Sydney pop songstress by way of Hong Kong, Rainbow Chan records her music in the same place that her zany garb and shoes reside: her closet. After realizing her original artistic focus of being an oh-so-experimental singer/songwriter was not for her, Chan turned to something a little more her: infectious pop music out of left field. What resulted from this genre jump is the Long Vacation EP (Silo Arts), which is named after a 1996 Japanese TV drama. She claims the inspiration for the six tracks consist of, but not limited to, glockenspiels and music boxes, Frédéric Chopin and Steve Reich, girl groups and electronics, Hong Kong pop, Shanghai jazz, American rhythm ‘n’ blues and Japanese television theme songs. Chan will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all this week. Read our brand new feature on her.
Chan: I studied Gwen Harwood‘s poetry in high school and fell in love with her vivid imagery. She was one of the reasons why I became an English major in university. She deals with death, time, nature and loss in her poetry, and her words are saturated with melancholy. She is also a virtuosic pianist, and so naturally her poetry is punctuated by musical rhythms and expressiveness. I often open her anthology and randomly pick out one word to base lyrics around. I struggle to wrap my how she plays with language and rhyme in such a sophisticated way. She shows us that the English is a highly malleable medium and is capable of magic.
Video after the jump.
