Leo1Bee on his new album Wilderness, redefining Chinese R&B, and remaining true to himself

Leo1Bee’s latest album, Wilderness, is a delicate blend of soul, jazz, blues and hip hop, and arguably one of the most original and emotionally nourishing Chinese records of the past year.

The conceptual album was crafted over two years and details the 29-year-old’s search for self in an industry and society he calls “harsh”, especially during the pandemic years, when he traded the United States for Shanghai.

“The environment I grew up in was always optimistic and forward-looking – I had felt that the world would be steadily progressing and becoming better,” says Leo1Bee, born Zhang Siyuan, in northeastern China. “But since then I’ve had the awakening that life could be very unpredictable and even unimaginable – that experience informed my creative process.”

During his time at Peking University’s school of journalism and communication, Zhang made music after class. Upon graduation, he convinced his parents that music production could be a moneymaking skill and career. So began his move to the Berklee College of Music’s international campus in Valencia, Spain.

The Spanish arts hub was where Zhang perfected his self-taught composition and arrangement skills – something that he had been wanting to do since being exposed to Taiwan’s R&B-infused pop music by his cousins in the early 2000s, ruled by the likes of Jay Chou and Yu Quan.

Listening to Taiwan’s David Tao and Hong Kong’s Khalil Fong, who are credited with popularising rhythm and blues in Chinese-speaking regions, allowed Zhang to develop what he calls a “real awareness” of his love for the genre.

Zhang would then grow to admire the work of Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder and D’Angelo, and by the time he moved from Valencia to New York he was an all-in-one package who could sing, write and produce, and having spent his early adult years across three continents, the pensive musician now thinks of himself an “observer to world changes”.