Dive into the world of city pop with Toronto singer-songwriter CECILIA
CECILIA's new song "Don't Go Dancing" is out now!
From cassette tapes, retro TV shows to old school songs, the internet’s obsession with all things vintage will always stay alive. And as the world’s interest in East Asian culture also grows, one genre of music has been experiencing a global resurgence: city pop.
City pop, a genre that gained popularity in Japan during the 1980s, is a Japanese interpretation of western music that mixes elements of genres like funk, jazz, R&B and pop.
Toronto singer-songwriter CECILIA found herself digging into the genre during the pandemic while scrolling YouTube, as city pop songs started going viral on social media. Now through her band Next Perfect Day, she recreates the feeling of nostalgia by performing classic city pop covers across Toronto.
As a soloist, CECILIA also makes her own city pop-inspired music. Her new single “Don’t Go Dancing” is an uptempo disco pop tune that tells the story of unrequited love.
CECILIA recently sat down with me to chat more about her musical journey and people’s appetite and love for city pop.
Hi CECILIA! For those who are just getting to know you, how would you describe your sound?
I make city pop-inspired music in Toronto. I call it dramatic, sad girl, city pop because the sounds are inspired by Japanese city pop from the ‘80s. I love telling stories through my music and my lyrics.
Tell me about your new single “Don’t Go Dancing.”
It’s inspired by my experience at the first city pop concert my band did. It was at my favourite bar in Toronto, 915 Dupont. During an intermission, I saw a guy and a girl who came to see the show. I started imagining. I make up stories in my head all the time. (laughs)
What if I’m a singer at a night club and I see a guy that I am in love with coming into the club and starts dancing with another girl? What would the singer feel? That’s kind of how the idea of the story came to me, and then the melody and the chords.
How would you describe the genre of city pop to people?
City pop is a mixture of east and west. It’s inspired by western genres like funk, jazz, soul. Those elements came to Japan, and the Japanese recreated the music in their own ways. I think it’s a perfect mixture of eastern sentiments and western musical styles, which I find really fun. As an Asian person living in Canada, I see myself in this genre because I am a mix of east and west.
Together with my producer Matt, who produces under the name seyertam, we love recreating the sounds as authentically as possible. He loves digging into the history of what synths were used in the 80s in Japan.
Walk me through how you’d go about recreating that sound in your songs.
That’s a very interesting question. I keep telling my producer, “Let’s add more sparkles.” I love adding really cute synth sounds, more old school drums and very intricate guitar.
Melody-wise, we try to make it kind of easy and poppy and catchy. We also think about how Japanese lyrics have a staccato-like enunciation that's a little bit different from English lyrics. I think about that when I write lyrics in English to recreate a bit of that.
How did you discover city pop?
I always loved listening to old music, like old Asian music and jazz. I think I’m an old soul. I love vintage stuff.
But city pop, as we call it now, it was being rediscovered on YouTube just before the pandemic. There were a lot of artists making city pop-inspired music in Korea.
But I think I really started digging into the genre after I joined our band, Next Perfect Day. I started listening to a lot more city pop and just fell in love with it.
Artists like Anri are my favourite. I love female vocals as a female vocalist myself. I love her very clean vocals and the instrumentalization of her songs are so complex but with simple beautiful melodies.
Your music videos also have a visual element to it, and often reminds me of the aesthetics I would see in a Wong Kar-wai film. Are you intentional about that?
I think TV and film and theatre are always in the back of my mind. As for the visuals, they stem from the song itself. The first song I released is called “Merry-Go-Round.” It’s about a situationship that goes round and round and round and never goes anywhere. So I was like, “Okay, like, what is a good metaphor for this kind of relationship and feeling? Oh, merry go round. Let's write a song about that.”
If it's a song about merry go round, it has to be at an amusement park. So I went to an amusement park in Korea, and then took some photos there. It turned out perfect. The stories and visuals come from the song itself.
Have you always wanted to do music?
I didn’t study music. I always loved singing in the shower and singing musical theatre songs on my own. I also did a-cappella and theatre clubs in school but never thought of myself as a performer. I’ve always been a behind-the-scenes person, a production person.
But then in 2017 or 2018, I went to Hong Kong. It was on my bucket list to sing in a jazz bar. I’m like, “No one knows me me here. So I’m not going to get embarrassed. I’m just gonna sing and leave and no one will remember me in the city.”
So I went to the jazz bar, sang a few songs and people loved it. Somehow, I started making friends with the musicians there. So I was like, “Oh my God! Maybe I can do music!”
So I came back to Toronto, and I was like I don’t know where to start. I typed in auditions and casting. And Fairchild TV popped up, but I’m not Chinese. I needed to do it with a Chinese friend who speaks Cantonese. So I paired up with my Cantonese friend to do a duet for the competition. Through that competition, that’s kind of how I started doing music in Toronto. I met friends, then started jamming with people. The guitarist I work with now, Jay, I met him at a jazz jam.
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I came across your band Next Perfect Day and your city pop performances on TikTok. What do you think is the reception for this type of music in Toronto right now?
I think people love city pop. We’ve done bigger shows, and sometimes we do smaller shows. But the shows that we put together and sell tickets for are always sold out. I find it interesting that the younger audience really resonates with it, like high school students who come to see our show at the coffee shop.
I’ve had comments on my TikTok saying, “Oh, please come to Montreal. Please come to Mexico, please come wherever.” I think a lot of people love this genre.
Why do you think people have this appetite for the city pop genre right now?
I think people have this nostalgia for an era that they never got to live in. People in the west have nostalgia for the ‘20s too. Like the Roaring Twenties. They love the vintage aesthetics, vintage clothing.
Especially like Gen Z and the younger crowd, they find [city pop] very fresh, very different from the digital world that we live in. They love the analog vibes, like video cameras. I think it brings out that nostalgia for an era they find exotic and interesting.
The songs of that era are also intricate musically and very catchy with sentimental lyrics. That kind of feeling is exciting.
When people listen to your songs and also your performances, what do you want them to feel?
I love telling stories. I love creating a world and characters with my songs. The stories may be inspired by my real experience, or it might be fake. But, there’s truth to what a character is feeling in a play.
“Don’t Go Dancing” is about jealousy. Everyone knows what jealousy feels like. I want people to relate to that emotion and see themselves in the characters that I create with my songs and just have fun with it. I want them to escape with my music to a story that looks like it comes from a different era.
Conversation has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
“Don’t Go Dancing” is out now! Follow CECILIA on Instagram, TikTok and Spotify, and find her band Next Perfect Day here.
Get in touch by emailing me at bunnipopnewsletter@gmail.com. Or, follow me on Instagram, TikTok and Threads.