Music has always been a part of lullaboy’s life ever since he was a child. He recalled taking vocal lessons at the age of 5, but halfway through early adolescence, he got lost and was very unsure of what he wanted to do. However, things turned around when he joined the army at 18, which was the place he least expected to rekindle his love for music.
Despite being born in America, the now 27-year-old artist (and yes, lullaboy is styled as lowercase) is a permanent resident at Singapore, which required him to render a few years of service to the army. He was in the army for two years.
Just a few months after their basic training in the army, he auditioned in the music department. He narrated the experience, “For the next two years, I get to do music in Singapore and it was life-changing.”
He enumerated some of his memorable experiences doing music in the army such as performing for the President and being sent overseas to represent Singapore in international music events
He added, “Getting to do music every day has really changed my life because it was exactly what I wanted to do and I got to be around people who are really great at what they do and they taught me different tricks.”
He attributes his artistry to the experience, saying that his stay in the army “prepared [him] to become a future artist.” Aside from music, he also said that being in the army also trained his mental and physical state.
In the end, lullaboy reflects, “I’m really glad that I did it and I wouldn’t have changed a thing. It really changed everything.”
Once his time was up in the army, he went back to America to fully pursue music by enrolling in Berklee College of Music. Describing the events following the decision, he said, “My life changed after that.”
He took up “Professional Music” at Berklee while focusing on songwriting and music production, carrying with him the desire to create and produce music on his own.
But prior to attending Berklee, he had a hard time convincing his mother of his chosen path.
Fortunately, his father was supportive of his decision to pursue his passion since they both share a love for music. Meanwhile, his mother initially wanted him to go to business school for practical reasons. “It was hard to convince her,” he recalled.
However, his mother had a change of heart when she saw him perform in front of thousands of people. He narrated, “She was there in the audience and she saw me performing, and she saw the looks on everybody’s faces…. She felt a sense of pride and that made her accept my path.”
Thinking of his mother, lullaboy describes, “She’s somebody who feels like… we have to leave something good in this world and spread some positivity. She knows that music can do that and that’s when she started supporting me.”
This completely echoes his “mission” as an artist as, in an interview with Soundstrip, lullaboy said earlier, “I just care about my music reaching as many people as possible because I want to leave something good in this world and actually leave a mark that benefits people’s lives.”
Stories to tell
lullaboy admitted that the inspiration behind his music comes from around “75%” of his personal life.
He said, “All the different experiences that I go through, even in the past few years, [has] been so crazy. Every single year, something happens that changes me and I learn so much about the world, and that’s what my music is about—it’s about exploring love and life.”
He added that the remaining 25% comes from the people he encounters. He believes that everybody has a story to tell, and making music out of it is “sharing a new perspective of their stories and giving it back to them sometimes.”
On his latest release “Shortcut To Heaven,” he shared, “The meaning of the song… is how we’re all going through a hard time like the past couple years and now things are starting to get better again… and you’ll find love at the end of the tunnel.”
“Shortcut To Heaven,” according to lullaboy, is the best-performing song he has done so far. As of writing, the Singaporean artist’s new song has around 1 million streams on Spotify since its release last September.
But the wide reach of listeners is not really new to lullaboy as “someone like u,” released earlier this year, currently has around 26 million streams on Spotify.
lullaboy shared he constantly gets messages from his fans, expressing how his songs have helped them individually get through a hard time. In describing the overwhelming feeling, he enthused, “Those are the moments I live for.”
“Shortcut To Heaven” is now available on all music-streaming platforms.
