A tiny shoebox-sized green room is the perfect place to talk about shoegaze. Hailing from London, but of Asian heritage, Sam Hong (Hongza) is weaving his way into the shoegaze scene and making representation for Asian artists one of the forefronts of his music journey.
Having already been a fan for a few months prior to meeting, I was intrigued to find out the driving forces for the songs I’d been listening to. Hongza grew up listening to major shoegaze powerhouses like Slowdive & Deftones but takes a lot of inspiration from his amazingly supportive girlfriend Amy; “She's one of the big inspirations of my life” he told me, “I don't think this record would've been such a coming of age story if I hadn't fallen in love with her.” This love shows deeply through his song ‘She Changes The Weather‘, a dreamy song with poetic lyricism about how the right person can turn everything from rain to sun.
Outside of personal life influences, Hongza also gains inspiration from other Asian artists. At the moment he’s listening to a lot of Wisp and saw her in London. Whilst acknowledging it's so cool to be able to listen to other Asian artists in the music sphere it would be foolish to not talk about the lack of representation particularly in the more alternative music scene. “The entry barriers are a lot harder [for Asian people]. Obviously we're seeing more diversity now with people like beabadoobee and Rina Sawayama…but I think especially in the rock and guitar world space it's quite limited.” Having grown up in that space myself I am inclined to agree and it's great to see artists like Hongza making a name for themselves.
Hongza also told me about some wonderful organisations that have started up like ESEA Music which has around 200 Eastern and South Eastern Asian people who are working in the industry whether it's as artists themselves or management. So whilst it's cool to see this representation growing Hongza says a lot more can be done; “there needs to be more change done at the top level to open more doors for artists that look like me essentially” and we couldn't agree more.
Any advice for any upcoming artists who want to break into the industry? “Just do it! Just be honest and write the best music you can and create really good art!” We can attest that Hongza creates good art himself; from sadder melancholy songs like ‘Live in Mono‘ to emotionally vulnerable songs like ‘I Hate My Skin‘ about growing up dealing with racism to loving songs about his girlfriend, there is a Hongza song out there for everyone. Even at the level he is at now he still feels like he is out there learning new things all the time and wondered if he was good live (I can confirm he very much is).
As for anything coming up to be on the lookout for, Hongza has just released his extremely solid EP Coming of Age but is looking forward to his next batch of songs that he thinks will have a darker and heavier sound to them & we can't wait! But for now just put his songs on your playlists and keep an ear out for his upcoming work.
Thanks to Hongza for speaking to us & for putting on a 10/10 show. You can find him on streaming sites as well as Instagram.
Em’s Top 5
Live in Mono
Cold Days
Accolades
Lovesick
She Changes the Weather
WORDS EMILIE GIBSON
PHOTOS LEWIS WOLSTENHOLME
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