In this episode of Before We Get There, host Nicholas Braman sits down with Mathew Yuhico, a creative force in video production with a knack for storytelling. Mathew shares insights from his childhood, inspired by his artist mother, and his journey from graphic design to a career in video production. They delve into the evolution of his creative process, from personal projects that inspire emotion to handling constraints in client work. Mathew also reflects on finding balance between personal passion and professional commitments.
Topics Discussed:
- Early Inspirations: Mathew’s childhood influences, including his artistic family and his mom’s passion for visual arts.
- Career Evolution: Transitioning from graphic design in PR to video production, and his creative journey across various media platforms.
- Working with VICE: The story behind his unconventional “rap application” that landed him a job at Vice during COVID and the challenges of being in front of the camera.
- Creative Process: The difference between creating personal projects versus client-driven work and finding fulfillment through personal creative expression.
- Life Lessons from Jiu-Jitsu: How Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu taught him patience, resilience, and flexibility, drawing parallels between the mat and life’s challenges.
- Life in Singapore: Adjusting to life in a new culture, finding a sense of belonging, and how these experiences shape his creativity.
Follow Mathew:
- Instagram: @mathewyuhico
- TikTok: @mathewyuhico
Additional Resources:
Nicholas Braman: Welcome to Before We Get There, the podcast where we explore people’s journeys, how they got to where they are, what keeps them pushing forward, and where they eventually want to get to. I’m your host, Nicholas Brayman, and today I’m joined by Matthew Yuhiko, a designer, video producer, and former on camera star from Vice, Asia.
He’s also a musician, creates content for his personal projects, And as a jujitsu competitor. In this discussion we talked about the process of creativity, how to know when a project is good enough, competing at sports versus being on camera. How we ended up at Vice and much more. Enjoy the show. Thank you so much for being with me here today.
Alright, Matt, great to have you. So. I’m really interested in, cause you’re a very creative person and you work in media to talk about where that came from and were you running around as a kid doing skits and sketches or is that something that you developed later in life?
Matthew Yuhico: Now that you bring it up, I think ever since I was a kid, cause my mom was a visual painter back in the day when I was growing up, she was always either painting some fruits in the living room or sketching like random objects in the house.
And then I think that kind of, we as her four sons adopted that in different ways. So in school, I was always sketching something, be that weird doodles on my notebook, or people asking me to tattoo their arms with a marker. That kind of gave me the idea that maybe I could build a career on this, like doing graphic design or something in the visual arts space.
So yeah, ever since I was a kid, he’d shoot.
Nicholas Braman: Wow, so four brothers, I think we got to talk about that later, but so we’re, are all four of you in creative fields?
Matthew Yuhico: Not yet. So number two is in F& B, cooking, baking, which is also a very creative field. And my youngest one is a very famous band now in the Philippines called Lola Amor.
So he’s the keyboardist and also helps writing the songs. And I’m in video production currently, the eldest one does YouTube vlogs. He used to write as well. So I guess, yeah, you can say that whatever my mom did when we were kids somehow trickled down onto us.
Nicholas Braman: Yeah. Wow. That’s cool. So maybe partly in the blood and then also from the environment and seeing your mom doing creative stuff, you being an artist, so you started off as an artist.
And designer. Ah, eventually you moved over more to the video production side of things. Is that right? Yes, correct.
Matthew Yuhico: So even, even with the graphic design stuff at first, cause I went through business school in Singapore, that’s why I moved to Singapore in the first place. And then while I was there in business school, I was thinking, damn, I don’t think, I don’t Going through the business, uh, modules and marketing modules, I was thinking, damn, I don’t think I can build a career on this.
I feel really dumb when it comes to business stuff, but I knew I had to try at least to do something I enjoyed. So that meant, in university, I would, as much as possible, try to get those graphic design positions for like, executive committees for different things, like the Filipino club in SNU, Singapore Management University, I was the one doing the posters and stuff.
Then I thought, if I do enough of this, or enough of like freelance gigs, I could build a portfolio and apply to just apply for any graphic design job. And luckily I was able to do like some PR agencies at the time were, I’m hiring in house graphic designers. So I started my career there, but after two years of doing PR, graphic design, I realized, Damn, I don’t really like working stream content.
