This story is part of Coast2Coast’s special cover series for September Fever 8. Read the other features here.
Is there something more to life than the material? What is our collective purpose? These are the questions Subsonic Eye has begged — and continues to beg — throughout their discography. Their most recent album, Singapore Dreaming, is no exception.
The record is chock full of these reflections. In the opening track, “Aku Cemas” (roughly translated as ‘I’m Anxious’), vocalist Nur Wahidah sings in a mix of Bahasa Melayu and English about the anxiety that comes with looking for a job and wondering if all of this is worth it.
“I was at a pretty anxiety inducing period in my time — stuck in a job that didn’t resonate with me, and then quitted but felt so worthless when I was unemployed,” Wahidah shares to Coast2Coast, when talking about why the album centers around these themes. “I was stuck writing these songs – in my stuffy room, in bed since morning. It felt pretty dreadful just scrolling through job listings.”
These traces of anxiety find its way all throughout the record. “My iPhone Screen” challenges our collective addiction to doomscrolling and the Internet; “Being Productive” wrestles with the concept of “productivity” and its connection with a career; and “Overgrown” describes how it feels to be stuck in your childhood bedroom, feeling that you’re constantly running out time for the things that matter.
Trying to reconcile art and the feeling of belonging with a career and the individualistic job economy is a central conflict in the record. However, for the members of Subsonic Eye, having a job and pursuing music balances each other out. Despite the five-piece act being one of the most sought-after independent acts in Southeast Asia — the band having multiple international tours as well as an Audiotree and KEXP performance under their belt — all of them have day jobs. This balance allows them to fully express what they want to say, especially when it comes to challenging capitalism and bringing attention to important political issues of our time.
“Giving up on the notion that the music thing will become ‘full time’ helped a lot because it made me [realize] that the day job and weekend musician thing compliment each other in a way,” shares guitarist and songwriter Dan Borces. “Because of the day job, the pressure to ‘make money from music’ is gone so I feel a lot more free to just express and write however I wish without worrying about the reception or how people will feel about it…I’d say both [the artist and the work selves] are quite complementary with each other, almost like a Severance thing.”
Despite the bleakness of our urban conditions, Subsonic Eye reminds us that there is hope. And that comes with returning to Nature (with a capital N).
Wahidah continues, saying that in the midst of everything, she had to refresh her mindset. “[I] reminded myself that Nature has always guided me and will always [guide] me. I started walking and cycling outside for ‘no reason’ and it healed me. I could see my worth beyond the work I do again. It felt good to write throughout this process.”
You hear this on the record as well — in songs like “Lost,” where Wahidah sings out: “I always find a way,” or in tracks like “Blue Mountains,” where they’re hit with the realization of how small everything else is in the face of Nature.
This push and pull between disconnection and reconnection with Nature is perhaps best heard in “Why Am I Here?,” Wahidah’s favorite track off the album.
“I feel like I’ve always discovered and been rediscovering my connection with Nature,” she shares. “Sometimes I get frustrated. I wish I didn’t need to be concerned with anything else in the world but Nature and the love and awe I have for the world and my friends. I feel like I found my calling, my purpose (and for the lack of a better word, enlightenment) through Nature and it sucks that I have to do anything else.”
“I’m in a better place now. I have a meaningful job at the moment but I am always reminding myself of my place on Earth.”
In the midst of political turmoil, growing inequalities, and the rising cost of living, the call to reconnect with Nature is stronger than ever. We live in a world of screens that constantly beg for our attention. And yet, with the amount of information available to us, we have yet to answer the question: why am I here? Why are any of us here? Subsonic Eye asks us to join them in their search for the answer. Maybe we’ll find it in the midst of a sprawling mountain range. Maybe we’ll find it in the busy streets of our urban centers — from Colon to Orchard.
Maybe it’s time to turn off that damn iPhone screen.
Listen to Subsonic Eye’s latest album, Singapore Dreaming, below.
Editor’s note: Included in the photos is Kris Teo (of Intermission, Silicon, and 730bedside), who stepped in for guitar duties while primary Subsonic Eye guitarist Jared Lim is on tour in the United States.
Creative direction by Kara Angan and Miggy Matreo. Art direction by Kara Angan. Photographed by Miggy Matreo, assisted by Xandro Romualdez. Story by Kara Angan. Shot on location at Unity Coffee and Vinyl. Coast2Coast, 2025.
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