from my six years of teaching. Um, some of them include like kooky teachers, some of them include um, you know, really smart kids who just dealt with bad cards, um, kids whose lives as youth were vastly different to mine. And I think the biggest culture shock for me going into teaching as someone who kind of grew up in a bubble here, with you know, many doors open to me, many resources, and we understand inequality from a distance, yeah, in an ideological way. Yeah, but theoretically theoretically, and you know, there's so much shame and privilege guilt surrounding that going into a school where some kids have to work after school to help their parents pay the bills, or you know, many broken families, or just them being caretakers at home. Like, how can you expect them to do homework, you know, or show up at school even? Like, I if I were in their position, I would just crumble.

SPEAKER_02 11:22

Um No, I don't think so, but they were more resilient than you give yourself credit for. I get where you're at, I get where you're coming from, though.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

Yeah, and so I think putting all their stories together, even while knowing they were real, gave me a lot of anxiety of like, who am I to tell these stories? And would I be telling them fairly? Would these people they're based on feel like it's a fair expression um of them, you know? Did you invite them to the musical? Many of them did come and it was it was really moving.

SPEAKER_02 11:58

I like hugged and cried with so many students and colleagues in the in the foyer after I feel like secondary school one feels like a lifetime ago, but even when I was watching the rehearsal, like f a flood of memories and some trauma definitely waved past me. Yeah, because I think everyone kind of understands, even if they didn't go to a local secondary school here, I think just formative years of being in that environment and just the politics, like then there's really something for everyone in the musical. I think you did a really good job. Thank you. I read that it took you three years to to do it and put it together. What are the some of the biggest for like creators out there or people that feel stuck or like they can't try something new? What are some of the hurdles that you had to go through that um like were there points that you thought you wouldn't continue and yeah, like the whole way like the whole way till they said hey we booked the theater?

SPEAKER_00 13:02

It's like yeah, but the whole way I was like, Is this a good idea? Should I even be doing this? I haven't even put out an album. I you know, like why? Um, but it was just relentless faith on checkpoint's part to to pursue it and to see it through, and it was like me just living off the faith of like okay, if you think this is possible, then I guess I have no choice but to trust it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:28

Um, but so many points along the way I I was questioning I guess it that just goes to show that like if you are a creative and you're out there like making stuff, it's so important to surround yourself with people who believe in you.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:42

Because at the end of the day, uh there is there are so many reasons not to, but you need to look for the reasons to do the thing.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

Yeah, it was also the unexpected catharsis of it. It's I I guess I realized I had repressed. Like I had been full-time artist five or six years after those six years of teaching. Um, so I was like, okay, I've I thought I processed it, but then being prompted to recount scenes and to write songs, and you know, songs are so much of you, right? You have to dig deep, and you you can't help but like pour everything out. And I realized, like, oh, I have not unpacked, like just re-traumatizing myself. It's like but the release was amazing. It's low-key therapy, it was full-on therapy, like high key, high key therapy.

SPEAKER_02 14:35

And we were talking about this too, how I feel like in Singapore it's hard for people to spend time with themselves, yeah, or reflect on things or sit in things because we're so highly encouraged to just hustle, be busy, and you know, then that then when you sit with yourself and you're like, whoa, I need to deal with this thing, and you're like, but I guess I don't have to, there's so much to do, you know.

SPEAKER_00 14:55

Yeah, or if you don't have anything to do now, we just have endless distractions, right? To not just sit with ourselves, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:02

We live in a time of convenience, yeah, and because of that, people don't spend three years on their art anymore, they don't spend a year on their art. It's like I'm gonna put out five hooks of different songs and see what lands and release that, yeah, you know, but there is so much magic in in taking that time and so much therapy that can be done in like that time. What is the biggest thing that you learned about yourself besides all the trauma you hadn't dealt with?

