They’ve brightened our lives from the day we were born. The storyteller comes in many forms: the director of the film that stayed with you after you left the cinema, the loving parent who put you to bed, and the musician whose songs hit every spot in your brain. SHN is our new storyteller, and she’ll tell as many as she likes.
The Malaysian singer-songwriter’s music can be characterised with eloquence, sincerity, and heart. SHN favourite song she’s penned, “body count”, isn’t even a personal tale. You’d be forgiven for thinking otherwise; SHN’s emotion soars in her vocals, and she sounds on the verge of tears by its end. In her words, “body count” was written a very, very long time ago, but was the very first idea that sparked her newest album’s existence.
“It’s a personal goal of mine to be able to tell a story that’s not mine,” SHN shared, during our interview ahead of the upcoming release of it’s not you, it’s me. “I think that’s really how you know if you can write: if you’re not pulling straight from your own experiences, if you can empathise with experiences that maybe your friends have had or you see on TV and you can draw from that and really make it so intimate, so detailed, that it feels like, wait, did she go through that?”
SHN is a storyteller in the truest sense. Her favourite song she’s ever written is the one that’s revolving around a story that isn’t even her own. It’s a delight to see someone healing the music scene with a bit more creative zing than just personal relationship spiel. But if we’re embarking out onto the sea of stories to tell in song: the possibilities are simply endless.
Some are in SHN’s net right now that she’s not quite ready to release. “I just haven’t found the words for them. I want to be able to write a song that celebrates girlhood. I think because I grew up with brothers and I don’t have a sister […] I just find it hard to put it into words at the moment. And I want to make sure that I do it justice.”
Her signature bow-topped auburn hair has faded to a warm brown now: if that’s not a visual testament to the work and time that’s gone into this project, what is? Regardless of hair colour, the singer looked as fresh as ever with her rosy smile and her (mum’s) flowery aquamarine top on the interview call. In fact, from one meeting with SHN, you’d be surprised she even gets so melancholic and heartfelt in her music.
She’s definitely self aware. “A lot of people meet me and they’re like, ‘Oh you’re actually, like, happy!’” The singer laughed, going on to joke about how she’s, surprisingly, not actually having an existential crisis every other conversation. “But in my head, that’s kind of where it’s at. I mean, it sounds bad, but I’m okay with it. I think.”
We noticed her listeners have absolutely multiplied since the last time she spoke to us at &ASIAN: not that she pays any attention to such superficial things. It would seem the visual of a free spirit in vintage garb running through endless green is no lie. “A lot of people gravitate towards streaming more than they would go out and watch a show,” SHN mused on our call. “The barrier of entry is lower. But at the same time, I feel like it’s a lonelier process.”
To counter the antisocial streaming age, SHN’s on a quest. If she can’t reach you at a live performance, she’ll make sure she reaches you in every other possible way. Some parts in songs are so good, so cleanly produced, that you might feel that you could just eat them. A good synth is brain food, and a decent bassline ricochets through the body.
When listening to SHN’s voice, soft and carefully enunciated, it feels like one is munching on a damson. How many singers have the power to feed you sweet plums with their singing? To top it off, the songwriter extraordinaire seized every opportunity with the wordplay, such as in “low-hanging fruit”: ‘You were my Low-hanging fruit / So cruel but true / I’m sorry I picked you / I just needed somebody / Oh, anybody would do’.
This entire album is looking to be rather tasty. Naturally, we also have some coffee references in “i can’t sleep, i’m too caffeinated”. When asked what coffee she’d be, she’s no basic matcha latte. “In Malaysia there’s this thing called Citrus Sunset. It’s basically a mixture of espresso and a sparkly orange flavour water. I’ve been really into that!”
Just like a double-shot espresso in a teeny cup, the album has been spoon-fed to needy listeners ahead of its drop with EP releases that sequentially revealed its name in parts. We teased SHN to keep it going, and name the next album actually, no, the problem is you! “Right?!” she laughed. “My entire career would just be like: ‘No, wait, it’s me. No, wait, it’s you. No, no, no, no, no. It’s me.’”
Boiled down to its essence, though, it’s not you is an amassing of very real, turbulent emotions. Empathy is ever-present: whether that’s yours, or hers of the subject of her song. But it’s not all sour: a few globules of pure sweetness are added into the mix, and the lovestruck feelings are at a celestial degree.
“There’s this one called “Jupiter’s Moons”. I wrote that with my husband for our friends’ wedding; they recently got married, and it is inspired by their love. So it’s called “Jupiter’s Moons” because they used to spend a lot of time looking at the stars and finding Jupiter’s moon.”
An eruption of awws ensued.
You’ll probably aww, too, when you read the lyrics: ‘I don’t know what the future holds / I don’t know what I can’t control / But if there’s someone I could do this all with / it would be you’. And yes, those are mimicking wedding vows.
Perhaps true love does exist, and we have SHN to thank for the enlightenment.
SHN’s got her own super team that’s been with her the whole run. She named Yi Shien, who’s always by her side as guitarist when she performs on stage. Producer Samuel Tan has also worked with SHN a lot on her music, but has been overtaken by another in her more recent work. This of course is her husband Sek Hao of the band RESORT, who not only makes music but has been duetting with SHN for a long time.
It’s no wonder she likes to dabble in fictional lyricism: when her own love story is as sweet and everlasting as one could only hope for. Some absolutely delightful trivia is that he wrote RESORT’s song “pretty bb (4 her)” about SHN. When the two duetted on the track that was duplicated to credit them both as primary singers, the parentheses part was changed to “with her”.
“At the end of the day, my community: my friends and family, are the people that I will always value the most. And I’m glad because they’re all pretty grounded and we share similar values, so if there’s any point where I feel like I’m floating or if I’m confused about anything I can always just go back to them.”
Bagging talent, a beautiful discography and support figures, the twenty-something is on a roll. She’s on her way to a well-deserved break to beachy Sabah at the end of the year, along with Sek Hao, to attend their mixer Jason’s wedding. Like a tight and intricate knot, everything seems to tie together so beautifully with SHN and her inherently musical community.
As one magnum opus is completed and wrapped up, another chapter begins.
“Honestly, after this album, I might take a little step back.” But never fear: SHN reassures us that she absolutely intends on keeping writing. “I think I want to focus on writing for other people a little bit more and then see where that takes me. As an artist I’m really enjoying it.” Which makes sense. The storyteller doesn’t just stick to their own stories, after all.
“As an artist you go through these, I mean in Swiftie terms, eras right?” She joked that she’s got plenty of gems in the safe for endeavours that are a little different from her own genre, such as “And in every party there’s a pooper, so don’t be a piece of s***.”
But if all her previous work is anything to go off of, we know that as long as SHN’s working on it, it’ll be something good. Soul-wrenching emotions or otherwise. Some experiences and feelings aren’t quite tangible until a creative brings them all out and expresses them for you. “I feel like that’s what I want to do,” she affirmed. “As a songwriter, I want to be able to process the feelings that I do have or, you know, take from different inspirations. And hopefully when people do listen to it, they think, that’s how I feel!”
On it’s not you, it’s me, SHN says: “I do want to say that I hope that the album, well, I guess it goes where it goes. And I hope that if you do find it, that you will take good things away from it.”
SHN, you had us at Jupiter’s moons.
SHN can be found on Instagram. Listen to her new album on Spotify.