Ryan Higa, better known as the bloke behind the very popular NigaHiga channel on YouTube, will be one of the many YouTubers coming to Singapore to take part in what's been dubbed as a "first for Asia": The YouTube Fan Fest, a two-night "live" YouTube showcase featuring a roster of 20 established and breakout global sensations. Others on the roster include actor-singer Chester See; online cooking host Rob Nixon; the duo behind Eat Your Kimchi, Simon and Martina; singer-songwriters David Choi and Little Boots; and beatboxer Hikakin.

It's all part and parcel of this year's Digital Matters conference, that runs concurrently with the Music Matters conference, which happens from May 21 to 24. The YouTube Fan Fest is meant to give fans and the digital media industry "an opportunity to get up close and personal with the star who are driving today's YouTube economy", said organisers in a statement.

This will be Higa's second visit to Singapore, of course. The YouTuber was here last year to give a talk and share his experiences and this time round, Higa said he was going to "build a little more on that" and hoped to see more of his fans. And he has a lot of fans: 8 million subscribers and over 1.4 billion views. They can't all be wrong, can they?

WHAT WAS YOUR IMPRESSION OF SINGAPORE THE LAST TIME YOU WERE HERE? I had no idea what Singapore would be like. I went to Kuala Lumpur and Hong Kong as well, and I loved all of them, but Singapore had to be my favourite, for sure. I had no idea that it would be so … futuristic-looking! That was a big surprise! I just loved it there.

YOU'RE AN EXPERIENCED YOUTUBER. WHAT TIPS DO YOU HAVE FOR YOUNG ASPIRING YOUTUBERS? There’s no real secret, I guess. But my biggest piece of advice would be to really enjoy what you’re doing. Don’t just make content for other people or what you think might be popular. Just make content that you’re happy with. Even I have to remind myself now and then to create content for myself – and that’s the whole reason why I started – as opposed to creating what I think my fans want to see. It’s a combination between the two.

YOU HAVE OVER 1.4 BILLION VIEWS AND MORE THAN 8 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU SEE SUCH NUMBERS? It’s super to see those kind of numbers. Sometimes I forget what that means. You know, to get 1,000 views … I remember when I first started I thought: 1,000 people – in reality that’s a lot of people, if you could get them physically in a room - now, when you get 1 million views, that’s not even considered a lot any more, for some people. When you see those kind of numbers though, that’s huge encouragement and that gives me more drive to keep going.

YOU DON'T ONLY DO CONTENT FOR YOUR OWN NIGAHIGA CHANNEL, BUT YOU'VE WORKED WITH OTHERS ON SO MANY DIFFERENT THINGS, FROM MUSIC VIDEOS TO HOSTING THE ISA TO YOMYOMF (WHICH MEANS "YOU OFFEND ME, YOU OFFEND MY FAMILY") TO AGENTS OF SECRET STUFF. IS THERE ANYTHING THAT YOU WANT TO DO, OR ANYONE YOU WANT TO WORK WITH THAT YOU HAVEN'T YET DONE? I’m always open to collaboration. There are so many people that I haven’t worked with that I really want to. I could give you over 100 names. But for me, what I still want to do but haven’t had the chance to, like you said, is to another Agents of Secret Stuff, but a feature-length film, something more professional. I loved doing Agents. I worked with Wong Fu Productions to do that, and basically it was a mini-movie. But I’ve always been telling them – and they’re just as busy as I am, if not busier – to do another one. For me, whether it’s with Wong Fu or someone else, the next thing I want to do is a legit feature film, like 90 minutes or so.

ON THE YOMYOMF EPISODE, BANANAPOCALYPE, YOU HAD STARS LIKE JESSICA ALBA DOING CAMEOS, AND SOMEONE ASKS, HOW DID YOU GET JESSICA ALBA? WELL, HOW DID YOU GET JESSICA ALBA? I worked with Cash Warren, Jessica’s husband, a long time ago, maybe four years ago, to help promote his site IBeatYou.com (www.ibeatyou.com) and we kind of kept in touch. When I came out to LA, he was nice enough to offer his place, so I used to stay with them. We kind of had a good relationship and kept in touch. So when we started YOMYOMF – with me, Chester (See), Kev (Kevin Wu aka KevJumba), Abdul and Cash and Justin Lin – we all kind of combined our efforts. So he brought in Jessica and a few other celebrities so we got to work with them.

WERE THESE CELEBS EASY TO WORK WITH? I MEAN, JUSTIN LIN - WHO DID STUFF FOR THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS MOVIE SERIES AND THE TV SERIES, COMMUNITY - WHAT'S THAT LIKE? That shoot was definitely interesting. It was nothing like I’d ever done before. Just the fact that Justin Lin was directing me. It was weird. I felt like I going to be intimidated, but once you’ve experienced it, you get to see why he’s such a good director and how he does what he does. It was a really professional shoot that I wasn’t used to.

AND THAT SING-OFF BETWEEN WAYNE BRADY AND CHESTER SEE: WHOSE IDEA WAS IT TO GET WAYNE TO SING ABOUT HIS, UH, YOU KNOW... I believe that was one of the writers of YOMYOMF. They basically told Wayne, hey sing about this, and Wayne being the improve genius that he is, gave like 10 different takes. The one you see isn’t even the funniest one – it’s just the cleanest one. Yeah, Wayne is such a genius. Everything that people see of him on TV doing improv, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

WHAT'S THE BEST OR WORST THING ABOUT BEING RYAN HIGA? The best thing is getting a free trip to Singapore. Not just once, but this is my second time. I say it a lot - but it’s true – I get to do something I love for a living. The worst thing is that I don’t have a normal schedule. Some people can say, I’m going to work a 9 to 5 job and the weekends I know for sure I have a break. But for me, everyday, I’m either writing, filming or editing. If I’m not doing those things, I feel guilty. I’m my own boss, so I work to my own schedule. But I really don’t like to slack off. But even that’s not really even a bad thing.

GIRLS ARE OBVIOUSLY ATTRACTED TO YOU, BUT WHAT TYPE OF GIRL ATTRACTS YOU? I get that question a lot. And I always give the same answer. Type of girl… I’m not picky. Er, “not slutty” I guess. Or here’s the PG version: Innocent and cute over hot and sexy. That’s the PG version.

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE YOUR LEGACY TO BE? I’m not going to making YouTube forever. So one of the things I’d like to do is where I am now, I want to be able to help kids going through struggles, the same ones that I went through when I was younger. And now that I know these kids are watching, I have the ability to do that. I kind of started it, I did a video called Draw My Life … that’s a video I’ve been wanting to do for three or four years - not so much Draw My Life specifically, but the content in that video – that’s something I’ve wanted to tell kids and help kids out whom I know for a fact are going through that stuff right now. And I want to spread more of that message eventually, without being too preachy. I guess legacy-wise, I want to help younger people.

OF COURSE, KIDS TO SEE YOU AS A ROLE MODEL NOW. IS THERE ANY PRESSURE TO BEHAVE LIKE A ROLE MODEL? To a certain degree there are. I mean, I can’t swear in videos. But it’s not really pressure. I usually speak my mind, but I definitely keep in mind who my audience is. I’m not going to post a video saying to go flip off your parents, you know?

WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR? To be honest. The biggest thing I’m looking forward to is coming to Asia to do this thing. I don’t really do much. I stay home most of the time. I mean I write, I film my videos at home most of the time, I edit at home. This is one of the biggest things I’m looking forward to this year. For now. Nothing else has come up yet.

The YouTube Fan Fest powered by HP is on May 21 to 22. For more on Digital and Music Matters, visit www.allthatmatters.com