Location, Location, Location: Singer @kevinkahotsui and His Ode to Hong Kong
To see more of Kevin’s photos of Hong Kong and abroad, check out @kevinkahotsui on Instagram. For more music stories, check out @music.
Hong Kong doesn’t so much delight the senses as bombard them from every direction. The aroma of freshly barbecued char siu in a nearby restaurant, shouting matches among neighboring street vendors and endless rows of neon lights are just a few things that give the island its vitality – and provide the inspiration to singer-songwriter Kevin Kaho Tsui’s (@kevinkahotsui) music and pictures.
For the past two years, Kevin has been working on a series of songs that act as a serenade of sorts to the city. Whether it’s Kowloon City, with its unparalleled selection of global cuisines, or Tai Po – his hometown – with its clean air and stunning vistas, Kevin identifies each district’s unique delights and then sings about them, taking pictures along the way.
“I’d always just written about the normal, standard topics: love songs, happy songs,” he says. “It wasn’t until two years ago, on my birthday … I was supposed to be meeting a friend in an area called Lan Kwai Fong but I got ditched that night, so I was left alone in the area by myself. Out of nowhere I just started writing a song, humming melodies to make myself feel better – that became the start of my so-called ‘location song’ series.”
It’s a series that has taken Kevin across the entire island, distilling each area into succinct slices of guitar pop. His brand of music has the same energetic hallmarks of mid-2000s British indie, combined with the straightforward pop sensibilities of The Beatles – something that he attributes to his father’s penchant for ‘60s rock. To Western audiences that might sound like a tried-and-tested formula for success, but in Hong Kong, Kevin finds himself up against the overwhelming dominance of Cantopop (Cantonese pop music). “In Hong Kong, you’ve got singers like Eason Chan, that’s what most people are listening to in 2015,” he explains. “Twenty years ago, what were they listening to? The same guy! My point is that it’s still the same power-pop and power-ballads that make up mainstream Cantopop music.”
“I’ve always just wanted to make something different from everything else, and music in this city – mainstream or indie – is always about love or breakups,” he continues. “No one has ever written about the city or the culture in English, so I saw that as a new option for me and went for it.” It’s an option that has paid dividends, as Kevin has gone from playing in tiny Western-style pubs in front of a half-dozen customers to performing at Clockenflap, Hong Kong’s biggest annual music and arts festival, and amassing a fan base of ex-pats and locals, English and Chinese speakers alike.
Now, he is ready to take his “location series” abroad – his latest song is an ode to Tokyo’s ultra-fashionable Harajuku district, which he wrote before he had even arrived.
“There are some places in the world that you may never have been to but you always have some kind of idea about them,” he says. “Lots of girls have never been to Paris, but in their mind they think of it as a romantic place. So for Harajuku, the song captures how I felt about the location before I’d been to it.”
The initial reason for Kevin’s trip to Tokyo was to see Paul McCartney in concert. However, he didn’t realize you needed to be a citizen to buy tickets. So he decided to contact a Japanese friend of his. The two met in 2008 during a hitchhiking trip from England to Africa.
“I know, it sounds really epic,” says Kevin, in a tone that suggests he considers it the most normal thing in the world. Clearly this is somebody who thrives off travelling. Thanks to his songs and pictures, we can be passengers right alongside him.
– Mike Sunda for Instagram @music
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