The Unexpurgated interview with Anthony Neely

SINGAPORE – If you didn’t already know, Anthony Neely is a bit of a philosopher.

Ask him anything – whether it’s about his seven-kilogramme weight loss, or his recent decision to come clean about his girlfriend – and he will tell you it has all got to do with his new perspective on life.

The 27-year-old, who found fame after he impressed the judges on Taiwanese reality singing competition One Million Star in 2009, said he spent the last few years on a journey of self-discovery, one that saw him pondering upon his problems and talking philosophy with friends.

Speaking to reporters on yesterday at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel in Singapore to promote his latest album, Friends, the philosophising singer is a picture of happiness and confidence. As the album demonstrates, he’s also a more productive person. Cogito Ergo sum indeed.

Q: So you have been here since Thursday?

A: Thursday, yeah. Or Friday? I think it’s Thursday.

Q: Has it been busy?

A: Oh yeah, it’s been nuts. We did a lot of radio shows, a few fan meets. We had like a signing thing, and later I sang a bunch, and a bunch of TV shows, and an awards show. Yeah, it’s been a busy trip.

Q: Did you have any time to just chill?

A: Oh yeah, a little bit. In the wee hours of the night.

Q: What did you do?

A: Just hang out in the hotel room. I had a few friends come by, we walked about. Oh yeah, we were by the river, we walked around by the river. That was cool. And we talked. About life. (laughs)

Q: You seem to talk a lot about life.

A: Yeah. Only thing to talk about, I guess.

Q: In recent times? Or have you always been...

A: I think I’ve always liked to ask...cos I’ve always...since I was a kid, I liked to find old people. My neighbours I think were all old, I think that’s why. When I think back to my childhood, we lived on a hill, so there were no other kids that wanted to come up and hang out with me. We only had like neighbours across the street - Uncle Harold, who’s like, 75, and like a couple of other neighbours who would like be walking around the park or something like that. Those were my homies! When I was a kid, that was who I was hanging out with. So I found that, from their life experiences, there’s so much to learn, there’s so much interest in that. Also my Dad, from a young age, he always gave me a tip - he’s like, be interested in other people, and they suddenly will become automatically interested in what you have to say. It’s like...I’m recently, finally, after like 24 years, I came back to a book called Karmic Management. That book taught the same exact thing. Complete the people around you, and let karma come complete you again. It’s the same sort of weird, hippie concept that sort of makes perfect sense. And that was a lot of fun. And it’s really a lot of fun experiencing it now. Because I have...the way that it helped a lot in my work attitude, in seeing the people that I work with not really as people that are trying to mess with me, or trying to make me into something. It all depends on how I look at them. If I look at them as...these are just people, living life, trying to work hard, and doing the best that they know how to do, just like everybody else; if I look at them with beautiful things, or they suddenly become beautiful things, to me and around me, and when we work together, it’s suddenly a happy, more fun, more casual, more freeing existence. We accept each other for the flaws or for whatever we don’t like about each other. We accept it. It’s just you being you, man, can’t help it.

Q: You hang out with older people. Were you a popular kid in high school?

A: Was I a popular kid in high school? I had a few friends, I was okay. I wasn’t popular with the ladies. I had a rough high school time with the ladies. But it was cool once I got...once I found out like, once I started making people laugh.

Q: Finding your mojo?

A: It was my mojo, for sure. Making people smile. Being like awkwardly cute. (laughs) And it worked out! And say, wassup! So that’s when my confidence started coming in, I guess. Around the end of high school.

Q: College?

A: More college, yeah.

Q: I actually have a question that is sort of related. You have really nice, puppy dog eyes. Do you use them to your advantage?

A: Oh hell, yeah!

Q: With your parents?

A: Oh with my parents, not really. My parents don’t...they love me already, so they are not looking for more reasons to love me. They are just trying to give me more suggestions on how to live a better life, how to be more healthy, not mess up so often. So usually that’s where their messages are coming from. So no puppy dog eyes don’t work with them whatsoever. Sometimes with company, with new people. Taking photographs or something like that. Like some eye things, or something like that. And I think it would help out a lot.

Q: With your company?