I don’t like having to compromise a lot of the visual stuff in order to make a brand happy. And then that means five revisions per single piece. And then I’m thinking what could make this. A lot more enjoyable for me is if I’m able to tell stories while also telling visual stories and to do it I needed to pivot into video production, which is where you’re able to have a bit more control in the stories you tell.
So how I got into it, to answer your question, I would always ask my bosses if I could experimenting with stuff in the office. So if that meant making videos internet for the employees to enjoy, it would be cool. Or for example, we’re asking if we could find clients that are down to do like small scale videos.
Through that, I was able to build a portfolio and then I was just lucky enough during COVID to find work at VICE. It was my first job as a video producer.
Nicholas Braman: So yeah, I definitely want to get more into VICE and now you’re at another really cool company. Which we’ll talk about, but going back to, I’ve, I’m a marketer myself for a B2B in tech.
So I definitely understand the revisions and the direction. I worked for an agency for a while as well, a long time ago. So, but coming back to that, when, cause you still were doing some video production while you were, before you were at VICE. And so how is the video part of it? And you said, you tried to find.
The right clients, but they’re still like corporate videos. So how is it different from graphic design and then video?
Matthew Yuhico: I think on the corporate side of things, I think with graphic design, it was odd. For example, if the client had a specific look in mind, then like even the smallest things they would want to change as compared to when it came to video.
I could still put in a specific style. I’ll you. All right. A specific look and feel. I know. You, go ahead. more creative control in a way, but still doing videos for client was still restricting in a way. So I think during that time as well, that’s when I started experimenting, like making videos on my own time.
Um, be it like video poems about work or videos about just like what’s going on with life. And that’s when I really ignited my love for creating those kinds of videos for myself.
Nicholas Braman: Yeah, I want to go into the difference between creating for yourself versus for work, but I wanted to ask first, I found something interesting when I moved to Singapore, which is when I worked at the agency, we’d go for all these government tenders for Singapore Police Force or NEA or, uh, uh, LTA. And they have these, there’s a certain ministry or agencies in Singapore, they try to do these very emotional and sometimes successfully.
But they try to do these very emotional ads about bringing that sense of nostalgia, where grandma is getting old and they need a, I don’t know, a new place to stay. There’s several quite famous ones and some that are well done. And what do you feel as a visual storyteller about when the brief itself is trying to get people to cry or feel this deep emotion?
Matthew Yuhico: Honestly, that’s the kind of, can I say shit? That’s the kind of stuff I’m really ejected to. For me, the goal is always, if I make something, then I want to make someone cry or at least be moved or feel something or if, um, unfortunately, I haven’t been able to be a part of big projects like that with large audiences.
During my agency days, it was more, I was working for clients in there. Beauty, cosmetics field, and it was more working with influencers a lot to do short form content. And I think that’s why I wasn’t so satisfied. I wanted to make people cry basically, but I wasn’t able to at least in that point in my career.
Nicholas Braman: Yeah. That’s, I guess that’s an important part of why you want to tell stories and make videos in the first place. So going back to your personal videos versus. What you do for work, but how does the, first of all, do you, how do you get the energy to go and do your personal projects when it’s the same thing you’re doing at your nine to five?
Matthew Yuhico: I think it’s been different in different phases of my life. I think back then when I was starting in my career, as you are for sure, would know the feeling like when you’re just starting at the entry level, you don’t have that many years big responsibility, vision for me. So. I was a lot more carefree when I would have my weekends or my free time.
I would just go around shooting random shit or shooting my friends, just reporting whatever I could in hopes that I could make something out of it
later.
Matthew Yuhico: Um, and then there was a phase in my career where I think my soul was just sucked away and I was just really busy. So there’s a lot of years where I wasn’t able to do anything for myself.
Then recently now, I think at this age, found Verdi this year. I think I realized if I want to make stuff for myself, I need to make the time for it. Even if I’m tired, I need to do something to fulfill my soul, or then I’ll just always be dissatisfied and frustrated. I think at this age, especially with so many more responsibilities with work, more stress, more anxiety with bigger life things, I really needed to carve that space out to at least still do things that make me happy on the side.
