Picture credit: Jay Denation
A 2-year hiatus can feel like an eternity for any artist’s career. Between the runaway success of his first single “Hearts Release” and his latest song “Now I Know“, Singapore’s Jason Yu is well aware of the uphill climb needed to launch himself back into public consciousness.
Despite his silence on musical offerings, he’s been keeping himself busy; building his brand and staying engaged with his audience, all of it leading up to the release of “Now I Know” – a gorgeous teary-eyed pop ballad that Jason bet his hopes and dreams on.
Hailing from Singapore, Jason earned a considerable following while busking on the streets of Orchard Road. His love for pop music, along with his penchant for performing them, made him an instant crowd favourite. It was only natural that “Hearts Release”, which was built upon his pop inspirations, would also prove to be a hit among listeners.
Thus as Jason chooses to “appeal to the same people” that “Hearts Release” won over, “Now I Know” is the next step in a career of an artist with lofty goals and higher ambitions.
Read on below for the full interview.
Turntable Thoughts:
Hi! Iâd like to start off by asking, what was the writing process behind âNow I Knowâ?
Jason:
For most of my songs, Iâm inspired by my real-life experiences. I wrote the song when I was going through a bit of a difficult period because of something that happened between me and this girl I was seeing. I guess, likeâŚI basically lost her and I felt terribleâŚand then I wrote a song about it.
The writing process came very naturally to me. You know when youâre troubled, you have a lot of thoughts in your head, right? Itâs like rambling to a friend, like about why Iâm stressed and all that. So, in a way writing a song felt like that. I didnât really have to think of what to write. I kind of just put down my thoughts while composing a melody.
Turntable Thoughts:
If youâre comfortable sharing, do you want to give us some context of what happened between you and that girl?
Jason:
[laughs] WellâŚI did things I shouldnât have and lost her as a result. I was pretty obsessed. Every day, every moment I was thinking about her. It gradually went away but I was very affected. I think it took 2 months for me to get better. Honestly, 6 months for me to really move on.
Turntable Thoughts:
Would you say that it was the âdepressedâ period that made you write âNow I Knowâ? Or was it the healing period instead?
Jason:
No, it was not in the healing period, it was during theâŚwhen I was in the pits. The most bottom of it all and when things were the worst. Actually, itâs a good time to explain why the songâs called âNow I Knowâ. The lyrics âNow I know how much you meant to meâ, was a result of me taking her for granted. Only when I lost her, (and this is very clichĂŠ) , did I realize what I had.
Turntable Thoughts:
Okay, so the song isnât about asking her back is it? Itâs more about âwhat I did wrong, now Iâm going to move onâ?
Jason:
Yeah, because Iâve already accepted that I couldnât get her back. I accepted that it was a lost cause. I fucked up. Now I know I shouldâve done this and not that. Now I knowâŚI should have been more of myself. In a way, I donât think I was being 100% honest when I was with her. I was putting on this aloof and player persona to protect myself. Iâm afraid of seeming overly attached. I wanted to think I didnât care that much. Thatâs why Iâm willing to make jokes that might âriskâ our relationship, but actually I did care a lot.
Anyway, the cover art of the song reflects how I was in the relationship, like I actually wasnât who I was, merely portraying a persona.
Turntable Thoughts:
I understand that âNow I Knowâ was originally an acoustic song. How did the production process go for the song to evolve into the version we have now?
Jason:
The transformation and changes that took place, a lot of them can be attributed to my producer [Edric Hwang]. He played a huge part in making it sound like how it is. I brought it to him raw, with only my guitar as accompaniment and my voice. From there we worked with possible reference tracks, finding songs that I wanted mine to sound like.
Turntable Thoughts:
What sort of references did you look at?
Jason:
âWavesâ and âBe Alrightâ by Dean Lewis. I also wanted to capture a bit of âScarsâ by James Bay but only the ending part of it. So, we had an idea of how we wanted it to sound, but we also experimented a lot when we were recording.
Turntable Thoughts:
Itâs been 2 years since âHearts Releaseâ came out, would you say that that songâs success has influenced how âNow I Knowâ sounds?
Jason:
Definitely. Thatâs a good question. I could have experimented more, but when âHearts Releaseâ started gaining traction on streaming platforms, I made a decision of wanting to target the same people that âHearts Releaseâ appealed to. I didnât want to change my sound too much, because I didnât want to potentially lose those people.
Turntable Thoughts:
Were you happy with what you achieved with Hearts Release? How would you have handled its release differently if you could do it all over again?
Jason:
As much as âHearts Releaseâ did for me, one song just isnât enough to build yourself up as an artiste. Sure, I had streams, I could tell people I had 15k to 20k monthly listeners on Spotify but honestly, my presence as a singer-songwriter in the [Singapore] scene didnât really grow. And with regards to Itâs not like Ed Sheeran taking a hiatus. I felt that me taking a 2 year break wasnât that big of a deal.
What I could’ve done though, was ride the momentum of Hearts Release and release another song 3 or 4 months after, but I believe I still kept my fans and listeners engaged on social media. Even though I wasnât releasing music, I was still actively putting out content – videos of me busking, doing covers, material that I think my audience would enjoy.
Turntable Thoughts 
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