Nat Ho On Why He Was “Strangely Calm” When His Car In LA Got Stolen & His New Music Production Company, In Which He Invested S$66K

Now, if it were us, we’d be panicking nonstop (not to mention pretty mad at our friend), but Nat admitted that he was “strangely calm about it”. In fact, he was more worried about something else completely.

“Thankfully, I have insurance and I wasn’t overly attached to the car, plus I can always get a new one anyway,” he said. “I was actually more stressed about how I was going to move house.”

Nat will be relocating from his old apartment to a three-storey house after he flies back to the States in the third week of May. He will be sharing his new place with the landlord, a recording engineer, and will finally have a proper recording studio to work in instead of having to set up a microphone in his bedroom.

But yes, back to the vanishing vehicle. Fortunately, the police eventually managed to find it, but it was in very bad shape with scratches, missing car plates, and had soda cans strewn around inside (who knows what else might’ve happened in there). Nat’s favourite pair of sunglasses were also taken.

At the time of our conversation, Nat hadn’t decided what he wanted to do with his damaged ride yet. “My friend actually still wants to drive the car, so I might just sell it to him,” he laughed.

In much happier news, Nat, who studied music production at private music school Icon Collective and is set to join their Vocal Artist Program, has successfully launched Sephiroth, his own production company in LA.

Their services include songwriting, track creation, voiceover work, recording, mixing, mastering… basically anything to do with music, with a little digital marketing thrown in as well.

Nat has invested at least US$50,000 (S$66,200) into the business so far and already has one staff on payroll, with plans to hire more in the future.

The company’s still really new, having just launched in February or March this year, but they’ve already done a few projects, such as sending out pitches for sync licensing (a license which permits the buyer to use a piece of music in a visual project e.g. a movie or video game), and songwriting camps, where Nat collaborated with producers from different countries to come up with a track to pitch to singers.

In an earlier interview with a local Chinese daily, it was reported that Nat had written three songs for K-pop group Super Junior, but he clarified that it was only a pitch.

“Back in December, a Korean publisher asked me to pitch some songs for Super Junior, but I don’t know if they’ll pick any of them up. I have friends who wrote stuff for Koreans, and one of their songs took two years to be placed. But the fact that I even got to pitch for them was interesting.”

His entire face lit up when we jokingly — or not? — told him to let us know when he gets to produce something for BTS. “Oh my god, that would be the dream.”

Nat’s current trip to Singapore is actually his second one since September last year, when he made a quick visit home before jetting to the US again the following month for one more semester of school, and then coming back again in January. So yes, he had to serve quarantine twice, and paid the full S$2,000 the second time.

It was completely worth it, of course, given that he could spend Chinese New Year with his family. “I think that’s something we take for granted, but when you’re finally far away from home, you start appreciating and missing the little things a bit more.”

Getting older has also pushed Nat to be more selective about the people he lets into his life, a message that’s behind his new song ‘Next Better Playa’, which he co-wrote with Singaporean Grammy-nominated producer Tat Tong and features former Singapore Idol finalist Gayle Nerva.

“The older I get, the less tolerance I have for bulls*** people in my life — I only have 24 hours a day and I’m already so busy!” he laughed. “I joke with my friends that I only want drama that pays me, so don’t start drama with me for free. That’s one of the more empowering things about being in my 30s: I have less f***s to give. My f***s are limited edition right now. (Guffaws)”

He certainly had to wade through a lot of the aforementioned bulls*** to get to this point.

Also inspiring ‘Next Better Playa’ were the various obstacles he faced in his career, such as the time he had to fire his F&B biz partner and take over operations while filming drama Tanglin at the same time.

“That was obviously not fun, but it really underscored how important it is to find the right people to work with,” he mused.

Then there was the time he went to Taiwan to develop his singing career, which was cut short no thanks to more irresponsible behaviour from those around him. “I was supposed to be there for nine years, but I terminated my contract and came back after two years ‘cos a staff member mismanaged the funds.”

This experience is the reason he’s hesitant to reveal how long he sees himself living in LA. “Everything is a question mark, but I definitely wanna try working there for a few years. Right now, I dare not make any commitments ‘cos, well, I thought I was gonna be in Taiwan for nine years.”

“The fact of the matter is, life is full of change, and instead of fighting it, just embrace and roll with it. I mean, look, COVID happened last year. Nobody could’ve predicted something like that. So I think embracing change and having that AQ — adaptability quotient — is really important and that’s something I’ve learned over the past few years.”

Nat Ho’s new single ‘Next Better Playa’ is now available on all major platforms.

Photos: Nat Ho, Nat Ho/Instagram, Seraph Media