Nicholas Braman: So during that time when you weren’t able, or you didn’t make the time to do personal projects, did you feel a sense of missing, something missing from your life? Yeah, for sure. Definitely.
Matthew Yuhico: A lot of people would experience this in their career where they’re just focusing on the career, trying to climb the ladder, trying to prove yourself through your boss, trying to see if you’re capable.
It was a lot of getting lost in the sauce. Indri. He just Um, focusing on work a lot and just doing work. And then because you’re focusing on work, you get so tired. Then you also, it’s the only thing you’re focusing on. And a lot of things get lost along the way. And these are during, yeah.
Nicholas Braman: And did you know it at that time that you were missing that?
Or could you just looking back, realize that this has happened?
Matthew Yuhico: I think it’s both at the same time, both during while it was happening, that I could feel something or maybe just like. me realizing every day that I’m feeling very satisfied or something. Something’s missing. I haven’t done something in a while that has made me feel, or will feel, something that I made.
Then now looking back to when I see, Okay, I don’t need to be disappointed in myself for not having the time. I was focusing on other aspects of life. And I think that’s just part of growing up to realizing what is important, truly important to you as well.
Nicholas Braman: Yeah, definitely. And I think it changes through time as well.
You have to prioritize, like you said, there’s so much more going on once you start getting older and you need to take care of your body more when you get older than when you’re young and you can do whatever you want. And you have kids through and hour, right? Yeah, it becomes a lot. So I want to, I’ll suggest that in your process of creativity at work, you may have a brief where you may have a meeting and say, okay, we need to think of an idea now, this is our brainstorming session or how am I going to make it work?
But for your personal projects. Do you like ruminate on the idea for a while or does it just like suddenly pop in your head? How do you do
Matthew Yuhico: it? I think they’re very different processes. My personal process is, there’s usually an idea or a feeling. That feeling could be as simple as, for example, I love airports.
I love the feeling of being in airports because being in airports, people saying goodbye, people showing their love to each other. A lot of these. highly emotional moments. So with that idea in mind, my personal process would be, I’d go to the airport, just shoot a bunch of people, um, saying goodbye or saying hi to each other.
Shoot my family, like showing these emotional moments. After that, with all these random shots, I would want to edit them into something that I enjoy seeing and watching. And then I release that. Um, sometimes there would be like a voiceover element to it where I would write down the voiceover while looking at the film, and then they all come together in that single video.
Nicholas Braman: Going to the airport and getting shots is the flow and the story you want to tell. Does it develop deep as you’re getting the shots and you see how it’s going to fit together or is it all in post or you just go back and look at what footage you got? I
Matthew Yuhico: think I really enjoy the aspect of improv ing with it.
So there will always be a strong idea in my mind. For example, just airports. What do airports make you feel? And then with that, everything else is improv. So that means where I should, what I should. If there’s something interesting in the moment, then I would do it on that, focus on that. Then the editing process is very ill proven as well, so it’s just like figuring it all out.
For me, what helps with the process in editing, which I enjoy the most, is the editing process, is I find a piece of music that I feel conveys the emotions I want to convey. With that piece of music being the foundation, then I find whatever shots fit the music and tell the story through that. Then when I’m satisfied with the emotional impact it has, then that’s when I release it.
Nicholas Braman: Okay, so that’s one thing I wanted to ask you about because as somebody who does some creative things, you know, whether it’s writing a, uh, article or. Even for people in their personal lives, if they’re uploading to their social media, how do you judge when something is good enough or because it can always be improved, right?
You can always go back and do a little bit more editing, get it a little tighter or, or what have you. So how do you decide, okay, it’s good enough. I’m going to release this
Matthew Yuhico: now. I’m sure he’s experienced the same thing when you’re editing the podcast, right? We’re like doing, um, stuff like this. It’s a very good question.
Cause I have a picture of it trying to figure out as well. I think back then my approach was I keep editing until it’s perfect to me. And that could mean like working on it for three weeks or four weeks, like cadence as to my ideal cadence for releasing videos. But then, so for a while I took on the approach of, fuck it, let me just do something I enjoy and it looks nice and then just release it, but I’m starting to realize that the method I prefer is really just.
