Weekly > Interviews
Hong Kong In The 60s
Hong Kong In The 60s are Mei Yau Kan (vocals, keyboards, guitar) Christopher Greenberg (keyboards, vocals, guitar); and Tim Scullion (guitar, keyboards, vocals), a multilingual three-piece from London, who formed in 2007.
They are heavily influenced by early electronic pop, 1960s Chinese music and Italian film soundtracks. Using their collection of old Casio keyboards, the group combine bittersweet pop melodies and atmospheric electronics to create what Sean O’Hagan of The High Llamas describes as “a lovely, understated and quite beautiful sound”.
Not ones to disagree with Sean O’Hagan’s taste making we spoke to the trio just before the release of their debut EP Willow Pattern Songs.
You all come from quite diverse backgrounds and have lived in some interesting places, how much of an influence on your music has this been?
We think that coming from different backgrounds and having travelled around quite a lot has given us a broader perspective on all sorts of things, music being one of them. Having been exposed to different musical traditions means that we don’t have to view our music purely in terms of what is happening in the UK scene.
Within your influences you have listed “electronic pop, 1960s Chinese music and Italian film soundtracks”, how do you start marrying those together along with your other influences?
Sometimes we try to take elements directly from these types of music, such as a particular instrument sound or production effect; for example, we’re crazy about chiming harpsichords and the distant echoey sound of old 78s. However, more often it’s about trying to create a similar atmosphere and feel to these musical styles.
What are the key components you take from these influences and either directly or indirectly transfuse into your own music?
We always try to create something evocative, in sound or feel, and this is probably the main element of our music. What our influences have in common, for us, is this sense of nostalgia for memories of places and times that are unreachable. This seems like kind of a grand ambition when all we have to work with are little Casio keyboards, but they’re what drive our sound.
What can you tell us about your debut EP and the various tracks on it?
The tracks on the EP have all been composed and recorded over the last two years, some of them quite a long time apart – “Disintegration” is one of our oldest songs while “Empty House, Lonely Mouse” was only recorded a couple of months ago. Our main aim was to put together a group of songs that complement each other, with an over-arching atmosphere and feel, rather than just a bunch of tracks.
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Add to favouritesEmpty House, Lonely Mouse is part of a suite of mouse songs for children, is there anything you won’t try your hand at?
We love sweeping melodrama and a mouse rock opera would be small enough in scale to match our limited musical prowess! It’s a good challenge to try out new things but we’d probably draw the line at doing anything overtly political.
Is that suite ever likely to be completed and released?
We do have several possible songs for the suite but it’s very much a long-term project.
How does your music transpose to the live arena?
We do find it quite a challenge to recreate our music live, as it’s very understated and delicately constructed, not to mention mainly done on old electronic instruments. It’s difficult to reproduce the more subtle and intricate aspects of our recordings and this means that we often have to adapt the songs in different ways (and some quite dramatically, like “You Got Me Into This”) to perform them live.
Who would be your dream band to play on the same bill as?
Christopher: Blonde Redhead, because, for me, they’re the perfect band.
Mei Yau: The Aluminum Group – they hardly ever play live but are by far the best gay soft-pop sibling duo in the world.
Tim: Jim O’Rourke, playing his pop songs – just because there seems to be no other way to see this happen any more.
What are the future plans for Hong Kong In The 60s?
Our aim is to put out an amazing album and to play live in some of the far-flung places where we have surprisingly discovered fans. Until then, we are thrilled to be releasing our first EP, and really looking forward to our forthcoming gigs, especially the Indietracks festival in July, where we will get to play with some of our favourite bands, such as Au Revoir Simone and Marshmallow Kisses!
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