SPEAKER_00 15:31

I think the biggest thing in like that disembodied exercise of writing myself as a character and then trying to distance it so it doesn't feel too real. But looking at yourself in third person on the page, I learned I learned how flawed I was, and I guess it's it was so easy for me post-teaching to play the victim and like blame the system. And yes, there are things to blame them for, but at the same time watching all the mistakes I made and realizing these giant missteps or lack of self-awareness in you know, in my teaching days, and in the in the creative pursuit of writing an interesting flawed character, you know, because it's so boring to see a one-dimensional character, I realized I had to really reckon with so many of my fundamental flaws going in as a teacher.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:31

I mean, but mistakes are only mistakes if we don't learn from them, right? So in in actually acknowledging it and calling it what it is, I think that's that's growth and that's you like figuring yourself out, and that's I feel like that's all we can do in this life, you know? Affirmation. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

Yeah, I'm just casually receiving therapy here.

SPEAKER_02 16:51

I mean, like this this is also the reason that I started the show. Like waking up and feeling like I gotta go, I gotta do things, I gotta be busy every day. Like it's it stops you from or rather it it totally bypasses the reflection point of life, which if we don't do, then when? You know, and then watching, you know, the people that I care about, like the ones that are sick or the ones that have passed, you know, they at the end of it, that's when they spend the time like reflecting. When really it's like if you have it as a daily practice, then we we are living more than we're dying, you know. That's so sweet. Yeah. I hope that's what people can like start waking up and feeling, you know, in the morning because what I mean, I'm so super guilty of it. But the first thing I do is turn my alarm off and check my notifications, you know. That's I mean, but that's like no we've normalized this, and I would love to be able to normalize like slow mornings because what is the rush? I I get it, let's do more stuff, let's be more efficient about efficiency without purpose is like it just feels empty, yeah. And we just try and forgo the emptiness by doing more things, so take your time, especially when you're making art and making art with your life, not to be too cheesy or anything, but your life is it should be art, you know, it should be your the days that you live. This is the story we're telling, and I mean, if I'm being honest, I see my life as a musical because I'm constantly breaking out into songs, as you should with a voice like yours. No, everyone should. I feel like it's the way that you express yourself, whether it's like a little dance or like you know, my family, like we eat good food, we'll have a little jiggle and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 18:35

Oh my gosh, I'm a eat food dancer.

SPEAKER_02 18:37

Yeah, that's that's joy, and in the same way that like you know, we're being taught these days with like the focus on mental health to cry when you need to, or if you have anger to express yourself. Why don't people talk about how to express joy? Like, that is your art, whatever it is, it's like a dance or a laugh or a cr a happy cry, or yeah, you know, doing your hair go for massage, like express yourself and yeah, like we're so afraid to be happy these days.

SPEAKER_00 19:06

That's true, but it's also not lost on me how lucky I am and perhaps we are that we get to call art our job. A hundred percent. Because I guess most people have to repress all manner of spectrum of feelings in order to just function and do their work from nine to five or whatever, and I get to call this my work in which you know, reckoning with self, healing, expressing joy, expressing pain is all part of my work, which is so efficient actually.

SPEAKER_02 19:40

See, you can have it all. Have your cake and eat it too. Yeah. I mean, I think we can make it part of whatever it is that we do, it's just a matter of being mindful and and caring.

SPEAKER_00 19:52

For sure. And mindful is right. And I I wouldn't say like if I hadn't been asked to do this, I would likely never have unpacked or learned from you know those six years of really rich, like, you know, experiences that should have changed me in a bigger way as a person. But it's so easy to not think about it.

SPEAKER_02 20:14

Yeah, for sure. I mean, at the end of the day, we were all we're all exactly where we're supposed to be. You know, it's everyone is worried about rushing or FOMO or not being in the right place at the right time. But I mean, if we can accept that we are exactly where we are supposed to be, then we make the most of every minute, you know, and like enjoy the experience. Even if you're not enjoying it, appreciate every moment because the difficult moments are there to to build you, to guide you, and then the easier moments, easier moments are for you to enjoy that time, and it's like getting in the right mindset of being present and doing the thing, you know, and then that makes the experience and the journey of life meaningful.