A: Yeah, like the meaning...when they need to take pictures or something like that. They need a good-looking picture for the media, so I gotta give them the best eyes possible. I gotta be awake, I gotta have slept, my eyes have to be white and clear. So I have to focus.

Q: Do you practise in front of the mirror?

A: Uh…I have. I think like, there were times in my college…childhood where I was just like, yeah, you’re handsome man! (laughs) I’d just mess with different faces, different angles, something like that.

Q: In your dorm room?

A: Yeah! In the dorm room, and then people would walk in and be like, what the?!

Q: And you still do that now?

A: Now, it’s more intentional. Now it’s more like, okay, I’m looking at myself in the mirror, I’m accepting every part of myself. There’s like, there are books where I’m reading where I’m talking about the physical motion of accepting yourself. It’s like, you know when you’ve got someone through the door, you go like this – (spreads arms), “go ahead”. So it’s saying “go ahead” to yourself. How do you feel right now? I feel like I need to take a poop. Go ahead! I feel like, I need to write a song. Go ahead! Just go with it, feel it, and accept that that’s what you want to do right now. That’s who you are right now. So it’s a really good way to face the world. It’s like okay, I’m ready. It’s a yoga thing. They work really hard, they stretch like crazy. But they are focused on keeping their peaceful face. And smiling. Opening your eyes and opening your body, being sensitive to everything around. So that when a disaster comes, when a typhoon comes, you know you’re ready to face it, whatever that means in your life, if it’s a real typhoon, or if it’s your parents just die. Who knows? It could come at any time. If it’s cancer, if it’s…I have to face it, or not. If I don’t want to face it then I don’t have to face it.

Q: Was there a point in your life, or in recent times, where you felt like you needed to be more confident?

A: I think it’s a progression, I think it’s finding these different clues. I like to watch those movies, or think about those stories of…they try to put together pieces, like there’s more to the story, they are looking to somebody who feels out of place. They are searching, they are going on a journey throughout the world. Superman has the same concept, and I think this journey of going out and meeting other people, trying out…in Chinese they have this saying about kicking the iron, kicking the iron basically. It’s Newton’s third law…third law, second law, I don’t remember what it is. Whatever the one is where you go like, a motion will stay in motion unless it’s pushed away, by another force or something like that. (Ed’s Note: Newton’s First Law, in case you are interested, states that an object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.) So we gotta kick the thing. If I feel like dude, I have to wear a Mohawk, I have to have a Mohawk everyday, I have to do it until I find out like oh wait, that’s not what I want. I need to do a mullet now. So now I need to do mullet until I hit another Newton’s law and then realise, can’t do mullet. So the concept of like restricting myself, of saying “don’t do that, don’t do that, don’t try to be Steve Jobs, who do you think you are? Steve Jobs?” No, I’m not Steve Jobs, I’m Anthony Neely, but I’m also…sort of like, the thing I have to re-teach myself, I think. I’m productive that way. Or whether or not it’s true, who cares? But I’m more productive, and I’m more happy. I think that’s the main point. Once I’m more happy, the people around me are more happy, I feel like this whole thing is going a lot better. Otherwise it’s like an awkward situation. What do you want to talk about? I have a new album guys, it’s called Friends, blah blah blah, what am I talking about, blah blah blah. But now it’s just a much more natural thing, because I am talking about what I care about, talking about what I believe in. And whether you guys want to use it or not, you’ll make clear. Like, oh this interview, we actually need to talk about music, so you need to talk about some music, and I’ll talk about music! My interpretation of it. But otherwise I’m just going to keep talking. (laughs)

Q: Speaking of your new album Friends, are you a good friend?

A: Am I a good friend? I don’t know! I project onto myself that I am a good friend…I project it out that I want to be a good friend.

Q: Are you a better friend or a better boyfriend?

A: Better boyfriend? I think there’s times that go up and down. There’s times where I am too invested in work…not too invested, there’s times where I’m more invested in work, times where I’m more invested in home life, times where I’m more invested in friends, times where I am much more invested in myself. I think the last couple of years have been more invested in myself. I’m sure that I’ve let down a lot of people, in a lot of different ways, in this journey of finding myself, so I’m trying to get back in peace with that part of my destiny, make it as good as possible I guess.

Q: What kind of people do you find yourself drawn to, in terms of friendships?

