NYK : R&B child from Southeast Asia

Malaysia has been graced with a bevy of talent over the years, with more and more artists breaking out from through the wonders of the internet, and others are just making waves by putting out big shows at indie music venues around the bigger cities in the country like Kuala Lumpur,  Petaling Jaya and Penang.

Meet Nicholas Ng, a 23 year old R&B singer personified as NYK when he steps on stage and he does his thing. He is a current rising star in the Malaysian indie music scene with plenty of potential. Officially starting his music career with his band, The Nicholas Ng Project (TNNP), the band packed out their first feature at local indie venue Merdekarya. They arranged plenty of smooth silky R&B covers and tunes with a cool set up with a raw, simplified acoustic sounds. This project eventually grew bigger and better together, until recently Nicholas decided to rebrand to NYK as a part of a new direction and a solidification of him as an artist.

Photo taken by Roshan Menon, concept by NYK, design by Kenzo Yeo 

I managed to sit down with Nicholas on a cozy afternoon at Bean Brothers Kota Damansara, where we talked about his music journey, the ups and downs of the industry and his future aspirations for 2017 and beyond. Here is how the interview went down. 

How and when did music making become an important part of your life? 

October 2015, when I arrived back in Malaysia and entered the music scene. I got to know a lot about the scene: what worked, what didn’t. Then I met a bunch of friends who taught me how to produce by myself, and that made transcribing the music in my head into sound that much easier. So yeah, I’d definitely say I met the most appropriate group of friends that jumpstarted my songwriting.

Making music can be a hard thing to do when you’re out of ideas. What inspires you to write even through those situations? 

You can push through. I know some people do that; they just force themselves to carry on writing until they strike gold. Not wrong at all. I prefer to take a break; in can be in the form of a coffee, or it can be as big as a random trip up to Ipoh and Taiping to reset. I think that depends on how you write, too: I tend to write when I’m in the mood; it’s inconsistent, but when the songs do come out I end up being very happy with them. Others literally churn out dozens of songs a week, and I’d think they’d cope with a lack of inspiration with the former solution.

What are you views on the state of our local music scene as an upcoming artist? 

I think it’s going through a renaissance for sure… You’ve got acts like Talitha Tan and Paperplane Pursuit really getting themselves out there. I’m also a big fan of the Asian Century, and I think it’s really coming into play now; Asian culture including music is starting to take off, and we’ll only have ourselves to blame if we don’t ride it.

I’m more pessimistic about the local gigging scene in Malaysia. In all honesty I think the cycle of going to small bars and pubs and playing to the same group of people – people who usually happen to be fellow musicians or friends – is poisonous and deceiving. Musicians are lulled into an assumption that people care and that they’re being known when it’s essentially a group of musicians giving each other Facebook likes: valuable in the hundreds or thousands, but meaningless in the tens.

Photo by Axam

Best show so far? Tell us the story of that favourite gig(s)

Oh man, I’ve got two. First is the recent Tiger Jams show where I opened for The Sam Willows and SOAP. As an opening act you’d think the crowd was just dying to see Benjamin Kheng, but after I finished my set they were asking for an encore. I think that was insane of them, that kind of support was unexpected. Forever grateful for that one.

The second one is back in 2011, where I played for a freshies night at Taylors, myself being one of the freshies. There were 5 of us, amateurs who didn’t know what we were doing, we didn’t arrange anything; we just did It’s My Life by Bon Jovi, and the crowd went wild. There were easily a thousand 17 year olds there just scraming out the lyrics and jumping; it’s easily the best gig I’ve been to. I feel like that euphoria I got playing for such a big crowd at such a young age fueled that high even further; I can’t get that same innocent thrill anymore.

You started out as TNNP, rolled with Nick Yungkit and now NYK. Could you share briefly the transitions between the brand names and the process of solidifying your artist brand?

Right, that’s pretty straightforward. TNNP was a band, and we were gonna do R&B, but it’d be R&B in raw, acoustic form. You would hear a bass, a guitar and raw drums. Nick Yungkit was almost an accompaniment to that; initially it was my stage name when doing solo or acoustic shows. But chiefly it served as an awkward, unsure transition towards being a solo artist where I was looking for the sound I wanted to do. NYK is (at least I hope) me as a confident, matured solo artist. My sound’s shifted as well, I’m totally all in for electronic sounds, synths and Ableton, with huge African American and Korean R&B influences. Although sometimes for work purposes and other intimate shows I’ll put an acoustic guitar on, and be plain old Nick for half an hour or so.

What are your plans for NYK in the future? What can we expect from NYK in 2017? 

I might be signing onto a record label owned by a friend of mine, or I might consider other options. But the short-term goal is to get an original called FWB produced and out for everyone to listen. I’m hoping for it to blow up, I quite like the tune, and if that goes alright, we’ll carry on with more singles and possible an album. By the end of 2017 NYK should hopefully be a household name in Malaysia, or better yet, Southeast Asia.

Watching him live many times, I would say he's one of the future artist that would definitely put Malaysia on the international map. I'll let the music do the talking on his talent and potential. Here's a video of NYK covering Snarky Puppy's Free Your Dream :

Find NYK and his music on these social media platforms ;

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/nykofficial/
Instagram : @nickyungkit 
Soundcloud :  https://soundcloud.com/nykofficial