Hitting a Home run
"We can capture tragedy, we can capture joy, but bittersweetness is very delicate,” Dick adds. “Some people say the song is sad because it makes people cry – from sadness? From longing? It’s hard to describe, but I think it’s there. Maybe that’s why the song’s endured. It makes people feel for their country – not proud, but love, maybe."
"I told myself then, ‘We don’t have a language, we don’t even have a national costume, so how could we have our own folk song? It’ll take time. And I think, maybe, now we have a folk song."
Balancing spectacle and story for the NDP
"The strength of any NDP is how the creative director creates something that can entertain all ages. I would not be too concerned about making it hip. It’s not 'hip' to watch NDP (laughs). It’s more families, those who would bring their parents or their kids – the free-to-air TV demographic."
"The theme is always about the same – progress, moving forward, majulah (onward in Malay). For me, the challenge is how to make it visually arresting and getting the story across. Now, the NDP committee always wants to have a moment of heart-warming tenderness – to me it happens anyway, once the anthem comes on and we say the pledge together. You really feel it."
Dick Lee reflects on retirement, choices and legacy
"It takes a little bit getting used to, because my whole life, I’ve been programmed to be aware of what events at coming up. I find myself heading to GeBIZ (the government’s procurement portal) or thinking, ‘Oh, it’s almost time for the Christmas light-up on Orchard Road’ and I have to catch myself. It was almost in my blood. But I don’t need to do it anymore – now I’m only doing what I want to do."
"Everything I am, is because of what I went through. I could’ve become a band boy, because that was the only option for me when I was a kid, to be a musician playing in a lounge or a bar. But I decided I will only do music if it’s my music. That led me to write and continue writing, and to stick to my guns, and now I will only perform my own songs."
