Lau Soong Huey, or more widely known as ABeatC, is one of the most prominent figures in the beatboxing scene in Malaysia as well as on a global scale. The beatboxer-turned entrepreneur has been spending a lot of his time nurturing Beatnation, Malaysia’s very 1st beatbox community, as well as a whole bunch of ventures which you’re about to learn from our exclusive interview with the man himself.
Read on to find out what’s been keeping him away from the radar!
1. Hi Soong Huey! Tell us more about yourself.
Not even sure how I would even start to be honest. You can call me Lau, I’m a professional beatboxer for about 10 years as ABeatC. I currently run Beatnation with my partner Coex, an event company focused on different cultures. I also run 地方/Di.Fang/, a venue rental platform, and I’m part of the team of the Academy Of Esports, the first holistic education for esports athletes. Beyond that I’m interested into AI, machine learning, blockchain, the technology of today basically. As a matter of fact, I’m currently learning how to make my own blockchain platform on Substrate.
2. This year alone, we noticed that you’ve been keeping yourself productive with a couple of things going on at the same time. Can you tell us more about what you’re currently working on?
Well the way I see life in my perspective is that, beatboxing and making music is my passion, it’s my enjoyment of this lifetime. Which is exactly why I wouldn’t put money as a factor for my music because it defeats my purpose. Instead, I turned my other passion, event organizing as my business side instead. So on one side I’m constantly finding creative outlets, whether it’s music, writing, or just brainstorming for new ideas, the other side I’m managing my own business while making sure the goal is still clear. To name a few, I’m trying to launch my next single or EP (if I can), organizing a few events between beatbox & sports, expanding 地方/Di.Fang/ across Klang Valley, materializing a few ideas to bring AOES into KL and other states, while toying with a few side projects for interests sake.
3. Please tell us more about your new business venture, 地方/Di.Fang/.
From my personal observation, venues have always been hard to come by in Malaysia. There are the regular venues where everyone goes to, but when clients want somewhere new, it’s always a pickle trying to find one. So 地方/Di.Fang/ was born, a venue rental platform that instead look for huge quantity of venues, we focus on a handful of them and we grow with them. We focused on giving values to our customers and partners, because that is our goal. We believe personalized service is the crucial element between an early full payment and a warm inquiry gone cold, so everything we do focuses just on that. We are also launching a corporate solution called Corporate Care Package where we focused on boosting our customer’s company morale via training and development. We provide personalized creative corporate training, fitness, and getaway for the entire office.
4. Sevenpie is all about empowering local communities, which echoes the same value as your brainchild, Beatnation. Now, Beatnation is known as the forefront of empowering different urban culture by various unifying actions. Perhaps you can share with us about some of the plans which are already in the pipeline for Beatnation in the coming months.
Definitely, as we grow we always put the community at first, because they grew with us from the beginning. We always find our way to supplement them whether it’s through personal development, training, or events. One of the ideas we are doing is Wangsa Walk OnBeat, a competition for beatbox and dance community, we want to make this an opportunity for both sides to know each other better, and maybe a collaboration could be sparked out of it. We’re also venturing into sports & E Sports because there are alot of community that has stuck together for years and we think we can learn a lot from them and adding our own value as well.
5. We also know that you’re one of the core team members behind The Academy of E Sports. Can you tell us a little more about this academy?
The Academy Of E Sports is a proud baby of ours, we are the first holistic E Sports education academy, and we focused on enabling a career path for all E Sports enthusiasts and fanatics. We have been growing daily in exposure and the general public’s acceptance. Despite conventional thinking, it is the parents that wants to send their children to our academy rather than the children themselves. In fact I’ve already had two inquiries personally asking me if they can send their 12 year old kids to us, which we can’t because we only accept those who are 17 years of age and above.
6. Education for E Sports is still relatively new in Malaysia. Being one of the pioneers in Malaysia, can you share with us some of the challenges which you’ve encountered along the way?
I think at the end of the day it’s about maturity. The industry have not fully grown, and the existing industries are struggling to find their place in this new sphere of competitive gaming as well. While we may not find difficulty in positioning ourselves, we do face challenges in providing the best education we can offer to our students. Like any education facility we strive to give the best and we want to maintain that standard, luckily our team works non stop to make sure we stay on our A game, and I can only give mad kudos to them. Another struggle we found is location, as most enthusiasts are based in KL, we are planning to bring something into KL for the people here to get a taste of what we do there.
7. With all that’s going on with 地方/Di.Fang/, Beatnation, The Academy of E Sports, do you feel that your passion as a beatboxer is taking a back seat?
I have to admit, music and performing has not been on my mind in the past 2 months. While I made myself a promise to release at least one song by Jun, the business expansion has just been absolutely mind-blowing and I haven’t even get a chance to sit down and really absorb everything that I’m doing. But I’ve made this promise to myself and hopefully the next time you talk to me it’ll be about my new single.
8. What keep you going when the going gets tough?
I learned this from a book that my friend gifted to me called Peaks and Valleys. In our lives we will always have high and lows, while it’s absolutely important to stay at the high as long as you can, you just have to accept there will be much further lows up ahead. But when you are at your lowest point, you must always remember that you’re there simply because you are now next to your life’s highest point, it is then your choice to whether put yourself in a Valley, or climb your way to the next Peak.
9. Any word of advice to budding entrepreneurs out there?
If you’re in it for the money, get out. Go get a degree, get a master, get a job, sit comfortably next to your desk and enjoy your 5 digit paycheck for all your hard work. Entrepreneurs is really just a fancy word of saying, “I’m the everything guy, and I do everything for free”. But if your heart is made of passion for solution, that you truly believe this is your calling, pick up a pen and paper and write down the reason you’re in this and hang it next to your bed, so you’ll never forget why you’re here. Be absolutely persistent, do not ever lie to yourself.
10. Any life mottos that you live by?
Appreciate life.