A: In terms of friendships? Confidence is definitely something that I…it’s just naturally active. Guy, girl, dog. It’s like dude, why are you so confident, it’s awesome! Putting on a really happy, positive energy, and it’s attractive. I get attracted to it and I just will talk to random people.

Q: What are you most confident about yourself?

A: I think the part that I like the most about me is this only-child paradox that made me think a lot. I was bored, me and Wolverine, we have a lot of stories, my little figurine, jumping up from my bed, under the floor, then Magneto would come out of nowhere, so like this time, when I was just bored and alone, thinking all the time, I think it’s made my brain move faster.

Q: Your imagination?

A: Maybe. On some levels. I am not that good at piano. Didn’t spend that much time playing piano. Spent all my time thinking. (laughs) So, er, I think that has definitely helped me, like, come up with a lot of answers, being able to step back for a little bit. Just think about all the options. Throw all the spaghetti on the wall and see which one I like. See which one fits all the pictures better. So I think on that aspect, I like that about me.

Q: What do you not like about yourself?

A: It’s hard…I think the easiest way to lose confidence for me is when I think a lot. So it’s sort of like a double-edged sword. I think really quickly, when I’m on stage, and I think…I see an expression that’s like (not happy), I’ll think, oh s***, what did I do? What does that mean? Why doesn’t he like my show? What’s going wrong here?

Q: Maybe he or she’s just having a tummy ache.

A: Yeah, maybe her friend farted, or something. I don’t know! It doesn’t help to think that much, but that’s naturally what happened. I’ll think about it, it’ll go through my min a lot.

Q: Actually I read that you like to sing in the shower.

A: Sing in the shower? For sure!

Q: What do you sing?

A: I think…let me talk about why I sing in the shower. It’s more the sound thing? If I sing in the living room, other people get bothered. Or downstairs, upstairs, outside. But in the shower, there’s reverb, in the shower? And then…

Q: The acoustics.

A: The acoustics are really nice. And you’re already naked, so you’re already pretty naked. So you’re like yeah! I can do anything in the shower. And you hold the little microphone. Showers are fun. And it’s clean.

Q: Do you sing all the time in the shower?

A: If I’m a pretty good mood, I’m probably going to sing n the shower. Oh, I like to play music in the shower. I’ve always been, when I was a kid, I had to find that CD player, you put it inside the shower. It’s waterproof! Now I use the little phone thing, put it on the shuffle and have like the speakers, it’s loud enough for the shower. It’s my time. I wrote most of my second album in the shower. At least, that’s where I got the feelings for it, the performance of it.

Q: Not in the bath or the toilet?

A: In hotels, first thing I do is pull up the bath. It’s awesome!

Q: All right, one of my last questions. What are your plans coming up?

A: What are my plans coming up? Just to be happy. Everything else, gift. Or it’s just another piece of destiny coming in, I don’t know. I think I’m going to do a…I’m going to act in a show. It’s got music, it’s got acting, it’s got fun. It’s fun. It seems like it’s going to be a lot of fun, and it’s going to be in China. For quite a while, most of next year I’ll be working on that. So hopefully you’ll see that real soon.

Q: Do you get to go home a lot?

A: To America? No. Like once a year.

Q: Not a lot.

A: Not a lot.

Q: Do your parents miss you?

A: I think so. On some levels. But less and less probably. (laughs)

Q: They’ve found other things to do?

A: Yeah. My dad uses my room now, all the time, for various things. And my dog sleeps in my bed.

Q: Oh no!

A: It’s cool. I’m not sleeping in it, it’s a little dog, like only this big. But it sleeps on a huge bed. Lucky dog.

Q: Have your parents seen photos of you? Since you lost weight, I mean. Did they say anything about that?

A: Oh yeah. Not really. Not too much about the lost weight thing. We’re talking more about…cos parents, they still want the best. Still have ideas about…they see it more from a grander scope, giving me suggestions. Still “nian wo” (mandarin for “nag at me”).

Q: Does your mother still want you go to law school? Or medical school?

A: No, but she’s definitely had that option, like if you mess up out here, I’m going to take you home, or you’re going to do some American stuff, go do some real job stuff. (laughs)

Anthony Neely’s third studio album Friends is now out in stores.