Not rushing anything, but working on it bit by bit, day by day, until I’m really satisfied with how it makes me feel at least, or how it looks to me, so that if that takes two weeks, let it take two weeks. Also just trying to find the balance and test things right.
Nicholas Braman: I recall you have a pretty interesting story about how you ended up working at Vice.
Do you want to share that with us?
Matthew Yuhico: Sure, yes. I was working in a PR agency here in Singapore for three years. Yeah, I was feeling really, that was the point in my life when I felt not creatively satisfied, I needed to do something. So I thought, Ooh, let’s, let me leave the country and apply for film school in Vancouver because I wanted to really focus on this film thing.
So I got into school, all that was set up and then COVID hit, boom. And so that meant school was canceled, but I also quit my job because I wanted to go to school. And because I was on an EP, an employment pass, and I quit my job, it means I had to go back to the Philippines, go back to Manila and stay there during COVID while I was around.
And I was, like, my wife was my girlfriend at the time, so we had to be alone. It’s all that stuff. So it was a lot of big, big change, plus being back in Manila, plus COVID, there’s a lot of, a lot of things happening, a lot of changes. And then, so I was back in Manila bumming around for two months when COVID, there was COVID.
I was thinking like, damn, what am I going to do here? I can’t keep waiting for school to happen because they keep pushing it. Because, yeah, so I was thinking, um, I got to do something. Luckily, when I checked LinkedIn, I saw this position for Vice, uh, video producer. And I thought, what the hell? Nothing to lose.
If there’s any time to do it, now’s the time. So. Let’s do something I enjoy doing. I made a rap application, like an application in the form of rap. So it was basically, I spent one whole night until like 1am, just like writing the rap, recording the rap, and just looking at my video camera. I remember showing my wife, I was like, Oh, look at this.
This is so great. You can’t have a good chance. And my wife, being my wife, she’s very brutally honest, but always, always built for me. So she was like, it’s visually a bit boring. You should add some B roll, add some other video, some things you’ve shot before. And at first I was like, I don’t need that. I realized my wife is always quick.
So I added the B roll of stuff I did. Then I was like, wow, it looks really, really nice though. And then I released it online with no expectations. Somehow it just gained traction and it reached random people and these random people said it to people who were at VICE. I think one of them was my second cousin, happened to know someone who knew someone at VICE, landed on the right act.
And then I think the next week I was offered an interview and then from the interview I just really loved everyone I was speaking to and luckily they gave me a shot. I started my video producer job at VICE during COVID. In the confines of my rules.
Nicholas Braman: Wow. So you saw the job posting and then you made the video and you didn’t even send it directly to the recruiter or anybody advice.
You just put it on YouTube or social media. So good
Matthew Yuhico: point. Actually, I tried reaching out to a lot of random people who are working at Rice. Just like reaching out to them on LinkedIn, like cold messaging, sending them the link to the video, put it up on YouTube first. Uh, they just kept sending, no one responded to me.
So I was like, let me use the power of Facebook and Facebook got it to the right eyes. That’s good. It’s always
Nicholas Braman: a small world in Singapore within different industries. A lot of people, you know, each other and you always end up having some connections. So that’s great. And then, so you started as a video producer, but you, because that Usually entail you being in front of the camera as well.
Matthew Yuhico: No, actually, I think there’s DA lot of different kinds of video producers these days. The traditional kind is like for big budget films or TV productions. The producer is the one getting things done, making their big decisions, um, coming up with the crews, coming up with the venues, sorting things out, basically making things smooth.
I was lucky enough that my first video producer job was in the vertical space. So that meant Vice wanted to focus more on vertical videos, meaning TikTok, IG Reels, IGTV back in the day. And that gave us a lot of freedom because it was in a very explored space. They were like, Hey, you guys are the video producers.
It was just me and one dude in Indonesia. It was my great friend, Bel. They’re like, figure something out. Make a show, do whatever you want. So it was a kind of perfect environment for someone like
me
Matthew Yuhico: to just experiment, just see what could work, do whatever we wanted to do, make shows that we wanted to make.
