We had the pleasure of chatting with Chinese American Bear as they gear up for the release of their highly-anticipated sophomore album, “Wah!!!” The Seattle-based duo, consisting of married musicians Anne Tong and Bryce Barsten, uniquely blends Chinese mando-pop with the Western indie pop sound. Their music seamlessly transitions between English and Mandarin, capturing a cross-cultural spirit that is both poignant and playful. “Wah!!!” features a collection of ear-catching tracks meticulously crafted over two years in their Seattle home studio. Written, produced, and mixed by the duo, the album is an 11-song journey filled with comedy, groove, quirkiness, and cuteness, guaranteed to keep you smiling. With melodically rich instrumentation, touches of psychedelia, and a sharp pop sensibility, it’s set to be one of the standout indie pop records of the year.
KALTBLUT: Your new album ‘Wah!!!’ will be released soon. What themes and emotions can listeners expect to encounter in this album?
Bryce: You can expect to be saying “Wah!!!” after every song. There are a lot of feel good emotions on this album. Some nostalgic feelings. And a lot of things to make you smile. That’s probably the biggest, because when we’re writing these songs, we’re usually laughing or smiling. We’re also hoping that the listener can enjoy this music with a nice meal.
KALTBLUT: Anne, can you talk about how your childhood memories and complex relationship with your heritage have influenced the music you create?
Anne: Growing up as a child of Chinese immigrants in a predominantly white American town, I used to feel embarrassed about speaking Chinese or liking “Chinese” things. As a kid, all I wanted was to assimilate. It wasn’t just the language differences, it was also the cultural differences in how my parents raised me. They were so much more strict than other parents and I felt like I missed out on a lot of activities and experiences because I was never allowed to participate. It wasn’t until I met Bryce in high school that I started to embrace my Chinese background. Unlike me at the time, Bryce found my Chinese heritage fascinating and loved learning about my culture. I saw my own culture for the first time through his eyes and grew to love and embrace my background over the years. By the time we started Chinese American Bear, I had shed all the embarrassment I had towards being Chinese and fully dived into making music with fun Chinese lyrics. I now proudly write our Chinese lyrics and love sharing my heritage with others.
KALTBLUT: Bryce, what are some of your musical influences, and how do you integrate elements of Chinese mando-pop and Western indie pop in your compositions?
Bryce: This is always a hard question! Some classics on constant rotation are The Beatles, Bee Gees, Abba, Dan Fogelberg, David Bowie, The B-52s. Some modern bands I love are Pond, Babe Rainbow, The Lemon Twigs, Sam Evian, UMO. I also discovered a bunch of bands from Taiwan/China around the time we formed this band. It happened after we formed the band actually, so the band inspired the exploration. Some of my favorites: The Chairs, Deca Joins, Sunset Rollercoaster, The Fur. And of course, the GOAT Teresa Teng. Older mando-pop often uses certain notes in the scale, and more importantly leaves out notes in the major scale. I think about that often while writing for this band.
KALTBLUT: Bryce, how did you develop the musical arrangement for “Take Me To Beijing” to complement Anne’s lyrics and feelings of nostalgia?
Bryce: I wrote the synth part and melody first before I showed Anne. I had written most of the rest of the album by that point, which is more upbeat and fun. So I think I was wanting to write some more emotional chords/melodies, and I was also tired of playing guitar. haha. I’ll often switch instruments throughout a day of writing, just to see what inspires me on a particular day. I don’t write much with synth bass, so I was immediately excited about the main synth sound. The vocal melody came 10 minutes after that. Anne then wrote the lyrics and we recorded her. I felt like the song needed a chorus, but the verse melody was so strong that I didn’t really want the song to leave that world. It felt so right. So I ended up writing the “La La” part, which gives it enough of a B section feel without it leaving the A section world. I’m really bad at that usually. I always want the B section to be like a whole new song. To my detriment usually!
KALTBLUT: Anne, “Take Me To Beijing (一起回北京)” is a very nostalgic song. Can you tell us more about the personal experiences you drew from when writing this track?
Anne: When Bryce first showed me the chords to this song, I immediately felt emotions of nostalgia, sentimentality, and a sense of longing for something. For me – those feelings pointed towards my childhood in China. I spent the majority of my childhood in Beijing before my parents immigrated to the United States when I was 7 years old. I later also spent many summers visiting Beijing. When I think of Beijing, I think of hot and humid summers, delicious Peking duck, crowded Tiananmen square and my family. While I now consider myself an American (I’ve been a citizen since I was 16 years old), a little part of me will always think of China as home. I think many immigrants can relate to this feeling.