SPEAKER_00 21:01

And it's so cool of you to verbalize that, I guess, especially like in the context of us thinking about our formative years in school. Like when you're a teenager, every little problem is like gargantuan, right? It's like a massive mammoth problem, and it's always impossible to see past the hurdles. Or like the next day is going to be so difficult, and you live sort of day by day with these insurmountable issues.

SPEAKER_02 21:28

Yeah, I think that's the thing, right? Like, so the idea of being present when we're younger is to look for problems to solve or compare. Yeah. So, like, oh, an adult will tell you, This is nothing, you know, like wait till you become an adult and then you have to work all the time. You have bigger problems. Yeah. And then when you're a teenager, you're like, Oh, but you're an adult, you can do anything you want, you know. So we're always chasing the thing instead of being like, actually, I'm I gotta look at the things that I have now. You know, and hopefully if you're watching this, like no matter what stage in life you're at, there is something to appreciate. And it's not wrong to compare and it's not wrong to, you know, have these thoughts. But at the same time, if we can experience this life with appreciation, it just lowers all the anxiety, you know. Like my mom is like a worry wart, you know, but as she has three kids. Your mom also got three kids.

SPEAKER_00 22:25

Yes, and it's a worry wart. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:27

And and I mean, obviously it it it came to me, like that's that's what I've grown up with, and so I worry and I plan, and I mean it's it's um my superpower and my kryptonite because I'm constantly just worried, you know. But at the same time, it's like I feel prepared though. And how do I shift that mindset to being like actually like I can I can worry or I can plan ahead and also accept that this is this is what's happening right now. Yeah, it's like a mindset shift, and I'm every day I'm trying to figure out what that balance is, yeah. But at the end of the day, it's like we we're we're on that journey, you know. Um what's next?

SPEAKER_00 23:14

What's next? I don't know. Um oh I do know it's okay, you have to take a second to think about it. No, no, I'm I'm just describing myself, right? I live one day at a time. I can't see past my nose. That's what my mom used to say all the time like you can't see past your nose. And now on hindsight, I'm like, that's just youth, man.

SPEAKER_02 23:32

Yeah, but also but also, yes, you literally physically cannot see past your nose.

SPEAKER_00 23:37

Like, this is really what the edge is with eyes this small. Come on. I see this much of the world.

SPEAKER_01 23:45

That's how we're supposed to see it. That's how even peripheral vision is no longer really an option. And I don't trust my peripheral. I got floaters now, man.

SPEAKER_00 23:52

Like, no, yeah, don't trust them. Um, what is next is I am finally, I mean, I've released albums with bands, so Dotgiff and Sub Shaman. Um, and Sub Shaman's still active, which is really exciting. So wait, we Sub Shaman are releasing um an EP soon, which is really fun, and yeah. Um, but also I've never come around to after all these years, I've never released my solo material. I've performed so much of it, um, but I never released any of it. And so I guess I started afresh because I'm such a different person now, and I am finally working on recording my own album. Um, and they are songs that I first presented at CFA last year at a show called Stray Gods, um, which was like the scariest and most ambitious thing, but it was like a 10-man band and an exploration of my Hakka roots because I'm Hakka and I've had no relationship to my haka-ness besides standard T-Rice. Um, and I chanced upon these like almost forgotten ancient songs that used to be sung by my ancestors who were nomads in the mountains with no structure, no society, no written history. And so all of these songs that were passed down via oral tradition are very close to being lost forever. How did you find them then? Funnily, it was uh a prompt by a Melbourne artist um whom I met on a residency who was going around the world. Her name is Josephine Mead, and um she's doing this amazing project where she's collected vocalists from around the world to sing something in their mother tongue, and a lot of a lot of us have like an estranged relationship to our real mother tongue. And so I was like, Okay, my mother tongue isn't Mandarin, I suppose it's Hakka, but even my parents have forgotten how to speak it. Um, and the language itself is estimated to die out in two or three generations because cultural revolution, like um diaspora, it's just kind of being forgotten. Um that's so crazy. No one's recorded or so there are some, so there are a few researchers whose work I found um who've collected some of these songs, and and there are resurgences of Hakka communities trying to revive and remember. Wow. Um, so there's hope for that, and I just had this weird heebie jeebies like feeling when I heard them, like this it's so different to the music I know and that I've grown up with, but somehow I felt so resonated and so seen and connected, and I was like, what's this feeling? And so I just chased it down and found a lot of them. Um so yeah, it's kind of made its way in some way into my new material. Um, and yeah, I can't I can't wait to record it and release it. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 27:01

