Say goodbye to the old Moon Tang: Hong Kong singer on writing as therapy, life as a daydreamer and being ‘naked’ in a song
- Hong Kong singer Moon Tang is still not used to baring her emotions like she does in single ‘i love u’ but is determined to forge a new path on her second album
- The 23-year-old tells the Post why writing songs is her catharsis and why she has ‘worked too hard to be summarised by the way I dress or act’
The Covid-19 pandemic has been a blessing in disguise for Hong Kong singer Moon Tang.
Despite the draconian social distancing regulations that left the city’s music scene gasping for survival, the 23-year-old signed with major label Warner Music, released six singles, accumulated hundreds of thousands of streams, performed in a handful of concerts and festivals, and even made a name for herself in the fashion industry. And she did all that in a year.
Between an exciting beginning to her career and lulls resulting from the sluggish economy, Tang has found the perfect balance for her mental health.
“I’m very grateful for the attention I’ve been receiving, but I’m also grateful for the space created by cancelled shows,” she says. “Hong Kong is all about hustle, and I’m kinda scared of what’s going to happen now.”
The singer appears assured on her social media, armed with a successful debut album, Dear Moon, but she still considers herself a work in progress. Unlike many of her peers who studied music at university, her Hong Kong Polytechnic University degree is in design, which did not give her the chance to explore and experiment.
“And I wasn’t even a great student. I’m a natural daydreamer,” Tang says. “I’ve always been more interested in expressing my emotions than communicating [those] of others.”
Tang’s songs are odes to her feelings. The complicated line between love and hate, her inner conflicts as a young adult, regrets, optimism, her deep wish for self-development mixed with a hope for more nonchalance – she explores it all with transparency.
And she keeps it playful. Do not let the composition of her songs fool you: satire and duality might be her favourite weapons when creating a track.
One of her 2022 successes, “i hate u”, embodies this spirit. The colourful and catchy track flirts with irony by making the audience dance to its judgmental lyrics: “Nobody hates you like I do”, “Why you gon’ make it so hard to love you” or “You … make me feel like an outcast in my own room”.
Tang quips that her songwriting career has become her therapy. “When I have a bad day, I just want to look myself in the mirror and laugh it off. I write songs the same way … it’s my catharsis.”
The singer released the more intimate “i love u” in September, which allowed listeners to see her in a new light. Tang looks back at the work, with no colourful rhythm to downplay the depth of her feelings, with a touch of embarrassment.
“I’m so naked in this song,” she says. “There’s no disguise, it’s just me and my emotions. I’m still not used to it.”
The intensity she shows in the song revealed a new facet of her vulnerability to her audience and, as evidenced by the feedback and personal messages she has received through Instagram, they really liked it.
One message was from someone who had been married for a decade and identified with the song. “Having this kind of feedback is super important, especially since I’ve been so far [removed] from my audience because of the pandemic.”
The singer decided to wrap up the year in a safer space – “bad weather”, released on December 16, sounds like what a smooth caress on a rainy day might feel.
In it, Tang explores one of her depressive episodes and tries to put it into perspective over a relaxing beat and smooth bossa nova guitar chord. “It’s just a stormy weather,” she sings self-assuredly. “Let it rain and let the sunny days come later.”
With so many singles out, the next step seems an obvious one: a new album – one whose name has not been released yet. It will be her second opus and will be out during the first part of 2023.
It will give Tang the chance to say goodbye “to the old me”.
“This second album will be different, will have more stories between each song. I want some links. It might be a mess, and it’s gonna be an organised mess,” she explains.
Speaking of organised mess: we could not talk to Tang without mentioning her fashion. Her colourful, multilayered outfits, which have been inspired by maximalism, have caught the attention of her audience.
“It’s a double-edged sword,” she says: “I’m tired of being called cute. I worked too hard to be summarised [by] the way I dress or act.”
“Collaborating with big brands is something really new to me. I got more open to [doing] it,” she says. “But my heart is with local handmade products. If there’re fewer than four people in your company and you made it with love, you get to my heart very easily.”
Tang says that her parents have been a source of inspiration for her visual identity. Her mum, a Thai chef, always had “a crazy style”. And her father, local photographer and director Ringo Tang, helped her develop a rigorous sense of visual identity.
“My dad has always [told me] that what you wear is self-expression in itself, it’s your statement for the day,” she explains.
The deep love and respect Tang has for her parents is clear to see. Maybe it is where her duality comes from. “I hope I got the best of both worlds,” she says, smiling. “I’m someone who never breaks rules, but with a bit of spice.”
