Bruce Lee, Chungking Express lure singer Devendra Banhart to Hong Kong for first show in city

Venezuelan-American singer-songwriter Devendra Banhart gives off the impression that his life is full – and might just be overflowing.

The 37-year-old’s career has taken him in a range of unexpected directions since his breakthrough release “Oh Me Oh My” (2002). The album was part folk inspired but part something else entirely, with its esoteric lyrics, sparse low-fi sounds and songs that are often only two minutes long.

Since then, Banhart has continued to explore stripped-down sounds – in 2016’s mesmerising “Ape in Pink Marble” album, he even dabbled with Japan’s traditional stringed koto. He’s also worked on side projects with the likes of Antony and the Johnsons (“I Am a Bird Now”).

The Venezuelan-American spent his formative years in Texas, Venezuela and Los Angeles. Before music, Banhart’s creative impulses led him to the San Francisco Art Institute. Visual art has remained one of his passions since, holding his own exhibitions and curatorial projects that have also included collaborations with US singer-songwriter Beck.

The boundaries of Banhart’s art seem limitless and this is a notion that’s reinforced when speaking to the Post ahead of his appearance at Hong Kong’s TTN (the new venue run by the Hidden Agenda founders) on June 12, and he immediately wants to know about, well, everything.

“Do you speak Cantonese?” Banhart asks. “Do you know any good jokes? I’m just extremely curious. I’ve never been to Hong Kong but I grew up loving films from Hong Kong – Bruce Lee and then Wong Kar-wai’s Chungking Express. So this trip is a total adventure. I’m coming with such complete openness – zero predetermined ideas of how things might go.

“I am really embarrassed that I don’t speak Cantonese or Mandarin. This is a source of pain for me. So I was hoping you could tell me a joke I could share, but let the record show, you have given me no joke.”