Bihzhu Shares Insight into Her New Music Video - Alive!

Specializing in the very unique genre of ‘Heart Music’ (Fun fact: She made this style of music up and rolled with it!), Bihzhu (Bee-choo) is a 39 year old Malaysian singer songwriter who always knew she had a passion and eye for music. From becoming a conductor of her high school choir to touring South Korea, China and India for her music, Bihzhu certainly is an inspiration to all passionate, local creatives looking to pursue their passion.

The singer draws inspiration from life itself when it comes to creating music. “All my songs are just little stories of all my experiences”, she shares. Recently, Bihzhu just released a funky new music video for her song Alive, which you can watch here. It is what positivity and carefree happiness sounds like when accustomed to rhythm and melody. Here at RIUH, we were lucky enough to catch Bihzhu to learn more about her and her latest music video for Alive.

RIUH: Did you write Alive? 

Bihzhu: In 2020, Levi’s Music Project put out a call for unreleased songs. I tried for a month to write a song, but everything came out pretty meh. The night before the deadline, I texted Melina (my friend/arranger/producer) and said “I’m sorry that it didn’t work out” and I made peace with the fact that maybe this opportunity wasn’t meant for me.

That night, I had a dream that I was back in my childhood kampung home and that I’d written a song. I woke up, rushed to my laptop and wrote Alive. I then sent it to Melina12 hours before the deadline and said “Hey, if you can do something with this, great. If not, so be it”. She said she would try. The thing is, she had just pulled an all-nighter, and she needed to sleep. She did.  But when she woke up, by SOME MIRACLE, she sent me back a beautiful demo of Alive 24 minutes before the deadline. I submitted it to the Levi’s Music Project. It didn’t get selected.

I felt so strongly about the song that I decided to release it on my own.

R: What is Bihzhu - Alive [Live at R.M.P.]?

B: So late 2021, I was involved in Anugerah Lagu Indie. Alive had gotten into the finals, but half my band was not able to be there. So, I had to engage sessionist musicians to fill in the spots. By some magic formula, my regular 4-piece band instead morphed into a 10-piece outfit complete with a horn section and backup singers! We put on an amazing amazing performance and even though we didn’t win, Melina and I were so proud of what we put up that we decided that we had to share this version of the song in a live performance format. So, we decided to record this version at R.M.P (Riromuzik x Playspace). I have to say that I am glad we did.

R: Please share with us the inspiration behind the music video. 

B: Hanie Hidayah and Nasri Lian of Groundhouse Media were the wonderful people behind the January 2021 music video of Alive. Somehow, it seemed like the right thing for them to also be involved in this June 2022 live performance version. They are the most wonderful people to collaborate with, and those streamers you see on the set? Hanie handmade each and every one of them. 

R: What was it like being on-set while shooting the music video?

B: The crew had a 5am call time. I was in by 5.30am for hair and make up, the rest of the band by 7am. It was puasa month, and my trombonist, Ainul, had a performance and soundcheck to go to by 2pm. Due to the professionalism of the audio team (led by Rozhan Razman) and Groundhouse Media’s video crew, we managed to finish the shoot 30 minutes ahead of time. It was fun, it was easy, it was just good energy from beginning to end.

For Anugerah Lagu Music, I had worked with Saerah Ridzuan of Styllar on the outfits, and we continued to collaborate on all the looks for this music video. I especially loved that Saerah and the designer Yen Wong gave me an outfit reveal! The rest of my band are wearing Cassey Gan, Sierra Chong, Afie Rohim, and the Styllar archives. Saerah and her team of Aisyah and Yasmin are a dream to work with, they always make us look so good!

R: Who would you like to give a shoutout to with regards to this music video? 

B: I always say “It takes a kampung”, and this music video was the hard and heart work of many people. This is going to sound like an Oscars speech, but here are all the people who made this come to life: Melina William, Nish Tham, Ryan Lee Bhaskaran, Shakey Shakey, Jude Macson Bensing, Yonlynn, Kae Vin, Ainul Aznan, Adil Johan, Zulfikar Yunos, Isaac Marvin, Rozhan Razman, Michael Ong, Lee Jia Wei, Kreshenka Jaisi, Saerah Ridzuan, Aisyah Rani, Maizatul Yasmin, Hanie Hidayah, Nasri Lian, Mark Lee, Adrian Wong and Xiao Yang.

R: If you could choose any movie or TV show for Alive to be featured in, what would that be? What kind of scene specifically?

B: Oooo, this is hard, because I want it to belong everywhere haha. The immediate thing that comes to mind is probably when a character has gone through a slump and is now rising from it, I can hear Alive being there.

R: If you could only listen to 3 music albums for the rest of your life, what would they be? 

B: Jagged Little Pill - Alanis Morisette, The Sound of Music OST and Lock In Concert - Fat Freddy’s Drop.

R: What advice would you give to young creative locals looking to break into the music industry? 

B: Be patient, hungry, and humble.

"Thank you for taking the time to read this, to listen to my music, and interact with me on social media. It means a lot and we wouldn’t be doing this without you." - Bihzhu's address to our readers.

As a musician, Bihzhu’s biggest aspiration is to have a career like her favourite band ‘Fat Freddy’s Drop’ who always sells out venues and plays music they believe in.

The next time you’re looking for a song to dance to, drive to or shower to, do check out Bihzhu’s music on Youtube and Spotify. You’re in for a true treat!

And while you're here - check out the music video for Alive!