ESEA MUSIC GROUP – a reflection on community culture around music industry
This is a group I was introduced to around August last year. Through working for singer-songwriter Lucinda Chua on her live performance in Southbank Centre last September, I realised there is a huge community of Asian musicians working together to create a more inclusive environment for us. I went to their meet up last time in Spotify, and there were a panel hosted by the ESEA music and a guest who worked in several major labels as management and artist development.
They mentioned so many things in the industry that I have never heard of, and everything sounded so shiny and scary at the same time. It was alluring and made me want to be part of the industry, while I don’t necessarily identify as a musician or an “Asian artist”, I decided to continue to be part of this group, to observe and contribute and see if something bigger can come out from there. It is kind of hard for me to imagine being signed as an artist at all, I don’t actually believe it’s going to happen, even though I am working very hard on making that reality. This industry is so nontransparent and honestly working hard is not enough. I had a tutor from this course telling me, just keep sending labels you like your demos and you will get picked up soon. I cannot even start with that statement and I so wish it was true.
Anyway back to this group, what I feel about it is very complicated: while I am happy that there are support groups like this to demystify this industry and try to bring in new people of Asian heritage, it also feels like an echo chamber of people trying too hard to hold on to their respective heritage and be a minority and whine. This sounds a bit mean, but this feeling makes me a bit on edge about become involved in it.
After knowing a few more people who are in charge, I can slowly see the organisations behind this group, specifically what genres are these artists working in and what label are they under. Some of them are from the Beggars Group, XL, 4AD etc., as well as the whole label Eastern Margin, founders and artists.
I feel very lucky to be working with these people now, feel like there is a lead into a possible route. But it is also very scary if I am nothing more than an Asian working in the industry. Not even mentioning my heritage or anything, just vaguely “Asian”. I feel very much boxed into this categories even throughout my study here at LCC, tutors constantly asking me to represent my heritage through my work, that it is so important and interesting to have a diversified conversation. It makes me sick. But also, I know that if I play into that stereotype, there would be a very commercial outlet from there if I stick with the type. This evil is so mind bogging that I can’t even get the courage to say no to firmly. It makes me hyper-conscious about the way I look and makes me feel like I have to act a certain way to support my fellow underrepresented Asian artists, which sounds horrible. It is completely fine to fight for that cause, it is just not something I want to focus on if I were an artist. To quote Samson Young from his interview, “The best way to represent Hong Kong is to not represent it at all, but to be fully yourself.” I believe that our heritage is built in, everything I do is inherently Hong Kong, I don’t like to over-sell it.
What are my options for becoming an artist and making work that I can feel proud of? How do I approach the industry acknowledging my intersectionality and yet not overselling it to a point that I am not being reduced to a type? How do I let people see me more than how I look like? I am rambling a little bit now and no longer talking about the group.
Back to this group ESEA, I feel like I have to stick with it, whether I feel completely on board or not. Because of my status right now as a soon-to-graduate student who wants to have their own career starting as a singer-songwriter, I will need to stick with anyone that would support my work. I cannot afford to be picky at all. And they are genuinely very nice people, even though they are not really in the same world with me.