XTIE on finding comfort in her own skin, being a self-produced female artist + the future of Cantopop

The Hong Kong singer-songwriter opens up about the journey of finding her voice in music

Welcome to Bunni Pop extras, a segment on this newsletter that will introduce readers to rising artists that should be added to your playlists. This week, I’m very excited to share an interview with Hong Kong singer-songwriter XTIE!

(Photo courtesy of XTIE)

XTIE’s music plays with themes of space, astrology and the universe. But at the core of her work has always been about acceptance and loving yourself.

Growing up in Hong Kong, the singer-songwriter — born Cristie Lam — says her path to music came from a time when she suffered low self-esteem from having severe eczema. Going to an all-girls school further made an impact on her body image issues.

But during her teenage years, XTIE discovered Lady Gaga, and found comfort in the singer’s messages of “body positivity” and “embracing herself.”

From there, XTIE started writing songs, playing the piano and doing musical theatre. But it would still take a few more years for her to grow comfortable in her skin and become a confident performer.

XTIE details her journey of self-love and finding her voice in the raw and melancholic ballad ‘Skin’, something she describes as “the most important song of my life.”

The song was also recently featured on GRAMMY’s Press Play, making XTIE the first Hong Kong artist to be featured in the series.

Now three years into her musical journey, XTIE has been touring her debut EP APOLLO-23 in cities across the globe including Cebu, Seoul, Vancouver and Taipei.

Outside of her own music, XTIE is also a songwriter and producer for the Hong Kong music reality competition series King Maker IV and Cantopop acts like Janice Vidal and Alfred Hui.

XTIE recently chatted with bunni pop over Zoom about her journey to self-love, producing music as a female artist and what the future of Cantopop music can look like.

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For those just getting to know you, how would you describe your sound?

So recently, I started a specific term called “cosmic pop.” I feel like I’ve been inspired by a lot of dance pop, electropop, art pop, synth pop, those kinds of sounds. But also, I like to use visuals to illustrate my story as well and I really connect to nature and the universe.

So for example my debut EP APOLLO-23, I would record the babbling sound of water, load it onto my DAW [digital audio workstation] and chop it into a hi-hat.

Basically, [cosmic pop] is inspired by my daily life, my friends’ lives and also production-wise, sonically from nature.

What was the inspiration behind your debut EP APOLLO-23?

When I started my first-ever single, I didn’t have an idea for my EP. But after three years of self-releasing my songs, I suddenly had a thought that I could compile all the songs together and build a world.

This is how I grew up along the journey of writing, producing, releasing songs, meeting people and performing live and then building my own fanbase. All of those things together is the project of APOLLO-23.

So it’s like, I create a spaceship using my sound and also my story to invite my listeners to join me on APOLLO-23 to explore themselves and also mental health. [This album] touches on mental health issues and body positivity as well. [Through] APOLLO-23, I want to take everyone to go a journey of self-exploration and getting to know yourself.

Why was it important for you to highlight body positivity and self-acceptance in this project?

For me as a person, and just as an artist, I dealt with body image issues a lot when I was younger. I had eczema since primary school. So I grew up having eczema and skin allergies. So back then, I had very low self esteem because I studied in an all girls school. And when I was 14/15, a teenager, I started to see all my classmates starting to look at makeup products and contact lenses. But at that time, I was drinking a lot of Chinese medicine, applying steroid on my skin, so I couldn’t apply any makeup products on myself to look good. So I had really low self esteem.

But then, I came across Lady Gaga’s music. She’s like the queen of body positivity and embracing herself. And as a teenager, her music and her artistry really brought me out.

These kind of stories help shape me as a person now. Because growing up with eczema, now I am more confident because of music. Now I am an artist, and I am able to shape the story using my music. That’s why I want to highlight body positivity because it’s my own story.

I’m sure being in an all girls school, especially in Asian society…they put a lot of emphasis on image. And that can be tough on a young person. Is that something you found?

Yeah. I think I was very lucky to embrace the flaws that I have. Even I celebrate my skin now! Like I tell the world I have eczema, and it’s okay. I feel like even after releasing the album, it helped me grow as an artist as well.

Tell me a bit more about your song ‘Skin.’

I wrote it five years ago. I feel like that song is so vulnerable and I could say that it is the most important song of my life. But after writing it and letting it sit in my Dropbox for years, I did not have the courage to produce it. But something clicked that it’s time to produce it a year ago. It took me four hours to finish the whole production. And then after that, I was thinking maybe it’s because I was preparing myself mentally of how the song ‘Skin’ would sound like. So to me, writing a song and then waiting five years, that journey was also about self-exploration because I was unconfident about my art. So I just put it aside because I felt like I needed to get ready for it. That’s the only song that I shelved for a long time before releasing it.

