I Met Youth Lagoon

Seventeen by Youth Lagoon

I remember everything, from the moment I first spotted the curly-haired man in orange hippie garb to the moment I tried speaking to him. My memory of that short time is so vivid in my brain, I hope it stays that way even as years go by. 

I first came across Youth Lagoon's music last year when I was discovering artists from the 2013 Coachella line-up. I really enjoyed his music and I instantly felt a connection. It makes me feel all sorts of things. Sometimes music does that to me and listening to it makes it an even better experience. Of course, like the geek that I am, I wanted to learn more about Youth Lagoon and started reading about the brilliance that is Trevor Powers. I even wrote about him back in March. He's one of the artists that I feel a strong affinity to because I can somewhat relate to his music. His words are beautiful and speak so much. I read somewhere that his music is to some extent an extension of himself and feels like pages off his journal. Flash forward to 25 January, I was in the crowd and he was on stage. I kept remembering that little piece of information when I was watching him perform. I was in awe of him and his art and I couldn't believe I was there to witness it.

I should probably first mention that I was at Singapore last January 23-27 for St. Jerome's Laneway Festival to see him and many more great artists.

Now, here's how I remember meeting Trevor.

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EXT. CHINATOWN, PAGODA ST. EXIT - DAY

A day before Laneway, I was with my friends, Jenica and Yana, and we were on our way to Ann Siang Hill. We rode the MRT until the Chinatown station and chose to exit at the Pagoda St. exit. (I remember this because I made a joke about it.) We made our way out the underground and was greeted to a busy Chinatown with lanterns decorated for the Chinese New Year, I presume. We were right by the mouth of the exit taking photos to Instagram (duh!) when I suddenly saw this man that strongly resembled Trevor Powers. He was a mere 10 feet away with a group of 5 others, also stopped, discussing something amongst themselves. At this point, I was internally freaking out and I immediately turned to Jenica and told of my sighting. I pointed out that this guy looked extremely like Trevor but I wasn't sure it was him. I was having this internal monologue that IT TOTALLY WAS HIM but there is that slight off chance that it could not be him and we'd be embarrassing ourselves to this guy that wasn't Trevor. I just kept thinking how awkward that would be if it turned out to be not Trevor. But then I saw his face and he had his glasses on and I was given some reassurance that it could be him. Jenica and I were both freaking out because she remembers him from this one photo and I just wasn't sure enough. Yana was freaking out too because she had no idea what was happening. And so, I told them I was 80% sure it was the Youth Lagoon and that if we were to approach him, Jenica had to do it. And to that she said, "OK!"

At this point, Trevor and his gang have made their way back into the underground. We rushed back and ran down the escalator hoping to catch him. We saw them looking at the station map and so we lingered a few feet away from them. It took us a while before Jenica approached Trevor. Once I saw him acknowledge her presence, I made my way towards them. He immediately greeted us by saying, "Hi, I'm Trevor." We introduced ourselves and I nervously stuttered the words, "We weren't sure if it was you." "It's me! I'm here!" He was so nice to us and asked us if we were going to the show the next day. We then asked to take photos with him and bid farewell.

I remember getting the shakes really bad. I was trying hard to calm myself and stop shaking but it was no use. Every single part of me was shaking. Even after leaving his presence, it took about 5 minutes before I was back to normal. But to be honest, nothing was normal after that. It was the second best thing that's ever happened to me and I couldn't be more glad it happened in the streets of Singapore.

Having the time to finally detach myself from that experience, I have so many things that I wish I could've done and said instead. We could've had a longer conversation and possibly gotten to know him a little better. I've never met any artists randomly or outside an event or concert or festival or anything yet besides this. I was clueless with how I should've handled things. I've never really thought about these things before because I'm usually not the lucky type to run into people like Trevor Powers. Nonetheless, I'm thankful for this and I'm glad I met him.

People say, "You should never meet your heroes" and I used to agree with that because after all, "you can't disappoint a picture."But after meeting Trevor, I wouldn't mind looking like a nervous wreck in front of Ezra Koenig or Wes Anderson. I'd take that over missing the chance to ever meet either of them. I'd at least have a story to tell my grandkids.