From Lou Reed to Daft Punk: Beijing Synth Rocker Hao Talks Eclectic Influences Ahead of Apr 22 Yue Space EP Release

A young Beijing boy makes his way to a small town in upstate New York, where he doesn’t know a soul and can barely speak the language. In this foreign and isolated environment, Fu Hao struggled to communicate, pined for home, and eventually set to work on the music that would change his life forever. Now Hao is ready to show Beijing his songs inspired by the throwback hits that helped him survive his stint as a rural foreign exchange student. Below, Hao tells us about all that and more ahead of his Apr 22 EP release party at Yue Space (you can string the trio of songs off that EP here, here and here).

How would you describe your music to someone who has never heard it before?
I say it's very vintage and a little bit psychedelic. Both me and my producer, Jason Cui, are big fans of the 80's, even though I was born in there early 90's! [Laughs]. I love Daft Punk, U2, and Pet Shop Boys, so there is some influence from them.

How did you get your start as a musician?
I went to the States for high school when I was 14. It was a very remote and small village in upstate New York. I was the only Chinese kid there for many years, and I didn't know too much English. So I was lonely and couldn't fit in, in the beginning. Somehow I started to write songs and recorded some demos. One day I played a track to some kids in school and they were surprised. I became famous in my high school and became the choir leader. It was music that made me confident and cool. Since then, I’ve never stopped making music and I have always been learning new stuff.

What challenges have you faced as an artist over the years, and how did you overcome them?
After 10 years of living in the U.S, I found my favorite music styles and decided to bring them back to my culture. However, it took some time for the audience to accept a new style. Chinese people usually pay much more attention to the lyrics compared to the music itself. It's part of our culture. All those poems from the Song dynasty had melodies, but we were only left with the lyrics. So this is the most difficult situation for me. Some western music doesn’t work so well in my culture, especially songs with strong rhythms.

But sad love songs with simple rhythms and touching lyrics are always easier to be accepted here in China. And yet, the younger generation is more and more open these days, so I'm very positive about that. So I will just focus on my music and persist. This is why I'm starting to perform in live-houses.

Tell us more about those onstage ambitions.
I'm planning to perform local live-houses every month this year. Beijing is an amazing city where all kinds of music can find an audience here. The younger generation in this city is eager to hear new stuff everyday.

It's a city with many opportunities, for sure. After all, it's my hometown. And that means sometimes I get to perform in front of my family. My mom is a very cool woman. She loves ABBA and The Carpenters, and one day she told me: “Hey Hao, I heard a band called Maroon 5 and I love the singer’s voice. It's amazing!” There’s nothing better than singing on a stage to your cool mom, is there?

You'll be releasing a new EP at Yue Space. Tell us about its songs and what inspired some of them.
Yep this is the first time I will perform some of the songs from this EP. It's called The Good Night Trilogy. The first song is called "Good Night." I wrote it five years ago. One day I was listening to The Velvet Underground and I wondered: “How could Lou Reed write such beautiful songs with those simple chords?” Then I wrote "Good Night" in a very simple, somewhat Bripop style.

The second song is called "Star,” and I wrote it with the swing genre in mind. The third song is my favorite. It's called "The Dawn.” We tried to make it very vintage and we used a lot synthesizers.

Other than that, I’d just ask you to listen to the tracks. I don't know how to describe them! [Laughs]

What's next for you?
I will just focus on writing more songs and performing more. Since I was small, I have always wanted to become someone unique. So I really wish one day my music can be accepted by more people in this country, and every listener can distinguish my songs and my voice from others artists right away. To me there is no point to make something that everyone else is working on. This country needs some music that is different from the others. There has been enough similar stuff existing around us.

Hao debut his EP, The Good Night Trilogy, at Yue Space on Apr 22. The show starts at 8pm. Tickets are RMB 60 presale, RMB 80 at the door. For more information, click here.

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Photos: Courtesy of Fu Hao