What were the reactions you heard once you released it?

I received a lot of DMs. Like, wow! Everyone really has body image issues. After releasing the song, the messages I received also helped me go through a lot of self assurance as well. I feel like I’m building a community that at least when people listen to my song for that three and a half minutes, they can feel beautiful about themselves.

The song was also featured as part of GRAMMY’s Press Play series. What did having that platform and exposure mean for you?

I think for me, the most important takeaway is about self-confidence. I’m more confident in my art as well, and also the way I convey my story. But after this feature, I think the most important takeaway for me is like, “Oh, I can do it and I can keep going.” I think that is the most important for me as an artist.

What would you say is one of the biggest challenges of being a self-produced female artist in Hong Kong?

I think the biggest challenge for me is I never get enough time and money in doing things. And as a self produced artist, you have to wear a lot of hats from doing music creatively, management, royalties, how to pitch your songs and networking.

Like I don’t have the resources from a major label. But how I compensate is using my story and my creativity. That’s how I’m surviving until this point.

You’ve also had a hand in writing songs for those in the Cantopop industry, including Janice Vidal and Alfred Hui. What do you make of Cantopop’s presence in the industry right now?

I think the whole Hong Kong scene right now is thriving. Because of COVID and strict regulations in Hong Kong around travelling, there was a three year gap where international acts could not come to tour. So the local scene started to build by themselves. So sometimes, COVID is a blessing to the music industry because there are more and more opportunities for artists to be able to release music and promote it. So I feel like there’s much more opportunity right here.

(Photo courtesy of XTIE)

Where there's certain like Cantopop artists that influenced you growing up?

I think my dream already came true because I produced for Janice Vidal. Growing up, I listened to her songs a lot.

What was your experience working with her like?

Janice is very famous in Hong Kong. To see her lead a market and be outspoken about wanting to work with women in music by inviting a lot of collaborators means a lot to me.

As a woman and Asian writer and producer, I feel like being involved in this project means a lot to me. It also helped me shape the kind of music I want to produce for other people. I always have this question about being a female artist or being a female producer, what kind of things can we break through, and how we can be part of the change?

Before, different producers told me things like, women only produced for women. It’s also a stereotype. Like, women are supposed to be feminine. So if they wanted to sing a very feminine song, they would turn to find female writers to do that. But like, I want to correct that. What can we do be part of change? So this is the beginning a discussion that I hope to start in Hong Kong as well.

Was there something that stuck with you working with Janice?

I kept fangirling a lot in the process! And she was really nice. I think one of the most inspiring things about her artistry is her mother tongue isn’t Cantonese. When I was in the studio with her, I saw her lyric sheet is written with loads of notes. And I was like, “Wow, it takes double the workload from a native tongue singer!” At that time, I was like, “Wow, I adore her so much.”

When people think of Asian pop music, we think of K-pop right now. But is there a distinctive sound in the Cantopop scene that makes it unique?

I think Cantopop is still exploring newer sounds. When we talk about Cantopop, we think about ballads, that it’s lyrically-based. So I think they already established that kind of Cantopop in the past 20 to 30 years. But after K-pop, I feel like Hong Kong is starting to make a renewal of what Cantopop means because there is a newer generation of producers here trying to shape the sound.

I think the most important element is also the lyrics as well because of the language. Because of the language, we have nine [intonations] and we can shape the melody according to the language.

We are still exploring how Cantopop can work with newer sounds and production to merge it into a new chemistry. I think Hong Kong is trying to rebrand to that.

How do you see yourself trying to help shape the future of Cantopop?

This is a very tough question. So for me, I think it needs time to be shaped. Because sometimes, when I am working on a certain project, it’s very easy that we want to follow what is already successful. For example, K-pop.

So when there's an idol group, it can be like a K-pop sound, but it's sung in Cantonese. But I think this is a transition process to be able to try different elements and put the language into different elements and see how the audience accepts it.

But at this point, I can still feel that Hong Kong people tend to like mid-tempo, or even like ballads more. We are very focused on lyrics. So when it is a ballad or like a mid-tempo song, the lyrics can be more easily articulated. But I feel we're going into a different direction and trying out things. We're at this current stage.

What are you working on now?

I am actually preparing my tour. I am going on an Asia tour in October, November. And I'm going to play a few festivals in Singapore and also in Seoul. So I'm preparing my live shows and promoting the album. I'm also making a deluxe version of the EP so it turns into a full length album. Then after releasing the deluxe album, there will be a different collaboration track with a Finnish artist. So we've been working on songs together for a while and then I feel like it's time to have different collaborations with other artists as well.

Any last words?

For female artists or Asian producers, my last words would be no matter what appearance you are, you deserve to feel beautiful about yourself!

Follow XTIE on Instagram and YouTube!

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