And that meant leaning on our strengths. So if you wanted to be in front of camera, then you could. There was the whole, because it was COVID, we had to be in front of the camera. And actually there’s no one else you could do it. So yeah, we had to do that.
Nicholas Braman: Was that something you had jumped at a chance to do, or was it?
Just because you had no choice.
Matthew Yuhico: For me, it was something that jumped at the chance to do. I mean, so like I mentioned, like, growing up, I was always tinkering with print videos. But back in the day, like, in high school, the videos I would make would be, like, covers. Which is, like, me singing shit on YouTube. So, I had a bunch of YouTube videos already at the time.
Or just me doing covers or posting video poems at the time. So I was thinking,
Okay.
Matthew Yuhico: I’ve always wanted to see if performing could be another career path, if that, be that, performing in front of crowds or performing in front of, you know, through, let me use it as an opportunity to really hone that skill, work on it better.
Um, so for me, I really was excited about the opportunity to be in front of camera as well.
Nicholas Braman: How different is it for you in post production editing something that you did versus if it’s somebody else?
Matthew Yuhico: That’s a great question. I think for sure when I’m editing myself, I’m a lot more conscious. Um, I’m more conscious.
But I think at the end of the day, um, what I want to make is a good impactful story. So if that means, if I feel that else would be a better vessel to communicate that message, or for example, I feel someone else would be a better interviewer than I could be when it comes to specific topics, then I’m just happy to be editing and making a story out of it.
Nicholas Braman: Do you ever get cringe when you go back and see either just, uh, something that shot that wasn’t released or even old videos that you released?
Matthew Yuhico: For sure. Sure. It is. There always a cringe element, but also I think it, I think, yeah, when I was younger and I would look back, I’d be like, damn, that’s cringe. But then I think now that I’m getting older, when I see myself, I’m like, doing those things back then.
I’m thinking, wow, you had the guts to do that. You had the balls. Do some random shit. I mean, these are random stuff you like and, um, really make something cool out. I think as I’m getting older, I’m getting a bit more afraid, not, maybe not afraid, but less ballsy to do these big things that younger me did.
And so it’s inspiring to see, if I could do this back, I can do it. At this age or in the future as well. So it’s me giving my old self grace. That okay, you did something cool. I respect that. Props to you.
Nicholas Braman: So that’s interesting. You are more. Uh, forgiving is, is not exactly the right word, but more like accepting of crazy, not perfect things that you did when you were younger, but you, you said that now you’re cautious.
So is, does the caution come from wanting to not Make something that isn’t great, or the way you want it. I haven’t thought
Matthew Yuhico: about it. I feel like the caution for me cup, it just comes with age. I guess it’s that I do. Maybe at this age there’s risks involved, or a lot more stakes involved. Um, but also I guess, I feel like it’s just something naturally happening.
Like when I listen to a lot of, I love watching actors, like, take down tables and stuff. And then Denzel, I think was talking about his career. And I always just assume that these legendary actors, these legendary figures in the industry, by the, at that age, they would be like, no, this is a piece of cake.
Let me just get into it
Nicholas Braman: and
Matthew Yuhico: do my thing. Then a lot of them talk about how, oh, it gets a lot scarier when you get older, have a lot more anxiety doing these things. But. Fuck. They just learn to handle more of it, they get older and still do it for the love of it.
Nicholas Braman: And how do you deal with negative feedback or haters?
I saw in some of the Vice videos, there were some like really brutal comments. So,
Matthew Yuhico: um, yes, thank you for the deep dive. But yeah, I think back then when it happened for the first time, my brain was like, no, it’s part of the job. And it was me convincing myself that it didn’t affect me. I was like, it’s part of the job.
If you’re on camera, for sure, you’re going to get hate. Um, then I realized like, subtly it would creep in every now and then. If I’m going to post something, then I would think, Oh, this is what people might be thinking of me. Firstly, while I was in Vice, when my face was always on camera, I think at the start, I was like, Oh, this is a nice feeling that people could recognize me for my work, but also I didn’t realize it affected my mental health, for example, for being so hooked on.
