Derrick Hoh Goes Digital: Animal Crossing Wedding & 1st Online Performance

Local singer-songwriter Derrick Hoh is embracing the digital lifestyle. He has been busy with his wedding. Wait, what? He got hitched in February, but he just hosted a virtual wedding for his fans on the crazily popular game Animal Crossing last weekend.

“I think we enjoyed this wedding more than our actual one,” he said with a laugh. Virtual guests got to visit the ‘Moogo Isle’ he and his wife created and witness their animal avatars say their vows to Derrick’s latest single ‘I Found You’, a song he wrote for his wife that was released along with his wedding news in February.

Sadly, promotional activities and plans for the music video were scuppered by the global pandemic and time was practically ticking out for the new release. While it took a while for him to get over the shock and disappointment, the quick-witted creative that Derrick is has been fast to adapt to the new normal in engaging his fans. He talks to us about his newly-married life, new ways of fan service during this #socialdistancing period, and how he truly feels about his first virtual performance (“I have no idea how it will turn out!”).

The 2005 Project Superstar runner-up will be performing at the now-online TGIF Music Station organised by Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre this Friday, 8 pm.

The fortnightly performances, which feature homegrown artists and new talents, have now gone online and will be streaming on various social media accounts, including KKBOX’s Facebook page, on the first and third Fridays of the month. Derrick, as well as MediaCorp actress-singer Bonnie Loo, will kick off the online series this Friday.

Congrats on your wedding… the actual one. Aren’t you glad you guys managed to host your wedding before the Circuit Breaker?

Derrick Hoh: We are really grateful for that. We were actually thinking of calling it off as quite a lot of our foreign guests had to cancel their itineraries due to the pandemic. Looking back, we are so glad we went ahead.

How’s married life so far?

There’s not much difference, to be honest. For now, we are looking forward to starting renovation for our new home. We have gotten the place, but renovation plans were halted due to the pandemic. We are just so happy to get back to our lives after the wedding and ceremony. We took about three months to plan for the wedding [which fell on February 22] and I felt it added quite a lot of pressure to both sides of our families. In fact, I think we enjoyed [the virtual wedding on Animal Crossing] more than our actual one!

Tell me more about the virtual wedding on Animal Crossing.

My wife is a huge fan of the game, so I am also quite advanced in it because of her. We are both gamers, but I think Animal Crossing came at the right time when people needed to escape from reality. You get to build a home, plant trees, walk around, fish, catch bugs in a virus-free virtual reality. She is really the one who does all the back-end work on the game — like prepare the props and fix some pre-show footage — for the talkshows I do regularly as well as the virtual wedding last weekend. She prepared everything!

It is quite a creative way to reach out to your fans and new ones too during this time of social distancing.

Exactly. Circuit Breaker was a huge dampener on my music work. I had planned to officially release my new single ‘I Found You’ in April but the lockdown happened at the same time. We were getting ready to film the music video too, but that went down the drain. We weren’t expecting this new game to become a medium to reach out to my fans but it was interesting how it evolved. In fact, this game is perfect for the Circuit Breaker period, especially when we can’t cut our hair and look like crap. (Laughs) On Animal Crossing, we do auctions, talk about people’s lives, chat about my music… somehow, it evolved into a wedding. Everything went well and it was such good fun. We could ‘meet’ with fans and guests even when everyone is quarantined at home. Perfect, isn’t it?

The TGIF Music Station performances have also gone online too and this is your first virtual show. How do you feel about that?

I have no idea how it will turn out! I haven’t been to the studio, though we have done the rehearsals. You can only have 10 people in the studio. Minus the musicians, I am basically only singing to my manager. (Guffaws) I will just play around, I suppose, like what I used to do onstage. I think it is less stressful than a ‘live’ performance in real-life where we have hundreds of people in front of me! This should be fun.

Do you foresee virtual concerts and performances becoming a mainstay now and in the future? How will you adapt to it?
I haven’t really thought about it. It is still a new territory that the industry is exploring. But yes, I recognise that at some point of time, people will need some form of concert entertainment. I am involved a lot in the behind-the-scenes, so the questions I will ask are how the costs of the show can be covered, and whether it will be feasible in the long run. For bigger artists out there, it is easier for them because they just need to put a word out to their fans and they will get the support. For many musicians, it is their livelihood.

You have been involved in TGIF Music Station the last three years. Do you feel that events like these have helped homegrown artists further their music dreams?

The SCCC is doing great work bringing awareness to the local culture, and in this case, the music culture of Singapore. They are one of the more supportive organisations who are actively engaging local artists. As an artist, I am always asking myself what we, as artists, can do more of. These days, everyone is bilingual. There are many Chinese singers who are schooled abroad and they are able to bring a Western touch to the Mandopop scene — a unique point that Singapore used to have.

But we have new acts like Jasmine Sokko and Benjamin Kheng who are doing good work promoting the Singaporean flavour in their music. I saw a music video by Jasmine, for example, which has elements of the Tamil culture in it. They are westernised songs, yes, but the artists have input elements that cannot be replicated anywhere else but Singapore. I appreciate that and I think that is the way forward for local artists to stand out from the crowd: to be proud of the local culture.

Now that you are an independent artist, you have been doing lots of behind-the-scene music production too. Tell me more about it.

I am a very hands-on person. When I was working on my debut album, I saw how the trade worked. By my second, I was writing my own songs, taking notes of how the directors are directing music videos and learning how the promotional department does their work. I have been with major record labels since I started out [in 2005], and I found that there is a huge corporate landscape and plenty of decision-makers to go through before you release new works. I wanted to cut it down and be able to speak to fans directly, that was why I made the decision to become independent. These days, I have been building a platform for musicians to make music but not be saddled by the back-end while getting compensated for their work fully.

This is still work in progress, but I have started experimenting this platform with several artists including Huang Jinglun, and new talents such as JJ Neo and KKBOX Student Ambassador Sherman Zhuo. As the producer behind their work, my job is to help them produce new content and assemble the back-end music and promo team. At the end of the day, we are just trying to create more content for listeners.

How do you hope things can change with your way of doing things?

I want to reach out to the fanbase more immediately. Most music releases by bigger companies are catered to the masses. Over time, you alienate the real fans and they tend to be forgotten in a more mass-centered approach. I want to make music for people who truly support you and to personalise my interactions with them. To me, these are more meaningful.

You wrote your latest single, ‘I Found You’ for your wife and sang it to her at your proposal. Will you be writing a song for your future children when you do have them?

I have already written a song for my future daughter! No, I don’t have a song yet if the baby is a boy. (Laughs) I wrote it a while ago. The idea just came, so I just wrote it down — both lyrics and melody. And sorry to disappoint but we don’t have good news to share yet. You don’t have to wait until you have the baby to write a song, right?

Listen to Derrick Hoh's music on KKBOX.