Embedded Files
Auckland-based artist WEE turns his gaze inward with Taman Desa Tebrau, a track that pulls him back to the neighbourhood in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, where he grew up. It is a song rooted in memory and distance, capturing the bittersweet feeling of going home after years away.
“I’ve always written songs about myself or my relationships, but I’ve never really talked about where I’m from,” he reflects. “Two months ago, I had the opportunity to go back and stay longer than I ever had before, and it made me want to write about the place I grew up in.”
The song opens with the lyric, I’m back to the place, the block I grew up. I told my homies do not worry, I’m slowly getting there. But it cost me to become a visitor in my own land. That tension runs through the track, equal parts joy and estrangement. Home is familiar yet changed, and WEE himself has changed with it.
The single doubles as a love letter to Taman Desa Tebrau: the gardens, the blocks, the people, his mother’s cooking. To make it even more personal, WEE filmed the music video in the neighbourhood alongside his friends, retracing the spots that shaped their youth.
Taman Desa Tebrau is WEE at his most intimate. It is not only a return to where he began, but a way of giving back to the community and memories that continue to shape him.
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