The views, the reach, and also if someone’s saying something negative. So, my first ever negative comment was, I did this Vice video called, I Tried to be a K Pop. And then, I remember having to shave my beard, which is my security blanket. They shaved my beard for the video. And then, she just wanted to do this.
I don’t remember K pop, K drama, of us being fat as fuck
Nicholas Braman: for an hour.
Matthew Yuhico: And I was like, oh wow. But then like my wife would always come through the front door and call it back. And he’d shut up. No one would speak to him. It was humorous as well.
Nicholas Braman: So I want to tie this into another area that we have in common, actually, how we know each other is through BJJ, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, go to the same gym.
And you have recently been competing, and I haven’t competed since 2019, since before COVID, and part of that is because I hate it. I hate it. Everything about it. I made myself do it a lot. I did like five competitions, 15 matches over the course of a year when I was a white belt, but I didn’t enjoy any of it.
I get super anxious. I feel horrible. Um, it makes like, even after I’m done, it’s just relief. It’s not even happiness or joy. It’s just like relief that it’s done. Like the worst test you could ever possibly have to take. So eventually I tried to force myself to get over it, but it got marginally better, but it never got, you see, some people when they compete, they actually are better than when they’re training, like they’re not performing, but like the pressure and the situation makes them excel.
And there you can see that they’re in the flow state and even if they lose, they’re still on top of it. But for me, that was never the case. So talking about being in front of the camera versus a situation in jujitsu competition or any other kind of competition, how do you feel about that? Are there similarities to you?
I think definitely there are parallels with
Matthew Yuhico: being in front of camera and competing in jujitsu. I feel like competing with jujitsu gives me like tenfold differentity. Front of camera, at least I was like, I enjoyed being loosey goosey, being creative, but when it comes to competition, I think for me, because there’s an element of.
Everyone’s watching and supporting you and really shouting and behind your back. There’s a big, I mean, I don’t want to disappoint all the people I’ve been trained with, but also I just don’t want to disappoint myself.
Nicholas Braman: Yeah. That, that feeling, even though nobody. And you can tell yourself that intellectually all you want, it doesn’t help none of your teammates. First of all, if there’s 200 people watching, there’s, there’s only 15 of them paying attention to your match. Yeah. And then second of all the people who are there to support you, they’re not going to judge you.
Your coach might think, why did you do that? But they know they’ve all competed before. And certainly your teammates, your friends are not going to like, Oh, this guy’s jujitsu sucks. Or think less of you in any way, because that feeling, because you feel at this. You’re soft when other people are competing, but to get yourself to actually believe that is super difficult.
And maybe those people that are able to somehow do that are the ones that really thrive on competition. But the, the other part of it is when you’re doing a performance or even public speaking, which is another area that myself and I think a lot of people have anxiety around. There’s nobody actively trying to ruin what you’re doing, like in jiu jitsu, right?
Like if you’re in front of the camera shooting a video for Vice, there’s not, it’s not some guy like right there trying to ruin your video. Right. And in jiu jitsu competition, it’s you against another person and you, there can only be one winner. True. I think that’s part of why Darren’s IV is so much higher.
I think, I think that’s a really good point. So you mentioned you grew up with three brothers, right? There’s four of you. So you must’ve. Rough housed, or even gotten into fights when you were in school. Philippines also is not Singapore, right? I think there probably were opportunities for you to get into scraps.
Matthew Yuhico: Growing up, I was, I’m very non confidential. If I can make sure everyone’s having a good time, then I would do, uh, I would make sure that everyone calm, is mediated, not fighting. That was always my survival, survival tactic growing up. Make sure everyone is. Okay, but like in high school onwards, it was very non confrontational.
I remember one time if you see this, there’s like this small darkened part here, but like between Christmas and New Year’s, there was just a flash of white light and I was like, what is going on? Besides that, very non confrontational life. So I feel like jujitsu is my way of maybe also just releasing Ensuring not confronting many things or people, biggie life, I think that makes sense, I think.
Nicholas Braman: Yeah, no, that makes sense, but I think the most important question is, can you now beat up all of your brothers? I think so, I think so. You’ll, you’ll have to challenge him next time when you’re together for Christmas.
Matthew Yuhico: My nephew is also training Jiu Jitsu now, he’s six, so I’m looking forward to the day that I can roll with him.