KALTBLUT: How do you hope your music will resonate with listeners, especially those with multicultural backgrounds?
Anne: I hope that our music will allow other kids of Chinese immigrant parents to feel proud of their heritage and proud to speak Chinese. We often write lyrics around topics that other Asian immigrants might be able to relate to – growing up with strict parents, loving Asian food, hanging out in Chinatown, and visiting our home countries. I hope these topics can connect with listeners from multicultural backgrounds.
KALTBLUT: Anne, your lyrics often switch between English and Mandarin. How do you decide which language to use for different parts of your songs?
Anne: Because I want listeners of all backgrounds to be able to sing along if they want to, I tend to write verses in Mandarin and choruses in English. That way – everyone can sing along to the choruses if they’d like!
KALTBLUT: You mentioned that singing in Chinese has made some fans proud to speak the language. How does that feedback affect you as artists?
Anne: It makes me happy and a bit emotional to hear that! That was not our initial intention when we first created this band. Bryce and I literally started this band for fun and we used Chinese because he liked the sounds of Chinese words. It wasn’t until we started playing live shows that we heard fans telling us that our music makes them proud to speak the language. I feel that Japanese culture has influenced the west since the 1990s and the last ten years have been all about Korean culture (K-pop, K-drama, K-beauty). There hasn’t been a lot of Chinese cultural influences in mainstream western culture and I feel proud that we’re bringing a little of that for fans who are wanting to connect with their Chinese roots.
KALTBLUT: You’ve recently signed with Moshi Moshi. What opportunities do you think this partnership will bring for your music career?
Bryce: We’ve loved working with Moshi Moshi. It honestly feels like a match made in heaven for us. They’re a great label, they’re very supportive, and really sharp. And nice people! We’re a little bit of an odd duck band, and we know supporting a band is a lot of time and resources. So we’re thankful to join their roster, and we hope we can grow this band together and tour often, meet new fans, and bring some positivity to people’s lives.
KALTBLUT: How do you manage to maintain a balance between joyful themes and the more poignant aspects of your cross-cultural experiences in your music?
Anne: We honestly don’t think too much about balancing. We like to keep it more spontaneous and write topics based on our mood that day. Music usually brings us a lot of joy and positivity so our topics end up being around our favorite things which usually revolve around food.
KALTBLUT: What can fans expect from your upcoming US tour, and how are you preparing for it?
Bryce: We’re currently working through the logistics. Fun! haha. But we’re super excited. We have a new drummer friend coming with us (Rex) for the USA/Canada, he’s great. We’ve been practicing a lot and trying to make our set feel more organic and loose. Fans can hopefully expect the unexpected!
Anne: Fans can expect to have a lot of fun at our shows! Our music is upbeat, positive, and we don’t take ourselves too seriously. They can expect to dance a lot and smile a lot at our upcoming shows.
KALTBLUT: What are some of the joys and challenges of working together as a married couple in Chinese American Bear?
Bryce: Oh, it’s very fun, and difficult. The joy is that we get to tour together, be silly in the studio, and spend time together. We don’t tire of each other easily, thankfully. We’re also so comfortable with each other that we don’t feel the need to beat around the bush about anything. I’ve been in a lot of bands where ego is the most difficult thing to deal with – creative differences, tiptoeing around people’s emotions, etc. We just say things bluntly to each other and don’t take anything personally, because we both know and trust there’s never any malice or hidden agendas. Anyways, the challenges – The biggest challenge is that we didn’t start this band to be anything more than just us playing around in the studio together. So as it gets progressively more complex, new challenges arise. Like this band needs a lot of time and attention! But we continue to remind each other to have fun. Because that’s the spirit of this band.
Anne: I love being in a band with my husband. It allows us to spend more time together and it’s so much fun to create something with my partner. It adds a new layer of adventure to our relationship, and we get so excited together when new opportunities come up for this band. There are definitely challenges. As our fan base grows and this project becomes bigger, we’ve had conflicts come up around roles and responsibilities. Bryce tends to take more initiative because he’s been in this industry a lot longer than I have. As I get more comfortable navigating the music industry, we’ve also evolved our partnership.
KALTBLUT: Given your success blending different cultural musical styles, what advice would you give to aspiring musicians looking to create a similar cross-cultural fusion?
Anne: My main advice is to find your authentic voice and draw upon your own experiences. Try not to write music based on what you think other people want to hear or what you think will get you commercial success. Authenticity is so important – especially if you’re trying to connect with listeners from diverse backgrounds.
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Feature photo by @eleanorpetry
‘Wah!!!’ will be released 18th October via Moshi Moshi, pre-save it here: https://bio.to/chineseamericanbear