So please look out for it. I I can't wait. I'm gonna try and poke you and come behind the scenes and see. Are you recording? I want to see. Are you on schedule? I can be that friend. I totally can. You're a planner, right? Yes, I totally can't. Four different calendars and journals. But yes, I'm excited. And um I mean, I asked that even though you're you know about to venture into the start of secondary. Um, and it's gonna run a little bit longer than the last week.

SPEAKER_00 27:30

Yes, yeah, please. It is so it's running 9 to 26 April instead of yeah, I forgot how, but it was a relic It was like two weeks or less than two weeks.

SPEAKER_02 27:41

Yeah, it was less than two weeks the last time. I think it was like a week, and then by the time I I got hold, like I got wind of it, uh I shared it on on air, and then I was going online to get buy the tickets sort of.

SPEAKER_00 27:51

Hey, thank you. I'm so sorry.

SPEAKER_02 27:53

No, it's okay, but I get to watch it now.

SPEAKER_00 27:56

That's the thing about doing local theater though, it's just so impossible and unsustainable to do long runs because venues cost so much and blah blah blah operational costs.

SPEAKER_02 28:07

Which is so crazy because the actual lead up to a musical like the work and it three years, three years for a one-week run is insane to me.

SPEAKER_00 28:17

And you can't expect an audience to say take a chance on a new writer and just show up, right? You need like the first four or five days for reviews to start coming in, for people to start talking about it, for buzz to grow, and then when we finally had the buzz, it was like the bottleneck was insane and we we didn't have enough tickets. But you know that's how good it is. So don't miss out on it. Okay. It's a shame that that Singapore theater is like stunted by this one problem, because elsewhere, when you have longer runs, then you really have you know, some shows like Broadway would run for two months, sometimes a whole year, right? Yeah, and so that's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 28:56

Yeah, I mean, we're I think the musical theater scene in Singapore is still like is still growing, you know, and still people are still understanding it. Appreciation for it is also um local, local theater. I mean, even international shows need a lot of publicity, even if they're well-known shows. And so, I mean, I totally understand why the run initially was short, but I mean, awards and the amazing reviews and that it's come back a year later. Like, I mean, this is a gift and something that I'm like glad that you were brave enough to do, and and someone was tenacious enough to pull it out of you. No, yeah, thank you. Checkpoint, I would never have done it otherwise. But it's amazing, it's amazing, and I can't wait to hear more of your story and hang out with you more. Yeah, we should hang a bit more, yeah, for sure. If you're not already convinced, then like I don't know that I help you like I cannot help you, but please go and check out all the wonderful things that this incredible woman is doing. Thank you, and um, I'll catch you again another morning.

SPEAKER_00 30:01

Thanks for having me. This has been so nice.

unknown 30:04

You're so tough.

SPEAKER_00 30:05

How are you?

SPEAKER_02 30:07

Thank you so much for being on the show.

SPEAKER_00 30:09

Thanks for having me. I can't believe I'm the first interviewer.

SPEAKER_02 30:12

You are the first good morning interviewer.