I was going to say,
Nicholas Braman: you can definitely take a six year old. Matt, I haven’t got much confidence in you. Very true. So I also wanted to talk about, you moved here for school from Philippines to Singapore. What was that like? Was it your first time living away from your family? How was the adjustment?
Matthew Yuhico: So luckily for me, the reason we moved is because my dad was assigned to work here too.
So that was in 2012. He was assigned to work here at the time I had graduated high school in the Philippines. I had a girlfriend, so I had a lot of things going on for me in the Philippines. But he was like, when I had the foresight, he was like, no, I feel like doing uni in Singapore would be a good opportunity for you.
So me being the rebel, rebellious teen I was at the time, I was like,
Okay, fine. Let’s,
Nicholas Braman: um,
Matthew Yuhico: fine. Let me, let me take the SAPs and see if I would get into any uni anyway. I didn’t take the SAPs seriously, as I should have, meaning I got low scores, but my dad still wanted me to move to Singapore. So I moved to Singapore, and then I found out I didn’t get into any of the three unis I applied to.
Because of that, I spent a whole gap year living in Singapore, no friends, away from my girlfriend, away from my friends in the Philippines. alone in the house with my dad who at the time I was being a rebellious teen and I resented in a way like why did you bring me here? It was just one year of studying for the SATs again, being really isolated and frustrated with everything.
And then luckily after a year of studying for the SATs I got good scores and I got into SMU, Singapore Management University. I was lucky to get into that school. But to answer your question, like, how was it? Um, My first introduction to our Singaporean culture was the school camps in, in SMU. And I think me being me, my survival instinct is always, let’s adapt as quickly as possible to get people to like me.
So that basically that’s my survival instinct. Get people to enjoy being with me or like me. And when I started school in SMU, it was a lot of first, first, first, Like trying to understand the accent, like the Singapore accent. There were a lot of words I didn’t understand. I remember introducing myself as, in the Philippines, I’d pronounce my name as Matt, Matthew, Matt.
So when I said, my name’s Matt, everyone was like, what’s your name? And then they’d write, Oh, man, Matthew. And I was like, Oh, shit. Okay. So I had to quickly be hyper aware. What are the words they’re using? What are the pronunciations of specific things? How do I tweak my diction and my vocabulary and my way I say things so I can adapt as quickly as possible.
That might be a survival mechanism I learned because I was bullied back in the day. I was just like, don’t mess with me. So I need to finish it out now. I made a conscious decision not to just stick with the other Filipinos in my union because I wanted to also expand my horizons, make friends outside. I was consciously putting myself in uncomfortable situations just because I knew it would be good for me in the long run.
A lot of adjustments. Until now, there’s still times when I feel like an outsider at times. Singapore is really just my home. I don’t imagine myself ever going back to Manila. I love you. I’m thankful for the life as I’m here.
Nicholas Braman: What is it that makes you feel like an outsider?
Matthew Yuhico: I think they’re just these random moments.
For example, when the guys talk about ARMY, something that I wasn’t able to experience and probably won’t ever. There are some times when, I remember I was in one company where a lot of them spoke, just spoke Chinese because majority of them were Chinese. So it was always like, Oh, but I’m right here. I don’t understand what’s going on.
I only take that daily, but it’s always, it’s not too bad. Yeah.
Nicholas Braman: So you said you consciously just tried not to only hang out with other Filipinos. Was there a big Filipino community at the school?
Matthew Yuhico: In, in SMU, we had this, uh, club called SMU Barcaida. Barcaida just basically means group of friends in the Philippines.
I think for each batch, there would be around three to four Filipinos there. Um, there are some batches that would be bigger, like 10 to 12. So it was a very tight knit group because all of us were going through similar experiences of being in a foreign country. having difficulties making friends, understanding how the culture is here.
Um, they really became like family. Like the people there I consider my siblings because we got through a lot of difficult roam raids.
Nicholas Braman: So when did you start feeling at home in Singapore and, and what made you stay?
Matthew Yuhico: Honestly, I think a lot, when I talk about this with the Singaporeans, they’re always, oh, why would you choose to stay in Singapore?
And go back to Manila, like, Philippines is so beautiful, blah, blah, blah. I think like, being someone that grew up and then experienced Singapore, for me, it’s usually come things like convenience. Just convenience alone is enough to make me want to keep the word and come back. It’s those things like, traffic jam in the Philippines, like, two hours just to get to a specific place as compared to when I’m here, if I want to meet up with friends in a specific mall at in 30 minutes or something, we can all get there at the same time.
So with that, there’s also differences in lifestyle. In the Philippines, you have to be a bit more chill how time flows or chill with how things are going. I find myself when I’m too used to how things are in Singapore, when I go back to the Philippines, I’m just always frustrated with the time delays, with whatever’s going on.
And then when I notice my friends, they’re all just chill, like, No, it’s fine. We’re going to find parking here. We’ll figure it out. Then I realize I have lost that chillness. Yeah, other things that make me stay in Singapore. I knew I wanted a career in the creative field. And I also wanted to sustain a comfortable lifestyle.
If I had stayed in Manila, people in the graphic design field or creative field will not earn much at all. So if I had stayed there, probably that would be like still staying at my parents house until I’m really old. So there were opportunities here. That gave me decent pay for being a graphic designer or decent pay as a freelancer to do PowerPoint decks or photography.
It was like, there’s many opportunities here and when my wife’s here, I don’t do so much thinking.
Nicholas Braman: That’s, that’s cool. Yeah. So on that note, what does the future look like for you in your mind? What are. Goals you have, where do you want to be down the road?
Matthew Yuhico: I feel like at this age, I just want to keep growing.
It means doing a job that’s not as exciting as vice, but provides and gives me the time, flexibility to do other things that I’ll stick to that job. Now I know that what could satisfy my soul doesn’t need to be my career. I can do my day job and do what I want on the side. So that means what I see in the future for me is.
Having the time to do what I really love, which is Jujitsu and making random videos about life and mental health and food. I really want to focus more on doing those things, which I feel like I had forgotten for maybe three to four years of just focusing on work. I want to focus on things that really matter to me.
Maybe that means making music again or doing photography or just shooting random things. And then also I want to keep doing my best at my day job and keep pushing myself.
Nicholas Braman: So, uh, if you had to give like a one sentence answer to your self in, let’s say 10 years, what would your life be like to consider yourself successful?
What would you answer me?
Matthew Yuhico: I feel like
to consider myself successful in 10 years, I think about the career or what, but it’s really just that I’m able to have a well balanced, just have a balanced life where, you know, I’m not just sitting down on the couch, but doing things I love to do, going through the painful moments, and the challenging moments, and really just making the most of life.
If that means like, having a farm, because that’s a dream, like having a farm, or moving to Canada maybe, or just doing things I love to do, and still being able to do jujitsu until I’m old, then that would be the dream. And also being able to just support. The lifestyle I have with my two bunnies and my wife.
That would be success, just doing it. Things to make me fulfilled.
Nicholas Braman: Those all, those all sound great. Any thoughts of still going to film school or making films? I
Matthew Yuhico: think at this point, probably not going to go to film school anymore, just because of the money and the time. But I feel like Vice was my film school and I’m always just learning through whatever experiences I have now.
And YouTube is such a great teacher as well for anything. Um, I would love to maybe act in a film in the future. That’s a good idea. Let’s see that
Nicholas Braman: happens. All right. Let’s put it out there. Um, let’s see what happens. Just like your, your rap application. Uh, well, thanks so much for joining me today, Matt. I feel like we could talk for hours more, anything you want to share with the listeners, where can they find you on social media?
Matthew Yuhico: It’s just my name. So Matthew Yuhiko, Matthew with one T, M A T H E W Y U H I C O on both Instagram and TikTok. I’m trying to make more content. So if you’re interested about food and mental health.
Nicholas Braman: Awesome. Well. We’ll put your handles in the, in the show notes and thanks again for being here.
Talk to you soon. Thank you for listening to Before We Get There with your host, Nicholas Brabant. Please like and subscribe on YouTube and your favorite podcast platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts. You can also find us on Instagram and Twitter. TikTok and Facebook at Before We Get There Podcast.
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